My Take on MTB Access on City of Boulder OS

I give up on mountain bike access from downtown Boulder.  Why?  Because it is too ingrained in Boulder's culture, staff, and elected officials to think that mountain bikes are the enemy.

Recently, Boulder City Council rejected a proposal that would've created a loop trail on Anemone Hill - basically Settlers Park on Mapleton.  Tons of bike supporters called, wrote letters, and showed up for public comment at the city council meeting.  Didn't even make a dent.  What use is public comment at a meeting when city council people had prepared speeches and notes ready. Were they even prepared to hear what folks had to say?  No.  Like BMAs president Jason Vogel said, 99% of the people in that room had minds made up before they even got there.  It's time to move on and give up on access west of Boulder.  The time may come, but not until elected officials are voted out of office and city staffers move on.  This cultural shift won't happen  anytime soon.

In a recent Boulder Daily Camera Article read, "She [Boulder Mayor Susan Osborne] went on to say that she's "certainly sorry about the rancor" that the issue has caused, but she doesn't think the correct response is for the cycling community to leave the table. "We make tough decisions all the time, and it's really rare that the person or group on the losing side does a, 'I'm going to take my marbles home and I'm not going to play anymore,'" she said. "We have another vote on a mountain biking trail that at least to some people seems like another pretty good option. I don't get the strategy where you basically take no prisoners."

Really?  What does she want us to do, come back for another pounding after receiving continual poundings since being banned on city Open Space since 1984?  It think 27 years of being shot down warrants either not playing their game anymore, or a DRASTIC shift in how we, mountain bikers, policiticize.  


The more we beat our heads against the wall where policy makers obviously don't want us, the more we're going to hurt our chances when it comes to a place where they might actually give us some leeway, like Beech and N Boulder Valley Ranch.

I think it's time to take a step back take a look at what's actually been accomplished. the High Plains and Springbrook area TSAs had great outcomes, but the West TSA was set up for failure from the get go. City Council and OS Staff reconfigured the public process to achieve a desired outcome. Was anyone surprised when the bike ban in the west was upheld? In the ashes of West TSA, council threw it back to staff and said "explore Anenome Hill" in an attempt to immediately appease bike peeps. It wasn't to appease us long term with real access. This last meeting wasn't entirely about access on Anemone, it was about a specific loop trail on Anenome - something BMA asked for but OS staff was against.

Open Space Board of Trustees will convene on 11/2 to discuss a connector over Anenome to 4 mile. Even if Council approves that, once again, they are setting mountain bikers up for a predetermined outcome. An out and back trail in an already crowded area will do nothing but further anti mtb sentiment. Head on traffic, user conflict and too many users on one trail will be the result.

Focusing on mtb access out of Boulder is great, but I think it's unrealistic to see access out of downtown anytime soon, especially given current leadership. Let's focus more on southern and northern access on city property. There is a LOT of potential in Boulder County OS. Walker, Hall, and Rabbit Mt management plans will be up for discussion soon. Let's start refocusing on attainable goals.

Want more and better access from downtown? Call for Mike Patton's resignation and vote those idiots on Boulder city council out of office.

Rant off.  It's time to ride.  Somewhere that's not governed by Boulder City.

Consignment bikes 10/21/11

Here's our latest bikes on consignment!

Giant Allegre flat bar road bike, great townie!  $195/offer

Ibis Mojo SL, medium, $2900/offer

 Santa Cruz Nomad small, $2800/offer

Another trail done gone

I heard on Thursday that Boulder County, in conjunction with the USFS closed Bell Gulch.  Bummer.  I'm going to check it out soon.  I will report back.

Before:

After:

The State of the Lyons Bike Park

A few weeks back, Lyons played host to a really cool event called the Devil Dash.  A bunch of my friends ran it and said it was super fun and a great event all the way around.

BUT...  the race was held on our first crappy snow/sleet/muddy day of the year.  And they ran the course thru pretty much all of the jumps at the Lyons Bike Park.  Needless to say, 1600 people clawing their way up slick and muddy dirt jumps decimated the bike park.

