Sun Valley Idaho Blog; SunValleyOnline.com » Blog Archive

Calling All Trail Users

This from Travis Zerba with Dirty Tires Mountain Bike Association:

Calling all trail users:

A recent rash of illegal trails built west of Hailey has lead to this call for volunteers to help rehabilitate a 1.2 mile section of an illegal trail. Four weeks ago, you may have read emails or blogs that spoke against the decommission of illegal trails. Upon discussions and meetings with users, private property owners and government officials, I have personally learned that our support for rehabilitation of this particular trail is necessary in order to help the BLM move forward with the Rotarun Trail Network.

In short, when an illegal trail gets built without the permission of private land owners and government officials, it robs the official’s time from working on other projects. In this situation, John Kurtz with the BLM has led the charge to get the Rotarun Trail Network built. Unfortunately, he has had to divert time away from this project in order to deal with illegal trails on BLM Land.

I realize that our cry for a South Valley trail system has been long and painful, but the hard work of Big Wood Backcountry Trails- Chris Leman, Road and Dirt- Billy Olson, Blaine County Rec. District- Eric Rector, BLM- John Kurtz, and everyone else that I have not mentioned, has come to reality.

As soon as this illegal trail is rehabbed, we can build a 2.5 mile section of a legal trail that will be a part of the Rotarun Trail Network. Also in the pipeline is another 12 plus miles that will be built by a contractor this fall or more likely next spring.

So, I am asking everyone and anyone who supports and enjoys recreating on our trail network, come out and support the rehabilitation project. It would be great to see all trail users come out in large numbers to get in and erase this problem from the BLM’s hot list.

When: Saturday, July 12th, 8 AM

Where: Meet at the Rotarun/Community Bike Park Parking Area. We will shuttle people from here in four wheel drive vehicles. BLM can provide a truck that can haul 6 and an Expedition that can haul 9. If necessary we can make multiple trips or folks can drive their own vehicle to the end of the Bullion road (the old mine approximately 3 miles up Bullion gulch).

Volunteers: Bring plenty of drinking water, snacks/lunch. Wear sturdy shoes/boots, long pants. Bring gloves and some kind of eye protection (sunglasses or prescription glasses), sunscreen and hat.

As a final word, please spread the word and discourage any illegal trail building. Illegal trails are undermining residents of this Valley that are trying to get good legal trails built.

Please notify me if you plan on attending and/or feel free to call or email me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Travis Zerba

Dirty Tires Mountain Bike Association

(208)471-0420 / dirytires@hotmail.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 7:58 am by Chris Leman and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Comments to “Calling All Trail Users”

Arne P. Ryason Says:
July 8th, 2008 at 9:58 am

I can think of two infamous illegally built trails in Marin County, California, where the commercial mountain bike industry got its start and where most single-track trails are still illegal.

The “38″ trail went from Bolinas Ridge down to the coast Highway One. I rode it a few times, then someone got busted by a ranger waiting down on the road, then it was signed and closed. It was called “38″ supposedly because that was the number of beers consumed while building it. It went down a ridge on the border between private and federal property.

The “New Paradigm Trail” was more well known. It was “secret” for a while, discovered by the authorities, closed with logs and boulders, then “re-opened” again, but perpetrators were caught by hidden cameras. I’m not sure if I ever rode it - maybe on a “Tour de la Marin” once years ago.

I rode a trail once that the entrance was so well hidden you crossed a meadow and bush crashed for 20 feet or so before the start of it was visible. There are probably quite a few like that in Marin.

The group I rode with didn’t generally build unauthorized trails, we just rode the “hiker/equestrian only” trails at night with lights. We had been riding many of these trails before they were ever signed “no bikes.” The Marin Municipal Water District trails were always closed to bicycles, but the law was not enforced nor were the trails signed until the late 1970’s - early ’80’s.

When I’m hiking and I want to explore an area that has no trails I just walk to where I want to go. My hiking boots are the ultimate ATVs.

chopper Says:
July 8th, 2008 at 1:54 pm

Maybe we should start rehabbing some of the stuff which actuallly needs some love…mine waste, wrecked cars, the numerous twotracks that line every single ridge, the tailing piles, firepits, mounds of broken glass,
I mean is this a real environmental issue or a matter of control? if you went out and said there needs to be a clean up of unauthorized roads and trails in the south valley, this new trail (which is about one of the best trails we have by the way) would not even be a blip on the radar. furthermore, the machine built trail system which is in the works will be more damaging and create more impact on this ecosystem than the ENTIRE pirate built trail system in the south valley. keep in mind, if we were limited to riding only trails built with the consent of the government, we would not have one single trail to ride.
I agree that we need to avoid private land and it is a shame that this is how the trail went down. But keep this in perspective. We have no legal trails, have been asking kindly for the better part of seven years to have such trails, and really all that needs to be done is have a series of waypoints handed out and we will build the best hand built, and most sustainable trails in the valley.
Not sure what Arne’s point is other than the equestrian and hiking contingents won out in Marin but I would not take their program as a means to explain anything.
One of the best mountain bike cities in america, boulder colorado, lost all of its trails to mountain bikes until just recently. Now their trails are opening to bikes and the no bikes signs are coming down because it was ill informed, lame and bad business to keep the mountain bikers out.
If Hailey had a clue as to how to market its community they would be lobbying for an extensive trail network to be shared among bikes, foot traffic and horses. The south valley is not a place which can be damaged any more than it already has. The hills are a trainwreck of past use none of which can be even remotely blamed on mountain bikers.

