STEAMBOAT SPRINGS 2A TRAILS COMMITTEE MINUTES July 29, 2015

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1 STEAMBOAT SPRINGS 2A TRAILS COMMITTEE MINUTES The meeting of the Steamboat Springs was called to order at approximately 12:03 p.m. on Wednesday,, in Room , Centennial Hall, th Street, Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Trails Committee members in attendance were: Chair Scott Marr, Pete Wither, Harry Martin, Dan Bonner, Gavin Malia and Jon Wade. Absent: David High. City staff members present were: John Overstreet, Brad Setter, Matt Eggen and Winnie DelliQuadri. Eric Meyer represented Steamboat Springs Trails Alliance and the Trails Alliance. Kent Foster represented US Forest Service. PUBLIC COMMENT ON ITEMS NOT ON THE AGE NDA None. Approval of Minutes: Pete Wither moved to table the July 1, 2015 meeting minutes. Gavin Malia seconded; the motion carried unanimously. Handbike Presentation Craig Kennedy, Steamboat STARS: Craig brought his handbike for everyone to see and noted that the ideal trail width is three feet to cover every kind of handbike. Mountain handbikes have two wheels in the front, one in the back. Bank turns don t necessarily work great for off-road handcycles. There s increasing interest in trails around here. We ve worked with the Forest Service over the last several years and have written letters of support for grant moneys for the trails. Craig said that one of his buddies rode Morning Gloria; said for the most part it was great. There were a couple spots he was worried about around curves or where it was real tight; he was worried about washing off the edge of the trail. The big things are the trails need to be wide enough for these bikes, and the facilities where you re parking need to be usable. If you can use it from a wheelchair, pretty much anyone with a disability can use it is the general rule. You need a level parking area and public bathrooms need to be accessible. Meyer confirmed that a cattle bar would work well instead of a gate. Kennedy: The bottom of Spring Creek has some really narrow spots that are just barely wide enough for those bikes; one of your wheels is off in the grass. You can still be off the trail a bit as long as that corridor is there. Project Updates Emerald Directional Trail: Brad Setter: Started yesterday. Doing some corridor clearing. Clayton from Progressive who designed the trail will be up there working today and tomorrow. They re going to try to 1

2 get a couple features built on the top section before Friday. Cost ended up $116,200. Within budget. Timeline to complete is end of September. Public Comment: Craig Frithsen expressed his support for trails such as this. Concerned that Emerald is a very homogenous trail system; not a lot of diversity. This will provide a new opportunity; improve safety and user conflict up there. Supports anything that creates higher-level or epic mountain bike trails. People like a good challenge, so if you build only lower-level trails you don t provide that. This is a great first step. We ve lost several challenging trails on Emerald over the last 20 years that have been replaced with basic, lower-level intermediate trails. Hope 2A will continue to fund challenging projects like this. Epic, fun, diverse trails will attract more tourism. Jen Warren, General Manager, Steamboat Resorts and Vacation Rentals: Part of the whole reason we re doing this is to create Bike Town USA and bring people to Steamboat. These beginner trails are not what brings people here for a bike vacation. The people spending money to take a bike vacation are avid riders looking for something different and challenging. Take that into consideration as you move forward with building these trails. I am hearing from people who come here on bike vacations, and they are looking for more variety; they re not finding it here right now. Emerald s great, but it s a one-and-done experience. They re not finding that challenging terrain. Ted Moss: Thanked the committee for going forward with this trail. Would like to see diversification within trails. If there s a green trail, it would be good to have green, blue and black options within that trail. If I ride that trail with my son, my son can choose to ride the easier option, or maybe step up to the middle option, and then there s an option for me. Makes family rides a lot more fun. With the money we have here, there s an opportunity to create trails that capture peoples imagination and be remembered. As we move forward, think dynamic. Compete with other world-class biking terrain. I understand we re not going to build the wood features on this jump line, and I think that s a wasted opportunity because the wood is what people remember. If you want to bring people back to spend money, that s what you re going to have to build. I know it s risky; people are afraid of lawsuits; higher maintenance cost; but there are wood features on BTR for 10 years that have not been touched, and they re still there and completely viewable. Please don t let maintenance be the issue. Mike Scarfie described optional features along trails at another resort and thought that would be great for Steamboat. Trails can split off and rejoin with fun features. Kyle Pietras also agreed with prior commenters and thanked the committee for starting that trail. There were two additional comments. Brad Setter: There s one wood feature that crosses a seasonally wet area. Borrow pits are about the same as where they were. Features shrunk. Trail width shrunk a little bit; minimum 36, maximum 48. Our tabletops are shorter; we re going to make sure they re safe as far as the size of the takeoff to the landing. We still have berm turns; we discussed 2

