Manitou Incline pioneer seeks to tame the crowds | David Ramsey
Steve Bremner battled to legalize the Manitou Incline, working to transform a battered set of 2,744 stairs into an asset for all, or at least those fit enough to ascend 2,000 feet in a little less than a mile. He served as first president of Incline Friends.
“I wanted to make it legal, to make it kosher,” he says. “I wanted to do repairs and make it safe.”
In his view, he was too successful. A Pikes Peak regional semi-secret transformed to authentic regional attraction and turned Ruxton Avenue into a constant summer traffic jam. Bremner knows all about the traffic. He’s lived 14 years near Ruxton’s dead end.
“Well, I had no idea it was going to explode like it did,” he says. “I thought it would be steady. But once it became legal, the crowds went up 10-fold immediately.”
Bremner now seeks to tame the crowds who flock to his neighborhood on summer weekends. He serves on the Manitou Springs city council, which is engaged in a struggle with Colorado Springs leaders over the future of the Incline. COVID-19 concerns closed the Incline in March. It has yet to legally reopen.
Is it possible to control multiplying interest in the Incline and keep peace with those who desire limited, or maybe no, restrictions?
“I think you can,” he says. “But it’s going to be different than what they are used to. I think we need to slow it down.”
In recent summers, he says, Ruxton Avenue has been overwhelmed by drivers looking for those oh-so-rare parking spots for the Incline. The drivers circle as they seek, usually in vain, a spot close to the stairs.
Bremner sees a different future. He believes limiting traffic on Ruxton will lead to peace at the Incline. He believes everyone in the Incline discussion can be satisfied.
Here’s the plan he supports:
1. A parking garage on the west side or east side of Manitou. Drivers will arrive in Manitou, park and ride shuttles to the main business strip or to the Pikes Peak Cog Railway and Incline.
“Only residents will drive on Ruxton Avenue,” he says. “That would be my future world. You take a shuttle or walk. That would be best for the quality of life, for the environment, for business, for tourists and those who live here.”
2. A reservation system for the Incline that would limit climbers to 45 every 30 minutes. The reservation system would be tied to garage parking.
“So it’s just not crazy like it is now,” he says.
Bremner has “no sympathy” for those who want to park closer to the Incline.
“When I lived in Colorado Springs, I used to do the Incline a lot,” he says. “I never drove up Ruxton. I always parked at Memorial Park and I ran. It’s only a mile.”
3. Free entrance to the Incline for Manitou residents with a charge for everyone else, unless they ride their bike to the Incline entrance.
In Bremner’s plan, Incline access would be tilted in favor of his fellow residents in Manitou. This plan, no doubt, will please those who live in Manitou Springs, pop. 5,414. This plan will, trust me, fail to find popularity in Colorado Springs, pop. 485,946.
Bremner supports a managed Incline. He believes every member of the Manitou council has similar feelings.
“I wouldn’t say that everything is bumblebees and roses, but we are pretty much on the same wavelength on the Incline,” he says of the council. “It is part of Manitou Springs. I don’t think anyone would like to see it abolished or closed forever.”
Bremner moved to Colorado Springs in 1998 after being stationed at the Air Force Academy. He had lived “all over the world.”
He was instantly smitten. In his second week, he ran to the top of Pikes Peak and back.
“I thought, ‘This is the best place on the planet that I’ve found. This is it,’” he says. “I was in heaven.”
Soon, he started running up and down the Incline as his feelings grew for the Pikes Peak region. He still believes in the Incline’s future, but that future, he says, must be vastly different than its recent past.
Does he regret his role in opening the gates to the hundreds of thousands who have legally enjoyed the Incline?
“I can’t say that I regret it because the incline is better and safer,” he says. “It’s become a real attraction for Manitou Springs.”
A real attraction that, he says, must be managed.
People hike the Manitou Incline in Manitou Springs on Saturday, June 20, 2020. The Incline has been closed since March 17 because of concerns over the coronavirus. People climbed it in protest of the city’s Incline trail closure. (Chancey Bush/ The Gazette)
People hike the Manitou Incline on June 20 in defiance of the city’s closing of the attraction because of concerns over the coronavirus. The trail reopened for reservations on Aug. 6.
In this file photo, Steve Bremner reunites with his dog, Chewy. Chewy had been lost in Waldo Canyon.
