[fly rider]

Next Wednessday the CDCC board, accompanied by mountain bike reps from the Open Space's own Trails Use Task Force, will be meeting with JeffCo Open Space staff to discuss specific sites for dh mountain bike trails. Matt Thompson, Shane Meyer, and I will be discussing specific requirements such as vert, shuttle-road, trail design and construction. Specific sites include, Mt Lindo, Mt Morrison, Open Space property east of Cabrinni Shrine, Look Out Mountain, and Open Space property in Coal Creek Canyon, as well as property in Golden Gate Canyon that Open Space is considering for purchase.

I know this has been a long and drawn out process and that many people have been frustrated by the apparent lack of progress, but every meeting is another step closer. Hopefully after our meeting on Wed we can identify several spots that Open Space can consider, and set up field trips to the actually visit these spots with Open Space staff.

Wed meeting is not open to the public but I will post an update on this tread by Thursday.

Respect,
Kent Setsma
CDCC

 

[AusRottenVirus]

That is great news. Hopefully we will see some new trails and maybe even some DH specific ones in the future. Keep up the good work and you have the support from all of us at Full Tilt Cyclery. Contact us if there is anything we can do to help. 303 660-6077

 

[SylentK]

That is great news! Keep us posted and good luck!

 

[WhiteRavenKS]

awesome, glad to hear these kinds of updates! people may think this is going slow but really everything is slow when it comes to developing trails and dealing with "the man"... so when i hear about stuff like this, it is a huge step in the right direction!

 

[fly rider]

I feel as though we have finally broken through a plateau with this our meeting last night. We have moved on from presentations about who we are and are focusing on defining feasible and concrete solutions. Open Space has still not given their stamp of approval for our solution to problems caused by speed differentials between bikers and other trail users, but I think that we have established the fact that our user group is here to stay and growing. In attendance were Stanton La Breche, manager of park services, Amy Ito, manager of planning and development, Joy Lucisano, manager of aquisitions, Mark and Don, who's last names I can't remember, but Mark was a park planner and I think Don had something to do with park rangers, but I could be wrong. Representing your interests were myself, Shane Meyer, Matt Thompson, Dave Cohen, and Shawn Spomer.

The majority of the meeting was focussed on specific locations for trails, but some tangents in discussion circled dangerously around passive and active use of trails. In the end, there seemed to be a consensus that even though our sport rides the line, you cannot segregate us from mountain biking as a whole with out implementing rules that would be nearly imposible to enforce and that new Open Space trails should be constructed reflect how trails our currently being used.

Six specific locations for trails were discussed: Matthew Winters Park north of I-70, Mount Lindo, Mount Morrison, the Windy Park at Lookout Mountain, and Open Space property in Coal Creek Canyon off Cattle Drive Road. All these locations are already owned by open space. The sixth possible location is land that Open space is considering for aquisition in Golden Gate Canyon around Mount Tom. The meeting went two hours and we primarily discussed N. Matthew Winters, Mount Lindo, and Mount Morrison, running out of time before we could address the other locations. The biggest hurdle is access to these locations. While they all have roads many are gated and pass through private property and some do not directly access Park property. However, this dosn't mean that we cannot gain access, especially now that we are moving through the proper channels.

We have another meeting scheduled for Wednessday, August 24th. In advance of that meeting Amy and Joy will be checking access rights to roads and ownership of properties that we might need to cross. At the request of Open Space Staff, we will be preparing a brief document, stating our objective (to help Open Space resolve problems, resulting from speed differentials, between user groups, on multi-use trails), how we propose to acchieve this objective (by constructing trails that will draw downhill riders away from multi-use trails), and, our specific recommendations for suitable spots, ranked in order of desirability, accompanied by pros and cons for each location.

So progress is being made, slowly but surely, and we determined to see this through until we have exhausted all possible options. Please give us your input or opinions. I will do my best to keep you all updated with any important developments. If anyone wants to contact me email me at bikelogic@yahoo.com.

 

[dream4est]

kent what you guys are doing is impressive. let me offer congrats. i remember that first cdcc meeting over 2.5 years ago. if you guys succeed in the next year and a half thats only 4 years since that meeting.
good luck. denver/jeffco will be home to world class trails if your group succeeds.