Gaskill inducted into
hall of fame

by Tom Brooksher

Colorado’s premiere trail builder, volunteer organizer, and female mountaineer, Gudy Gaskill, took her place among the state’s most influential contemporary and historical women with her induction into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, March 14, 2002. She and seven other women are the first inductees of the new millennium.

In announcing Gudy’s appointment, Colorado Trail Foundation President Merle McDonald said, “It’s an understatement to say that there would be no Colorado Trail if it weren’t for Gudy. No person—man or woman—has ever single-handedly had a greater impact on the successful completion of a national treasure as Gudy has with the creation of the Colorado Trail. This is a tremendous honor for Gudy, but I can’t think of a single person who deserves this recognition more.”

Born Gudrun E. Timmerhaus in 1927 in Palatine, Illinois, to Elsa and Paul Timmerhaus, Gudy’s love for the Rocky Mountains began in the early 1930s when her father started working in Rocky Mountain National Park as a summer ranger, bringing the family to Colorado each year. Gudy attended Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado, where she taught German to help finance her education. In one of her classes she met Dave Gaskill. The two married and became parents to four children: Steve, Robin, Polly, and Craig. Dave went on to become a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and Gudy completed a master’s degree in industrial recreation from the University of New Mexico.

Avid mountaineers, skiers, and hikers, the Gaskills joined the Colorado Mountain Club in 1952. By the 1970s, Gudy was one of the club’s most active participants, leading trips throughout the world for the CMC as well as chairing multiple committees. In 1977 she became the first woman president of the organization, then 5,000 members strong. But it was a planning meeting that Gudy attended in 1973 for a fledgling concept called the Colorado Trail that changed her life and the state’s landscape as well.

Merrill Hastings, then publisher of Colorado Magazine, and Bill Lucas, then Rocky Mountain Regional Forest Director, first conceived of a statewide trail. They assembled an advisory committee that included Gudy and raised $150,000 in grants and contributions to launch the trail. However, management problems and bureaucratic issues bogged down the effort and consumed the funding before the first mile of trail was built.

As Executive Director, Gudy refused to allow the initiative to die. She drew a detailed route through the Forest Service Districts, linking up with early trails and existing mining and logging roads. She single-handedly persuaded the powerful directors of the districts to allow and support the project. She then recruited volunteers and led the trail-building effort.

After eleven years of eighteen-hour days, progress on Gudy’s Colorado Trail had slowed because of the sheer scope of the program and lack of funding, with only segments through two districts completed. On December 9, 1984, an article in The Denver Post’s “Empire Magazine” titled “Trail to Nowhere,” chronicling Gudy’s herculean efforts and criticizing the foundation’s lack of support, caught the attention of then–Governor Richard Lamm and his wife Dottie. Lamm contacted Gudy, hosted a fund-raiser at the Governor’s Mansion, spent time with a trail crew, and rekindled cooperation between the state and the U.S. Forest Service for the project. Lamm’s involvement and the ensuing publicity attracted an avalanche of volunteers and provided the atmosphere of support she needed to accelerate the project’s pace.

On July 23, 1988, the final section of the trail was officially dedicated, completing the continuous route from Denver to Durango. The occasion marked fifteen years of full-time involvement by Gudy, during which time she never took a cent of pay, but instead financed her own involvement through the proceeds of her real estate business. She had created one of the country’s most precious resources.

In 1987, the Colorado Trail split off from the Colorado Mountain Club to form the Colorado Trail Foundation (CTF), which oversees the never-ending task of maintaining and managing the Colorado Trail. Each summer the CTF organizes and supports volunteer trail maintenance crews, holds a roster of educational workshops on the trail, and hosts many supported treks. Gudy’s efforts have involved more than 10,000 volunteers from all fifty states as well as Spain, England, Germany, France, and Japan. Gudy, now almost 75, actively led the CTF until her “retirement” in 1998. She is still a driving force behind the foundation and the leader of its week-long outdoor workshop programs, all of which she continues to organize and oversee.

While guiding the creation of the Colorado Trail, raising four children, and developing a successful real estate business, Gudy found time to ascend all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks as well as many international mountains up to 23,000 feet high. She has been recognized by President Ronald Reagan with the Take Pride in America Campaign award, was honored by former President George Bush through the Points of Light program, and has appeared on The Today Show and countless television and radio programs. Judy Collins dedicated a song to Gudy and her efforts, and Michael Martin Murphey was inspired by Gudy and the Colorado Trail to write “Along, Along The Colorado Trail.” Murphey has become a major supporter and fund-raiser for the Colorado Trail.