Pikes Peak Region Trail Finder

Photo by Christian Murdock, The Gazette

By BARRY NOREEN, THE GAZETTE

On March 2 when hiking, Stephanie Stover experienced an emotion that is rare when communing with nature in Garden of the Gods: outrage.

Stover found herself along what turned out to be a mile-long trail that was hacked out of the steep hillside (see my blog for photos) inside the city’s favorite gem; a gash that curved up all the way to Rampart Range Road. She said she saw two men cutting off tree limbs along the unauthorized trail, which clearly had been in use for some time by extreme downhill mountain-bike racers.

“You can imagine how I felt when I saw that,” said Stover, who has been a seasonal mounted park patrol officer for 23 years, although she was not on duty that day.

“It was in a pretty hidden spot. I stumbled on it,” Stover said.

Stover saw a white Dodge Spirit van with New York plates parked on Rampart range road. She took down the license plate number and called the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department and an officer contacted two men, Jason Memmelaar and Chris Heath — both of whom are mountain bike racers from New York who live in Colorado Springs.

Neither man was cited after it was determined that the entire trail was inside the park, so it was in the jurisdiction of the Colorado Springs Police Department.

Stover began taking tree limbs that had been cut off and placing them on the trail to help protect against erosion. Later she discovered a note that read: “Why would you do that? You will hurt my friends. If I see you do this I will hurt you and no one will hear you scream.”

Asked in a Facebook message about the note, Heath said he knew nothing about it. Asked about the trail, Heath wrote, “I didn’t build it, just rode it a bunch.”

Well, Mr. Heath, it’s illegal to ride there, just as it is illegal to build a trail there. As an out-of-towner, you should know Garden of the Gods is the closest thing to sacred ground this city has.

These extreme racers do more than hurt special places such as Garden of the Gods. They unfairly give a black eye to mountain bikers who try to be good stewards of the land.

Medicine Wheel bike club, which has volunteered to build legal trails in the past, is stepping up to help fix the damage done with a repair job scheduled for May 7.

Colorado Springs should position itself as an outdoors recreation mecca, but we can do that without scarring Garden of the Gods. The city went through a lengthy public process to draft a long-term plan for the park, and no trails will be built without being discussed first.

It doesn’t look like anyone can be prosecuted now. But hikers, keep a sharp eye and be ready to phone in a complaint if you see mountain-bike racers tearing up steep hillsides where they’re not supposed to be.