Yesterday's bike adventure:
I rode up Gold Camp road, sign just before the road turns to gravel states, "Cheyenne Park and GC Road are closed." I ignore the sign since it must only refer to vehicles. The upper part of the road was sometimes a road-wide stream, large waterfalls along several spots, and lots of large boulders and debris dislodged from the cliffs.
Side note: I was on pre-slid section yesterday at 2:30PM. Certainly glad it was fine when I was there. This section was mostly a liquified stream coming down the road, all due to a waterfall just past tunnel 2 dumping prodigious amounts of water on the road. Deeper and more water in the road than the pictures show.
I ride and hike-a-bike up to St Marys to Mt Rosa. Lots of trail damage, with long ripped up ruts. Got to Pipeline trail as it started to pour rain, the upper part of the trail was fun, and next it really started to dump rain (deluge), with bouts of thunder and lightning. Some of the trail ruts were as deep as a bike wheel, while others were wet and impossible to ride through. Multiple creek crossing were deep and hard to pedal through. The gravel in places was very liquified and was almost like riding through heavy wet cement.
The lower portion of Pipeline Whoop-De-Dos's were full of water, anywhere from several inches to 1 foot deep, and I must have gone through 100 of them (that was fun). Can I state that my feet were now wet? I made it down to Jones Park, and the trail was mostly just a continuous stream of water (a mini creek) down through crank case alley, with more terrible and impassible ruts. Ugly, and not much fun.
Got to Bear Creek as it was getting dark. Hard to see the trail, made worse by the occasional trail flooding, one section was a stream 1 foot deep for almost a quarter mile. The ruts on the talus slope weren't very deep, but just the right tire width size and very wet, so they would suck your tire into them and toss you off balance (more fun in the darkening light). I got down to the last two creek crossings and was glad for the log bridges, since the creek was too dangerous and deep to ride through.
I rode down High Drive in the dark, had to be cautious due to the monstrous deep and large ruts (these suckers were hug in places). It was the slowest I have ever gone down the road, usually it's a 25 mph high speed boogie. Gold Camp road on the drive out had lots of deep standing water, with streams running down the side. Of course, highway 24 to Woodland Park was closed.
I have never seen this much water on trails here, and the trail damage is pretty extreme, and much of it will require immense maintenance or reroutes.
Although all of the Springs got lots of rain and trail abuse, the heaviest damage was around Cheyenne Canyon, Section 16, Gold Camp, etc., and the foothills above those areas.
My families upmost prayers, go out to all you that have suffered so much loss, both from prperty and damage to the lines of zen in Colorado. P town in the house.
... My front yard. I live at the bottom of the chutes area ...
So sorry for this horrendous damage to your home. My heart goes out to all the people who's lives have been devastated by this incredible destruction. Up here in the mountains we have been so lucky.
I predict that the sport of mountain biking on the front range is going to be quite different in the next few years. The number of trail miles has been drastically reduced. You'll all be sharing fewer miles of trail.
Many, many mountain bikers on the front range are going to become trail workers and trail builders. This could be an opportunity to have miles and miles of more sustainable and better-routed and more sustainable trails. But it's going to probably only happen with lots of volunteer labor. Public funding is going to be pretty well committed to rebuilding roads and bridges.
What a fuggin year for Colorado. Sad. It's going to take a while for it to all sink in I think. Once this all dries up and we can get around and see for ourselves I think it's going to be a real jaw dropper. There will be plenty of work rebuilding to go around.
No big deal! Snap out of it people. 6 bridges at the bottom of Jacks (hey, a new trail name, 6 bridges!!) and a couple dump trucks of dirt and we are good to go!
Lets Roll!
I luv it. I hope they close Gold Camp to cars for a long, long time...
The preliminary estimate to fix Lower Gold Camp road is two million. I doubt that it will be fixed in the next year(s)? I don't think that the city will allow recreational access to Cheyenne Canyon until they feel the road is safe. This means that mtbr's will have to poach our favorite trails. Still, it is in our interests to have the Lower Gold Camp Road fixed to reduce congestion on the few remaining trails in COS.
The preliminary estimate to fix Lower Gold Camp road is two million. I doubt that it will be fixed in the next year(s)? I don't think that the city will allow recreational access to Cheyenne Canyon until they feel the road is safe. This means that mtbr's will have to poach our favorite trails. Still, it is in our interests to have the Lower Gold Camp Road fixed to reduce congestion on the few remaining trails in COS.
I believe it's eligible for federal disaster relief funds. Chances are they will pave it like they did PP Hwy when they "fix" it.
I don't see why the park would be closed just because lower Gold Camp is washed out. Upper Gold Camp has been closed for years. Nothing new. I ride from home.
Anyway.... the BIG Question is HOW MANY BEAR CREEK TROUT DIED ?
I mean.... all that sediment.... how could the live... OMG.... they could be extinct...