3 making them a little smaller. In the design, they had said up to 10 feet, and we re not going to be anywhere close to that. We re working on big enough to hold you in but not excessively large. What that is depends on field-fitting the trail; 4-5 feet or so. Overstreet: That s based on the comments from you guys wanting a PBR-type trail. Malia asked if some of those changes were also budget-related. They were not. Martin: I really like the thoughts about diversifying what we have there because that really hasn t been on our agenda, and it s something we need to give more thought to. Howelsen Directional Trails: DelliQuadri: Still waiting for the grant contract. But it s funded and will be designed and constructed. Both beginner and intermediate will be constructed in 2016 down to the roundhouse turn. We can t do phase II on the bottom until we get a new trail uphill. Eric Meyer: While they re labeled as different trails on here, they ll essentially be one trail when they re all linked up top to bottom. There will be definite diversity, and there s a lot more opportunity for wood in there. Wither asked whether people could take their bikes up the ski lift and ride this. DelliQuadri said they did a demonstration project a couple years back where they got bike racks for the chair lift. The challenge is that the alpine slide utilizes the lift, and it s pretty much at capacity a lot of the time. The second challenge is that the Winter Sports Club operates the lift in the summer. They charge for the alpine slide not the use of the lift, so there are some operational issues in terms of how you ticket it and get bikes up there. Wade suggested opening it for bikers at different times. Committee members figured the WSC would be glad for the extra revenue from bikers. They suggested inviting club representatives to a future meeting. Some members of the public present didn t think there would be too much interest in that in competition with Ski Corp due to the lack of terrain; others thought there would be due to convenience and family-friendly terrain. Ridge Trailhead DelliQuadri: The vendor was going to start working mid-august. During construction, the entire trailhead parking lot is going to be closed. The engineer will let the city know when construction is starting. The lot is anticipated to be closed for three weeks, but it will double in size and have a bathroom when complete. Martin said they d need to provide a bypass during the construction period to get people out to the road. The county is in production on the way-finding signage. 3

4 DelliQuadri will follow up with the BLM. Wild Rose Trail: Under construction;; should be done in three weeks. People are asked not to poach. US Forest Service Trail Planning: Foster: Planning is on schedule; resource specialists are on the ground taking a look at things and putting up flagging for the new trails. Still on schedule to start construction next year. Martin confirmed that the USFS wants to keep the trails challenging. Foster said he took note of public comments to that effect and will bring a map to the next meeting. Ted Moss from the public confirmed that riders will be able to ride the existing trails as the new ones are built. Moss asked whether Foster thought all the camping up there was because of the riding opportunities; Foster said he thought it was just the high cost of rent. He predicted that the USFS would probably need to develop a dispersed camping plan for the area. Bill Marturano from the public thanked Kent and highlighted the importance of uphill directional and sustainable trails. He requested that some signs be put on the road up there speed limit, shared road signs. Foster has some and will get them up. Foster said he s received 200 plus public comments. The plan draft should be done late fall, early winter. Craig Frithsen from the public confirmed the route of the Buffalo Mountain trail to climb up to Buffalo Mountain and tie into Soda Creek. Frithsen thanked the committee/forest service for their work choosing trails and getting them funded to create epic rides. John Winkelblech from the public said that the Buff Pass trails are totally unique to the area due to the topography and encouraged the committee to keep up the good work. Meyer said that all areas around here have a unique flavor, and promoting that diversity is a goal. Frank Esslyn from the public confirmed that many of the Buff Pass trails will be directional. Foster said the trails will be designed such that the populous should go the way they re intended to go. Kyle Pietras from the public encouraged a high technical level with the new trails along with more flow when terrain changes. Howelsen Directional Phase II: DelliQuadri: My understanding is that Civil Design Consultants is looking to see if there is a feasible way to get a trail up a shale side. 4

