Truck noise in Clear Creek and Boulder Canyons

I think the braking noise is severe in CCC and getting worse in BC.

I'd like to learn whether other people have this reaction.

It is not clear to me that huge trucks have carte blanche to make as much noise as they want just so a few people can profit from development.

Please let me know how the community feels about this.

thanx

lin9@comcast.net

I spend a ton of time in CCC doing various things and the trucks are out of control. I wouldn't mind them there as much if there were restrictions on engine brake usage as is common in small towns.

I heard that BoCan was worse this summer due to road construction up on Peak to Peak.
Maybe next year will be better.

Lots of large vehicles (trucks, large tour buses) have engine brake mufflers, which cuts down the noise quite a bit. Plenty of towns have ordinances requiring the use of engine brake mufflers. Large vehicles can also be equipped with electric retarders that slow the vehicle without the sound effects.

I think the people to contact would be the Open Space departments for JeffCo and Boulder County, the county commissioners for those two counties, and possibly CSP. Both canyons are heavily used as recreation areas, so the respective county governments should have an interest in making life more pleasant for everyone using those canyons.

Agreed. We were up on Playin' Hooky a couple of days ago and the noise coming from the road below was pretty intense. As an aside, it would also be nice to see us move completely to a highway usage fee system--that is, you pay highway taxes based on your vehicle weight and how many miles you drive.

perhaps start a petition and then raise the issue to the local authorities.

I haven't noticed a difference overall. Though, I did hear and see something quite interesting and exceptionally loud last weekend. I was climbing at Little Eiger with my boyfriend. A wheel came off one of the casino buses, bounced down the road, and hit a pickup truck. The bus driver either had no idea or gave zero Fs.

You folks are funny! Go climb somewhere away from the roads a bit..

Trucks are tired of climbers up on the wall distracting them, and causing excessive breaking.

;)

You're complaining about having access to that much climbing with short, moderate approaches? What's next, arguing to chop anything easier than Sonic Youth?

Actually the trucks in Clear Creek Canyon are gravel trucks and side dump rigs hauling rocks and gravel from a quarry in Clear Creek Canyon to various construction sites in the Front Range cities. The trucks that actually bring harnesses, ropes, and other good stuff to people stay on I-70 and use engine brake mufflers.

Nobody's denying that the truck industry serves a useful purpose, we're just asking them to keep the noise down. The rest of the trucking industry keeps their trucks quiet with engine brake mufflers, etc., why can't the gravel and rock hauling trucks in Clear Creek Canyon?

If you want to talk about gratuitous noise, I find the motorcycles to be far more annoying than the trucks.

Daniel Joder wrote:As an aside, it would also be nice to see us move completely to a highway usage fee system--that is, you pay highway taxes based on your vehicle weight and how many miles you drive.

Uh, we already do. Vehicles that are larger and travel more miles use more gas, therefore pay more highway tax..........

While we're at it, can we make failure of slow vehicles to use pullouts a hanging offense?

Haha are you guys fkin serious? You're climbin in a CANYON that has a major HIGHWAY runnin through it. If everyone drove a Prius this would never happen. Get on this sh*t Colorado, I wana climb in peace

Thanks, Folks for sharing concern about the environment where we climb.

Moreover, 1st Prize in the 'make-america-grate-agin' category is...... "Trucks are tired of climbers up on the wall distracting them, and causing excessive breaking...."

Please, fellow rock-o-philes, stop all that distracting.

Wyboltf4g wrote:Haha are you guys fkin serious? You're climbin in a CANYON that has a major HIGHWAY runnin through it. If everyone drove a Prius this would never happen. Get on this sh*t Colorado, I wana climb in peace

US 6 through Clear Creek Canyon is hardly a major highway. The noise issue is caused by a handful of trucks from a quarry part way up the canyon who traverse a very popular recreation area (hiking, hunting, mountain biking, and, yes, climbing) on their way from the quarry to various job sites in the Denver area. The technology is there for these trucks to operate quietly and safely, and legal precedent exists for the state of colorado or Jefferson County to require the use of this technology.

A lot of the heavy traffic is caused by traffic to and from a cluster of low grade casinos in Blackhawk and Central City. The casino buses use US 6 because the buses are too old and worn out to make it up and over Floyd Hill on I-70, which would be a safer route from them to use.

Hi, you folks, and thanx again.

I am willing to work on this if I have your support-- it would be hard to pursue a noise reduction goal if I were the only climber with sensitive ears.

This involves an issue really beyond quarry trucks in CCC. The issue is that nature/landscape/environment has value of itself to be and continue as it was created (& evolved) beyond selfish capitalist interests that tend to destroy it.

It is the issue that sez all people and all species have a right to enjoy our earth/our beautiful nature heritage. And, that no $$ selfish interest should be allowed to destroy the beautiful earth we were born to be a part of/enjoy.

In somewhat legal terms: we climbers/outdoor folks are the beneficiaries of a most wonderful heritage---in our landscapes, our mountains, our wildlife, our rocks to climb, and sweet bird songs. BUT, we are also the trustees of this heritage, and it is our responsibility to protect it.

lin

Hi Lin- I'm with you, the truck noise is really bad and I've often thought they should require brake systems that are quieter. I think it has gotten worse over the last few years, or maybe I've just gotten more sensitive to it.

I actually mentioned this to some folks at Jeffco last week (before your post) and they didn't sound super hopeful that anything could be done. I'm not sure what jurisdiction this would fall under (not Jeffco, maybe CDOT) but it wouldn't hurt to pursue it.

Maybe you could get help from the Foothills Climbing Community (I think that's the name they ended up with) - they are the new LCO for Clear Creek Canyon and are in the process of getting organized under BCC. It seems like this is something that would be a good project for an LCO!

I think this is good timing to tackle these kinds of issues - the state has put so much money into the new bike trail, they obviously value recreation in the canyon. Noise pollution has a lot of negative impacts and maybe if enough recreation groups started to complain they would do something.

Now that the bike trail is in....
No more driving to CCC!
I am tried of car noise, and parking sucks...
On top of that, I don't like the bolt spacing.
And no more white chalk on the dark rock.
It makes the rock look like birds just flew by, and shit all over it!

With a major roadway, you will have cars and trucks.
The towns (casino or not) and the quarry have been there long
before climbing was so mainstream. Like back when climbing was fringe,
and people had cigarettes, beer, weed, and boom boxes at the crag.

It is a special thing that we have access to climb, can install fixed hardware all over the place,
and have a roadway to access such without hiking far! So in the end, starting some issue as climbers would make us look like a bunch of ..............

Now if you got everyone on board, all outdoor recreation groups, then it wouldn't look so bad.

But the reality is.... Go freaking climb somewhere away from the road, and have some damn sense of adventure! That's what the sport is really about, adventure, and unknown, which in this day of climbers seems to be lost!
If climbers (first ascent) didn't have a sense of adventure, you wouldn't have any of those routes to climb on...

Happy Monday! :)

Muffled engine brakes are generally not that loud. Slightly louder than typical driving sounds.

I suspect what you're hearing and complaining about is people running un-muffled engine brakes.

It's really the un-muffled part that would be against any state or local ordinances.

Virgin River Gorge anyone?!?