The damage is between the parking lot at the Gold Camp / High Drive intersection and the lower Jack's parking lot. Close it between there until they can fix the road... it isn't too hard. Trails stay open and everyone is happy. Everyone except the trout mourners anyway.
The cop at the entrance to CC today said "all trails are closed." That didn't make a lot of sense. He also said they may open the paved road up CC as early as tomorrow.
So this raises the question as to what, at the CC/GC/HD parking lot, will be open. The closed section of GC up to SM? Surely. High Drive? They haven't posted closures off the lower section at the intersection with the paved part of GC. I personally don't see why anything needs to remain "closed" except the section of GC which is washed out - and only to cars. Guess we'll have to see what our wise City fathers decide here.
BTW - the washout is just below Tunnel #2. There is a barricade just before T1 (at Jack's lot) and also at the junction of GC and the CC parking lot. So it may be that that will be the closure. Too bad they didn't close it right at T1 - then SC would be open to connect with Columbine. Again, will have to see what they come up with.
High Drive is a wreck on the lower north side, but nothing dangerous and nothing insurmountable by foot or bike.
But the real silver lining in all this is if that schtinkin funkintrouten species comes up extinct.
And hope to god the thing isn't alive and well in Lake Jacks.
... Anyway.... the BIG Question is HOW MANY BEAR CREEK TROUT DIED ?
I mean.... all that sediment.... how could the live... OMG.... they could be extinct...
Joking aside, I was wondering about that. Did they all get washed into Fountain Creek and on down and out? Native western fish tend to be adapted to flood conditions, and know how to stay in stream. I remember reading about how in streams in the southwest where there were endangered humpback chub, and some introduced smallmouth bass, floods washed the bass downstream, but the chubs knew how to stay in the streambed even as the water levels, sediment level, and current spiked.
But yeah, hard to guess. Likely to be fairly low on some peoples' radar in the future. So many things are truly urgent for you folks now.
I haven't talked to a cop yet (at a road block) who knew anything. Not saying they aren't doing great work but cops manning roadblocks are usually told very little, just to keep anyone from crossing the roadblock. Specific questions have always been responded with "I don't know, they just told me to keep traffic away" or words to that effect.
A blind man searches in a dark room for a black hat that isn't there. Dashiell Hammett
Joking aside, I was wondering about that. Did they all get washed into Fountain Creek and on down and out? Native western fish tend to be adapted to flood conditions, and know how to stay in stream. I remember reading about how in streams in the southwest where there were endangered humpback chub, and some introduced smallmouth bass, floods washed the bass downstream, but the chubs knew how to stay in the streambed even as the water levels, sediment level, and current spiked.
But yeah, hard to guess. Likely to be fairly low on some peoples' radar in the future. So many things are truly urgent for you folks now.
For me... the fires and floods only reinforce how comical the hysteria is over the minor amount of sediment created by motos and MTB's.
And if the trout can survive storms like this then there really is no reason why we should be closing trails in addition to proving how intellectually dishonest some people can be just so they can bully other people around.
That doesn't even begin to touch the "pure" gene pool issue created by overflowing streams and flooded confluences...
The fish hadn't even crossed my mind, but that could truly be the silver lining to all this. If (big if) we can form an alliance of sorts with the moto guys, we could have even more help to work on the trails for reroutes, bridge building, etc. Those guys can cover a lot of ground and carry a lot more than I can in my Camelbak.
For me... the fires and floods only reinforce how comical the hysteria is over the minor amount of sediment created by motos and MTB's.
And if the trout can survive storms like this then there really is no reason why we should be closing trails in addition to proving how intellectually dishonest some people can be just so they can bully other people around.
That doesn't even begin to touch the "pure" gene pool issue created by overflowing streams and flooded confluences...
Great point, if the fish is still there then what can it not survive??!!
The fish hadn't even crossed my mind, but that could truly be the silver lining to all this. If (big if) we can form an alliance of sorts with the moto guys, we could have even more help to work on the trails for reroutes, bridge building, etc. Those guys can cover a lot of ground and carry a lot more than I can in my Camelbak.
Actually this sort of flooding might have helped the fish. One of the reasons their habitat has been harmed has been many dry years without any sort of good annual flooding. The flooding creates deep pools, remove sediments and moves nutrients around, etc. The low water and dry years has created shallow depths, which can raise the water temps beyond safe limits for the fish, along with too much sediments getting deposited, which is also detrimental. Some sort of flushing of the system needs to occur to cleanse the creeks and stream, which can benefit the fish. Of course it was a pretty massive cleansing over one evenings time.
Trust me I was up riding that evening through part of the storm (a very scary experience to be riding in a tropical storm), and the trails are not rideable, either due to them being wheel sucking washed out ruts or eroded stream beds or totally non existent. In places, the trail might be there for short periods of time, but then you have to pick your bike up and walk through, around, or wedge yourself in the rut to get through things. Lots of work before many of the trails can be used.
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Originally Posted by hitechredneck
