Courtesy of the Open Space Advisory Committee
If you’ve hiked the Intemann Trail above Manitou Springs in the past several years, you’ve probably confronted “the stairs.”
Some loved the steep set of railroad-tie stairs for the challenge, while others despised it. Some mountain bikers and less hardy hikers complained that the stairs were dangerous and difficult to navigate, and they were.
“The bottom line is that the stairs on Intemann were unsustainable. They have been patched together and rebuilt several times in the past,” said Nancy Wilson, OSAC chair.
“One of our primary goals in OSAC is to make all of our trails sustainable as well as protecting and preserving our open spaces. Two years ago, the Manitou CATS, a volunteer trail-building group, built a beautiful re-route around the stairs. Now it’s time to reclaim them and let that area return to its natural state.”
Enter Mile High Youth Corps. Last year, OSAC members wrote a grant to Greater Outdoors Colorado and garnered three weeks of work
from a youth conservation crew.
The crew spent four long days last week, working to rehabilitate the stairs. Under the direction of Carol Beckman, rehab specialist, and Shanti Toll from Manitou CATS, the crew removed ties, reinstalled some ties for erosion control, moved rocks, scarified the soil, planted and covered native seed, and moved native plant material onto the site.
“The reroute was necessary to improve sustainability and multi-user access, as called out in the Parks, Open Space and Trails Master Plan. The POST plan asks us to ‘…act as responsible stewards of our region, protecting, sustaining, and maintaining its wildlife, natural resources, and environmental health and reinforce that value with the youth in our community,’” said Andrea Sutela, OSAC trail sub-committee chair.
“This re-route and rehab project achieves those aims while improving the trail experience. Please enjoy our trails and stay on them to protect native habitat.”