To: Catherine Luna, Recreation Specialist, Boulder Ranger District, Arapahoe-Roosevelt National Forest
CC: Jenn Archuleta, Mike Barrow, Morgan Lommele, Troy Mandery, Mimi Mather, John Perry, Botsy Phillips,
Mitch Smith, David Stokes, Jason Vogel, Tom Woods, and the BMA Board of Directors
Attachments: BMA Revised Scoping Map, Survey Summary 2013, Detailed Comments by Trail Segment
Spreadsheet
Re: Magnolia Trail Project Comments Package
First and foremost, THANK YOU. Thank you for being a visionary partner in providing recreation to a bike loving
community that has long clamored for an extensive, varied trail experience that doesn’t require a drive of 2+
hours. Thank you for hearing our community’s desires and challenging our community with such a well-rounded
plan.
This plan will create the most extensive and varied trail network in Boulder County, and be on par with the Pike NF
Buffalo Creek Recreation area. It took some time to digest the information in the scoping map, and now that we
have, we have some input on some minor changes we believe could make this plan work even better.
Those changes consist of:
1. Facilitating trail connections from West Magnolia to neighboring trail areas and enabling regional trail
connectivity east towards Boulder, west towards Winter Park, north towards the Caribou area, and South
towards Rollinsville. Providing these opportunities in the West Magnolia plan is consistent with ongoing
efforts county-wide to ensure connectivity between communities and trail systems.
a. We recommend including language in the plan to allow for future regional trails even if specific
routes are not yet identified.
b. We recommend working with neighboring landowners and BCPOS to make “Social 13” a
“system trail.” This trail is the only way to connect the Magnolia trail system to the trail system
that exists on USFS land east of Boulder County's Platt Rodgers Memorial Park. This would
also facilitate connection to Twin Sisters Peak, Forsythe Canyon, and Winiger Ridge facilitating connectivity to Walker Ranch as well as a longer trail loop back to proposed system
trails such as “Social 12.”
1. (actually 2, excuse formatting problem) Creating a legitimate uphill/downhill trail experience. Most of
the West Magnolia area is rolling flat terrain. There is a clear demand for more vertical trails as
evidenced by the survey and rogue trail building throughout the BRD. A gravity-oriented or downhill
trail is a key element of the trail system that is missing from the draft plan. The lone uphill/downhill
experience currently exists on the School Bus (929.1) trail, but it crosses private property in several
locations, and this highly popular trail corridor (41% of survey respondents call this trail their favorite,
the most of any system trail) could be put in jeopardy by future landowner or USFS management
decisions.
a. We recommend that “NEW 1” be designed to reach a higher elevation along with "NEW 2"
to ensure that an extended uphill/downhill trail experience exists in the West Magnolia area,
consistent with current usage patterns and the most valued user experiences indicated in the
survey.
b. We recommend referring to work conducted by ContourLogic under the joint BMA/USFS
State Trails planning grant for preliminary alignments appropriate for “NEW 1” and “NEW 2.”
3. Improve West Magnolia facilities. This includes signage consistent with the intended experience - better
signage and intuitive intersections for the core trail area meanwhile sparse signage for more remote
trails. Restroom facilities are also critical: Because of dispersed camping in the area as well as extensive
recreational day use, this area is in dire need of a restroom facility to avoid negative environmental and
health impacts. Consider using port-a-potties if a permanent facility is not viable.
4. Employ Adaptive Management. We recognize that actions identified in an EA must be broad enough to
assess the full area and that pursuing each detail at this phase is not practical. Please build into the plan
enough flexibility to locate trails where best suited, address sustainability concerns and adapt to differing
future conditions. For example: some trails scheduled for “No Action” may be largely in good shape, but
require short sections of treatment or reroute to address unsustainable tread or poor intersections.
5. Plan for winter use. Work with appropriate partner groups to incrementally explore groomed nordic
skiing in the area during winter. Designate some non-groomed trails for light-touring and others for
snow-shoe and fat-bike use. This use type was desired by 43% of survey respondents, a very high
percentage considering that this recreational amenity is not currently offered in the area.
Please refer to the attached “BMA Revised Scoping Map” and “BMA Detailed Comments by Trail Segment
Spreadsheet” for specific trail by trail recommendations.
