Making the Manatou Springs Incline Trail Legal.

Just returned from the Olympic Training Center where USA Cycling hosted a Coaches Summit. Lots of great information (more to come on that, later) and many great speakers. Learned a lot and had an equally good time meeting new coaches and doing some great extra curricular activities.

One afternoon a friend and I decided to go check out a hike in Manatou Springs. It wasn't until we return from this awesome hike that we found out it was not actually legal. We would never have known this, as there must have been about 30 other people running and hiking on this trail.

There is a great deal negotiations with several of the land owners and the public to get this trail open to the public. I would hope this will happen as it is the coolest hike I've ever done.

Here's a great web site for more information on the Incline.


http://www.inclineclub.com/incline/
Current state of the Incline:

The Incline is not open to the public for any use — PERIOD! That people are going up the Incline only means they are trespassing on private property! Indeed, the Incline has been clearly posted “No Trespassing” since June of 2000. Talk of the Incline being “closed” is a misnomer in that something that is not open can not be closed. However, rather extensive and ongoing efforts are taking place to work with the owners of the Incline to get it open to the public. Please see the section “Efforts to Open the Incline to the Public” below for details.

What is the Incline?
In brief, the Incline as it exists now is the roadbed to the former Mount Manitou Scenic Incline Railway — a cable car that took people up the eastern face of Rocky Mountain to about 8,600' before shutting down in 1990. The steepest section is at a grade of 68% with the average grade just over 40%. For a more complete history of the Incline, including why it was originally built, please read the story “Life on the Incline - A 3-part Story” in the section below titled “Incline in the News.”

Who owns the Incline?
The land the Incline was built on is owned by three entities. The approximate bottom 25% is owned by the City of Colorado Springs, the middle 50% is owned by the COG Railway and the top 25% is owned by the Forest Service. For a visual representation of this please see the maps at the bottom of this page.

There's much more information on the web page about the Incline. Read more.