Manitou Incline Draft Plan to be Presented Tonight
The next public meeting on legalizing hiking the Manitou Incline is tonight (Thursday, October 21st) at 7 PM at Manitou’s City Hall. The draft Manitou Incline plan will be presented and people will be able to give their feedback. The plan is based on input from the Incline meeting in June plus 3 focused workshops held in July.
The Forest Service had estimated that about 70,000 trips were made up the Incline a year. To get a better count, the task force put an automated counter on the No Trespassing sign. In September it counted 23,562 hikers. I don’t know if it was sophisticated enough to count just those going up or if it also counted people when they came down.
I know the couple times I was on the Incline in September there were probably only about half the hikers that I saw in June and July. The winter months see much lower usage so it’s possible that’s close to the average over the year. That would mean there could be 300,000 or more trips up the Incline a year.
The plan lays out 3 different stages, A, B and C. Stage A proposals are low cost for the most part and ares limited to management requirements for legally opening the Manitou Incline and critical improvements.
A couple things in the plan are hiking will only be allowed from dawn to dusk and that dogs won’t be allowed. Go to UltraRob.com for more information on the draft Manitou Incline plan.
Public Meetings Continue
The first of a series of public meetings about the Manitou Incline took place on June 24th. Over 100 people attended that workshop. There are 3 more focused workshop sessions this week. They are all at Manitou Springs City Hall from 6-9 PM.
- July 13th – Parking/Traffic
- July 14th – Trails/Trailheads
- July 15th – Operations/Management
It’s good things are moving forward for the Incline to be opened to the public but with governments and committees involved the process is inching it’s way slowly forward. It’ll be late spring of 2011 at the earliest before it is legal to hike the Manitou Incline. Manitou is doing a good job of posting updates online. Here’s the current time table.
- June 24th – General Public Workshop
- July 13-15th – Focused Public Workshops
- October 21, 7 PM – Public Review of Alternatives
- January 2011 – Review Draft Preferred Plan
- February – March 2011 – Review Final Plan
- ? – Land Owners and City Governments Approve Plan
Not surprisingly the biggest issues discussed at the June meeting were parking and traffic congestion on Ruxton Avenue. Residents on Ruxton have legitimate concerns that traffic jams could prevent emergency vehicles reaching their houses quickly in case of a fire or medical issue. Concerns were also raised about erosion, safety, trail etiquette, wear on Barr Trail, dogs, etc. You can see more feedback in the Workshop 1 responses document.
The goal of the first meeting was to identify issues and come up with possible solutions. Attendees were encouraged to share ideas even if they didn’t think they’d be implemented. Some ideas were to have a shuttle and the closer you parked the more you would pay, have clunker bikes down near Soda Springs that could be borrowed to ride up to the Incline, a new trail for Incline users to get down so that other hikers could enjoy Barr Trail and more.
A lot of effort is going in to creating a plan but creating a plan will not open the Incline to the public. That will still be up to the owners of the land which are Pikes Peak Cog Railway, Colorado Springs Utilities and the Forest Service. If the 3 owners approve the plan, then it will have to be re-zoned. About the bottom half of the Incline is within Manitou Springs city limits and isn’t zoned to allow it to be used as a recreation area. That of course means more meetings and time.
Public Meetings about Manitou Incline
Hiking the Manitou Incline has continued to grow more popular even though it’s illegal. The U.S. Forest Service has estimated that 70,000 people use the Incline annually.
This Thursday evening, June 24th, there will be a meeting to get public input on the Manitou Incline. It will be held at Manitou Springs City Hall, 606 Manitou Avenue, from 7 to 9 PM. Manitou Springs also has a project page with more information and maps of the Manitou Incline.
The following additional public meetings will be hosted in July at Manitou Springs City Hall.
- July 13th – Traffic and Parking Focus Area Session, 6 – 9 p.m.
- July 14th – Trails and Trailhead Focus Area Session, 6 – 9 p.m.
- July 15th – Management and Operations Focus Area Session, 6 – 9 p.m.
The planning process is funded by Great Outdoors Colorado and the Hill Family Foundation. The final plan will be presented to the Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs City Councils in February 2011.
For more information, please contact Aimee Cox at 719-385-6532 or aicox@springsgov.com.
THE INCLINE IS PRIVATE PROPERTY AND POSTED NO TRESPASSING. PUBLIC ACCESS ON THE INCLINE IS NOT ALLOWED. TRESPASSING ON THE INCLINE IS ILLEGAL.
Man Injured on Incline Brought Down by Search and Rescue
56 year old Paul Cohen is reported to have tripped and fallen on the Incline today. He impaled his leg on rebar and was seriously bleeding. Rebar has been used by underground volunteers to help keep ties in place.
Cohen fell soon after noon. El Paso County Search and Rescue took him down Barr Trail in a litter. He was then taken by ambulance to the hospital.
Read the Gazette article here.
UpaDowna Incline Happy Hour
Incline Happy Hour from Alpine Studio LLC on Vimeo.
Although hiking the Manitou Incline is still illegal, it hasn’t stopped a group of beer and outdoor lovers from meeting every Thursday evening to hike it. It’s the informal UpaDowna Incline Happy group.
There’s no set start time although some meet at the No Trespassing sign at 5 PM. At an average pace, the sign is 6-7 minutes from the parking lot. The goal is to be at the top around 6 PM and then meet around 7 back down at Kinfolks. Some people carry a PBR up for a celebratory drink at the top.
The gathering was started by the guys from the UpaDowna outdoor blog. UpaDowna is short for Up a Mountain, Down a Beer. They also have a Facebook page.
Brush Fires Near Manitou Incline
Yesterday winds up to 70 mph caused problems in the area near the Manitou Incline. There were 8 small fires down near the Pikes Peak Cog Railway from a blown transformer and powerlines blown down. About one acre burned without any major damage.
KKTV has a few more details.
Barr Trail Parking Lot to be Closed
The Barr Trail parking lot is scheduled to be closed Monday and Tuesday, May 24th and 25th for paving. Hopefully they’re also paving Hydra and getting it fixed up.
Update: Turns out they were paving just Hydra and not the parking lot.
1960s? Postcard
I found this postcard of the Manitou Incline cable car a little below the top. In it you can see the pulleys in the center of the tracks for the cables. Click for a larger image to see the pulleys better.
On the back the text says, “The thrilling mile and a quarter ride on the Mt. Manitou Incline affords passengers with superb panoramic views: Manitou Springs nestled in the valley below, Garden of the Gods, and an unending expanse of the Great Plains.”
It doesn’t have any date on it. My initial thought was that it was from the 70s because of the color and the way the guy is dressed. Then I noticed that the US Highway 24 Bypass wasn’t build yet. It was built in the late 1960s so the photo has to at least before that.
Manitou Incline Access
The Manitou Incline crosses land owned by the City of Colorado Springs, the Pikes Peak Cog Railway and the Forest Service. For liablity reasons and because of parking issues, the Pikes Peak Cog has tried keeping people off the Manitou Incline. It hasn’t worked and thousands of people hike up it.
For more than a decade there have been several talks to make hiking the Incline legal. So far all of them have fallen through. Currently nearly $100k is being spent to study how to make it safe and to deal with the parking issues. Manitou Springs has an information page on the ongoing meetings.
