Home

I read in our newspaper that the city of Steamboat Springs was going to replace a big temporary bridge with a big permanent bridge on the south end of the core trail. But this news pointed out a lacking on the part of our city in the neighborhood where I live, which is the area of Meadow Drive, Hunters Drive and Bear Drive.

The lacking by our city is their refusal to complete the walking trail in our area with a walkway over an earthen dam plus a very small bridge over part of the earthen dam that was purposely cut down, when the dam was built, to allow some of the water in the small lake behind the dam to continue flowing out of the dam and down a stream.

Currently, the walking trail north of the earthen dam and leading up to the dam is a concrete walkway like the core trail in town. But over the earthen dam is just a narrow dirt path. After the break in the dam, the walking trails south of the dam are gravel, but they go a long distance east and then south before hooking up at Bear Drive. These gravel walking trails weaving through various neighborhoods have been there for years and are used by many.

I am not complaining so much about the narrow dirt path over the earthen dam or the gravel walking trails thereafter, but I am upset that after all these years, no bridge has been built over the rather small break in the earthen dam to connect these walking trails. People trying to walk from the concrete walking trail and over the dam are blocked by the break in the dam which, if they care to, requires them to climb down the break in the dam and then try to hop or jump from one rock in the stream to another and another until they can, if successful, scamper up to the gravel trail. Most people arriving at that point merely look and then turn around to go back the way they came. I have seen people, who dare to make it over the stream, slip and fall into the stream while trying to go from one rock to another, many times standing in the stream up to their ankles or deeper and not very happy.

I am aware that money is tight, especially in these current times, but if the city has money to replace a perfectly good temporary bridge with a big permanent bridge, it seems they should have the money to construct a small bridge over the break in the earthen dam in our area. Maybe part of the temporary bridge being removed could be used to bridge the break in the earthen dam in our area to connect the walking trails.

James Humphrey

Steamboat Springs