Mapping The Switzerland Trail and the Colorado Central

On many trips up Clear Creek Canyon and Boulder Canyon, I had gotten glimpses of the old railroad grades. Above Sunset on each wall of Fourmile Canyon, the grades of the old Switzerland Trail serve as the roads to Gold Hill and Sugarloaf Mountain. I had thumbed through the copy of Forrest Crossen's "The Switzerland Trail of America" retained by the Boulder High School library. Uncle Mark had sent me a copy of the Colorado Railroad Annual detailing the rise and fall of the Colorado Central. So when it came time to select a project for my Local History class, I instantly resolved to create maps of the current status of those grades. I mapped out the grades of the Switzerland Trail first, and saved the Colorado Central for later.

This project meant that on almost every weekend, I needed to be out taking notes and photographs so that I could construct my maps. I made sketches of the grades as I traced them out, and made an effort to walk along them where they were passable. I kept notes in a photo log, detailing when and where I had taken each picture. I used these to create the map and slide presentation for each half of the project.

On the grade in Boulder Canyon
The cut for the wagon road is visible

I started by mapping out the grade in the mouth of Boulder Canyon. There was a cluster of cottages that had been built right on top of the old grade, so my first challenge as to reach the grade somewhere upstream. I put my bike on my shoulder and hiked up the wall of the canyon to try to reach the wagon road. 

As I was doing so, I lost my footing. To regain my balance, I deliberately hurled my bicycle downhill. The uphill impulse generated by that move kept me from falling over and injuring myself. In that circumstance the bike was expendable. I examined the bike after I scrambled down to retrieve it, and found it was none the worse for wear.

Pipes resting on the original stonework

In that lower section of the canyon, the railroad grade has been repurposed as a pipeline right-of-way. That change of use left in place the original 1883 stonework as attested by the cornerstone on the abutment.

I continued walking up the grades of lower Boulder Canyon. Just at the mount of Fourmile Canyon, I saw some pilings in the creek. I thought that thes might be from a trestle that had spanned the creek. Period photographs in Forest Crossen's book showed this to be wrong, they were uprights of a weir that had been installed (complete with catwalk), to make it easier for tourists to fish.

Pilings for the fishing weir

On my first day out, I did not get much further than that. I remember climbing the hill near Chrisman and then turning around. Still, it must have been a very mild winter if I was out cycling the hills around Boulder in January and February.

My next trip out, I rode up Fourmile Canyon past the place I had turned back. As the road levelled out, I was able to bike a bit faster, but I had to slow down wherever the road was in the shadows. The sun had long since dried the pavement where it was out in the open, but there were patches of ice in the shady spots.

When I reached the end of the pavement near Black Swan, I was accosted by two dogs. There was a German shepherd and a St. Bernard. I dismounted and let the St. Bernard come up and be petted while the German shepherd stood about 20 feet away barking. Over the head of the friendly St. Bernard, I yelled "growf" at the other dog, who took off back up the road, turned and continued barking from 60 feet away. I walked up the road until the dogs went back into their yard. Then I mounted up and continued on my way.

D&RGW Caboose near Black Swan

I wanted to actually walk on the grades where the existed, to get a better idea of their condition and also what had been built on top of them. In some places, this meant ignoring No Trespassing signs and traversing private property. At one place in upper Fourmile Canyon, I passed a caboose (evidently private property) that was in remarkably good repair. I found out that it had been purchased from the D&RGW and installed there only two years before.

The grade there was in the shadows and drifted with snow. It was pretty heavy going for several miles approaching Sunset, slogging through drifts, and sinking into the snow with my bike on my shoulder. I probably did not get beyond Sunset that day, because I remember riding downhill through the icy patches on the same road.

