SCC Helps Open Arkansas Hills Trail System – Salida, CO

As reported in the Mountain Mail on May 19, 2009

A milestone for the Arkansas Hills Trail System took place with the official dedication ceremony Sunday at the Tenderfoot Mountain gate. Designed for mountain bicyclers, the trail system is on land owned by the Salida and the Bureau of Land Management east of the city behind
Tenderfoot Mountain.

Mayor Chuck Rose conducted the ribbon cutting officially opening 2.8 miles of new trail.  “This is the best bang for our buck for economic development in the city,” he said.  Rose cited tourist income as a benefit from the trails and said the next step is to attract more grant money to expand the project.

Salida Mountain Trails director Tom Purvis said the project was years in the making, from the early days of bushwhacking in the area with a global positioning system trying to identify the best routes for the first new trail development in 2006.  The project started gaining momentum 10 months ago with a green light from Salida officials to start trail development on city land and access to bureau land through city property, crews started building trail.

A map kiosk is at the trailhead and markers line fresh trail. Much of the 2.8 miles will serve as a core system that can be built on, Purvis said.  Purvis said the bureau and mountain trails established a partnership during April 2008 called Arkansas River Travel Management Plan that has been a key element in trail development.  “If all our (financial) dreams come true, we’ll develop another 15 miles of trail,” Purvis said.

Dara MacDonald, city community development director, said there are two big goals upon which the city will focus to improve access to the system.  The first is to purchase a 36-acre parcel of private land between the water tank on Spiral Drive and the railroad allowing additional access trails to be built.  The second goal is to establish an underpass and trail that follows railroad property from Marvin Park to the Calco Plant.  MacDonald said the underpass is “huge, because everyone is trespassing when they cross the tracks.”

People regularly short-cut across the tracks instead of reaching the trail from Spiral Drive.  Although city and mountain trail personnel plan for continued expansion of the trail system, the dedication marked the end of the a six week investment by a Southwest Conservation Corps crew.  Crew leader Brinkley Messick said they made progress on the Backbone Trail, which serves as a connector linking the system.  “One of the coolest things about the project was all the support from the community,” Messick said. “Everyone was so excited.”

After the dedication, Absolute Bikes owner Sean Gillis led a guided trail ride and organizers conducted a bike raffle at Boathouse Cantina.