Post by evp5O on Oct 25, 2008 13:15:35 GMT -5
Its the Manitou Incline
And it WILL break more than your heart
Old Manitou incline off-limits
Hikers wish owners would open route to public use
By TOM RAGAN - THE GAZETTE
Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette
TABOO BUT TRAVELED: A "No Trespassing" sign warns hikers not to use the old incline track that carried tourists on open-air cars to the top of Mount Manitou, but it remains a popular place for hikers and athletes to do intensive training. Above, a hiker heads up the incline Monday.
MANITOU SPRINGS The old Mount Manitou incline might be a great place to train for steep ascents.
Except that it’s off limits.
Commonly known as the incline, the former Mount Manitou Park and Railway Incline is 8,600 feet high. Its elevation gain is 2,100 feet. There are about 5,000 railroad ties.
If it were a ski slope, it would be a “black” run — that’s how steep it is. And that’s how potentially dangerous it is, said officials for the owners, the Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway.
The railroad track was built into the side of a mountain in the shadow of Pikes Peak in the early 1920s.
A train carted tourists to the top until a rock slide wiped out a portion of the track in the late 1980s, dealing the final blow to a business that hadn’t seen a profit in years.
A few years later, the tracks were dismantled, leaving only the railroad ties. It was about that time when the hikers showed up. And they won’t leave.