The Alpenmeister in a drift

My next time out, I rode to Sunset and turned up the Ward Branch of the grade toward Gold Hill. That grade is on the south-facing slope, so it was clear of snow all the way up. Past the crest of the hill, the Switzerland Trail turns into a jeep road. It continues along the north side of the ridge. After a mile or so, the grade was blocked by snowdrifts. This was no problem for me: I just pushed the bike through the drifts or hoisted it on my shoulder and walked across the snow. 

The grade at Puzzler

Most of the road was dry, so in spite of the drifts I made good time up to where the new road between Gold Hill and Ward cuts across (and buries) the old railroad grade. I scrambled up the embankment, across the Gold Hill Road and down the other side. Beyond that point, the grade was in the trees and drifted full of snow. By picking my steps carefully, I could walk across the frozen surface without postholing. 

The grade just below Ward,
viewed from the Highway

As I approached Ward, however, the snow was softer. I was breaking the surface with every step. But the grade there is just below the Peak-to-Peak Highway. I abandoned the bike and traversed the last 500 yards to Ward by crawling. Then I walked back down the highway and went cross-lots to retrieve the bike. I probably rode down Lefthand Canyon to get back to Boulder by the fastest route.

The next time out, my intention was to map out the Eldora Branch. I rode up Fourmile Canyon to Sunset and this time turned south toward Sugarloaf. The road was dry and I easily reached the top of the grade where it turns west just below Sugarloaf Mountain. To get a better view, I hiked to the top of the mountain and took pictures back down the grade toward Sunset, and off in the direction of Eldora.

Both Branches from Sugarloaf Mountain

I continued along Sugarloaf Road up toward the Peak-to-Peak Highway. I could trace out the old grade visually for most of the way. Just before reaching the highway, however, I lost sight of it. It took me some time to find the old grade and where the highway crosses it. Land on the west side of the highway was fenced off as a ranch, so I couldn't traverse the exact route. But almost all of it was piled deep in snow. It would have taken me days to go the dozen miles from there to Eldora.

The Eldora Branch from Sugarloaf Mountain

Instead, I traced the route visually. Most of the grade is easily visible from the Highway. When I got close to Nederland, I turned up the Eldora road, so I could see where the grade crossed the ridge and came up to Eldora. And so, the "on the ground research" part of that project was done. I could turn my attention next to the Colorado Central.

The narrow gauge to Central City and Silver Plume used to run straight out of Arvada toward the mouth of Clear Creek Canyon. It's likely that the Colorado Railroad Museum is on the original route through Golden. But I did not bother with that part. I was interested only in the grades in the mountainous section. It must have been during the summer of 1975 that I had completed my epic 156 mile bike ride that included hiking the Georgetown Loop. I could draw from memory the condition of that branch of the line, which allowed me to focus on the branch that served Central City and Black Hawk.

A surviving trestle (probably restored)

I was also interested in the condition of the grades in the lower part of Clear Creek Canyon -- below the junction with Colorado 72. Seeing the grades through the window of a car passing by is one thing. But to accurately map where the grades were and show their current condition, biking and hiking were better suited.

The day I chose to map out the lower section, it was overcast. But that was no worry to me; I expected that the mapping task would take only a few hours. Then, I would ride north to Nederland and coast down Boulder Canyon to reach home.

Abandoned rails in Clear Creek

Most of the grades in the canyon had been buried by the construction of US 6. Where the grade was exposed, I got down on it and biked or hiked along it as well as I could. Early in the trip, I tried to ride through a small stream where a trestle was missing. Instead, my front wheel caught on a rock and I went over the handlebars into the stream. "Whoo-hah!" Nothing will wake you up quite like doing a face-plant in ice-cold mountain stream water. I splashed across, and continued hiking on the other side, but it was quite a while before my jacket dried out.

About the time I reached the fork where CO 72 starts, it began to snow. That also was no problem. I had been commuting to school by bicycle -- 3 miles each way each day -- in all kinds of weather for over a year. Just the same, I thought I should abandon the project for that day and put my effort into getting home. As I rode past Central City, the snow began to stick.A fellow in a tan pickup gave me a ride from there as far as the top of the hill near Colorado Sierra.

