The proposed Crested Butte to Crested Butte South path, a recreation path that has been below dialogue for over a decade, is beginning to develop after Gunnison County submitted an software to Great Outdoors Colorado for a planning grant in December. The multimodal path might dramatically alter the best way residents and guests journey within the North Valley, by protecting bikers protected and off of the freeway.
Although Hwy. 135 has a wider shoulder, the demand for a path between Crested Butte and Crested Butte South has continued to rise. As the hall turns into busier every summer season, street biking has grown more and more harmful alongside the freeway, limiting the variety of cyclists prepared to take the journey.
Joe Enenbach, a Gunnison resident and wildlife photographer, bikes to Almont, and typically all the best way to Crested Butte, three to 4 instances per week through the summer season.
“Unless you’re going pretty slow or on a bike,” wildlife will be troublesome to identify, Enenbach stated. Biking is “a great opportunity to see wildlife and get good exercise … but people just zoom on by that.”
“Often people just turn the wheel a little bit and go around me, but sometimes they don’t,” he stated. “I say I feel reasonably safe. But you don’t know who’s in that car.”
As leisure site visitors grows, a hyperlink between Crested Butte and Crested Butte South is “even more important now,” stated Dan Crean, proprietor of Double Shot Cyclery in Gunnison.
“For us to ride up to Crested Butte and be able to get off of the shoulder and onto a path for bikes would be amazing,” Crean stated. “It’s pretty scary, especially when you start getting into areas where cell phone coverage starts picking up, and people start grabbing their phones while they’re driving.”
Road driving modified for Crean when his pal and longtime native Dale Thomas was killed in an accident on Hwy. 135 in 2015.
“When that happened, it definitely altered how I rode my bike and where I rode my bike,” Crean stated. “To think that the car coming behind you could turn into you any second is definitely a little unnerving riding up there. It’s a great shoulder all the way up, but you’re still riding on the same road as vehicles.”
In addition to protecting path customers protected, the trail will even be “perfect terrain,” for e-bikes, Crean stated, that are rising in reputation.
People are persevering with to undertake electrical bikes for commuting, stated Matt Feier, who spent a few years commuting on his bike from his house in Crested Butte South to the resort.
“I’m not necessarily advocating that everyone should e-bike everywhere for everything, we have a big mountain bike community … but for commuting, they’re awesome,” Feier stated.
When trying on the path’s potential to each encourage bike commuting and create a safer route, Feier stated he thinks “people will be inclined to ride their bikes” and let their “kids ride into town.”
The path, which might be flatter than the rec path from Crested Butte to Mt. Crested Butte, would additionally function a leisure alternative for summertime guests, stated Dave Ochs, director of the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association (CBMBA).
“Our path is actually kind of hard because it’s a hill,” Ochs stated. Putting guests on a “flatter and truly more beginner experience, whether that’s a paved path, or if it is gravel, is an excellent opportunity.”
If the trail is constructed within the Colorado Department of Transportation’s right-of-way, the path would possible fall near the freeway. Despite the potential obstacles surrounding the challenge, together with ditch considerations and securing easements throughout non-public property, Ochs stated CBMBA is worked up to see the planning course of get began.
“If it identifies some alternative routes that would take it a little further from the highway, we’d like to see it be that way,” Ochs stated. “But if the highway is the only alternative, then obviously, the path is better than none.”
“It’s just great to see it coming along,” he stated.
Feier, who additionally hung out on the Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Committee, in addition to on the Crested Butte South Property Owners Association (POA) board, stated his “biggest push” is to see this part achieved.
“But we really need a rec path all the way from Crested Butte to Gunnison,” Feier stated. “In my mind, this is phase one. You should be able to move around without a vehicle or without taking the bus. It seems like that’s an achievable thing. They do it in other places.”
For instance, the Rio Grande Trail, a 42-mile multi-use path, runs from Aspen to Glenwood Springs and is totally separate from site visitors, besides at intersections.
Marty Thoma, a mechanic at Basalt Bike and Ski stated the path affords plenty of advantages to each native customers and vacationers.
“Local businesses get a lot more business, I would say greatly in part due to the trail around here,” Thoma stated. “A lot of folks will rent bikes from the bike shops along the way, and restaurants and bars get business. It definitely benefits the community.”
Dom Eymere, fomer Crested Butte South POA supervisor, has been concerned with the challenge since 2008, because the path slowly moved up the precedence checklist within the valley. He stated the trail is an efficient place to begin “for setting the tone for future trail construction.”
“I think we’d get younger riders, older riders, recreational riders, mountain bikers that are looking to access other trails by not having to get in their car to drive seven miles. We love the aspect of just getting on your bike and riding for miles and miles.”
(Bella Biondini will be contacted at 970.641.1414 or bella@gunnisontimes.com.)