| FOTP Newsletter |
February 2014
|
|
Dear Friend of the Peak --
We are looking forward to another great year on the mountain, thanks to
all of you. The articles below will help get you started.
But before you go there, let me remind you of the Bear Creek Watershed
open house Tuesday, February 25, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Pikes
Peak room at Colorado Springs Utilities' Leon Young Service Center, 1521
Hancock Expressway, Colorado Springs, 80903. It's an opportunity
for you to provide comments.
The current proposal addresses  issues
on protecting the greenback cutthroat trout in Bear Creek. There
will be information on the proposal to close some trails and reroute
others. The Forest Service's web page on Bear Creek also has information. Trails in the Bear Creek watershed are currently closed because of damage from September's storms.
See you at the Open House.
Carol Beckman
|
|
|
|
|
Like Us on Facebook
| You
can like us on Facebook. Then you can get notices of
developments on these and other issues, news about projects, and other
items of interest.
|
|
|
|
| NEEDED: TRAIL SCOUTS |  Do you
love trails? Do you like to hike or run or bike or ride on the trails
you love? Then you're just the person we're looking for. You can help
us by doing what you love to do anyway. When a problem develops on a
trail, we don't always find out about it right away. We need
information. We need trail scouts, people who are out on a trail and
can scout out and report problems. We're trying to recruit a trail
scout for each trail we can work on. It doesn't have to be an exclusive
relationship. More people can provide more information. We plan to
hold training for trail scouts, most likely in May. We'll set a date
once we know who and how many people we have. Some problems are obvious
and easy to report, like a large tree fallen across a trail. Others
might require a trained eye. We'll get to problems as soon as we can,
at least to assess them. Some problems can be quickly fixed; others
might feed into our planning for the next year. Please consider
becoming a trail scout for a trail that you're on regularly. Even if
you don't want to sign up as a trail scout, you can still report
problems. You can send e-mail to info@fotp.com, and we have a form on our web site for reporting problems.  If we learn about a problem on a
trail that we don't work on, we can pass the information on to
the appropriate organization. And, yes, we know about the boulder on
Barr Trail. That's the type of problem that can take some time to
resolve. Volunteers aren't moving it. We've proposed a short reroute
around the boulder, and offered to build it. The Forest Service is
considering how best to deal with this -- safely.
Trails Needing Scouts:
620
Barr
664
Crags
664A Crags to Summit
Crowe
Gulch
652 Elk
Park
704 Horsethief Park
Mount
Esther
651 Mountain View 704A Pancake Rocks
Putney
Gulch
Raspberry
624 St Mary's Falls
622 Seven Bridges Ute Pass Trail Utility Bypass
703
|
|
2014 PROJECT SCHEDULE
|
|
We've
set our 2014 project schedule! See how you can help out. Some of
the locations will seem familiar to volunteers who helped in 2013.
We plan to work on Barr Trail, of course. Needs are ongoing there,
as is our work there. Last year volunteers built a great retaining
wall across a gully on the trail by Elk Park Knoll. Areas farther
down the trail need help, but less heavy duty. We plan to help those
areas this year. Work planned for the trail from Crags to the summit
will be different this year. The last few years we've been
building cairns to clarify the route above Devil's Playground.
This year weâ'll work on an eroded area below Devil's Playground.
The past few years we've been working on the trails on South Slope
around McReynolds Reservoir and to Mason Reservoir. This year we'll
improve those trails. Last year we joined Incline Friends for their
project in October. We plan to join them again for three projects
this year. We've been having projects on alternate Thursdays for
years now, with some dedicated volunteers. Those projects are on
trails easily accessible from the city. Last year, most of the
Thursday projects were on Seven Bridges. This year we're returning
to Seven Bridges to address areas we didn't have time for last year
and also some storm damage. Seven Bridges fared fairly well through
the September storms, but does have an eroded section. Once we
finish with Seven Bridges, we'll move on to Saint Mary's Falls.
It has some minor storm damage, plus issues that arise over time. We
are working on one trail that we did not work on last year. It
didn't exist last year. Many people are excited that Manitou
Springs will be building the Iron Mountain Trail this year and is
finally able to connect the Intemann Trail. Many groups, including
Friends of the Peak, are working together to build the trail.
Projects are scheduled through the summer. Friends of the Peak is
leading one of the projects. You can check out all the projects on
our schedule and register on our web site at the projects page.
|
|
FREE RIDE ON THE COG
 Did you
ever play Monopoly? Wasn't it great to "Take on ride on the Reading"
-- free?
This summer there is a way you can take a ride on the Cog --
free.
The folks at the Pikes Peak Cog railway have offered to take
volunteers up on the Cog train to the stop at Mountain View (shown at right) for our
project on Barr Trail on May 31. Volunteers will disembark there, and
walk over to Barr Trail -- about 1.5 miles. It's a great way to access a
part of the trail that needs work but is difficult to reach on a
regular project day. The Cog will have spots for 15 volunteers, up and
then back down. It's sure to be a great project.
|
|
 CREW LEADER TRAINING
Colorado
Springs Parks and Rec, in conjunction with several other organizations,
is offering crew leader training for the third straight year. It
is scheduled for April 25 to 27, Friday evening, Saturday, and
Sunday. Organizations involved are Trails and Open Space
Coalition, Rocky Mountain Field Institute, Volunteers for Outdoor
Colorado, and Friends of the Peak. The training will cover the
basics of working with and leading volunteers on trail projects, trail
maintenance, and restoration. Trail projects need qualified crew
leaders. If you have volunteered on some projects and would like
to help, please consider taking the training, then becoming certified by
being a crew leader on two certifying projects. Registration will
be through CS Parks and Rec. Registration information is not
available yet, but when it is we'll put information on our web site and
Facebook page.
|
|
PROPOSED LAND EXCHANGE
You might have seen the article in the Gazette about a proposed land
exchange between the Broadmoor and U.S. Forest Service. The Broadmoor
is currently leasing the land at Emerald Valley Ranch, off Old Stage
Road, from the Forest Service, although they own the buildings. The
Broadmoor recently purchased 320 acres on the west side of Pikes Peak,
near the Crags campground, that was owned by Harvey Carter. Mr. Carter,
who died in 2012, was a climber and skier, and had hoped to develop a
ski area with the property.
The Broadmoor would like to exchange the
320 acre parcel for 64 acres at Emerald Valley Ranch. The Broadmoor is
also offering to include a permanent easement on the section of Barr
Trail that goes through its property. This proposal is in its very
early stages. If the Forest Service decides to consider the exchange,
there should be more information and a chance for public comments.
|
|
|
|