LAKEWOOD, Colo. — More of Colorado’s DeCaLiBron Loop is now officially public land – and will require no permits for hiking to the summit of Mount Democrat.
The Conservation Fund purchased 289 acres of previously privately owned land in September and transferred the property into public ownership on Friday, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) said. The now-public land includes the entire Mount Democrat summit and offers outdoor enthusiasts the unique opportunity to hike multiple fourteeners – 14,000-foot peaks – in one day without a permit.
“We are excited about this land acquisition and honored to add Mount Democrat to the Colorado Fourteeners that we manage on behalf of the American public,” USFS Regional Forester Frank Beum said in a news release.
> The video above aired in September.
The DeCaLiBron Loop near Fairplay passes through four fourteeners: Mount Democrat, Mount Cameron, Mount Lincoln and Mount Bross.
The land was previously controlled by John Reiber, who owned mining rights on the Mount Democrat property. He closed and reopened the trail at various times in recent years because of liability concerns sparked in 2019 by a federal appeals court decision.
But after soaring insurance premiums, Reiber made the decision to close down the trail entirely. In July, he installed a sign at the trailhead telling hikers to scan a QR code and sign a waiver before starting out on the trail. It was a compromise reached by Reiber and a large list of groups including the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, the Colorado Mountain Club and Park County.
“We put that sign up to allow people who want to hike the DeCaLiBron Loop to have a method of doing that and still help protect me as a landowner from liability,” he told 9NEWS over the summer. “It would be just as easy, maybe easier to just leave it 'no trespassing,' but I’ve had the opportunity most of my life to be up there. I always appreciated being up there, and I think most other folks do as well. So, I work to try and figure out a way to make that happen.”
Although the waver made Reiber comfortable enough to reallow trail access, he said at the time that this was a temporary solution and decided to sell the property earlier this fall.
The land also encompasses the headwaters for the South Platte and Arkansas rivers, the Kite Lake Trailhead and key trail segments, and will add to the South Park Ranger District.
“Protecting one of America’s tallest mountains and its headwaters for all to enjoy is an honor of a lifetime for us,” said Kelly Ingebritson, Colorado project manager at The Conservation Fund, said in a news release.
Now that the land is controlled by the U.S. Forest Service, the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative can begin trail work on this route to protect the alpine tundra and important pika habitat.
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