Telluride Mountain Club launches June campaign to fund local trail stewardship
June funding is aimed at the crews clearing downed trees, fixing tread and keeping Telluride’s busiest summer trails open.
Downed trees on high-country singletrack, muddy drainage after monsoon storms and corridor clearing for a new valley-floor connection are the kind of trail details visitors feel under their tires and boots. Telluride Mountain Club is using its June 5-19 Telluride for Trails campaign to raise $20,000 for exactly that work, tying the fundraiser directly to the riding and hiking experience around Telluride and Mountain Village.
The club said the money will help pay for an additional seasonal trails staff member, tools and supplies for trail construction and maintenance, and corridor clearing tied to the Mountain Village to Valley Floor Trail construction project. That matters on the ground because TMtC’s crew is the group clearing downed trees, improving drainage, repairing tread and managing vegetation to keep trails open through the season. The club also says Telluride does not have perpetual funding for maintenance, bridges, signage or new trail construction, even as use rises with population growth and tourism and U.S. Forest Service budgets shrink.
TMtC paired the campaign with two June events built around actual trail use. A National Trails Day group mountain bike ride took place June 6 from Eider Creek Trailhead on the Eider to Mill Creek Connector Trail, then rolled into a Telluride Brewing Company block party in Lawson Hill from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The block party included food, beer, live music and staff on site to talk through upcoming projects and raise funds. Later in the month, TMtC scheduled a volunteer trail-work evening for June 17 from 5:15 p.m. to dark at the bottom of the T-35 / Sunshine Trail, with a shuttle up, then pizza, beverages and time to socialize after the work.
The stewardship pitch comes with hard numbers. TMtC says it can cost upwards of $45,000 to build one mile of new trail in the Telluride region and about $1,500 a year to maintain one mile. The club has been involved in regional trails planning since 2015 and released its Trails Sustainability Plan in 2019 with San Miguel County, the Town of Mountain Village, SMART and the Telluride Foundation. In February 2024, the U.S. Forest Service opened public comment on TMtC’s proposal for more than 15 miles of new trails and about 5 miles of rehabilitation, including the Mountain Village to Valley Floor Connector trail, the Sunshine Uphill trail, the Ilium Flume trail and the Sheep Mountain Traverse.
TMtC’s 2025 recap showed how much ground that labor covers: more than 240 downed trees cleared from 25 trails, an additional Trails Maintenance Specialist hired and five trail counters installed to track use. In early June, crews were already working the west side of the Sneffels Highline, the Liberty Bell-Sheridan Crosscut Loop and the trail from Lizard Head to Wilson Meadows, while also cleaning drainage features on the Jud Wiebe Trail ahead of monsoon season. For anyone heading out now, the campaign is not abstract fundraising. It is the reason the routes stay rideable, hikeable and connected when summer traffic hits.
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