I passed this info along to Park and Rec, hoping they would seek some action from the Devil Dash promotors.  Having not heard anything back from P&R and getting frustrated every time I so much as rode by the park, I decided to email the promoters directly.  Here is my email and their response.  Let us hope for a quick turnaround.
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MY EMAIL:

Hi Devil Dash folks.  First off, thanks for bringing such a cool event to Lyons.  Sounds like it went well, was well attended, and lots of folks had fun.

I run a bike shop here in Lyons and have to admit I was a little dismayed to see that you chose to run your course thru our bike park in muddy conditions.  The bike park has been rendered unrideable and is completely decimated.  Literally hundreds of man hours went into perfecting and sculpting all of the jumps in the park.  The bike park has been a great asset for local riders and kids in the area and has also been valuable for bringing in visitors to the town.  It is sad to see this resource in its current condition.  To get the park to the condition it was in before the Devil Dash is going to take a lot of time, a lot of effort, and some heavy equipment rental.

What are your plans to repair the bike park to its state before Devil Dash?

I have copied Dave Cosgrove, head of Parks and Rec on this email.

THEIR REPLY:

We apologize for the condition of the track after our race. We started the day thinking we would be OK with the weather. We had waves of racers every 30 minutes and the weather held out for the first several waves, but then the rain came, and we already had racers out by that time. 

We have been working with Dave Cosgrove on the track and the best way to proceed in order to get it repaired. We certainly will make sure that we can get it back into the condition it was before the race, and will follow Dave Cosgrov's lead on the best way to proceed.

 ***********************************************

I will try to keep everyone updated of the progress.

Been a long time update part uno

Things are starting to take a seasonal turn towards the not super busy (but also not super awesome) months.  argh.  I guess that means I'll have a bit more time for blogging, be that better or worse.  I was just reading the Redstone Underground blog and saw that it didn't cover a LOT of the fun stuff we did this summer. How about some highlights?

Montana road trip was great.

Later in the summer, we rode from Eldora Ski Resort outside of Nederland to Winter Park,

had beers and lunch in WP, took a lap on the ski lift to get a downhill run in.

 and then rode back to Eldora.

 On the same day.

Now THAT was a good ride.  I think we were good for 11 or so hours after all was said and done.  When we say "long day in the saddle," that's generally the kind of ride we're looking for.

Got in a road trip to Nebraska to see some family.  And some uber sweet awesome dirt tight and twisty lovin kind of singletrack.

Believe it or not, those pics were taken about 1/2 mile from where I grew up.  It's 9 miles of singletrack bliss surrounded by suburbiaville.  The locals say, "ah, it's ok, it's all we got."  I say, "it's buttery top notch singletrack."





Oh, can't forget BMA's sufferfest.  That was a killer day in the saddle, too.  Big ride with lots of climbing and other fun stuff.

 That ride had lots of hard climbing.

 But it was worth it.  What a great day.

Hmm, let see what else?  Got a doggie in March, Bella the Heagle.  Part Heeler, part Beagle, all awesome.  And awesome trail dog, too.  Bella and I got more than a few hours in.  Couple of loooong ones too.  She'll go longer than I will, that's for sure.  Yo Bella!

That's all I got for now.  I'm going to finish this beer and head to bed.  Part II will be coming soon.  Really!

Transition Trans Am 29er

Check this beauty out! Price will be right in with Transitions 26" Trans Am frame - it's a super smokin' deal on a good all mountain 29er hardtail frame. Want one? They're due in Jan and we're taking preorders now.

Tuesday Ride

Sorry for being so horrible about updating the blog! I've got some stuff to put up, I promise, just been a little behind.

Anyway, tonight, 10/4, we'll be heading to Jamestown! Make sure your lights are charged. Meeting at the shop at 5:30pm and rolling over to Jtown as soon-ish as we can get it together.