Please vote for the Chapman Hill Bike Park Project on the Bell Helmets website. Vote by May 4th. If you want the website URL, here it is: http://www.bellhelmets.com/bellbuilt/ A map of one proposal for Chapman Hill Bike Park is HERE.

Preparing to inherit more land management control and future financial costs such as wildland firefighting, mitigation and law enforcement activities on Horse Gulch open space lands, the Durango City Council voted in favor of annexing those 1,150 acres that they own at their meeting on Tuesday. Before, the parcels that the City owns up in Horse Gulch were actually in the County’s jurisdiction, whereas, starting May 21, 2014, they will be in the City’s jurisdiction. This change in jurisdiction will give the City more control…

This blogger asked City of Durango officials to revisit a previous request of Ben Bain and I to adopt existing trails on City open space lands and build optional freeride features there. Part of our request to the City was also to encourage directional travel on Star Wars Trail in Test Tracks, aka Overend Mountain Park. It was all turned down for a third time by Durango’s Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Metz and the Natural Lands Board at their meeting on Monday night. Metz…

A man that owns a coffee shop on Main Avenue in Durango interrupted a City Council study session to say that he was taken aback by the their insinuation that most business owners in the Central Business District wanted to exclude any pot shops from opening near them. Tim Wheeler, owner of Durango Coffee Company, was sitting in the public seating area while City Councilor Christina Rinderle was justifying how the Council might exclude pot shops from the Central Business District in the upcoming regulations…

Here’s one of those rides that dries out pretty quick in Durango.

Any local that’s been to Horse Gulch trail head lately can tell you that the chain link security fencing has made the access narrow and slow-going for the large amount of foot and bike traffic going in and out of there. With safety in mind, the fencing around the new cul-de-sac and offset from the hillside to the north keeps mountain bikers from going too fast out of the Gulch, while allowing ample room for heavy equipment and construction crews to work behind the recently…

At the request of the La Plata Open Space Conservancy, who holds the conservation easement for City property in Horse Gulch, officials with the City of Durango had several illegal bike jumps, shade structures and fire rings destroyed in Horse Gulch last fall, said Durango’s Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Metz. Specifically,  the wooden jump was removed off of Chad’s secret trail as well as the ramp access to the concrete slab at the top of Raider Ridge, said Durango’s Parks and Recreation Director Cathy…

M’Lissa Roulson is excited to be reunited with her one-year-old golden retriever named Charlie after she ran away from her and disappeared in Horse Gulch for a month. It was yesterday–about thirty days later–that Roulson finally got Charlie back while hiking with some of her other dogs in Horse Gulch. There had been sightings of Charlie in the vicinity of Horse Gulch trail head. Specifically, Charlie been seen at Sonic, where many dogs and cats at large go to dumpster dive. Roulson said that she…

This blogger: Where was the idea for this Committee conceived? City of Durango’s Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Metz: Last year, there were 7 additional joint Parks and Recreation and Natural Lands Preservation Advisory Board meetings to discuss Oxbow Park and Preserve. Since the natural surface trail system is a similar topic that is discussed by both Advisory Boards, a Board member suggested that we have a committee to work on this topic (outside of our regular Board meetings) and then bring this back to…

Please take this 8-question survey on upcoming medical marijuana retail regulations for Durango’s Central Business District.    

Recommendations from Durango City Councilors and staff at a study session could result in the drafting of new regulations that would exclude any new pot shops from opening in Durango’s Central Business District. This map shows how the City’s proposed buffers of 1000 ft. around schools, parks, daycare facilities and counseling centers would totally preclude any new pot shops from opening up in Durango’s Central Business District. Map courtesy of the City of Durango. Proposed pot shop regulations that the new City Attorney will write…

Readers are encouraged to take these two polls on the requirements that two City of Durango Boards have come up with for people floating from the newly acquired Oxbow Park, which is expected to open to the public in the months or years to come. For more information, please read Horse Gulch Blog’s story about the City’s Oxbow Park and Preserve Management Plan, which requires floaters from the Park to have a personal flotation device, flippers, a paddle, or hand paddles.

A new trail organization is coming together in Durango with the narrow focus of building trails and features specifically for mountain bikers, says the group’s founder. Called the Durango Mountain Bike Association, the oranization’s President, Kurt Smith, says he is in the preliminary stages of designing the mission statement, setting up the board of directors and working on the website www.durangomba.org. As a resident of Durango, Smith is actively recruiting mountain bike advocates to be on the board of directors for DMBA, this new 501c(3) non- profit organization.…

At a joint meeting between Durango’s Parks and Recreation Board and the Natural Lands Board, the Oxbow Park and Preserve Management Plan was amended to require that anyone floating the river from Oxbow must have a paddle or swim flippers. Also approved by the City Boards was a revision to close the Park and Preserve until June 30, 2014, plus the establishment of Park hours from 5 a.m. to midnight, as consistent with those in existence for other City parks. All revisions will be passed…

Trails 2000 is a non-profit organization in Durango that many locals associate with sustainable trail design, construction and maintenance practices. Others might disagree, and pitch some examples. Given Trails 2000’s local popularity and the likelihood that people will continue giving them money for the cause, it is reasonable for donors to expect that some of their money will be spent on trail-related expenses. More specifically, what is Trails 2000 doing with its revenues from fundraising? Looking at their most recent IRS Form 990 financial returns…

Documents obtained by Horse Gulch Blog last week from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on the Forest Service’s Logchutes Downhill Mountain Bike Zone Environmental Assessment (EA) revealed strong public support for the project, despite a smaller group of commentators that were opposed to it. Trail management policy in Durango is among the more contentious topics in the realm of public opinion when it comes to advising land management agencies how to write policies. Public opinions on the proposed Logchutes Downhill Mountain Bike Zone is a…

Raiders Ridge is about to have 85 more acres of public land attached to it thanks to an open space acquisition that was recommended by Durango’s Natural Lands Preservation Advisory Board, approved by the City Council, and then handed over to City Manager Ron LeBlanc to close on this December 10th. Overlapping Raiders Ridge in Horse Gulch are two parcels that the City of Durango is scheduled to purchase from Jake Dalla for $510,000 dollars, according to Kevin Hall, Durango’s Assistant Community Development Director. In…

Class warfare in the form of a ban on inner-tubers wanting to float a stretch of the Animas River is currently in full turbulence among two City Boards that are debating whether to keep the written prohibition in a draft of the Oxbow Park and Preserve Management Plan. If and when the ban is finalized by the Boards, a political challenge to the rule could come in the form of a written City ordinance or even an appeal to an authoritative federal court after losing an…