Trail Care Crew No. 2 Journal: July 2000-September 2000
IMBA Trail News
Volume 13, Number 5
Winter 2000
The following are excerpts from journal entries logged by Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew No. 2, Kathy Summers and Joey Klein. For more TCC info visit www.imba.com
1. Durango, CO
We spent the month of July in Colorado's high county, leading trailwork projects and presenting slideshows in several mountain bike bastions including Gunnison, Keystone Ski Area, Winter Park, Boulder, Fort Collins, Denver and Durango. Took a much-needed week-long layover in our hometown of Montezuma so that we could visit with and race against some old friends in Montezuma's Revenge. After Montezuma, it was back on the road for a great solo visit in Durango with Bill Manning and super-club Trails 2000. Joey worked with the group at an afterwork trail session in the Sale Barn Canyon area, and did a trail assessment of the epic Kenneback Pass portion of the Colorado Trail.
2. Casper, WY
Met with Eve Bennett of the Bureau of Land Mangement (BLM) to look at multi-use trail possibilities in the Muddy Mountain Recreation Area and some trails linking a series of beaver ponds. Most of the trails at these popular mountain biking spots are historic, user-created trails or game trails. We suggested to Eve some specific re-route options for those trails which we felt were unsustainable for the growing, multi-use community.
3. Missoula, MT
Into the heart of the forest fires! Today we met up with Kurt and Jennifer Krueger of Low Impact Mountain Bikers of Missoula. One day before fire closed the forest we assessed 15 miles of the popular Saw Mill Gulch trail system, looking at trail maintenance solutions and potential new trail alignments. Before leaving the area for Canada, we took a guided epic Alpine Trail ride from Strawberry Lake to Hungry Horse.
4. Calgary, AB
Nose Hill, near Calgary, is a popular open space area where mountain bike access has been threatened. Bob Scott and Kip Keylock of Calgary MTB Alliance and Joey met with the Nose Hill Advisory Committee and with Friends of Nose Hill for a trail assessment of the area. It was apparent that the area's user conflict and impact issues were due largely to fall-line trail construction. Joey recommended re-aligning some of the trails to make them more contoured and sustainable. Two days later, after a day of fantastic riding at Heart Creek and Barrier Lake, we gave a slide show presentation in Calgary to representatives from the city, Parks and Rec., and Fernie Ski Resort. The presentation showed numerous examples of successful trail design we've seen.
5. Rossland, BC
On the way to Squamish, we paid a quick visit to the folks in Rosslandhome of some of the sickest riding in the world. This small town has a hard core local riding scene and the technical skill level of the average rider here is astonishing. Trails For Rossland's Stewart Spooner and Hanna Heintz are leading the effort to work with the local land managers and land owners to provide the kind of challenging riding the locals thrive on.
