Hello and welcome to our first Newsletter, Fall 2008!

Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association (RFMBA), the Valley's new mountain bike advocacy group, has kept busy this past season on a number of issues and opportunities. We've been focusing on everything from achieving our mission to "Create and sustain the best possible mountain bike trail system and experience in the Roaring Fork Valley" to figuring out how to become a 501c(3) non-profit, and winning local grants.

In this, our first newsletter, we hope to share some of the progress the mountain biking community in the Roaring Fork Valley has made and look to where we may be heading in the future.

But first, you may be wondering, "How can I help improve mountain biking in the Roaring Fork Valley?" Well here's your answer...

  • Send your comments and concerns about local biking issues to info@rfmba.org
  • Spread the word, we need more members; tell your riding buddies to register at www.rfmba.org
  • Help maintain the trails you ride: volunteer for trail maintenance days, notify us of trails requiring maintenance at info@rfmba.org, turn your group ride into an opportunity to move that nasty aspen tree out of the trail. Take ownership of the trials you depend on!
  • RFMBA's next Board meeting is on Thursday October 30th. If you have issues to bring to the table, or you would like to attend the meeting, let us know at info@rfmba.org
  • The majority of the work we do is off the trail... we're looking for a few good people to help! As a growing organization there are a lot of roles to fill and only so much time available for any volunteer to provide. Email us at info@rfmba.org if you have a strong desire to help us help preserve the trails you love to ride.

    • Advocacy

    The Crown
    Huge thanks to everyone who turned out to the series of meetings last winter to help plan out the future of this great mid-valley riding area. It looks like the BLM is heading towards designating this location a Special Management Recreation Area, which means more $$ for maintenance and upkeep. We'd also like to take this opportunity to give another huge thanks to George Trantow. He's been instrumental in working with the BLM and David Hamilton at RFOV in planning a new singletrack bike trail that will connect the Rio Grande paved bike path, near Rock Bottom Ranch, with the existing trails further up in the Crown. This trail will be designed and approved through the NEPA process and will hopefully be built in one quick push (summer 2009) through the efforts of RFOV and the Youth Corps.

    Smuggler Mountain Open Space Management Plan.
    RFMBA has worked closely with Pitkin County Open Space and the City of Aspen Parks Department to include feedback from mountain bikers in this soon-to-be finalized management plan. RFMBA hopes to play an active part in the planning and eventual development of additional single track on the Smuggler Mountain Open Space. While we realize mountain bikers are only one of the many stakeholders that share the trails in this area, RFMBA has worked hard to make sure your opinions are heard.

    Wilderness Workshop's Hidden Gems Proposal
    The Hidden Gems proposal would put several local trails into the realm of Wilderness, and therefore, off limit to bikes. Our research continues on this issue, but we have already met with some success stories. Both the Arbaney-Kittle Trail and the Rocky Fork Trail will remain open to cyclists as these areas have been removed from the HG proposal. Additionally, the Hay Park trail will remain open to bikes in its entirety due to a boundary adjustment. Some of the remaining areas of proposed wilderness overlap existing or prospective riding areas. RFMBA will provide more information on this issue as it becomes available.

    White River National Forest – Travel Management Plan
    The final issuance of this document will be coming out soon. Last reviewed by the public in 2006, we expect Alternative D to be adopted by the Forest Service for management guidance of roads and trails. RFMBA worked diligently up until the final deadline for public review to provide information we hope will lead to corrections and trail additions. We’ll be reviewing the specifics of the Plan as we work towards our own Valley wide Trails Master Plan. At RFM, we appreciate that this as a living document and will work with the USFS on specific issues as they arise.

    Crested Butte to Carbondale Bike Trail
    You might have heard about this effort a few years back when a Master Plan was completed for this potentially awesome bike trail. Work has begun on some minor stretches outside of Carbondale, and now is a good time to publicize the possibilities of this project. RFMBA is studying the challenges and opportunities to work towards re-energizing both the Roaring Fork Valley and Crested Butte folks to get back at it!

    Planning

    RFMBA Trails Master Plan For those of you who've enjoyed Snowmass' excellent trail system, you can start to envision how a valley wide trail system would be enjoyed by the many thousands of people who live and work in the Roaring Fork Valley. RFMBA has spent this past summer collecting existing GIS data from all local land management agencies including: City of Aspen, Pitkin County, BLM, and the USFS. That data would just be a bunch of gibberish without somebody to make sense of it all. Luckily, we’ve had the great fortune of finding a Cartographer, Pablo Silveira. Pablo, who works at Design Workshop, has been putting time in after-hours to organize this unwieldy amount of data. Work will continue throughout this coming winter to organize all the collected information into a series of maps that will help all interested parties to understand what is existing and what is possible for a valley wide trail system. These maps will complement and illustrate a Master Plan that is also under development.

    Trails

    This summer saw RFMBA's first efforts at community based trail work projects. RFMBA participated in two successful trail maintenance days in 2008 and we have already started the planning process for 2009.

    Forest Hollow / Boy Scout Trail
    RFMBA joined forces with Summit Canyon Mountaineering and Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers (RFOV) to work on the annual maintenance of the Forest Hollow trail, above Glenwood Canyon. Having our crew on bikes allowed us to cover the extensive length of this semi-remote trail. Crews trimmed overgrown sections of this fast and fluid traverse up to the point where it meets with the Boy Scout Trail.

    Arbaney Kittle Trail
    RFMBA members worked the Sloan Peak area for RFOV’s Arbaney Kittle Trail work day earlier this month. While a huge crew took care of the trail at the Holland Hills end, a crew of about 17 headed up the Triangle Peak Road to blaze a proper trail and build cairns along a daunting portion of the route which was so overgrown and unmaintained that it has caused riders to spend an unexpected night out on more than one occasion. RFMBA members lead a group along the Arbaney Kittle trail Sunday, September 28th to experience the work performed two weeks prior first hand. One participant's comment confirmed the success of the project: "this trail is much more enjoyable when you don't have to spend an extra four hours finding your way home".

    Check out www.rfmba.org throughout the winter for project updates and notices!