Mountain bikers praise new Toll Trail decades in the making, but final link from Nederland to Winter Park remains elusive

Last summer, after more than eight years of work and nearly two decades of dreaming and planning, the Toll Trail — now renamed the Kinglet trail, after the Ruby-crowned Kinglet — officially opened on the privately owned Tolland Ranch property, west of Nederland. 

Conceived in 2005 by a Boulder Mountainbike Alliance board member, the trail was designed to link the West Magnolia trail system to Jenny Creek Road and eventually reach the Continental Divide and beyond — a dream for many riders. Although unsanctioned paths existed, none were legal. The Toll family still owns the land, but through a special agreement with Boulder County, they’ve allowed the trail to be opened for public use.

The five-mile trail has received rave reviews. One rider on Mountain Bike Project described it as probably the “flowiest trail” they’ve ever ridden. It takes three miles of challenging, rocky uphill riding from West Magnolia to reach Kinglet, but most riders agree it’s worth it for the smooth ride and beautiful views of James Peak.

But the trail was intended to do more than just expand the system — it was meant to connect riders to the Continental Divide and link Nederland to Winter Park via Jenny Creek near Rollins Pass. 

There’s just one problem: a 600-foot gap on Forest Service land at the end of Kinglet Trail that the agency appears to be in no hurry to help complete.

Last spring, Boulder County contracted Sam Greenburg of Highline Earthworks to build the final section of trail. According to Greenburg, he spent last summer preparing contracts, planning to begin construction in spring 2024. But by fall 2023, the county had informed him the Forest Service had delayed project approval after raising concerns. 

Greenburg thought the situation might change over the winter, but it didn’t.

According to Forest Service spokesperson Reid Armstrong, other higher-priority projects kept the connector trail off the Forest Service’s agenda for this fiscal year. 

“We have submitted the project for next year’s program of work, including monitoring, scoping and project proposal development, but it hasn’t been approved by Forest leadership yet,” Armstrong told Boulder Reporting Lab.

Part of what makes the project complicated for the Forest Service is that Kinglet Trail is a non-motorized trail. It would need to link to Jenny Creek, which allows motorized traffic. “Our concern is making sure we don’t exacerbate any user conflicts between motorized use and non-motorized use,” Armstrong told BRL last year. 

The Forest Service will inform the public when it launches the community engagement portion of the project, Armstrong said.

Mary Olson, the Boulder County landscape architect on the project, said the county “will continue to collaborate with USFS and hopefully restart the process of securing a connection in the future,” she said. 

Wendy Sweet, executive director of the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance, said the BMA is still pushing for a connector, but the Forest Service “is not responsive to any trail building in the Nederland area at the moment.”

The connection to Jenny Creek is part of BMA’s larger goal to connect Boulder to Winter Park with a single-track trail called the Indian Peaks Traverse. The Kinglet Trail is one of two roadblocks to completing the traverse. The other is a section requiring passage through Eldorado Canyon, a proposal that was denied in 2021. Sweet said nothing more can be done on this section unless Colorado Parks & Wildlife reopens the process, which it has given no indication of doing.

In the meantime, bikers can still enjoy the Kinglet Trail – five miles out and back again.

“Fun, well built blue trail,” a Trailforks user wrote last month. “Will be amazing when it connects to Jenny Creek.”