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Centinneal Cone Park - How is it?

1K views 11 replies 7 participants last post by  Feldybikes 
#1 ·
#3 ·
I have been sitting back watching for other posts about Centennial Cone and have finally decided to speak up. WHAT THE F**K IS JEFFCO OPEN SPACE THINKING????? As if there isn't a big enough perception problem of mountain bikers already, they go and build what appears to be a "loop" trail only to have it cross over a small parcel of private property. Who wants to do a sweet downhill only to have to turn around and go back uphill, when you know the trail is just on the other side of the private property. You know many people are poaching across the private property. Jeffco also spent who knows how much money to build a "huge" bridge across a valley floor, but couldn't think to build the trail around the private property. Maybe I am having a bad day (don't think so) but I think Jeffco is setting up the mountain biking community for conflict.

Sorry about the rant, but I have been wanting to go to Centennial Cone but have refused just because of the private property issue.
 
#4 ·
is the loop still incomplete?

A guy is trying to set up an Friday afternoon ride at Cent. cone, he works for JeffCo open space, and he says he has been working up there on the trails this summer.
He described it as a 10 mile loop, no mention of it being incomplete.
 
#5 ·
What is going on??? A Jeffco Open Space employee is promoting the new trail as a "loop" to his buddies when the website and everything that I have heard from anybody going up there that it is clearly marked private property. I have heard of people hike-a-biking up the hillside and around the private property(approx 300 yards?) and the others have just jumped the fence and crossed the private property to the trail on the otherside. Why does there have to be such confusion? Either build two trails that are out and back that clearly do not connect or build a "loop" trail that does not tempt people to have to cross private property. I don't know, it is just not the normal mode of operation for Jeffco Open Space to set up the users of the trails for a confrontation.

I am so hungry for a new trail in Jeffco and it just feels like Centennial Cone is a big rat trap loaded with a big piece of cheese (the trail on the other side of the private property) just waiting to snap me in the a**.
 
#6 ·
scar said:
What is going on??? A Jeffco Open Space employee is promoting the new trail as a "loop" to his buddies when the website and everything that I have heard from anybody going up there that it is clearly marked private property. I have heard of people hike-a-biking up the hillside and around the private property(approx 300 yards?) and the others have just jumped the fence and crossed the private property to the trail on the otherside. Why does there have to be such confusion? Either build two trails that are out and back that clearly do not connect or build a "loop" trail that does not tempt people to have to cross private property. I don't know, it is just not the normal mode of operation for Jeffco Open Space to set up the users of the trails for a confrontation.

I am so hungry for a new trail in Jeffco and it just feels like Centennial Cone is a big rat trap loaded with a big piece of cheese (the trail on the other side of the private property) just waiting to snap me in the a**.
so you are *****ing about things up there, without having actually been there? that's helpful. how about checking things out before spewing?

this thread has me curious; i'll probably go up there early next week.
if it's closed off/marked off private property, i'lll just hike around. big freakin' deal. new(ish) legal trail is new(ish) legal trail. i'll take it!

yeah, it wouldn't make much sense for them to just dead end it without just going around the private stuff, but who knows the county's reasoning on this one? jeffco isn't that stupid; i'm sure they have some reason for whatever they did or didn't do.
 
#7 ·
Alternating Weekends

Just an FYI but on JeffCo's web site it states that access for hikers and bikers alternates weekends (of course no such restrictions are in place for equestrians). They have a calendar at the link in my original post that shows which weekends are hiker and which are biker. Think I will check it out soon myself although the private property issue mentioned here makes me almost say "Why bother.."

Oops, slight correction. They have it set up for alternating days on the weekends. This weekend Hikers have it saturday, bikers on Sunday, then next weekend it flips, etc
 
#8 ·
mtber36 said:
Just an FYI but on JeffCo's web site it states that access for hikers and bikers alternates weekends (of course no such restrictions are in place for equestrians). They have a calendar at the link in my original post that shows which weekends are hiker and which are biker. Think I will check it out soon myself although the private property issue mentioned here makes me almost say "Why bother.."

Oops, slight correction. They have it set up for alternating days on the weekends. This weekend Hikers have it saturday, bikers on Sunday, then next weekend it flips, etc
yah, i already saw that. no biggie, since i'll be going on a weekday.
 
#9 ·
wow

the level of emotion that this trail brings is surprising.

Just a note of clarification, my friend is working a summer job with JeffCo, working on various trails, not an JeffCo official or reqular employee.
hiking around the priviate property obstacle does not sound like a big deal.
If the weather holds and we actually get a ride in, I will report back.
 
#10 ·
I rode it back in June. Great roller. It's extremely disappointing that the loop is _still_ not done. I thought it was pretty dumb too that Jeffco do all this planning, and everything, and can't plan the loop to avoid private property. To be honest, I'd wait to ride it until the loop was done. By trespassing on the private property, all that accomplishes is pissing the property owner off, then the loop will never get done. The alternating weekend thing is a pain in the a$$ as well. Hopefully Jeffco will reverse that plan, and will make it multi-use all the time like most of the other Jeffco parks.
 
#11 ·
I should be a little clearer. I haven't been up there yet this year since Jeffco has posted the map on their website publicizing the trail. I rode the lower section of the trail out and back last year while the trail was pushing farther and farther. This was before it was on the Jeffco website, heard about on this forum, thought it had great potential as a loop. I even drove the car up there the other day at lunch as I heard they had finished the parking lot on the Golden Gate side. So sorry if you think voicing my opinion on the situation is spewing, I will try to ask for permission next time.
 
#12 ·
I too was confused as to why the trail goes through private property until I got up there and rode it myself. This is what I surmised (no official info):

The southern portion of the loop, which is all "singletrack" (more on that later) looks to be all newly built. The northern portion, which goes through the private property, looks to be an old doubletrack. So my guess is that when Jeffco was laying out the trail, they decided to use an existing doubletrack for ~1/3 of it to save construction time/cost (which sounds reasonable enough to me). In the time since it was initially planned and now, they might have either (my guesses) figured that they'd reach an agreement with the landowner by now/acquired the land, or maybe they already had a deal and it fell through before the trail openned.

As for riding out an back and having to ride up a "sweet downhill," I don't really think this is a big deal. Even if it's a loop you have to ride uphill sometime.

I was not surprised yet still dissapointed at the lack of imagination with the trail. First of all, it's 3' wide. (Hence "singletrack" in quotes) and is pretty tame. The width is due to the machine Jeffco uses to cut the trails. No big deal, that's just the way it is. It'll get narrower (in places at least) with time, just like Zorro and Whippletree. Only 2 tech sections that are stair steps a'la Zorro, but not so high as to be unridable without hopping (if you can ride all the way up Zorro while rolling, then big props to you). Again, there are some sections that I can tell will develope more "personality" in a couple of years and become rocky like Chimney. The thing I really didn't like is that there are almost no corners that aren't either following a countour or are a switchback. Why does the trail have to be so straight?

My overall take was that, especially with the no hiker days, it's a good place to go if you want to ride tempo off road. But I don't really know that that's a good review.
 
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