Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks news

• Rangers located a wanted subject camping along the S. Boulder Creek on the Van Vleet Property.  His warrant was from Aurora for trespassing when he attempted to hitch a ride on a train.

• Another coyote attack on a dog.  This one was on the Gunbarrel trail.  RP was walking with 2 dogs one of which was attacked.  The other dog attempted to help his buddy.  No serious injuries.

• Injured hike in Bear Canyon.  Twisted ankle.  Rangers worked with AMR and Boulder Fire to evacuate the hiker from Mesa Trail at Bear Canyon.

•Two ill hikers at once.  A Ranger assisted AMR and Boulder Fire evacuate an adult male who had overheated.  The same ranger then assisted an 11 month old who had been hiking with his mother.  No serious injuries.

•A Ranger happened upon an injured raccoon that needed to be put down.

•Rangers were called to an assault in progress on the Baseline Trail.  A 67 year old male was photographing the Chautauqua meadow when an unknown subject approached him from the area of the Ski Jump Trail.  The unknown subject had a 3 foot stick which he used to strike the victim on the left side of his head.  The suspect struck the victim a second time but he was able to fend off that blow with his arm.  The suspect then fled back up into the woods.  A massive search was conducted by Rangers and the BCSO including a K-9. The suspect has not yet been located or identified.  The victim did get 2 blurry photos of the suspect prior to being hit.  Investigation on-going.

Towhee/Homestead

Seasonal employees have been in the area to remind people of these changes.

Outreach staff to hit the trails
As of the afternoon of 5/28/2013, the new regulations went into effect.   We will be conducting outreach on the Towhee & Homestead trails. On Old Mesa we will not be conducting outreach, at least not now.  We are going to break with tradition and have outreach staff hike the trails as we conduct outreach, rather than set up at the South Mesa Trailhead. The focus will be Towhee, as that’s the big change. Everything should be up to date as far as signs. Please keep me aware of contact numbers, public feedback & compliance. Here are the long awaited changes:

Towhee Trail:   Will change to “NO DOGS”.  There is a short section at the start of the Towhee trail that will remain voice and sight,  until visitors come to the junction with the Homestead trail.  That is where Towhee becomes “No Dogs”.

Homestead Trail:  This trail will remain “Dogs must be under voice and sight control with a green voice and sight tag”, until you get to the bridge where it crosses the Towhee drainage. That small section (approx. 20 feet from either side of the bridge) will become “dogs must be leashed”.

If you have not been on this trail since the reroute, you should hike up there and take a look.

Old Mesa Trail:  This trail (and surrounding drainage area) will now be “dogs must be leashed”, from the social trail just off the shadow canyon trail, down to our property line near Eldorado Springs.  FYI there is no public access from the Eldorado Springs side as the trail leads you down to private property.

Visitors should consider this a down and back, not a destination trail.

We are now implementing regulations that were decided on during the West Trails Study Area planning process (WTSA) which included the Community Collaborative Group (CCG) which was an extended community input process. The input process began in 2009 was completed in 2011. Only recently have the regulations and signs been changed. If you would like to learn more about how that process worked, you can go to our website OSMP.org

The Towhee Trail’s new regulations help protect the riparian area it goes through. It is a heavily traveled wildlife corridor. The changes also provide a “no dog” experience for hikers.   Most of the surrounding trails allow dogs.

The Homestead trail’s regulation change was made to protect the riparian area and sensitive vegetation through the Towhee drainage.

Trails news:

On Saturday, June 1^st, we had 22 volunteers help construct the new trail re-route at Upper Big Bluestem as our National Trails Day project.  (National Trails Day is a national trail volunteer event sponsored by the American Hiking Society.)

This year, OSMP volunteers constructed 240 feet of the new trail re-route, and installed a new pedestrian gate in the fence line.  The weather was great; volunteers worked hard, and completed a lot of great work. It takes a small army to pull off these projects.  Manythanks go to:

–Trails staff John Leither and Frances Boulding for project planning and logistics.

–Kristin Weinberger for promoting the project, recruiting volunteers, implementing day-of logistics (food, registration, etc), and arranging for great food from Black Cat!

–Trails crewmembers Sean Murphy, Beau Clark, Alex McClellan, and John Goepel for doing a great job of leading volunteers on crews!

–Jennelle Freeston and Lisa Dierauf for supporting project logistics and planning.