LAKEWOOD GULCH UPDATE 2011-09-24

I've had several injuries this Summer and haven't been on my bike lately.

I decided to check the progress of the construction up Lakewood Gulch.

I got on the Platte River Trail at Alameda and headed East towards Denver. The first thing I saw was the giant Dog sculpture outside the new animal shelter. Looks like a top quality operation. You go, Denver!

The Platte is shallow this time of year. Looks like you could wade across.










At Frog Hollow Park the path takes a detour. I went down the closed portion to see what I could see.

There are several cofferdams along the Platte.

Big machines too.

Approaching the old Gates Rubber plant, a new stretch of trail.

Here's something new. I believe this is W 13th. You used to cross at street level, now the trail goes beneath the road. Also a small dam that used to be here is gone. There used to be a small dock over the water here, a good place to chill. This section of trail has been remade twice in the last 6 years. On the other side of the street there was a wooden bike bridge. They took out the wooden bridge and replaced it with concrete. Now they changed it up again. All for the better of course. You can see the light rail bridge in the distance. I don't know if it's a result of the dam's removal but I saw a half dozen fly fishermen along this stretch.

Now we're on the Lakewood Gulch Trail. It's mostly ready to go, just a few sections need to be mended together. The trail and the stream used to go through a concrete canyon subject to flash flooding. A life was lost in a flood a while back. The dangerous canyon is gone and this area is going to look really nice after it's finished.

The trail has been moved, here the trail goes under the light rail line.

The stream itself has been moved a little to the South. In the distance is the new Federal Street Bridge.

 Just add landscaping...

Below you see the stream & path a year ago. The baseball diamond hasn't moved, you can use the fence as a reference. You can compare the old bridge on Federal to the new one above.

  There were people working on a Saturday! Not many but there were a few.

Tree down.

New bridge at Knox Court.

I took a detour up Dry Gulch, there was some new construction at the top, maybe they're going to extend it. At the top of Dry Gulch Trail I rode two blocks North on Vrain st to catch Lakewood Gulch again.

The Sheridan St Bridge. This used to be a street level crossing but they built a bridge so the Light rail can get through.

 Here is the line as it runs along 13th st.

How it looked 3 years ago

Here we are looking back down Lakewood Gulch. Last year there was a path along here. This year I rode down 14th then cut over to 12th, then cut back over to the path I came up @ Sheridan.

How it looked 3 years ago. You can use the white building on the left as a reference. You can barely see it in the picture below.

New bike path, new rail line.

The picture below shows the same stretch of trail from the other direction a year ago.

And Three years ago.

Rail machine at work.

You can see how the topography has changed, the trail ends where a bridge was removed, rail line on the other side.

Well that's about it. Lakewood Gulch Trail is once again rideable, there are just a couple dirt sections. It's going to be interesting to watch it as it gets completed.

Compare these pictures to Lakewood Gulch August 2008: http://denverbikepaths.blogspot.com/2008/08/august-2008-lakewood-gulch-report.html

You can see that creepy canyon...