Thursday night was the 2nd Colorado Springs Watershed Access Meeting. At the first meeting on February 6th, Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) had said there would be no access to the South Slope of Pikes Peak which has been off-limits since 1913. Several groups had been working with CSU to be able to complete the last section of the 60-mile Ring the Peak Trail and one other trail through that area.
I had planned on going to Thursday’s meeting but I’ve been sick this week. Wednesday I came home from work early and slept for over 4 hours. I crawled out of bed and lay on the couch for a little over an hour before going back to bed for the night.
City Council members and the mayor and have had discussions with CSU officials and they now have promised to allow “accommodating recreational activity”. They outlined a process for creating trails in areas that have long been off limits with trail planning starting this spring. I think this is good news although there weren’t many details. Fishermen weren’t happy since they’ve been wanting the reservoirs opened to fishing and that doesn’t seem part of the plan. I think there should be trail access through the area away from reservoirs but I don’t want vehicle access to the area. The easier the access the more people that will go. The biggest thing though is people that will hike 5 miles to get somewhere generally leave less trash and take better care of an area than those that will only walk a 100 yards.
Related Links:
- Colorado Springs Watershed Access Meetings
- New Pike/San Isabel National Forest Meeting
- Pikes Peak South Slope mostly final plan
|
|
|
Tags: hiking, mountain biking, Pikes Peak, trail access
Blog RSS Feed
Like on Facebook
Follow on Twitter
Flickr
Contact
Leave a Reply