After he dropped me off, I noticed that my chain was icing up. Quite soon, I was unable to ride, so I pushed the bike along a mile or so until I arrived at the fire station in Colorado Sierra. The firemen let me stand with my bike in the heated bay until the chain unfroze. I tried calling home from the fire station, but I got no answer. So I set off again toward Nederland. It was about 2:30 in the afternoon by then.

My chain froze up again almost immediately. I ended up pushing the bike up the hills and coasting down the hills. It was pretty slow going. It took me two hours to go the 8 miles from Colorado Sierra to Rollinsville. From the inn in Rollinsville, I called home to report my progress. It's only a few miles up over the hill between Rollinsville and Nederland. I was confident that once I reached Nederland it would be smooth sailing. I would not need to pedal while coasting down Boulder Canyon. I estimated I could be back in town by 8:30 at the latest. I would just press on.

"Stay where you are," I was told. Dad and Peter had already left the house to come and rescue me. They had gotten word before they left that Boulder Canyon had been closed by the snowstorm, so their plan was to trace the route I had taken and return the same way. I waited and waited and waited. Just when I imagined I might be spending the night sitting next to the phones, Dad and Peter finally showed up. It was well past dark when they arrived. We had dinner in the cafe, and I got to hear the story of how they had ditched the van a mile or so back up the road. Some nice person had given them a ride the rest of the way.

Staying in the Inn in Rollinsville was pretty exciting. Every hour or so, another train would go thundering by just outside the front of the motel. By morning, the storm had passed, the sun was out, the plows had been through and the snow was starting to melt. After breakfast, another guy in a Jeep gave us a ride back to the van. He used chains in the 4WD to pull the van back onto the road. Dad paid him for his assistance, and off we went. Since it was Monday morning, Dad dropped me off at the high school after driving down Boulder Canyon. I had only missed my first two classes.

To complete my project, I was given the use of the car. In the process of hiking the Georgetown Loop the previous year, I had seen that there was a project under way to restore the loop and open it as a tourist attraction. They had already laid about 3 miles of rail and were planning to build a replica of the high iron bridge. I expected this section of the Colorado Central to be fully restored, but I returned to Georgetown to inspect the progress, and also to find out where the grade left the city at the lower end of the loop.

A few weeks later, I returned to map out the Black Hawk branch. I was given the use of the VW beetle on that occasion -- a precaution I suppose against a repeat of the Rollinsville saga. It was also snowing on that day, but the air was warm enough there was little chance that it would stick.

Ghost Ties

As I hiked the switchback above Central City, I saw something amazing. It appeared that there were railroad ties made out of snow lying across the grade. I knew that the rails had been pulled up in 1945, so I wondered what it could be. I finally figured out that where the ties had been, the weight of the passing trains had compressed the roadbed, giving it a higher thermal capacity. The snow stuck where the ties had been because those stripes of ground were still cold from the overnight low. In between the "ghost ties" the warmer air had already melted the snow.

The grade into Black Hawk

I hiked the grade all the way into Black Hawk. Then I walked down the paved road to where I'd left the VW at the junction. It was raining when I got back to the car, so I drove home the fastest way -- through Golden.

For my presentations, I mapped out each of the grades on poster paper, using a different color of pen to represent the disposition of the grade along that segment. I showed where the grade was visible and accessible, where it ran through private property, where it had washed out, where it had been converted into a road, where it had been buried by another road and so on. For my presentation on the Switzerland Trail, I showed my slides alongside the map, pointing out what portion of the grade was visible and where each picture had been taken. For the Colorado Central presentation, I didn't have enough slides for a slide show, so I just presented the map.

I was told that both maps would be given to the Boulder Public Library for their local history collection. I hope they are still in some dark drawer there, waiting to be re-discovered by another narrow gauge enthusiast.