Trail Steward Awards and Hall of Fame

Recognition story as published for 2026.

For five seasons, Sam Armstrong-Champ has been a driving force behind VVMTA’s Trails & Stewardship Crew, dedicating an incredible 4,585 hours to caring for Eagle County’s public lands. As a crew co-leader, Sam has played a vital role in maintaining, improving, and protecting the trails we all love. His hard work, leadership, and commitment to trail stewardship have left a lasting impact on our trail systems and community. Thank you, Sam, for five incredible seasons of loving our trails!

Recognition story as published for 2024.

Pete has been a VVMTA Board Member for many years.  He is incredibly humble but has provided a significant impact for our trails over the years.  In 2016, he was key in raising $50,000 in a month to bring our Adopt A Trail program to life.  He continues to donate himself and bring other supporters to the table to help us provide programming and trail projects to our community.  Thank you Pete.

Recognition story as published for 2024.

The passion and love of being outside on our trails and in Wilderness that Ellen has is contagious.  Ellen has been a rockstar volunteer Trail Ambassador for over seven years, engaging and educationg trail users on how to enjoy our trails but also respect and care for them.  She is our original Soul Dirt Ambassador, leading hikes on Wilderness trails to introduce people to enjoying them, how special they are, and why we protect them.  Her love and passion for our community, trails, and Wilderness are truly an inspiration.  Thank you Ellen.

Recognition story as published for 2023.

Kat is the Vice President of the VVMTA Board of Directors.  She has been involved with the VVMTA since the beginning of the organization dating back to 2011.  She has provided countless volunteer hours out on the trail with a tool, digging in the dirt.  She may have even contributed more hours behind the scenes advocating for our trails through marketing and communication initiatives and outreach.  She is a current member of the VVMTA Fundraising Crew and played a huge role in the success of our “Trails For All! Trails Forever.” summer fundraiser.  Thank you Kat!

Read more about Kat on our website here.

Recognition story as published for 2023.

Cody has been a staple and leader of our Wednesday Night Trail Crew since it’s beginning.  He has also been the Adopt A Trail team leader for East West since 2016.  He played a quiet but huge role in brining the West Avon Preserve to life.  You can thank him for putting hundreds (if not thousands) of hours out there building Saddleridge and Wyse Way (may or may not have happened before full approvals) to ensure these trails were brought to life for our community.  Thank you Cody!

Recognition story as published for 2023.

Laura has been a leader and driver of the Hardscrabble Trails Coalition since the beginning.  She has provided countless hours behind the scenes advocating for trails and rallying the Eagle community around it’s valued trail system.  She has had, and still does, have a huge positive community impact in Eagle.  Many trails would not exist in Eagle without her advocacy and drive to bring them to the community.  Thank you Laura.

Read more about Laura on HTC’s website here.

Recognition story as published for 2022.

Mark, aka “Director of Dirt”, is one of the original VVMTA members and trail crew leaders.  He has regularly been a part of trail work projects for the past 10 years.  In 2022 alone, he contributed over 160 hours of volunteer time on the trail.  Two of the bigger recent trail projects that Mark contributed significant time to, are building Everkrisp and Belly Up. He is stoked to see the growth of the local trail systems and thanks all of those who have participated with time and/or scratch (donation). Mark will be out there every season sustaining current, building new, and reclaiming old unsustainable trails: so get out there and have some fun with him!

Mark is a board member of the VVMTA and you can read his full bio here.

Recognition story as published for 2022.

Michelle has had an incredible impact on our trails.  She was on the VVMTA board for years before she took on the role as our first Adopt A Trail Coordinator in 2017.  She spent 5 years running, building, and growing our AAT program into the incredible success it is today.  Additionally, she led the creation and execution of our Wildlife Trail Ambassador program.  Her leadership undoubtedly has led to thousands of trails and public lands stewards in our community.

We can’t thank her enough for the incredible work and dedication she put into growing these programs into the successes they are today!

Recognition story as published for 2022.

Tim is a true trail ninja.  You may not realize it but he is at every VVMTA Volunteer Trail Crew event, contributing countless volunteer hours to our trails.  He has been riding and using trails in our valley for over 30 years and is a true pioneer of many of our trail systems.  You will more than likely find him in tow with a rock bar (pictured here) or rock net.  Thank you Tim for all you have done for our trails!

Recognition story as published for 2021.

Lee can be referred to as the “Godfather” of our trails in Eagle County.  He has volunteered his time for decades advocating for and building trails in our community.  If there is a trail, public lands, or recreation related proposal in the works you better believe that Lee is rallying the community to get involved and provide input to improve our trails, public lands access, and conservation values.  He is constantly advocating for our trails with local leadership and land managers.

Lee is Board Emeritus of the VVMTA and you can read his full bio here.

Recognition story as published for 2021.

Jamie is a co-founder of the VVMTA (former Vail Valley Mountain Bike Association).  Before the VVMTA, he was one of many often stating, “they should build this” or “they should fix that.”  Once he realized that “they” is actually “we”, the trail users, he took action and ownership and formed the VVMTA.  He put his money where his mouth is and helped build a small group of 3-5 individuals building and maintaining trails in 2011 to over 1,000 volunteers annually working on our trails 10 years later.

Jamie continues to serve as President of the VVMTA Board of Directors as well as a mentor to staff.  To read Jamie’s full bio visit our website here.

Recognition story as published for 2021.

It’d be hard to find another individual who has put more time and labor into our trails than Casey has.  Year after year he puts in 100+ volunteer hours on the trail digging by hand and on the mini-excavator.  He uses his vacation time from his full-time job to build trails like Everkrisp and the Minturn Bike Park uphill trail.  What many don’t see is the behind the scenes work Casey does as Treasury on the VVMTA Board of Directors.

Ever wonder where those sweet trail signs in the West Avon Preserve come from?  Built right in Wildridge in Casey’s garage, on his own time and own costs.  To read Casey’s bio please visit our website here.

Recognition story as published for 2021.

Adam was a co-founder of the Hardscrabble Trails Coalition (HTC).  He was often referred to as “El Presidente” because he was the President of the HTC for many years but mainly just because of who he was as a great human being and leader.  Adam played a large role in turning Eagle’s singletrack trail system into the experience it is for our community.  As many know, he did things Adam’s Way, hence the new trail that opened in 2021 dedicated in his name, culture, and style.  He was a visionary that made big picture ideas come to reality, both in the trails world and in our community.  

Adam tragically passed away in a backcountry avalanche accident in 2021 along with two other amazing individuals.  To read more about Adam, this pretty much sums it up.