With a little help from engineering department seniors from the U.S. Air Force Academy, bridges connecting the trails through Palmer Lake are becoming a reality.

While Palmer Lake has a series of trails, expanding and connecting those trails from Glen Park Trail the Elephant Rock property has been possible with work from the Mile High Youth Corp and the seniors in the USAFA Engineering Department. Construction of bridges to connect the trails began April 7 and continues through the weekend of April 20-21.

The Mile High Youth Corps has been instrumental in expanding the town’s existing trails, and after the Town of Palmer Lake Parks and Trails Commission received permission from the board of trustees to develop connecting trails and bridges, the USAFA engineering department class of senior cadets and their professor, Brad Wambeke, have been working closely with the commission for the bridge connections.

After a variety of site visits and measurements, the team of cadets designed one bridge to cross Monument Creek from a new section of Creekside Trail into the Elephant Rock property. The commission selected the design last December which would meet Colorado Parks and Wildlife requirements, Pikes Peak Regional Building Department code and the best fit for the trail system.

Materials for the construction of the bridges, which began during the cadets spring semester, were funded by the parks and trails commission with cadets and volunteers providing the labor. The project serves as the cadets’ engineering capstone project before graduation for the first of hopefully three bridges, parks and trails commissioner and liaison to the USAFA cadet team Kevin Magner said.

Magner said the cadets spent the winter finishing the design. Fellow commissioner Reid Wiecks, Magner and the Palmer Lake Fire Department acquired logs of a specific size and provided them to the cadet team. The cadets stripped and prepped the logs to be used as uprights and handrails for the bridge design.

“Not only is it a good working design but it incorporates history by using logs from Palmer Lake,” Magner said. “It adds a historic element to the design.”

The entire project involves connecting three trails. As the Mile High Youth Corps continues to build new sections of trails, which has included expanding the Creekside Trail into town and at Greeley Blvd where it goes into a bridge construction. The Loop Trail starts at the bridge and goes around the Elephant Rock property.

“We are connecting everything from Glen Park Trail into downtown, across the creek and into Elephant Rock,” Magner said. “It’s 1.5 miles of trail.

“We have four weeks of trail work starting in mid-June. We hope to have most, if not all, ot the new trail done by mid-July.”

Magner said the partnerships involved with the entire project have been vital to it becoming a reality, especially given the $15,000 cost to the town for solely materials.

“It’s critical,” he said. “It would be impossible for us to afford to build the bridge we are getting. We just paid for materials. It’s an amazing bridge for that money.”

Wiecks said the partnerships have been very positive for everyone involved, filling a high need for the Palmer Lake’s trails and parks systems.

“It’s a very important hands-on experience for the cadets, as they see their concept develop from design to completion,” Weicks said. “This project will benefit the residents and visitors to Palmer Lake trails for years to come.”

Presently, two more bridge projects are planned in continued partnership with the USAFA for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 academic years.