After months of intense opposition from mountain bikers, Boulder County commissioners voted Tuesday to abandon a controversial pilot program that would have limited access to certain county trails for some users on specific days.
Instead, commissioners directed staff to focus on education, trail etiquette, improved sightlines and other measures aimed at reducing conflicts among trail users without limiting public access.
The proposal originated with County Commissioner Claire Levy, who asked county staff to explore limiting bicycle access on certain days at Heil Valley Ranch to make hikers feel more comfortable after residents raised concerns about trail conflicts. All three commissioners later directed staff to develop several pilot options.
The proposal drew immediate and sustained opposition after it became public in April. More than 7,500 people responded to an online county survey, with roughly 70% opposing the idea. The survey was nonscientific.
County staff presented commissioners with three options: creating directional loops at Heil Valley Ranch without restricting access; closing selected Heil Valley trails to mountain bikers and others to hikers on Thursdays; or restricting different trail users on selected trails at both Heil Valley Ranch and Hall Ranch on Wednesdays.
Staff recommended the first option, along with additional education and outreach, and improvements to trail visibility.
Commissioners Ashley Stolzmann and Marta Loachamin rejected all three options and directed staff to move forward only with education, outreach and trail improvements. Commissioner Levy favored the second option.
Stolzmann said the county should focus on encouraging communication among trail users rather than restricting access.
Loachamin questioned whether the county had identified a problem that warranted new restrictions.
“What are we trying to solve?” she asked staff.
The question was met with laughter from bikers attending the meeting. Some critics have characterized the pilot as a “solution looking for a problem.”
Loachamin said she recently hiked the Wapiti Trail at Heil Valley Ranch, where some residents have reported issues with bikes, and said the bikers she passed were “super friendly.”
“My interpretation is that we’re trying to address potential conflict, and I’m just not experiencing it,” she said.
Mountain bikers celebrate decision
Loachamin also cited a letter commissioners received Tuesday morning from the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance, which argued that the county should invest in education, trail design, improved sightlines and stewardship instead of restricting access.
“Our biggest concern is that the report presents three alternatives, but each assumes that some form of access or use restriction is necessary to improve the visitor experience,” the letter read.
“Missing from the discussion is what we believe should be Alternative 0: investing in the solutions the community broadly supports, including education, improved trail design, better sightlines, etiquette campaigns, and expanded stewardship, without reducing access to public trails.”
Although not on the list of options from staff, “Alternative 0” prevailed.
Although the June 30 meeting was not open to public comment, about a dozen spectators attended, most of them mountain bikers. Some wore helmets. One wore a sign that read, “I mtb and I vote.”
“I’m really positive our voice was heard,” said Wendy Sweet, executive director of the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance, after the meeting. She said she looked forward to continuing conversations with the county, including the possibility of converting some out-and-back trails into directional loops.
Levy defends proposal
Levy favored option two, which would have closed Heil Valley Ranch’s Wapiti and Ponderosa trails to bikers on Thursdays while also closing Wild Turkey and Picture Rock trails to hikers.
When it became clear that Loachamin and Stolzmann were prepared to vote together to cancel the pilot, Levy asked if either would, “at a minimum,” support option one, which would have created directional loops.
“I think it’s the least impactful way to try to reduce the sort of potential for head-on conflict,” she said. “It at least gets something out of this whole process.”
Both declined.
In her comments, Levy also addressed criticism she had received from some members of the bike community.
“There have been some perceptions in the community, reflected in letters to the editor, letters to the county commissioners, that this is just a personal mission of mine based on my needs and desires,” she said. “It is not.”
While Loachamin and Stolzmann were never mentioned in survey comments, dozens singled out Levy by name. Some called for her recall.
One survey respondent wrote that Levy was “responsible for pushing her anti-mountain bike agenda onto the entire region.”
“We all bring our own background and experience to things,” Levy said at the meeting. “I can say that over the many years since we added Hall and Heil to our open space, there has been a decline in hiker use, and it’s reflected in our visitor use. People asked me over and over again, ‘Why can we not do at one of these two open space properties what we did at Betasso?’”
Betasso Preserve currently prohibits biking on Wednesdays and Saturdays and remains the county’s only open space property with day-specific user restrictions.
Hundreds voiced support for the pilot in the survey, citing safety concerns.
“I love the Betasso system since I know I can run there on certain days and not worry about Mtn bikes,” one wrote. “Plus it’s a pilot to collect data not a permanent change yet.”
County visitor data show the share of hikers at Heil Valley Ranch has declined since 2010, while Hall Ranch has seen the opposite trend in recent years. The county does not report total annual visitation, making it difficult to determine whether the overall number of hikers has increased or declined.
