{"id":22831,"date":"2020-05-10T15:43:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-10T21:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=64578"},"modified":"2020-05-10T17:49:23","modified_gmt":"2020-05-10T23:49:23","slug":"trail-troubles-timing-of-winter-park-construction-projects-may-close-several-popular-spots-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/trail-troubles-timing-of-winter-park-construction-projects-may-close-several-popular-spots-this-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Trail troubles: Timing of Winter Park construction projects may close several popular spots this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"697\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/05\/Courtesy-HTA.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/05\/Courtesy-HTA.png 697w, https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/05\/Courtesy-HTA-300x232.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 697px) 100vw, 697px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>A map of planned trail closures in the Winter Park area, most on June 1, paints a grim picture for recreation access from town.<\/strong><br \/><em>Courtesy HTA<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Several popular trails in the Winter Park area, including Jim Creek, Buck Creek and Vasquez Creek, are set to be closed June 1 for various construction projects, raising concerns about where locals and visitors will be able to recreate this summer, according to the Headwaters Trails Alliance.<\/p>\n<p>HTA informed the Winter Park Town Council of the issue on Tuesday and encouraged the town\u2019s leaders to do what they could to mitigate the impacts of various construction projects to the trails.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is going to be a very limited access from town to recreational trails,\u201d said Meara McQuain, executive director of HTA. \u201cUnfortunately, the timing is pretty awful with post-COVID crisis as things are opening back up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A few of the closures, like those at Jim Creek, Buck Creek and Devil\u2019s Thumb, are due to Denver Water projects, which are unlikely to be delayed and it\u2019s unclear if trail reroutes will be an option, McQuain said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row shn-donation shn-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/shn-logo-2x-wht.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/shn-logo-2x-wht.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re under the impression, they will be closed for the duration of the summer, not certain of the fall,\u201d she added. \u201cThose two (Jim Creek and Devil\u2019s Thumb) really take away two of the three most popular hikes in the Fraser Valley in the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, several other trail closures come as the result of new housing projects. The Roam development will block access to the town from the Fraser River Trail, Rendezvous will close Ski Idlewild Road up to Meadow and Yankee Doodle trails, as well as block access to the Idlewild trail system from behind Hideaway Park.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Fraser River Trail, there is not going to be access (at Roam) to town, which is probably one of the most concerning projects that we know about,\u201d McQuain said. \u201cI\u2019m hopeful that we can come up with a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vasquez Road will also be closed up to Van Anderson Road due to a water pipe replacement, as well as a US Forest Service logging contract and construction of a railroad underpass that will close access to the Leland Creek area.<\/p>\n<p>The recent Ridge Trail closure due to continual trespassing doesn\u2019t have a reopening date at this time. Other trails throughout the Fraser Valley, such as Double Bit, Broken Spade and Burnout Loop, also have trail reconstruction planned for this summer, though HTA said it will work those projects around other closures.<\/p>\n<p>Winter Park Resort has also not yet announced its summer opening date.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>All of the closures paint a grim picture for summer recreators who are eager to return to the trails after the stay at home and safer at home orders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCollectively, this paints a story that \u2018oh, jeez, our access is really in jeopardy this upcoming summer,\u2019 especially coming out of our recreational amenities being affected due to the COVID crisis,\u201d&nbsp; McQuain said. \u201cWe understand that the closures definitely need to happen, we\u2019re not anti-development, we\u2019re just trying to work with everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Council member Art Ferrari, who is also on the board of Grand County Water and Sanitation District No. 1 which is conducting the Vasquez Road water pipe replacement, said he is working to keep some access on Vasquez open to connect to other trails.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m trying really hard to keep open up to where you can take a right and get up on the western trails,\u201d Ferrari said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Nick Kutrumbos expressed concerns about the closures\u2019 impact on the community\u2019s mental health and economy, as well as encouraged prioritizing the projects or providing trail reroutes if possible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Agreeing with the sentiment, Town Manager Keith Riesberg shared some actions the town can take to help mitigate the impact, including rerouting trails where possible, installing signage to guide people to open trails and communicating construction closures ahead of time so that recreators are aware.<\/p>\n<p>The Winter Park Fraser Chamber of Commerce also plans to have an online trails map with real time information about closures on its website in June.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/trail-troubles-timing-of-winter-park-construction-projects-may-close-several-popular-spots-this-summer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A map of planned trail closures in the Winter Park area, most on June 1, paints a grim picture for recreation access from town.Courtesy HTA Several popular trails in the Winter Park area, including Jim Creek, Buck Creek and Vasquez Creek, are set to be closed June 1 for various construction projects, raising concerns about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 01:50:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22834,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22831\/revisions\/22834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}