Life on the Pikes Peak Manitou Springs Incline

By Matt Carpenter
www.skyrunner.com

(I wrote this for the fall 2000 and the spring and fall 2001 Friends of the Peak newsletters while I was serving on their board. The three parts have been combined here.)

Life on the Incline — Part I

This is the first in a multi-part series addressing the “state of the Incline.”

If you have done any hiking, biking or running on or around the trails of Pikes Peak you have no doubt come across a water pipe or two. It never ceases to amaze me the scale on which these things proliferate around, across and in many cases through Pikes Peak forming a huge network that is the backbone of our water supply. Even if you stick to the Barr Trail parts of this network can be seen within a few feet of the trail itself including the most visible of them all — the Incline. The Incline was built in 1907 to aid in the construction of the hydroelectric plant and it’s water line. When this was completed Dr. Brumbach purchased the Incline no doubt seeing its potential to make some money as a tourist attraction. Only then did the Incline become known as the Mt. Manitou Scenic Incline Railway.

The Incline lived up to its potential for many years and was eventually taken over by the same people that run the Cog with brochures proclaiming; “Scenic splendors unfolded in a trip up the Mt. Manitou Incline are unrivaled anywhere in the world.” Postcards boasted; “It is the longest and highest incline on the globe and Mt. Manitou Park, with its 10 miles of trails, is one of the most beautiful natural parks in all the Rockies. You cannot afford to come to Colorado and not take this splendid scenic trip.” One famous postcard in particular proudly shows the governors of 22 states arriving at the top of the Incline for a conference. Many of the runners I train with tell me of the days when they used to ride up the Incline so they could run on the flatter middle sections of the Barr Trail without having to kill themselves on the first three steep miles. But the era of riding up the Incline came to an end when a large rockslide shut it down in 1990 despite a community petition with 26,000 signatures on it to reopen it.

However, while it may have been easier not to rebuild the Incline it was not as easy to hide the “scar” running up the side of the mountain. The rails were removed and sold to a mining operation but the wooden ties needed to be left in order to hold the hillside in place. It is this roadbed of course that can be seen from just about anywhere in Manitou Springs and from many parts of Colorado Springs. But the “scar” is only a part of what remains of the Incline. The original station at the top of the Incline burned down in 1914 and was replaced. That station too was replaced with the final station being built in 1958. While most of the structure has been removed, large sections of the concrete foundation and many of the steps still remain as an eyesore to those that come across them in the middle of the once “most beautiful of natural parks.” A few hundred feet to the North remains a huge collection of garbage strewn about including the water tank off one of the old Cog steam engines which I am told itself was used as a garbage container. Even the top of Rocky Mountain is still littered with the remains of the stairs that climbed the final few feet up the massive boulders that afforded such a “world famous” view of Pikes Peak.

Now to most any newcomer or visitor to the area one of the first questions posed is not about Pikes Peak but about the vertical line that is at it’s bottom. I had often wondered about it myself until about six years ago when I decided to get a much closer look by going for a run up it. That first trip up got me hooked! The railroad ties formed a perfect staircase giving me one of the best workouts I have ever had. But the false summit tricked me into going too fast too soon and all but guaranteed that I would be back to “get it right.” From that day on the Incline became one of my favorite workouts and I was not alone. There was a small but diehard group of people using the Incline as a training ground for all kinds of outdoor activities. A small group of us got together and formed a club, called the Incline Club, and met weekly to run up the Incline.

But back then while much of the roadbed was surviving, albeit just barley, off to the side a portion of the steeper middle section at 68% was so badly eroded that you could see the exposed water pipe 15 feet below grade at some points. Efforts by many to revegetate the area always failed because of its steepness and the big rains which would send everything flying back down the mountain. Then, in 1997, the Raw Water Division of the Water Department of Colorado Springs Utilities did a massive amount of work to address the main problem. Don’t forget why the Incline was built in the first place — the water pipe. In the process of protecting the water pipe the crew also put in new railroad ties where old ones were missing and as a bonus cut in perfect footsteps into the existing ties on either side of the large metal drainage pipes to make it easier and safer to get over them. Along about the same time another crew, the Barr Trail crew, needed to protect their interests. They redirected part of the trail connecting the top of the Incline to the Barr Trail because the final section was too steep and causing erosion problems on the Barr Trail itself. Life for those hiking or running up the Incline was AWESOME!

Or so we thought...

Life on the Incline — Part II

This is the second part of a series addressing the “state of the Incline.” This part of the series will deal with the controversy surrounding the Incline’s use by pedestrians but first a clarification.

