What’s the big deal with Baxter Gulch?

Part one of a two-part series: The Past

 

(Editor’s Note: We asked freelance journalist and 1% for Open Space executive director Molly Murfee to delve into the history of the Baxter Gulch issue. This is part one of a two-part series on Baxter Gulch.)

 

Baxter Gulch has stirred emotions for the past 30 years. Seemingly insignificant in size, the relatively small area serves as the stage for one of the most long-standing unresolved trail access issues in the north end of the valley. 

 

 

Now secured 1% for Open Space funding holds the potential to provide the last needed easement to create the proposed Baxter Gulch Trail, and provide a long-awaited access into Whetstone Mountain.
The Trapper’s Crossing Home Owners Association still holds the gavel on approving the easement. Organizations countywide have weighed in over the entire summer. Baxter Gulch has become a buzz. And so it becomes an opportune time to answer the question: “What’s the big deal with Baxter Gulch?”

A history of access
Baxter Gulch and access to Whetstone Mountain and the surrounding wilderness has a long history in Crested Butte. According to Duane Vandenbusche in The Gunnison Country, a high-grade bituminous coal mine, the Bulkley, was begun in 1908 and operated until the 1940s. The mine left an old mining road in its wake that departed from what is currently Highway 135 up the north flank of Whetstone Mountain. Residents of a 1970s Crested Butte frequented this road to gain the north ridge of Whetstone, continuing to its 12,516-foot summit. As one resident of the time reports, “Climbing Whetstone was as popular as the Lower Loop is today.”
This all changed in the 1980s when the owner of the Smith Mountain Ranch (now the Whetstone Mountain Ranch) began restricting hikers’ access across their land as a means to reach the Bulkley mine road. With the Bulkley mining road being on Hidden Mine Ranch property, it too was denied public access. Climbing Whetstone through Trapper’s Crossing at Wildcat began to be restricted in the early 1990s.
At the time, the town of Crested Butte was attempting to purchase (from Colorado Fuel and Iron Company) the 2,000 to 3,000 acres of what is now Trapper’s Crossing at Wildcat and Trapper’s Crossing that extends on either side of the Kebler Pass road. Miles of trails had been designed and mapped that gave access to Whetstone as well as the Kebler and Ohio Pass areas. While the town was researching how to obtain the funding for the purchase, a developer stepped in offering Colorado Fuel and Iron Company a price that was accepted. The potential for 2,000 to 3,000 acres of open space adjoining town was lost.
 Trapper’s Crossing at Wildcat had to cross United States Forest Service land, however, as an entryway into their property. They struck a deal with the USFS to be able to build a private bridge across public land in exchange for public access to Whetstone.
Unfortunately, however, the access Trapper’s granted was illegal. Trapper’s Crossing gave the USFS public access to Baxter’s Gulch, using their easement through what is now Whetstone Mountain Ranch and up Baxter Creek. However, while Trapper’s has the right to cross Whetstone Mountain Ranch, they did not own the right to give that access to the public.
The district ranger at the time investigated neither the legality of crossing what is now Whetstone Mountain Ranch nor the viability of hiking up the bottom of Baxter Gulch. Pressure was applied by Gunnison County and the town of Crested Butte to the USFS to sue the Trapper’s developer to obtain the public access, the USFS being the only entity with the right to do so since the agreement was written with them. The U.S. Attorney General’s Office decided they had no case and did not attempt to enforce the access agreement given to them by the Trapper’s developer.
At this time, Baxter’s Gulch is the only potential for legal access to Whetstone from Crested Butte between town and Almont.

Gaining easements
Since access was lost in the 1980’s, the Crested Butte Land Trust began working on regaining this access, along with strong efforts by the town of Crested Butte and Gunnison County. The town of Crested Butte kicked off the effort in earnest when then-mayor Alan Bernholtz led the charge in declaring reestablishing access to Baxter Gulch a priority. They acquired the first piece of the puzzle in 2004, by purchasing the lot directly south of the County Shops of Avalanche Acres, where the trail will begin.
“Crested Butte is a mountain town that loves access to the backcountry,” explains Bernholtz of his priority push for Baxter Gulch, “It’s really important for this community and visitors to have easy access to the backcountry, especially when it is so close to our town boundary. It just makes sense.”
Working with the Land Trust (and moving south along Gibson Ridge), Doug and Gina Kroft donated a conservation easement and a trail easement across their property in 2005. In 2006 Skip and Karen Smith donated the second conservation easement and trail easement across their property on lot 18 in Trapper’s Crossing at Wildcat. With that easement, access had been provided to Baxter Gulch. The town of Crested Butte, at the request of the landowners, holds these two easements. The Land Trust holds two conservation easements for a total of 70 acres located mostly on the south side of Baxter Gulch, called the Conroad easements, donated in 2002 and 2005.
In 2007 Hidden Mine Ranch, LLC donated a 523-acre conservation easement with a trail easement to the town with the help of the Crested Butte Land Trust. This easement adjoins USFS land and Trail #565.
The Zipper parcel, or lot 19, that 1% for Open Space recently chose to fund is the final needed easement to make a viable trail through Baxter Gulch and into the Whetstone Mountain area.
“It will be so fabulous to have access again to Baxter Gulch,” exclaims 1% for Open Space vice president and Mountain Heritage Museum participant Glo Cunningham, who recalled she “and so many friends used it regularly for years and really did not understand that it could be taken away. It was a shock. It has been a priority for years for me to help to get a usable access back and now thanks to everyone that has been involved in this process, there is the possibility of having it again in perpetuity. Hooray for everyone who cared enough to help make this happen!”

Next week we will look at where the future trail will go and who can use it in “What’s the Big Deal with Baxter Gulch: Part II, the Future.”