Dec. 08, 2014
Eleanor Skelton
[email protected]
The Incline in Manitou Springs, one of the steepest local hiking trails rising 2,000 feet in about a mile, reopened Dec. 5.
After last year’s flooding, the trail needed repair, and closed Aug. 18. The repairs totaled $1.6million, according to 9News.
The Student Outdoor Leadership Expeditions office may now schedule an incline-related event.
“We haven’t actually done any trips on the Incline,” said Nathan Miller, a sophomore majoring in accounting, who is a program assistant at the S.O.L.E.shop.
“Now that it’s a public trail and it’s nice, it’s probably a possibility,” Miller said. “It just probably kind of depends on what kind of trip we’re looking for. One of those options would be like going up to Barr Camp via the Incline, as an overnight trip.”
Miller leads hikes, skiing trips and mountain biking for students and helps teach clinics for avalanche awareness. The last hiking trip he led this semester was a moonlight hike over North Cheyenne Canyon.
Miller hiked the Incline himself a couple of times, the most recent a few years ago.
“I think it’s a good workout,”Miller said. “Just because of the volume of people on it, I think to a lot of people it is just a workout.”Students who hike regularly expressed interest in returning to the Incline.
“I loved it,” said Gage O’Neill, sophomore majoring in physical therapy. “I’ve been there a couple of times, and I can’t wait honestly until it reopens. I know they’re doing a bunch of renovations on it which is going to be a little nicer.”
O’Neill last hiked the Incline around the Fourth of July.
“We’ll probably get a lot more people because I know a bunch of my friends didn’t want to do it because they just had surgery, so they didn’t want to risk anything and slip,” he added.
Nick Chase, sophomore psychology major, said he meets people from all over the city when he hikes the Incline.
“I always talk to a lot of people who tell me they do it every morning, bright and early,they always go up there and watch the sun rise,” Chase said.“So it’s awesome that people are going to get to go do that again.I’ll probably be doing it again this next semester.”
But not all students are excited.
“I don’t think it’s that great,”said Miriam DeJong, seniorphysics major. “It’s just a lot ofwork in a very specific spot onyour legs that you don’t reallyneed. It’s not like a full bodyworkout. It’s just like stairs, whowants to do stairs all day?”