19 Aug 2013
Petition to City of Durango for encouraging one-way directional travel on steep narrow trails
Star Wars Trail is steep and narrow, at times, with blind corners and dominant user trends. Directional, one-way travel is recommended on this trail.
Many people that are familiar with trails in the four corners states, or specifically those in Durango, could tell you about their safety concerns on steep narrow trails with blind corners and the importance that one-way directional designation has for people using them.
While enforcing one-way directional traffic on these trails is unrealistic, the educational component behind the reasoning for such encouragement is priceless.
This petition letter (below) will be sent to Durango’s Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Metz, who has said that she will forward it each time that it is signed by someone to all of the members of Durango’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board as well as to Durango’s Natural Lands Preservation Advisory Board. Together, these two Boards will eventually decide whether the City of Durango should encourage one-way directional travel on any of the trails on City-owned open space.
Please consider making your voice heard with City Officials by signing this custom petition and sharing your tactical action with others on Facebook.
Thank You,
Adam Howell
Manager, Horse Gulch Blog LLC
[emailpetition id=”5″]
[signaturelist id=”5″]
Signed, sealed and delivered!
Jerry Hazard
August 19th, 2013 at 12:36 pmpermalink
Had a feeling that this letter might catch your eye! 🙂
Adam Howell
August 19th, 2013 at 12:48 pmpermalink
Just signed this. I changed the wording slightly because I can’t agree on making Telegraph one way only. I have been with several people who did not have the skill to descend Anasazi nor the energy to ride out to Big Canyon or similar to the East.
Seems it wouldn’t take much to put a quick ‘expect downhill traffic’ on these trails like they did on Snakecharmer. Might help with lawsuits too if someone gets squished.
Brian Schoff
August 20th, 2013 at 9:32 ampermalink
Brian thanks for being an advocate for some progressive signage and trail usage standards.
You make a good point about Telegraph being an easier way down for the novice riders. Its a valuable contribution to the discussion about directional trails.
Adam Howell
August 20th, 2013 at 12:18 pmpermalink
Finally rode the rock drop at the very bottom of the new “progressive” trail. What a great job building this trail. Its all that was missing in Durango.
As far as the “Expect DH traffic” signs. This is a total joke. This trail MUST be directional DH only. Every purposed build trail in CO is directional. Even just the first drop on Snake Charmer is a blind left into a pretty good send it drop. If someone was down there, no way can I stop. Whats worse are not the local educated rider who knows not to stand below an air, but the tourist and their dog walking up this trail. Some one should ask the town attorney what he thinks will occur when there is a conflict on this trail and precedent has shown that other trails throughout the state have been made directional for safety purposes. Hey…but I’m not a lawyer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn 🙂
Dave Elkan
September 4th, 2013 at 11:36 ampermalink
Thanks for signing, Dave.
I think that rock quarry at the bottom has a lot more potential beyond what we’ve built there already. There’s plenty more rock to work with for building more drops or jumps that could last for a long time into the future. Please let the City know how you feel about new progressive freeride features on City-owned open space. Love it!
Have fun out there!
Adam Howell
September 4th, 2013 at 6:10 pmpermalink