Arne P. Ryason Says:
July 8th, 2008 at 5:25 pm

I think I got carried away trying to point out that there is historical precedence to some mountain bikers building pirate trails. If authorized trails are either closed or absent, unauthorized trails will show up.

teal Says:
July 9th, 2008 at 8:54 am

Go check out Nyack Canyon off Panther Ck out Deer Ck to see a absolute travesty of “private mining claim” Fed management. It is an open pit dump, complete with junked, wrecked cars directly in the stream drainage feeding ultimately into the Big Wood River. Maybe the whistleblower who reported the pirate trail up Bullion can gain some perspective of real land abuse by taking a tour up Nyack Canyon.

bruce rogers Says:
July 10th, 2008 at 9:59 am

For another perspective, check out the short article written on page 11 in the June issue of Cycling Utah (url below) regarding the Park City trail system and the 2008 IMBA World Summit, which was held the week of June 18th in Park City.
http://www.cyclingutah.com/july/July2008Issue.pdf

Parks are for cities and the good people who live there. What’s unique about the trails in the Wood River Valley is the fact they actually “go somewhere”, they link one place to the next. Unlike (for me) Park City’s contrived park-like layout and machine built trails (which I urge any of you who haven’t ridden there, to do so so you’re aware what our future holds given the current 7yr “plan”) ours were mostly, originally built by dirt bikers going from point A to B across whole ranges. This lends a tangible sense of adventure, risk and wildness, it’s what makes our trails so unique and enjoyable and what’s missing from most other trail systems.

Whether or not you like the Park City trails themselves, this article is about communication, cooperation, community involvement, trail advocacy, real promotion of tourism and overall community sustainability, and what it can give back if actively and properly managed.
And, they built it ALL on PRIVATE land. 400miles of it. Hmm.

These are all the things we say we want and know we need here in the valley, but it’s just not happening. After the (reported) 7 years we’ve been waiting, and the current political/economic environment, I don’t see any real light at the end of this tunnel.

The governmental entity managing our public lands here in the Wood River Valley readily admits they are under-staffed, over-scheduled and are constantly being pulled-off new trail project considerations to focus on other, more important issues. Which granted, I’m sure there’s an endless supply of.

Chopper’s blog is full of naked truths and realities and I urge everyone to give what he’s written some serious consideration, then copy all your friends.
Given the fact that ALL trails in our valley were technically, originally built “illegally”, it does beg the underlaying question: What is this ‘trail rehab’ really all about? And why now?

With this latest Bullion trail debacle, our champion Chris Leman’s position now is so dire that he is forced, this second time around to submit to, dare I say it…black mail. ‘Decomission the Bullion trail or else’. Or else what?
‘We won’t let you build 2.5 miles of trail around and above the dirt bike park’.
Hey, everyone who wants to ride more trails around Rotarun raise their hand… hello..?
And then of course we have the threats of increased law enforcement against citizen trail builders (Trail Police, Single Track Sheriffs), including fines and imprisionment (written two weeks ago here).

C’mon, have the Dark Ages descended on our valley? Feudal land barons demanding respect and servitude from the peasants? It seems apparent. Or, are we truly the enlightened people we believe ourselves to be? If so, let’s show it.

It has been pointed out before that we have an extremely large group of trail advocates here, i.e. trail builders; bikers, hikers, motorcyclists and equestrians as well as the equipment, resources and available capital to build the best damn trail system this country/BLM/USFS has never imagined. And, we can do it all virtually labor free. F.R.E.E.
What a legacy we could ALL create together.

Of course, it would neccessitate a paradigm shift in consciousness at the beaucratic level. “It’s not that easy, there are considerations..” Well, within reason, change the way it’s done. Why not? What better place to do it given the above mentioned resources, the current flow of support, (not to mention the absolute necessity) and the collective spoken intent between local land managers and users. Seems like those agencies would be freed-up from having to spend more years submitting more paperwork in an attempt to fund something, anything from an empty pot and we’d be happy to give them all the credit in the end. Maybe the Wood River Valley can be a ‘Test Platform’ for the rest of the country? I believe there are a lot of people here who would gladly, willingly give of their time to make this happen.
Let’s build.

Travis Zerba Says:
July 12th, 2008 at 5:54 am

Too bad eveyone that has a comment did not voice their opinion on the last BWBT meeting. Come October, sure will suck to have a new trail to ride from Hailey. Not mention the additonal 12 miles that we will have within a year. And is this Bullion Trail worth crying about. It sure seems like alot of road riding to get to a short section of single track and back to more road.

Affiliates:

About

Categories

Bloggers

Calling All Trail Users