Progress Report on the Palisade Plunge Trail
Over the last week close to 350 feet of the new trail has been roughed in on the Palisade Plunge Trail. Check out the latest progress.
Crews have been busy chiseling away at several layers of bedrock. As a matter of fact, rock removal has been the primary focus of the last week. As it stands, the current end of the trail is near milepost 27.89.
I feel bad saying this, but as an avid Western Colorado hiker and trail rider, I forget to pause and consider the amount of work going into establishing these trails. Back in the early 1980s, I used to occasionally work with my grandpa maintaining trails on Little Park. We used to drag a piece of railroad track to level the ground and pull up rocks in the path. That was a walk on the beach compared to the work crews are having to do on the Palisade Plunge Trail.
According to the Mesa County News Facebook page, to date, close to 2,000 feet of bedrock has been carved away to establish a rideable trail. At any given point, anywhere from two inches to three feet of bedrock had to be removed. As it stands, crews anticipate having to bust through another 1,000 feet of bedrock before working further up the trail to the top of the ridge.
According to Mesa County News, 12.9 miles of the trail are now complete. This leaves 4.17 miles before Phase 1 of the project is complete.