Thanks to Great Outdoors Colorado funding through the BMA/USFS jointly acquired State Trails planning grant, a
survey was conducted in the first quarter of 2013 to measure the wants and desires regarding the future of the
recreation area (see the attached “Survey Summary 2013”). We cast a wide net to gather user input, contacting 21
stakeholder groups and using social media. As such, these comments are meant to reflect the needs and desires of a
much larger community than just mountain bikers. We wish to reflect the wants and desires to the nearly 700 voices
that spoke through this survey. These are, for the most part, people who live within a one hour drive of this area.
They represent people who live in Nederland, Boulder, and other surrounding communities, and they represent
summertime and wintertime users of the area. They are the community of trail users that considers this area their
“backyard” and already engages in significant stewardship activities through trail work and restoration projects as
well as the Boulder Mountain Bike Patrol.
We believe this survey provides clear guidance on what the Boulder County community wants to see in this area
moving forward. With such a high response rate for this purposefully sampled population, we believe this survey
represents the most insightful collection of data gathered about the West Magnolia area ever. While this survey did
not address the project area east of Colorado 119, we believe much of the input can be applied to this adjacent area
as well. A summary of the findings is included in this comment packet.
The full set of raw data collected from this survey is available upon request of the BRD for their analysis.
Overall, the overarching “asks” we derived from the survey:
·
A fairly challenging, 20-30+ mile, multi-use trail system to include trail opportunities optimized for
mountain bikers.
·
A large, looped, and connected trail system that one can access from downtown Nederland and links to
other nearby trail systems.
·
In general, a tight, twisty single track experience with technical dirt and rock trail features using existing
terrain where possible.
·
A wide spectrum of trail challenge and character, including downhill mountain biking trail opportunities
and more challenging trails where possible.
·
Trail design that disperses users based on their desired experiences and use types.
The survey noted a need for trail design that disperses users based on their desired experiences and use types. For
instance, 82% of users would like to have a trail system that is at least 20 miles. This represents, for an intermediatelevel mountain biker, a 3-4 hour experience. However, 41% of respondents would like to see more than 30 miles at
West Magnolia, indicating a significant desire for a longer distance, more challenging, and more remote recreation
experience.
Note that 79% of survey respondents desire purpose-built mountain biking features and would like a trail flowing
with rollers, pumps, and berms; 66% would like rock gardens. Approximately 50% of respondents also indicated the
desire for features: drop-offs, ladder bridges, skinnies, log rides and engineered wood features. This feedback clearly
indicates a desire to evolve this area into a world class riding area complete with challenging enhanced and
constructed features. The unique partnership between the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance and the Boulder Ranger
District represents an excellent opportunity to generate a community of stewards to make this vision a reality.
We suggest developing the West Magnolia area as a system that is laid out from its core, starting with easy trail
options and getting progressively more challenging as one moves outward from that core. The Magnolia trail system
should be designed to be “mountain-bike optimized” and offer a broad spectrum of mountain biking experiences
(from aerobic, backcountry, long-distance rides to playful trail features to gravity-oriented trails). BMA would like
to see the USFS BRD ultimately offer a network of multipurpose trails for a variety of users and a wide range of
trail experiences. The existing proposed action, with BMA’s proposed changes, lays the groundwork for exactly
such as system.
Again, the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance would like to compliment the Forest Service on the development of a
plan that will surely lay the foundation for the creation of a regional riding destination in Boulder County. In
addition to providing a valuable portal to the National Forest and facilitating the enjoyment of its natural resources,
the Magnolia Trail system will provide recreational, health, quality of life, and economic benefits to a broad range of
constituents. Implementing this plan will be a challenging endeavor, and we’d like to reassure you that the Boulder
Mountainbike Alliance is prepared and eager to rally its volunteers, resources, and trail building experts to support
the Forest Service in realizing its vision for a new and vastly improved Magnolia Trail system.
Bring it on.
Sincerely,
On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance and the Boulder County mountain biking
community:
Jenn Archuleta, current Trail Work Director
Mike Barrow, current Advocacy Director, former BMA president
Morgan Lommele, current BMA Vice-President
Troy Mandery, Trail Work Guru
Mimi Mather, current BMA President
John Perry, former bike patrol director
Botsy Phillips, former BMA president
Mitch Smith, current Bike Patrol Director
David Stokes, former bike patrol director
Jason Vogel, former BMA president, former advocacy director, former bike patrol director
Tom Woods, former bike patrol director