Whether you’re an Incline regular, an intermittent Incliner or a first-timer, the Incline Friends Board of Directors wants you to know we appreciate all of you. Your passion, your determination, your camaraderie, the community you’ve helped create and sustain, make you more than worthy of our admiration. Thus we hope you’ll join us Saturday morning, September 24th so we can express our appreciation in person. We’ll be at the base of the Incline from 7-10 a.m. with goodies to share. See you there and Hike on!
News & Information: The Incline Friends Blog
Incline Friends partner with Leave No Trace Hot Spot Week
Incline Friends will be at the Manitou Brewing Company Friday, October 15 and then again on Saturday, October 16 at Kinship Landing. There will be trivia and prizes to take home!
Check out our previous post to learn more about what “Hot Spot Week” is.
There are many wonderful workshops and programs that you won’t want to miss!
An interactive flyer can be found on our website and Facebook Page.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
We are so excited to see you all there!!!
Leave No Trace Hot Spots
Incline Friends is proud to participate in Leave No Trace Hot Spot Week. IF board members will be collaborating with the Colorado Springs Parks Department to help spread important information to the public, particularly those who use our outdoor resources for recreation.
Learn more about Hot Spot Week within the photos. There is also a QR code that can be used to register for the event. We hope to see you there.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions!
More info to follow!!!
Major Donations
Approaching its Tenth Anniversary as a non-profit advocacy group for the Incline, Incline Friends is pleased to announce three, recent, extremely generous donations to our cause.
All of the donations were made during the month of February, 2021.
Two of the donations came from a trust established by a gentleman who once lived in Manitou Springs and regularly hiked on the Incline. After he passed away in April 2020, the trustee in charge of the fund began considering a way to honor his memory by searching for Colorado organizations that might fit the man’s passion and appreciation for outdoor recreation and natural resources.
After speaking with Incline Friends and seeing some of the work that had been accomplished on and around the Incline, the trustee made an initial donation of $100,000. Shortly thereafter, the trustee sent Incline Friends a donation in the amount of $400,000. The trustee made the determination to make such generous donations “so that Incline Friends can accomplish even more.”
Later in the month, a long-time supporter of Incline Friends, who has made multiple, generous donations through the years gifted our organization with a donation of $25,000. In both cases, the donors prefer to remain anonymous at this time.
These donations validate the efforts of the many people who have worked hard to restore and preserve the Incline and who continue to work to make the Incline a positive experience for everyone.
Donations such as these also speak to the importance of the Incline. For many people the Incline embodies challenge, accomplishment, camaraderie and community. It is the lasting impact that the Incline had on these donors that contributed to their generous support.
Coming on the heels of the 2020 completion of the Northern Return Trail (NRT) from the Incline to the Ute Trail, these generous donations will provide continued momentum as the Incline Friends pursue two of its major goals, construction of another trail from the top of the Incline that would connect with the NRT and construction of permanent bathrooms at the base of the Incline.
July 2020 Newsletter
Newsletter – July 2020
Open and Shut Case
If we used a word for every single step on the Incline we still wouldn’t have enough words to describe the depths of our frustration over the “closure” of the Incline.
Four months have passed since Manitou Springs City Council voted to close the Incline on the pretense of pandemic concerns. Over time it became readily apparent that some members of that council are content to leave the Incline “closed” indefinitely.
Incline Friends urged users to respect the closure on Facebook and in public comments. We assisted Manitou Springs by providing an ambassador at the base of the Incline on some weekends, encouraging people to use the Barr and Ute Trails instead.
We have consistently worked with elected officials and staff members of both Manitou Springs and Colorado springs in efforts to resolve an impasse between the two sides.
Incline Friends released a position statement on May 28 (available at inclinefriends.org), neither endorsing nor opposing a temporary, no-fee Incline registration system as long as it would be in effect only for the duration of the pandemic.
