Clare Tone

by Suzanne Webel North Table Mountain has been hiding in plain sight forever. Those with insatiable curiosity and an incurable need for exploration, like me, have known that the park has been open for several years, with no designated trails and only a very snall, obscure trailhead (P-2); in fact, I wrote this area up as a BCHA trail log in 2004. But Jefferson County Open Space has recently built a beautiful new trailhead along Highway 93 (P), and they have just completed an 8.4 mile system of multi-use trails, so it’s worth revisiting. Go check it out! The terrific loops of old roads and new trails will take you past quarries, buttes, springs, and ponds with extraordinary views of mountains and plains. The park brochure waxes poetic about its natural resources: “The mountain is home to a resident population of about 80-100 mule deer, golden eagles, red-tailed hawks and prairie falcons as well as a small population of prairie dogs. Shore birds and ducks can be found around the three ponds that dot the top of the mountain. These spring fed ponds are the headwaters of two major drainages … that form narrow bands of riparian vegetation that almost completely bisect the property.” Sixty five million years ago, in a deep underground chamber somewhere west of Golden whose exact location remains a mystery to this day (perhaps at or near the Ralston Dike, about two miles northwest of the mesa), the earth became restless. Enormous blocks of solid rock jostled past each other and great

by Suzanne Webel Although Boulder County already has quite a few trails, it’s a big place and there’s always demand for a few more. Because of environmental, or inertia, or development, or budget, conflicts, it’s a struggle to get even one more inch of trail on a map, let alone get a new mile of trail built out on the ground. But our friends the mountain bikers have been taking matters into their own hands recently in the area generally bounded by Nederland, Rollinsville, the Peak-to-Peak Highway, and Lake Eldora Ski Area. Five years ago they worked with the Forest Service to formalize part of that area known as West Magnolia, and have subsequently been expanding the trail system (informally) southwest of that. For the purposes of this trail log, I’ll call the new area “Phoenix.” Ardent BCHA trail fans may recall that I wrote a trail log on Phoenix in 1995, and on West Magnolia in 2005 – but the entire area has changed so much since then a complete update is in order. Start from the new Trailhead parking area (P) about a mile west of Hwy 72 just south of the Haul Rd (123W). There’s almost always plenty of room to park here, but no water or other facilities.   The backbone of the trail system is comprised of old logging and mining roads which are open to some motorized uses and have been formalized in the Forest Service’s new Motor Vehicle Use Map (2010), shown as solid lines with numbers on the attached