Dear Objection Reviewing Officer and Forest Supervisor Kara Chadwick, This letter includes my formal objection to the Draft Decision Notice for the Hermosa Creek Watershed Recreation and Travel Management Project. Specifically, I object to the decision to implement a seasonal closure to mechanized travel from November or December to May 1st of every year on various trails throughout the Hermosa Creek Watershed Management Area. For the most part, these lands have been sustainably managed in an environmentally-friendly fashion for decades while allowing for bikes to…

This following excerpts are from my personal comments on the Travel Management Plan for Animas Mountain. Please read them and feel free to use them as your own in the BLM’s public comment system. Horse Gulch Blog: land, trail and mountain bike access advocate This route #3207 is called The Loam Zone. Some berms or short reroutes on Loam Zone could help improve the flow of the trail for those that want to minimize their pedaling while descending. Please support the idea of adding turns…

The BLM is asking the public to comment on trail routes on Animas Mountain that were recently inventoried. Some of the newer ones are social trails. Dome to the Loam, Loam Zone and The Merv are popular new trails on the west side of Animas Mountain, which the public should comment on. Routes 3207, 1804 and 1805, should be adopted with attempts made to keep Dome to the Loam and Loam Zone (3207) out of drainages. Some berms or short reroutes on Dome to The…

All trails in the Hermosa Creek Watershed Management Area would be closed to mechanized and motorized use from December through April if a new Decision Notice signed by the Forest Supervisor is finalized. An objection period to the seasonal closure is underway until Oct. 24th. Alternative 2 was chosen by the San Juan National Forest Supervisor Kara Chadwick. On the brighter side of this decision, bikes would be allowed on Big Lick Trail as well as West Cross Creek Trail (Stagecoach Trail) outside of the…

Cap’s Trail in Horse Gulch just got rebuilt and is ready to ride. Ride down it on a short lunch time ride from Horse Gulch Road. It’s probably about a mile long. For a longer ride coming off of Raider Ridge from Medicine Trail or Sugar Trail, connect to Cap’s, which parallels below Horse Gulch Road. From Horse Gulch Road, it’s about half a mile up from the bottom of Medicine Trail, where there’s a rock cairn marking the trail that goes down towards the…

You are invited to help build a tabletop jump on Cap’s Trail in Horse Gulch this Wednesday. Tools and guidance will be provided by me, Emma and Derek of Trails 2000. All you need to do is hike or bike up to Cap’s Trail, which is just up the Horse Gulch Road from the signage below the Meadow Loop. Take a right into the grass and oak brush just 100 feet up the hill from the trail map. If you intend to hit the jump…

The following is a press release from Purgatory Resort’s Media Contact Kim Oyler regarding the hiring of Hogan Koesis, who was previously employed at the Angel Fire Bike Park. Mountain Bike Director Hired for Purgatory Resort, Pajarito Mountain and other Mountain Capital Partners Resorts! Bike Trail Assessments, Improvements, New Events & Races Planned for Resorts! Durango, Colo. –  Officials with Mountain Capital Partners (MCP) announced the appointment of Hogan Koesis as its new Mountain Bike Director for its collection of resorts, including Purgatory Resort, Pajarito Mountain, Arizona Snowbowl, Sipapu Ski & Summer Resort, and Hesperus Ski…

Durango’s City Manager Ron LeBlanc is pushing the City Council to put a proposal for new marijuana taxes on a ballot referendum. Here’s ten reasons to resist this proposal before Durango City Council votes on it this Tuesday at 6:30. Single industries should not arbitrarily be singled out to pay a greater share of taxes for purposes that are unrelated to the industry’s operations. It’s arbitrarily punitive. The City of Durango is already triple-dipping from the marijuana tax cookie jar. 1. They’ve got a 3…

An upcoming reroute of the Caps Trail in Horse Gulch will incorporate a progressive feature using enhanced natural features on the new alignment, according to Joanne Gantt, the Administrative Assistant for the Durango Parks and Recreation Department. Caps Trail is currently an overgrown, decrepit, eroded trail running parallel and in between Horse Gulch Road and the ridge on the Meadow Loop. Trails 2000’s Executive Director Mary Monroe Brown pitched the idea for rerouting the Caps Trail to the City’s Natural Lands Preservation Advisory Board at…

A new trail work organization in Durango, Colorado called the Four Corners Freeride Coalition is hosting a work day on the Graysill Trail on the San Juan National Forest this Saturday, July 15th. Here’s a quick description of the work that’s being done, according to their website: “The goal this weekend is to take care of the major trenching and drainage issues from Cascade Divide Road down to Cascade Creek. As many of you understand that this is a quite a way out there, so if…

Please support mountain bike access and resist trail closures that were mentioned in the recently-published Hermosa Creek Watershed Management Plan Environmental Assessment by signing this petition. This petition is designed to help people with an email account to quickly send the drafted message below, or an easily edited version of it to the Forest Service after clicking the ‘Sign Now’ button and immediately after confirming ownership of their email address by checking their inbox. Also, please be patient for your signature to appear on the petition,…

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife has asked the U.S. Forest Service to exclude mountain bikers from two trails in response to the pre- decisional Hermosa Creek Watershed Management Plan Environmental Assessment. Specifically, the CPW is asking officials on the Columbine Ranger District to exclude mountain bikers from the Big Lick Trail, which has historically been open to mountain bikes. Additionally, the CPW is asking that mountain bikes be excluded from the West Cross Creek Trail, in the event that the trail is cleared and becomes…

Dear Columbine District Ranger Matthew Janowiak, I have several comments to make on the Hermosa Creek Watershed Management Plan Environmental Assessment. Among the four alternatives that the Forest Service has laid out in the document, I support Alternative 3 the most. Alternative 3 makes the most sense to me as a mountain biker and as a conservationist. Mountain bikes, electric bikes and the trails that they are ridden on are all compatible with conservation values. From my extensive experiences on foot and bike in the…

In the run up to the April 2017 election ballot initiative question about ending water fluoridation in Durango, campaign contributions poured in on both sides, with opponents of change having raised eight times more than Clean Water Durango, reports show. Among the roughly $40,000 dollars that was donated to the No […] Source: Campaign contributions made to defeat Durango’s fluoride-free ballot initiative – Clean Water Durango

An illegal trail and dozens of live trees along it were obliterated by employees of the U.S. Forest Service and Trails 2000, as well as volunteers from the San Juan Citizens Alliance, the San Juan Mountains Association and Garrett Coleman. Known as the Long Hollow Trail, Forest Service officials caught wind of the unauthorized trail after people complained about it being actively constructed by mountain bikers. Google Earth satellite imagery from April of 2006 confirms that the lower half of the trail existed at that point.…