5 Setter: I haven t spoken with Bob recently or seen the plan yet I don t think he s done with it but it s a challenging slope. Extremely steep, loose shale. To do a wide beginner trail at a low grade is difficult and expensive. Switchbacks are required. The question is whether it can be built with a reasonable budget. Committee members said a site visit might be useful. Highway 40 Lodging: Eggen: Still looking into design; haven t started yet. DelliQuadri: Initial design this year and next; construction in 17. It can be phased. Project Rankings for 2016 DelliQuadri distributed a document showing the money allocation and actual spending through June 25, The contract for Emerald Directional #1 is $116,200 rather than $47,500. Forest Service 2016 Request: $150,400 for planning for construction management and the next phase of planning. Construction for trails - Grouse, BTR, Soda Mountain, Buffalo Billy and Dry Lake Trailhead/accessible trail. Total ask is $402,000. Dry Lake, which isn t yet ranked, is $30,000. DelliQuadri: Accommodations tax revenues are above estimates. There are unspent moneys in the reserve fund. Much like the Yampa Street Committee requested that they spend their future allocation, you have the ability to request that as well. You could request that some of the $600,000 allocated for 2017 be spent in Dry Lake Accessibility will be ranked at the next meeting. DelliQuadri: For the US40 Lodging Trail, the thought is if they could have $30,000 for next year, they could finish planning and design. Malia confirmed that the $15,000 for Howelsen Directional Phase II was just to determine feasibility and perhaps do some design work. Setter said about half the money would probably be spent on determining feasibility with the other half for the rest of the design if it is indeed feasible. Emerald Directional #2 is a very low feature trail on the Orton property. Was originally ranked very low. Bonner recommended that all the Buff Pass items be top priority for 2016 along with the US40 Lodging Trail. Emerald Directional #2 would be pushed to

6 According to the forest service, they could build Grouse, BTR, and Soda Mountain in 2016, plus half of Buffalo Billy s. The remaining portion of that trail along with Spring Creek and Buffalo Mountain would be The committee agreed with Bonner s recommendation. MOTION Pete Wither moved to rank Grouse at #8, BTR at #9, Buffalo Billy s at #10, Soda Mountain at #11, US40 Lodging at #12. Dan Bonner seconded the motion. Discussion on the motion: Eric Dearing from the public suggested that since Grouse and BTR are currently at least ridable and Soda Mountain is not that Soda and Buffalo Mountain be ranked higher than BTR and Grouse. Martin said he agreed with changing the order. Bonner pointed out that the committee can t really dictate priorities to the Forest Service that it s all going to be together. The motion carried unanimously. MOTION Dan Bonner proposed to rank Spring Creek Alternate at #13, Buffalo Mountain at #14, Howelsen Directional #2 at #15, and Emerald Directional #2 at #16. Pete Wither seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. DelliQuadri will create a draft response to the Forest Service request. Next Meeting: August 12 Adjournment The meeting adjourned at approximately 1:32 p.m. MINUTES PREPARED, REVIEWED AND RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED BY: Timothy Keenan and Winnie DelliQuadri. Approved this 23rd Day of September,