"Monique Y. Herman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...
Quoted message said:So, as some of you might recall, I'm fairly new to mountain biking. Things have been pretty busy,
so my only rides this month have been three loops around Betasso, a fairly moderate 3.5 mile loop
that nevertheless kicks my butt =)
We got into a discussion about the Betasso policy, which is that bikes are not allowed on the
trail Weds and Sat.
Here's the deal. Boulder has an enormous amount of extremely high quality hiking trails in the
mountains right around town. Hikers (of which I am one as well, by the way) are absolutely swamped
with trail choices everywhere they look in Boulder. Exactly none of these trails allow bikes.
As a hiking trail, Betasso is at best average for the Boulder area, especially compared to Bear
Peak, Sanitas, or any of the bazillion trails around the Flatirons. But some hikers will stop at
nothing in their quest to shut down trails to bikes.
This is exactly what happened. Betasso is one of only four or five trails near (but still well
outside) Boulder where you can ride your bike, and the hikers wanted to completely shut it down to
bikes. Why? Who knows. This is why JD says Boulder is a lame place for a mountain biker (I concur).
There were complaints of user conflicts on the trail, but a subsequent user survey failed to support
this theory. Still, the hikers (and equestrians, by the way) were organized enough to get the
attention of the Parks & Open Space beaurocrats. An advisory committee was formed, studies were
done, and the committee recommended that the "problem" was a non-issue and that there should be no
change to current policy (that is, bikes should still be allowed). Parks & Open Space dutifully
ignored the advisory committee's recommendations, as is their way, and implemented the asinine
policy we have today: bikes are excluded two days a week.
Here's how I feel about this. Betasso is a high-use trail. It is of particularly high use because so
few trails near Boulder are open to bikes. Anytime you have such high numbers of users, it's going
to be a pain, whether you're on foot or riding a bike or a horse. You're forced to stop or at least
slow down very frequently to pass each other on the trail. Hikers and equestrians complain loudly
about all this (rather than simply trying to find a less-frequented trail, I might add), while
bikers do not. Have you ever heard of an organized group of mountain bikers lobbying to get a trail
shut down to hiking due to user conflicts? Of course not.
Anyway, the current policy blatantly discriminates against mountain bikers (nothing new), and sets a
very, very bad precedent. It pains me deeply to see anyone hold up Betasso as an example of the way
user conflicts should be managed. The only way I could agree with this policy is if it were changed
to exclude hikers and equestrians an equal number of days per week.
I'm typing this out straight from memory, so if anyone sees facts that I may have misrepresented or
left out, please let me know.
bock
Quoted message said:This policy seems all right to me
Nope, it sucks. And I don't even like Betasso all that much.
