OutThereColorado.com: Recent grads aren't exactly flipping burgers

ABOVE 13,000 FEET ON PIKES PEAK• It’s not easy work, carrying and piling rocks high above timberline, minimum-wage physical labor in a harsh environment.

But while her friends work in restaurants and stores, Kari Lanphier would not spend the summer between high school and college any other way.

“They’re like, ‘I hate my job,’ and I love my job!” the Mesa Ridge High School graduate said.

She was learning about the fragile alpine environment and how the simple act of building small dams on a drainage channel would prevent erosion from water gushing down from the Pikes Peak Highway.

“It just makes you a better person. Carrying rocks, it’s such a trivial thing, but you see what this check dam is going to do, so it’s worth it,” she said.

She is part of the Pikes Peak Corps, a program begun in 2009 by the Rocky Mountain Field Institute, a Colorado Springs-based nonprofit working to integrate environmental stewardship, education and research through restoration of natural areas.

The program puts high school students and recent graduates into nature for eight weeks of restoring damaged landscapes, working on trails and roads and improving animal habitat.

But the main emphasis is education, teaching the students why they are doing it.

“We really do set out here to do the educational component, so they get the reason behind the detention pond,” said Rocky Mountain Field Institute executive director Eric Billmeyer.

The group began the program because Billmeyer saw a lack of such programs for students who wanted to combine environmental work and education. He said 10 students took part last year.

This summer’s seven participants are spending two weeks at Garden of the Gods, two on Pikes Peak, two in the Hayman Fire burn scar and two restoring fish habitat along Fountain Creek.

For six weeks, they’ll sleep at home like they would for almost any summer job — although they might be getting up earlier than most of the work force. They camped during the two weeks of work at the Hayman site.

While camping, they probably ate better than most teenagers; Lanphier recalled fondly the “Dutch oven mac-and-cheese” dinner one night. But she most appreciated the education, such as the seven hours in the classroom before they even set foot on Pikes Peak.

“It’s not just about hard labor,” she said.

“You worked really hard and you can look at a project and see the progress you made. It’s definitely pleasant, being up here,” said recent Palmer High School graduate Shane Nelson. “You know what you’re doing, so it’s an experience that’s more gratifying because of that.”

Some of the workers will go on to related fields of study in college, and organizers hope their time in the Pikes Peak Corps marks the start of a long interest in caring for the landscapes that outdoors lovers cherish.

“Most of them have a genuine interest in giving back to the land,” said project coordinator Shaina Jordan. “I hope they’re walking away with an understanding of what it means to take care of our public lands, some traditional work skills, good memories, an educational experience.”