Helping to get more people on bikes without the discomfort of sweating or hassle of having to find a parking spot were a few reasons why two entrepreneurs in Steamboat Springs started up a Pedego Electric Bikes store. This, despite a local ordinance that bans motorized bicycles on trails and mountain parks. Linda John and her business partner Bruce Caplowe started up a Pedego Electric Bikes store downtown on Lincoln Ave, the main road through Steamboat Springs, last July. “There are so many people who…

Here’s a video I made with some GoPro footage I shot while downhilling at Trestle Bike Park, of Winter Park Resort. It was my birthday, and I had two talented riders from the front range to show me around. Thanks to Mike and Justin, and I sincerely hope that we can meet up for a ride again some day!

A section of Mike’s Trail in Horse Gulch that’s being rerouted was worked on by a group of around 20 volunteers on Wednesday. At least ten of those volunteers were members of the Durango High School Cross Country Team. The others were a bunch of mountain bikers. The section of Mike’s that’s being rerouted is a switch back that goes around a gully that’s hard to drain water off of.

At the request of horseback riders, bikes would be banned from the Big Lick Trail behind Purgatory Ski Resort if a Draft Management Plan for the Hermosa Creek Watershed becomes finalized. Having another trail that is closed to bikes and motorized vehicles outside of the wilderness was a request made to officials at the San Juan National Forest by horseback riders, according to comments made by the Columbine Ranger District’s Matt Jenowiak, for a Durango Herald article. On a more positive note, the Draft Management…

Electric bikes have a unique ability to help riders get to places faster with less effort required in pedaling up hills, resulting in them sweating less during their commute. Those benefits are gradually growing the popularity of e-bikes, while their high price tag and prohibition on local trails remain as speed bumps to their mainstream use. E-bikers represent a very small portion of commuters in Durango. I would guess that they make up around 1% of all commuter traffic on City roads and trails, even…

Beekeepers and their honey bees in La Plata County have one more reason to sleep well at night: they won’t be a casualty of spraying that’s done for mosquito abatement on the Animas Mosquito Control District. That’s because bees will have one less airborne neurotoxin to die from, as the Animas Mosquito Control District (AMCD) has progressed towards a more wholistic approach to mosquito control that leverages with more organic larvicides, instead of spraying the adulticide of Permethrin-laced mineral oil during the day. AMCD Manager…

The City of Durango’s Natural Lands Board approved a payment to Trails 2000 at it’s meeting on Monday for work that it did on the jump line at the bottom of the Champan Hill Flow Trail with the help of an excavator and a water truck in April. This blogger, along with the rest of the Natural Lands Board voted to approve the payment to Trails 2000, despite the payment, nor the work being authorized prior to the work that the organization did in April.…

Marking a first for the City of Durango since Colorado legalized marijuana in 2012, the City is seeing its sales tax collections from medical and retail marijuana collectively and consistently exceeding the collections of liquor stores every month since April of this year. Sales tax collections from the month of June for recreational retail marijuana alone was $53,358 dollars, only $2,588 dollars less than sales tax collections from liquor stores for the same month. Retail and medical marijuana sales tax collections combined, however, were $64,966…

Copied from the Durango Freeride Facebook Page: STAR WARS ENDURO JUNE 29th!!! SUPPORTING THE CHIP PEDDLER! Volunteers and times- Course set up: (4:30-6) 2-3 people Registration: (5:45-6:30) 2 people Starter: (6:15-end) 2 people Finishers: (6:15-end) 3 people Course Marshals: (6:15-end) 2 people Race Info Star Wars Enduro race entries on Wednesday June 29th go to benefit Neil Hannum, the one and only Chip Peddler! Come Join us in supporting longtime Durango Resident and supporter of Durango DEVO, and the SKA ZIA team Neil Hannum, the…

La Plata Open Space Conservancy drafted a new Conservation Easement Amendment Policy two months before a controversial vote by two City boards last May where several popular social trails were approved for closure. Neither the the City, nor the Open Space Conservancy shared this document with the public before the Natural Lands Board and the Parks and Recreation Boards voted to close social trails on City property that were held under conservation easements. Horse Gulch Blog obtained this Amendment Policy from the City of Durango…

Stagecoach Trail is a sweet trail to shuttle by itself, or as the latter half of a shuttle ride from the top of Black Hawk Pass. It has steeps, wide trail in many places, and some fun natural features on the sides to jump or huck off of. It is in desperate need of some maintenance like the removal of around five larges aspens to cut with a chainsaw, and several sections that are overgrown with aspen saplings that will eventually make the trail unrideable…

Last summer and again last April, the City of Durango sent out crews of city staff to its open space lands to close two popular freeride social trails–Kitty Charmer Trail in Horse Gulch and the Phoenix Trail in the Dalla Mountain Park. This blogger put in a records request to the City of Durango for some information on the expenditures made for these work days. After paying the City Clerks office a hefty chunk of change for this information, a report on what the City…

Bikes would provide a gentle way of traveling on the Oxbow Preserve trail where rider’s speeds would be scrubbed by the soft seasonally-inundated soil. You can hold values as a conservationist while supporting bike travel in the Preserve. ‘Share the Trails’ is a philosophy that avoids creating unnecessary conflicts between trail users. Birds and other wildlife have prime habitat all throughout the Preserve where they can forage in peace away from hikers and bikers. The City of Durango rejected the proposal of making the new…