Pikes Peak Barr Trail No Name Creek Drainage Improvements

By Matt Carpenter
www.skyrunner.com

(I wrote this for the 2004 Friends of the Peak spring newsletter while I was serving on their board.)

Members of the Incline Club removing the old culvert at No Name Creek. The culvert was smashed to less than 7 inches high on one end and was laid flat in the ground. The new culvert was placed at an angle and low enough in the ground so that it will not get smashed.

Meanwhile, downstream of the culvert the creek bed was lowered and widened. This is the area that every winter would freeze and cause the backflow of ice to run down the Barr Trail. Last year alone two people broke their arms falling on the ice! The equipment was donated by Murphy Constructors of Colorado Springs.

Spring is here, and the snow and ice have all but melted away from most of the area trails. However, there was one section of trail that did not need to melt because it never froze over. If you have ever gone up the Barr Trail during the winter you have no doubt encountered the huge ice flow at No Name Creek. Indeed, many had started calling the area No Name Ice Rink. Over the last couple of years it was getting to the point that trail users were getting a little too creative in their efforts to get around the ice much to the detriment of the landscape. Not to mention the fact that quite a few people were getting pretty banged up when they slipped and fell on the steep ice. In fact, two people broke their arms there last year alone — something needed to be done!

In early November a crew of runners from the Incline Club headed to No Name with the intention of fixing the problem once and for all. Murphy Constructors, of Colorado Springs, was kind enough to donate a backhoe which made a job that would have taken weeks a one-day project. The work involved replacing the culvert that runs under the Barr Trail. The old one had been smashed to as narrow as seven inches in spots. In addition, the creek was dug out and graded for about 30 yards downstream of the culvert. This eliminated the ice dam which was forming at a point were the creek was being forced through a man-made 10 inch wide passage. Once the ice dam formed the creek had no where to go but down the Barr Trail.