Several have asked me about my reference to “Rocky Mountain” at the top of the Incline stating that it is “of course Mount Manitou.” However, as strange as it may seem, the peak at the top of the Incline is 9,250' Rocky Mountain. Mount Manitou, at 9,429', is to the northwest by about a half mile. How the Mount Manitou Scenic Incline Railway got it’s name might be a story in itself. I suspect that since Manitou Springs is a prominent tourist destination it just helped to identify the Incline a little better than calling it the Rocky Mountain Incline, although that’s not such a bad name. In any event it would not be the first time a landmark gets named incorrectly. Consider the area referred to as French Creek on the Barr Trail. The creek is actually No Name Creek and the south fork of French Creek is over a mile away and would have to run uphill to get to the Barr Trail at this point. No Name originates in the area to the west of the Experimental Forest and drains down to Ruxton Creek by the Cog which then runs into Fountain Creek in Manitou.

(Update: While staying at Barr Camp I ran across a book about the Experimental Forest. Or was it a book about Fred Barr? At any rate, in it there was a map of the area and it turns out that “No Name Creek” actually has a name! It is called “Rock Creek”!!!)

Since we are now in the area of the Cog lets get back on topic. As it turns out the land that the Incline runs up is owned by three entities. The top section is owned by the Forest Service, the bottom section is owned by the city and the middle section is owned by the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. Mix into that Colorado Springs Utilities (as mentioned in part one CSU is trying to protect the water pipe next to the Incline) along with a bunch of hikers and runners who want to use the Incline as the world’s biggest Stairmaster and you end up with a mess. Some even like to call it a controversy.

However, as far as I am concerned there is no real controversy. Simply put the Cog owns a good chunk of the land and they don’t want people on it. Case closed, lets move on! Unfortunately while it is that simple it is not that straight forward when one looks at how the whole mess came about. It’s a classic case of the Pavlov experiment where a dog starts to salivate when it hears a bell because every time it hears a bell it always gets fed. For almost nine years people were heading up the Incline for all sorts of reasons ranging from doing it just for the view to training for an ascent of Mt Everest. Along the way more and more people started using it, including runners such as myself, and it was no secret! I remember one club run up the Incline which took place while the Cog employees were having a barbecue in the parking lot down below and no one said a thing. So what happened? In a word — parking!

It turns out that some of those heading up the Incline, and even more heading up the Barr Trail, are fit enough to climb thousands of feet and cover many miles but they are not courteous enough to walk several hundred feet so as not to take away a parking spot from a Cog customer. The Cog is running a business and to their credit (although since it is their land they don’t need credit but you know what I mean) I always felt that they tried to look the other way when it came to the Incline. In their words, “We care about running trains not running up the Incline.” But when people’s fun (in a warped sense) starts interfering with the Cog’s business who can blame them for getting upset? Every spring when the Cog starts their season is always the worst time. The Cog has always been nice and allowed people to use their lots during the winter. However, in another Pavlov experiment many would get conditioned to parking there and then suddenly be “surprised” that they would get tickets or towed once the season starts despite there being signs all over the place stating that very thing. Those going up late sometimes found the parking lots locked when they got back and some of those morons then would cut the chains to get out of the lots which really upset the Cog.

So in 1999 the first sign went up on the Incline. However this was almost comical in that it was a third of the way up the Incline at the start of the Cog’s land as if someone was going to go that far and then turn around. In fact it was generally thought that the sign was just to cover the liability issue for the Cog. Not so comical was that another moron ripped out the sign and a Cog employee got hurt while replacing it. Indeed, things started getting out of hand. On more than one occasion when I asked someone not to park in a Cog lot I was given lame excuses (“they won’t know/it’s after hours/it’s not your business”) and sometimes got called names in the process despite the fact that I was not even asking them not to go up the Incline, or much more common up the Barr Trail. I should say right now that I believe that the Incline became the scapegoat for the whole parking problem despite many of the problems being caused by Barr Trail users — they are easy to spot in the lower Cog lots with their big backpacks. At any rate, once again things died down as everyone got back on “schedule” and the rest of the summer went by in a somewhat uneasy coexistence.

However 2000 started the same process all over again but this time the signs got posted lower and tow trucks and even the police were added into the mix! Sure its biased on my part but I always felt the flashy headlines in the press put too much emphasis on the Incline Club because in fact we parked downtown and we were only doing the Incline once a month and the people at the Cog knew about it which is not trying to claim they endorsed it. In fact, after a series of talks with the Cog managers in 2000 trying to get an endorsement (the club offered to pay for insurance, sign waivers etc.) we quit doing the Incline at the Cog’s request and because we got tired of being the bad guys in the newspaper. For the Incline Club runners at least, things had come full circle. However Incline means to deviate from the horizontal and we just do our deviating elsewhere.

Are things any better in Incline land now? No! Just like in years past things died down after the newbies learned not to park in the lots and as far as I could tell 2000 was one of the busiest years for the Incline and the Pavlov experiment continues. Just to put things into perspective a short time ago in March when coming down the Barr Trail after running up Longs Ranch Road and then Bob’s Road there was about three sets of tracks in the fresh snow till just past No Name at the Incline turn-off where there looked to be about 20 sets. Then when I got down to the “short-cut trail” that runs from the top of the Incline back down to the Barr Trail the entire trail was totally packed! While not scientific and surly not representative of the summer months which is when most use the Barr Trail, it does show that traffic is still high on the Incline. Indeed the Incline is seeing more use than ever and that is the “current state of the Incline.”