On June 23, the director of the Colorado Springs Parks department presented a temporary management proposal for the Incline that seemed to address all of the concerns raised by Manitou officials. That proposal was roundly rejected by Manitou’s council.
As of this writing, the two sides have not reached an agreement but we fully expect the Incline to be open some time before the summer season is over. We will send a brief notification when an official opening date is determined.
Some Good News: Trail Connector Near Completion
Workmen leaving the partially constructed Northern Trail at the end of the day.
One problem that has accompanied the Incline’s great popularity (nearly 250,000 uphill users in 2019) is degradation of the Barr Trail. An important step toward alleviating that problem was taken in May when Timberline, the contractor that handled the Incline renovation, began building a connection from Incline step 1300 to the Ute Trail.
Incline Friends and Colorado Springs Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Services are sharing the cost of this 1.1-mile connector, which will give Incline users an easy right-turn exit 500 steps below the current “bailout” to the Barr Trail.
Eventually, an additional connection to the top of the Incline is planned, so that people can turn right at the top and descend on the Ute Trail instead of going down Barr or the steps.
We hope that an exit at step 1300, before the steepest section of the Incline, might also reduce the need for of emergency responses.
One of many great views from the new trail. Yes, the water bottle was carried out!
More detail on these connectors is available at https://www.outtherecolorado.com/new-trail-coming-to-manitou-incline-offering-alternative-route-to-summit/.
Follow our communications
We plan to resume producing newsletters every two or three months, but for more frequent communications (especially during the Incline reopening period), follow the Incline Friends Facebook page. Comments and questions are always welcome at inclinefriends@gmail.com.
Use that same e-mail if you’d like to opt out of future communications.
Happy climbing!
Incline Friends Statement on Reopening the Manitou Incline
Download a PDF of this document here
Incline Friends Statement on Reopening the Manitou Incline
May 28, 2020
The Incline Friends, a nonprofit organization dedicated to maintaining and sustaining the Manitou Incline, have adopted the following statement regarding reopening the Incline and Manitou Springs’s proposal to introduce a paid reservation system.
Short-term (during the pandemic)
The Incline Friends have urged respect for Manitou Springs’s action to keep the Incline closed since March 18 due to pandemic concerns.
Current public health conditions enable reopening the Incline with a limit of 50 to 100 users per hour, as Manitou Springs staff have indicated. Accordingly, we request that Manitou Springs Council vote to reopen the Incline at its June 2 meeting. We propose a reopening date of June 5.
We have offered to assist Manitou Springs by deploying volunteer social distancing ambassadors to encourage compliance with the per-hour usage limit and other measures intended to protect public health. Specifically, we recommend the following guidelines:
- No more than 100 people entering the Incline per hour
- Carry a mask and wear it when passing or being passed
- Step off to the side when resting
- No downward flow on the Incline—return down on the Barr Trail
We expect a high level of compliance because of users’ awareness that failure to comply could result in a renewed closure of the Incline.
Developing a temporary reservation system could take months, especially since it would require the concurrence of Colorado Springs and the U.S. Forest Service. Making the reopening of the Incline contingent on development of a reservation system is both unacceptable and unnecessary.
Long-term (beyond the pandemic)
We acknowledge that the Incline’s popularity has created significant pressure on the Ruxton Avenue corridor, and we have expressed our readiness to work with Manitou Springs to mitigate those impacts.
Charging a fee for the Incline would be very difficult to enforce. However, our primary objection is to requiring a reservation to use the Incline. Open, unlimited access to the Incline must be retained for local users who travel up Ruxton Avenue to the Incline by shuttle, walking, jogging, or biking. They are not making any contribution to traffic and parking problems in the Ruxton corridor, and as such, their ability to enjoy this much-loved resource when they so desire should not be restricted.
We have no objection to the adoption of traffic or parking restrictions on Ruxton Avenue.
We look forward to participating in discussions toward a long-term Incline management solution that is equitable and beneficial for all parties.