This is an email that I sent to both Cities, the Forest Service, and the media:
Hello,
Manitou Springs City Councilor Steve Bremner said in an interview with the Gazette recently that he feels that 45 people should be allowed to hike the Incline every half an hour. That is 90 an hour, 14 hours a day, 1,260 a day. If we figure 365 days in a year that is 459,900 a year.
Why have a reservation system? According to the numbers mentioned a few months ago by Manitou Springs City Councilor John Shada that is the number of people already hiking the Incline.
As a Barr Trail hiker that is unacceptable to me. The Manitou Incline Task Force heard many complaints that the Incline was ruining the Barr Trail. We were led to believe that if the Incline was legal an alternate route down from the Incline would address these complaints.
The Incline has been legal for over 7 years, and instead of having another way down to relieve the overuse of the Barr trail, there are now more people than ever.
Am I right that the alternate route down will not be available for another three years?
I do not believe the claim that 350,000 people were hiking the Incline in 2010, or 250,000 conservatively, or whatever they claim the truth to be. They never got factual data on that during the Task Force's time, did they?
Was the counter visible in September 2010, and could it have been manipulated? Is there any evidence that someone might have instructed people to hike the Incline more during that 17 days?
Sources are telling me that only 150,000 or 200,000 people were hiking the Incline in 2010, is that true? Surely both Cities know. If the Task Force knowingly exaggerated the numbers you have to come clean now. The integrity of the public process must be defended.
I only withdrew my opposition to the legal opening of the Incline because I believed that the Incline would do less harm to the Barr trail, rather than more.
The Task Force misled the public. Why did I not know that a minimum 2 year long NEPA process would be necessary before another way down would be available?
There are steps that can be taken to lessen the interference that Barr Trail hikers suffer going up. Do not allow Incline users to run down the Barr Trail. Institute a policy that says downhill hikers have to yield to uphill hikers.
If you want to have over 400,000 people hike the Incline in a year, do it after the new way down is open. Barr Trail hikers should now get restitution because the Incline is not supposed to still be a problem for us.
Why does everyone want the Incline to be ruined, and the Barr Trail even more? Manitou Springs has consulted with the managers of Hanging Lake. They now allow 650 people a day, and they don't use a National Recreational Trail to return. Why would we allow twice that many people?
How many people hike the Barr Trail each year? I once read that it is 60,000, though I suspect that it is more. Why would the Incline be allowed to send more hikers on the Barr Trail, than the Barr Trail has on its own? That is not good or fair management, especially considering that we were told that the legalization of the Incline would stop the overuse of the Barr Trail.
While the City does own some of the return trail, there are also two stretches that are on USFS land. The entire Incline route is governed by the USFS Special Use Permit. They do not allow infringement of the rights of one group of hikers, by another.
Why would anyone even consider a reservation system until the Incline is fully legitimatized?
The Management Plan and the IGA are clear, the Incline may not legally open until #10 is substantially completed. How many ties were stabilized before the Special Use Permit was issued?
Why wont the Forest Service make a public statement on my questions?
Why wont our Parks Dept. make a public statement? See “C” below from the IGA:
These documents are legally binding. If you want to reopen the Incline you have to disclose these mistakes to the public, and start over with a new public process.
It would be crime to reopen the Incline without doing so.
This is the table from the Site Development and Management Plan page V – 11.
If the Task Force cheated and lied to get through public comment, and then opened the Incline without even performing the requirements that they put on it, would that affect the validity of the grant applications that we submitted to FEMA, GOCO, and HUD? You absolutely have to inform the public of any mistakes or inaccuracies in the information given during the public comment process. The Management Plan states on the cover that it is “a collaboration between the Cities of Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs”.
That means that each of you are legally responsible for the content of the Management Plan today.
Thank you, Carl Strow