Happy Dirt Bike Season!

Our season is just about to go wide open with snow melting and gates opening. 

My name is Dave Fond and I am the new President for CBTRA. I’ve lived in the Roaring Fork Valley for 20 years now. I manage Incline Ski & Board Shops in the winter months and work part time in the summer for KTM of Aspen and Aspen Dirt Bike School.  My wife Melissa is a beautiful lady and a very understanding one at that. My son Koa is 15 and has been riding since he was 5.  I feel very fortunate to live in what I believe is Dirt Bike Heaven. 

In this newsletter I’d like to talk about-

Our first trail day is scheduled for June 24th. We will be meeting in the Red Table OHV parking area off of Cottonwood Pass Rd,  @9:00a.m. This trail day is going to be different then years past. The FS would like to promote a new program for Basalt Mountain. It is a Motorized Trail Ambassador Program. The aim of the program is to bring community support to our local trails through a cooperative effort of the Colorado Backcountry Trail Riders Alliance (CBTRA), Rocky Mountain Sports Riders (RMSR), Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Forest Service. The Ambassador program is important to promote responsible OHV use, help protect wildlife habitat, balance with other user groups, and ensure long-term sustainability of motorized recreation on our public lands.  This program will provide information to the Forest Service regarding who is riding motorcycles, hiking, mountain biking, and on horseback, on Basalt Mountain. Who has there bikes registered and specific trails people are riding. The Forest Service will give details to us on Sunday morning June 24th.   After our hard work/riding is done this day, Earl Rogers has invited us to go to New York Pizza in El Jebel to enjoy some Pizza & Beverages. This is very generous of Earl and CBTRA thanks him very much for the support.  Plus it’s the best Pie in town!

The two other Trail Days that have been scheduled for 2018 by the Forest Service are     

July 15th - Basalt Mountain Park Lot

August 19th – TBD

Annual Memberships

If you have not already renewed your annual membership please do ASAP. The cost is $25.00 for an individual membership. See the CBTRA web site to renew or join. All I can say about this is that we have some of the finest single-track anywhere in the United States and it’s right in our back yard.  We need to have a voice in what goes on up on Basalt Mountain and Triangle Peak.  Were fortunate to have the Forest Service showing support for Dirt Bikers in these unbelievable areas.  Please help support the maintenance of these trails. 

CBTRA’s  Mission:

We advocate motorized use, rights, trail sustainability, personal responsibility and stewardship in the White River National Forest and surrounding areas. 

With the above statement, I would like to just talk about some good common sense to have while riding on the trail. Hopefully this is all just basic information that you will not even read because it is just commonplace for you. But maybe there’s somebody new to the sport or somebody who has just moved here. And there not used to riding in such a beautiful area and national forest lands. Lets set a good example of Colorado OHV Stewardship!

* Trail Closures are as follows-

Basalt Mountain - October 10th – June 21st. 
Triangle Peak -  October 10th – June 21st.

* Give Wildlife Distance on the trails.

* Pack It In Pack It Out, and better yet pick up somebody else’s trash. Leave the area better then when you found it.

* Purchase your current OHV sticker.  

* Spark Arrestors. Word is the FS is going to be really cracking down this summer because of the extremely dry conditions. 

* Show respect to others you come across on the trails. If you come up on horse’s on the trail, I would recommend killing your engine and wait for the rider to signal to you what to do. Wait for them to pass or proceed by them very slowly. This encounter can turn really bad quickly and very dangerous if we are not respectful to the horse community.

* Tread Lightly. Try to avoid re-routes and closed trails

Social Media

The CBTRA Facebook page needs some love. I’d like to get more current post & pictures on the page. Maybe we could get some current trail conditions, wildlife seen on trails, future trips people are going on, pictures from trips people have gone on, etc…  

Thank You for reading and please let us know if anybody has any suggestions for fund raising, group rides and other ideas to help support CBTRA.

Regards, 
Dave