The community is invited to an Outdoor Recreation Forum entitled,Envision Ring the Peak: Gateway to the Outdoors. This is a free event which also serves as the first in a series of Public Meetings. Join us:
November 18th from 1 – 4 p. m.
at The Heritage Center
in Cripple Creek
Communities across Colorado are embracing destination tourism and are discovering how outdoor recreation is becoming a leading economic driver. Community leaders from Cripple Creek, Leadville and Salida share how they’ve embraced and continue to explore the potential between outdoor recreation and economic development.
Panel discussions and a small group workshop will address challenges and opportunities surrounding Ring the Peak for local communities. Luis Benitez from the office of Outdoor Industry and David Leinweber, Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance share their insights on the economic development potential involved in a project with the size and scope of Ring the Peak. Others sharing their perspectives on how Ring the Peak may contribute to the local communities include the Outdoor Industry Association, Palmer Land Trust and Colorado Springs Utilities.
Ring the Peak Trail Master Plan seeks to engage trail users and communities in determining the best path for the future of the popular trail network.The forum invites audiences to inform the plan.
In 2016, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper identified the Ring the Peak Trail (RTP), a network of trails and roads that circumnavigate Pikes Peak, as one of the 16 major gaps in trails around Colorado to complete for Colorado’s 16. An 8-mile gap in Teller County between Pancake Rocks and Mason Reservoir, on the south slope of Pikes Peak, remains unfinished.
Earlier this year, The Trails and Opens Spaces Coalition (TOSC) and the Friends of the Peak (FOTP) were awarded a $100,000 grant by GOCO (Great Outdoors Colorado) to develop a RTP Master Plan. According to Susan Davies, Trails and Open Space Coalition executive director, NES, Inc., the land planning firm chosen to lead the effort, is expected to spend the a year researching and developing the plan and then turn it over to the stakeholders, to implement it.
An 8-mile gap located on a trail on the southwest side of Pikes Peak near Cripple Creek is the final connection to complete the 65-mile network of trails and roads that make up the Ring the Peak Trail.
The 1999 Pikes Peak Multi-Use Plan envisioned to circumnavigate Pikes Peak providing scenic multiuser, non-motorized recreation opportunities for the local population of the Pikes Peak region as well as being a destination for outdoor enthusiasts across the region and beyond.
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