Rampart Range Wildlands Project

07/10/2020

Fire in the Rampart Range in far southern Douglas County. Appears to be 4.25 miles west northwest of Palmer Lake, about 2.5 miles west southwest of Woodmoor Mountain Subdivision, 6 miles directly south of Perry Park. I know the area well. It would be a very difficult place to fight a fire and this is a bad day to have it start.

10/28/2019

The November 4 deadline for commenting on the Pike National Forest's proposals for changing motorized travel is quickly approaching!

Please provide comments at the link below; you can track back from the comments link to the full 300+ pages of analysis and maps and spreadsheets.

Tl;dr? We encourage you to emphasize the following:

1. Support Alternative A in maintaining FR 300 (Rampart Range Road) as ML3 (suitable for passenger car travel) in its entirety and oppose Alternatives C, D, and E, which would limit access by maintaining much of that road as ML2 (suitable for 4WD/high-clearance). We also oppose Alternatives C, D, and E in making the seasonal closure of FR 300 southeast of FR 306 permanent, as that would limit access to future trails in the Waldo Canyon area.

3. Support Alternative A in maintaining FR 320 (Mount Herman Road) as ML3 for at least its lower 5 miles, from Mitchell Avenue to the Monument/Limbaugh (TR 715) and Mount Herman (TR 716) trailheads, and also support Alternative A in not having a seasonal closure on this portion of FR 320. We oppose Alternatives C, D, and E for this lower portion of FR 320, as they would limit access to existing system trails by maintaining the road at ML2 and imposing a seasonal closure.

3. Support Alternative C in NOT creating the proposed motorized trails PA 42 and PA 43 that would be east of FR 300 (Rampart Range Road), and in NOT creating the parts of the proposed motorized trails PA 44 and PA 54 that would link FR 300 to proposed motorized trail PA 48. We are fine, however, with Alternative D's proposal to create the new motorized trail PA 48 itself as well as the parts of PA 44 and PA 54 west of PA 48: these would create a dirtbike connection from Rainbow Falls to Devil's Head that would remain fully west of FR 300.

Comments, including anonymous comments, will be accepted at any time. However, comments posted after the close of a designated comment period may not be able to be given full consideration. Anonymous comments and comments submitted after the close of the final designated comment period will not prov...

09/30/2019

There's a Colorado Cold Case podcast series starting about Tim Watkins, whom many of us knew. Only 1 episode out, don't know when the rest will be up.

For many in the Colorado mountain biking community, the name "Tim Watkins" will ring a bell. In September of 2017, Watkins set out for a ride near his

05/01/2019

On Saturday May 18, let’s do a bit of maintenance on the Ice Cave Creek Trail above Palmer Lake that so many of you helped build 5 years ago! Please sign up at https://www.cmc.org/Calendar/EventDetails.aspx?ID=46005. Guests welcome along with CMC members. No experience necessary – we provide all the tools and training!

This beautiful trail is holding up really well – I’d say amazingly well but that wouldn’t give credit to Paul Mead as designer and all of you who built to spec -- but there's a little bit of work to do on minor issues before they become big issues.

Again, please sign up at https://www.cmc.org/Calendar/EventDetails.aspx?ID=46005

09/11/2018

Earlier this year, Douglas County purchased Sandstone Ranch, a spectacular 2000 acre property just south of Perry Park.

They are inviting public comments for their master planning process through mid-October, at https://www.douglas.co.us/dcoutdoors/openspace-properties/sandstone-ranch/sandstone-ranch-master-plan-survey/.

If you take the survey, please encourage the possibility of trail access into the National Forest. This could include short loops into the foothills and maybe even through routes towards FR 327 and Rampart Range Road that could lead eventually to the Palmer Lake and Mount Herman areas.

However far they went, new all-season trails would be a great amenity for hiking, biking, snowshoeing, etc! The scenery back there is spectacular!

09/21/2017

It was so shocking to hear of Tim Watkins' death in the Rampart Range this week. He helped build parts of the Ice Cave Creek trail a few years ago. Let's hope that those responsible for this crime are quickly found and brought to justice!

09/10/2017

We had another great stewardship day on Lovell Gulch today! We touched up a few areas on the new trail we built in 2015, but spent most of our time improving drainage on the existing trail, at the upper end of the valley. This involved knocking down a lot of berms that had built up that were channeling water down the trail, as well as constructing some dams and drains to more aggressively direct water off the trail. Thank you to all the volunteers who worked so hard and skillfully to get this part of the project complete!

09/01/2017

Welcome to our newest "like," Reina Pascua.

Also: what better way to wind down after Labor Day than a day of labor? Our last workday on Lovell Gulch will be on Sept 9: we will be doing some touch-up on the trail we built 2 years ago, and also some erosion control requested by the forest service, all at the upper end of valley portion of the loop. If you’d like to join us, please sign up at https://www.cmc.org/Calendar/EventDetails.aspx?ID=37662