A mile up Willowbrook Road from Colorado Highway 9 in Silverthorne, the Willowbrook trailhead offers thousands of people each year access to the Eagles Nest Wilderness. From here, visitors can access the South Willow Creek Trail and enjoy excellent hiking, including to beautiful South Willow Creek Falls or the popular loop using the Gore Range Trail and North Willow Creek Trail.

Recognizing the high utilization of the trail and the gateway it represents to the Eagles Nest Wilderness, the U.S. Forest Service recently completed a crucially important bridge construction project to provide safe passage over the fast-running water of South Willow Creek. The project site, located about a half-mile up from the trailhead, was accelerated by an important contribution from Maryann Gaug, noted local hiking trail guidebook author and longtime resident.

In the 2014 edition of “Best Hikes Near Breckenridge and Vail,” Gaug writes that the South Willow Creek trail route could have become the present-day Interstate 70 if not for local resistance and a 1968 decision against Colorado Department of Transportation by then-Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman, concluding that “the public benefits of preserving the priceless wilderness area far outweigh any other considerations.” Congress then designated the Eagles Nest Wilderness in 1976, preserving this natural treasure for all to enjoy.

For the bridge project, a crew of 12 Forest Service personnel physically hauled construction materials up the hill to the site, respecting the requirements of the 1964 Wilderness Act that no mechanized equipment be used in areas protected under the Act. Devoting over 500 labor hours, the crew carried lumber, hand-drilled bolt holes, hammered bolts through thick timbers, collected and sledge-hammered rock for the steps and shoveled piles of mineral soil for topping the steps.

The result is an authentic “wilderness” bridge. The construction crew, supervised by the Forest Service’s Nate See and Parker Grimes, expertly implemented the construction plan. Accompanying this capable crew were volunteers from the Eagle Summit Wilderness Alliance, organized by Krista Hughes. Eagle Summit Wilderness Alliance volunteers provided almost 100 hours of volunteer time.

As the work progressed, numerous visitors gained an appreciation for the effort involved in creating a bridge in a congressionally protected wilderness area. They learned about the many requirements of the Wilderness Act designed to protect wilderness areas, including the prohibition of mechanized tools and the requirement that dogs be at all times on a hand-held leash no longer than 6 feet.

Watching hikers pass by offered a stark contrast between the ease and safety of traversing the new bridge, compared to the “decommissioned” logs that previously provided crossing for the sure-footed and a challenge for less confident hikers. The predecessor log crossing was not placed there by the Forest Service. In fact, Maryann Gaug relates that this new bridge is the fifth crossing over the creek since she began hiking the trail 28 years ago. If the care with which the team from the Forest Service built the bridge is any measure, this fifth bridge across the creek at this point is much safer and will last far longer than its predecessors.

Eagle Summit Wilderness Alliance is grateful to the Forest Service team for their hard work on this key project, and to Maryann Gaug for her generous support. Many visitors will access trails served by the bridge. They will partake in the beauty of the protected Eagles Nest Wilderness Area and share in the responsibility to keep wilderness wild so all may partake in this shared resource. Plan a 3.5-mile hike to the falls while snowmelt powers an impressive cascade of water down the rock face and take a moment to admire the new bridge.

“Get Wild” publishes on Fridays in the Summit Daily News. Tom Copper is a volunteer and board member for Eagle Summit Wilderness Alliance