The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Tell your friends, family, heck, even your enemies
[ by Than Acuff ]
Just like every summer, the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association (CBMBA) is hosting their annual meeting and kickoff party as well as their first major trail project the first weekend of June.
Things open with their annual meeting on Friday, June 3 at 4 p.m. followed by their kickoff party for the public, all at the Rainbow Park pavilion.
Once they get you all fueled up, it’s time to give back as they start work on not one, but two trails on National Trails Day Saturday, June 4 starting at 10 a.m.
“We’re hoping to do both Mogul Storage trails,” says CBMBA director Dave Ochs. “An expert jump line and a more intermediate flow line.”
The plan is to branch off the first switchback when descending Baxter Gulch and head across the hillside and down through the series of humps near the Gunnison County shop. Those humps were installed years ago as an avalanche mitigation tool. Making matters even more fluid, the Town of Crested Butte owns the land where the trails are proposed and, following a public input meeting last week, everything is lining up.
“It answers a huge need in the community to have more directional downhill flow trails,” says Ochs. “We’re grateful the town is into the vision of seeing a huge community need being met.”
Not only that, but Ochs sees the new trails as a way to separate trail user groups such as bikers, hikers and dog walkers.
“It’s a highly used, close-to-town trail,” says Ochs. “It’s a better experience for all users to have a separate use of trails.”
But talk is cheap and now it’s go time. With two trail builds in one day, this will take a massive influx of volunteers if the trails are going to be completed.
“There’s a lot of work to be done and we hope our usual contingency of folks show up,” says Ochs.
As always, CBMBA will have the BBQ fired up and plenty of libations and prizes for the volunteers to keep momentum flowing and rewards aplenty for the effort put in building two trails in one day.
“Originally we said one trail, we’re going for two,” says Ochs.