Next in the series will be various opinions on what should be done about the Incline. As this is being written I am told that for the 2001 season the Cog is going to put up a bunch of fences. However I think the point it is far from moot because even if the Incline never sees another hiker something still needs to be done about the ugly scar. It was ugly when the cable car ran up it but it was accepted because it made someone money. It was still ugly when people hiked and ran up it but it least it had a use. But ugly and not used does not seem to be a fitting close to a story that started with the Incline being touted as “unrivaled anywhere in the world.” I am still hopeful there is a way to please all sides.

Life on the Incline — Part III

This is the third and final part of a series addressing the “state of the Incline.” This part of the series will deal with what to do with the Incline.

In my mind there are three options for the Incline:

1. Do nothing
   
2. Reclaim and revegetate it or
   
3. Open it up for public use.
   

1) I feel strongly that the “do nothing” approach is the least desirable option simply because of the ugly scar that would remain and the fact that in theory no one would be getting any use out of the Incline. In reality many (if not more) people continue to use the Incline because while the fences put up by the COG did address the parking issue they have done little to stop the traffic on the Incline.

However even for the “renegade” users things are not so good because the condition of the Incline is going from bad to worse. Therefore, I score the “do nothing” approach as a lose/lose/win for the users, nonusers and owners. I think this score pretty much sums up why the “do nothing” choice is the option that seems to be the current choice by the owners. I should also point out again that the COG only owns the middle so I put the Forrest Service and the City of Colorado Springs in the win category as far as saving money and time but it could be argued that the eyesore reflects poorly on all of them!

2) Reclaiming and revegetating the Incline is a very valid option until we start talking about who is going to do the work and who is going to pay for it. There is little incentive for anyone to go onto private land and clean up someone else’s mess. However and again not wanting to throw all the blame on the COG, the city and FS have not done much in this regard either. True, the city has done a lot of work protecting the water pipe but not much has been done as far as making the scar go away. For that matter, I for one do not know why it was allowed to become the eyesore that it is after it was closed down back in 1990. Aren’t there rules that land owners must follow with regard to some basic upkeep of their properties? For example, we can’t start a junkyard in our front yards and we are supposed to shovel the snow off of our sidewalks so it strikes me as odd that someone just can’t say "hey, fix that mess.” At any rate, without going into the details of who does the project and how much it would cost I would call this a lose/win/lose option using the order from above. Scoring that last one is kind of tough. I don’t think the COG would be too happy to have to spend money cleaning up the mess and if it was a win it seems like the City and FS would already be doing it. Speaking for myself I do not accept the current “it will grow over in 90 years” approach to revegetation. The scar has not faded much in 11 years even on the sides of the ties where there is NO foot traffic and I don’t think that is going to change given the current steep conditions that are up there.

3) Opening the incline to the public is also a valid option that should be looked at. Let’s just start with a little known fact. The same COG that owns part of the Incline also owns part of the Barr Trail. They have a neat little arrangement with the FS in that they lease the land to them and therefore the FS gets the responsibility of the upkeep. Incidentally this also eliminates the liability issue which has been one of the biggest “sticking points” after parking — which has been addressed — of why the COG doesn’t want people on the Incline.) You can read about some of the upkeep of the Barr Trail in other parts of this newsletter but I think we can all agree that the Barr Trail a win/win/win. It could be argued that non users don’t win from the Barr Trail but I don’t think it could be argued that they lose either. I feel done correctly the Incline can become a win/win/win as well. Just like there is a Friends of the Peak, I think there should be a Friends of the Incline. It would be their mission to revegetate along the sides of the ties which can’t really be removed without creating a mess anyway. With large sections of the sides revegetated the visibility of the Incline could be greatly reduced. Now before the non users, or anyone, calls this a stretch remember that the ties are only 8 feet wide but large portions of the scar are over 50 feet wide! I envision a trail where a canopy effect could be achieved. Making the area not visible to the public. Further the Friends of the Incline could be responsible for keeping the ties in good repair which would of course benefit the users. With the burden of upkeep off of the owners they too could win in that the work would get done for them by a group of people who would volunteer to do it!

OK, perhaps it is obvious but I am for option three. The Barr Trail proves that this setup could work and I see no harm in trying. I sum up my feelings for the Incline as follows, “I wish the Incline was not there but it is. So, lets get some use out of it!” For that use I know myself and others would be willing to make the much needed improvements so that both the owners and non users could also see some improvements over the current do “nothing approach.”

There you have it. Over three issues I have spun a story that some would no doubt call biased to my position. If you think that is the case all I ask is that you take the time to spin your own story so that I might see your position. However I truly feel that a Friends of the Incline would be of a benefit to all!