Advocacy

How to: Keep Singletrack Single... Fruita Ethics!

 Fruita Singletrack Ethics    -     for singletrack lovers everywhere...

I've tried to say this a million ways and have decided to just offer up a few positive tips to those who want to join or lead the art of using a mountain bike to actually make trails better, instead of contributing to the MTB nemisis of the ever widening trail. Here's some thoughts for those of us who want to preserve the narrow and flowing trails we ride and love. Thanks for reading and Thank You even more for spreading the love of singletrack.

• Learn the Singletrack Yield; the rule of ”Yield to everyone” isnt right! Too often riders who meet just ride OFF TRAIL around each other. That is NOT a Yield at all; that's ”Im too much in a hurry to be slowed by you”. The rule is most always; allow the uphill rider to pass. (or best of all use directional trail travel when possible) How? STOP your bike - still in the trail... step a foot out of the trail off to the side (without crushing that plant or cactus) and LEAN your bike and/or slide it a bit to the side. The rider you are YEILDING TOO then can pass without leaving the track. AWESOME!      If we pass each other; thats 2 bikes wide and thus is NOT SINGLETRACK after we do. (Trails wide enough for this are called "double track" or ”roads”) Keep Singletrack Single is our rule... Thanks for being a part of that passion for narrow beautiful trails.
• NO Shortcuts! - we all know that we dont cut switchbacks (I think we do) but we also need to spread the word that just because we ”see a trail over there” doesnt mean we need to ”ride over there right now”. Trails all have a start/entrance and and end/exit; they may have several but they do not need an entrance and exit every few yards. Please don't ”cut over” to the trail from your camp site or from that road you parked on or from anywhere except the Trailhead. I can promise you; if you ride up the road you will find the entrance; then you can roll DOWN the sweet singletrack and help it continue a long life as "sweet singletrack" as well as preserve the experience of those who are on track.
• Cheaters never prosper / No new TrAXES! - we all run across things we can't or don't feel like riding. If we didn't; then we would be the single greatest rider in the sport. Never ”lower” the trail to your skill level by altering the line or stacking rocks or cutting down trees or plants or making a "ride around" (sometimes "designed ride arounds exist and thats fine). Someone can ride it; I know it seems like too much but it's not. Ask your friend to spot you and give it a try maybe, or just walk it, NEVER re-design a trail that you didn't help design and build in the first place. If you really think it needs fixing? Stop in the local trail advocate shop and mention it. That will be appreciated; kicking out "off trail tracks" will be appreciated by all and prevent others thinking it's OK to do the same. Creating a new ”by pass” or ”ramp” on someones favorite rock move will be despised and be re-built back to normal and thus wastes everyones time. Cutting down or back a tree is just vandelism of nature; NEVER kill plants for your own convenience, our day on the trail certainly doesnt out weigh the value of a 400 year old juniper? The beauty of a mountain bike is we can travel through pristine places and leave no impact or damage at all behind. Just a sweet ribbon of Ten inch singletrack flowing off into the distance.   "Learn to ride Ten Inches wide"        Thank You and feel free to spread the word.
• Burn Baby Burn - But NOT that! - We all camp and we all LOVE to camp near our beloved trails. The better the trails the more campers and riders they see a season. As in Fruita where we see 20,000 campers a year the ”gathering” of fire wood is a huge negative impact. Live trees should be allowed to remain thus and dead limbs still belong to the tree. Old decaying trees are the source of fertilizing the soil for the next generation. BYO-WOOD (buy a bundle) and save the nature that we came here to enjoy. Spread the word on this; it's a little known idea, wood is availbale at OTE and local stores, we need those few trees we got and they're really nice to have near camp. A juniper is 300-600 years old at full size - is that worth a one night campfire? did you know it burns like crap anyway? We camp where its pretty cuz its pretty, my dog doesnt even crap in its own bed! OK, I dont have a dog but you know what I mean...
• On the camping note - theres quite a few sites in areas with camping sites. There's actually just the right amount to not wreck the experience of the camp next door. We have spent tha past 14 years trying to optomize that camping expereince and do so in sucha  way as to preserve the place where we love to ride and camp. If it's Full its Full; please do not "just camp wherever", establishing new sites is not OK and not something that is done in the "personal emergency of late arrival"  Call the local shop and we'll always let you know what we know about availability, but if its full... its full... its will make sure that its there and awesome for you and I for a long time to come. No New Sites - Thanks
• When in doubt... RESPECT it... all of it. We love here and you came here because it's awesome. I travel becasue I want to see more awesome places. To be the one who comes to ”awesome” and leaves it ”less awesome” says something about me that I would never want to hear said.    Leave it as good or better than you found it...

These are the Trails and the Places we Love! I'm glad you love them as I do. Thanks for the help - Keep Singletrack Single - Love Life - Share the Love - Enjoy the ride

Some comments and articles form the years past...

Update; 2007-2008

After the Trail Development frenzy of the 90's in Fruita / Grand Junction. The 2000's led us into the politics of Land Managment Planning and thus an onslaught of meetings and discussions and political actions. The last trail we built in Fruita was Moore Fun and Rustlers and GJ was the rebuilding of Holy Cross. In the late 00's the BLM has been busy with Oil and Gas development as we all the sudden seem to need 10 times the gas we needed in the past years (or maybe the industry knows the window of ”make BANK of natural resources” is nearing it's election... I mean ”end”). Anyway; without getting all political (especially since I have been enjoying the window of ”non-political inactivity) we heven't been laying down miles of new singletrack in the past few years. I still must applaude the ongoing efforts and the undyding tenacity of COPMOBA (Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Assn.) as they keep fighting and trying to push our imobile BLM office forward. They have had an approced trail project in the Luch Loop area for 3 years (A Black Diamond / extreme type effort) but every time it gets close another reason is unveiled as to why it cannot be built. Basically the BLM has placed Mountain Biking so far back on the fed's desk of ”important issues” that I think it fel into the trash. They have said publically; ”no new trails”. This of course leaves a bit of a void, a bit of justification to the ”renegade builder” and a lot of time for us to go ride instead of go to meetings.

If you didn't see the ”edgy” article in the Colorado Springs Gazette; you should at least know the BLM's quoted position of people needing energy and not needing trails. Seemingly odd in the face of the supposed National Crisis' of Fat America and using too much gas. It just shows where this government stands I suppose. Anyway; it's an interesting article but pretty much spills the beans on the unspoken truth of the areas recreation / Land Manager realtionships. As already said; at least we have time to ride and I think if you've read this far your with me on the fact... ”I need Singletrack Mountain Biking more than I need more natural gas” Cheers... keep up the good fight... keep trails narrow... VOTE...

http://outdoors.coloradosprings.com/fullStory.jsp?id=5908

 PS...

If your in advocacy or have the ear of someone that has a voice or the power to change something. Consider this; in my opinion one of the key fights we need to win is this. Get the Goverment Agency's to regard Recreation as a resource and a HIGHLY valuable one! We that recreate (aka ”the PEOPLE”) and RECREATION as a whole is regarded by Land Managers as a ”pastime” of the public. It is largely spoken of in many FED circles as a pain in the arse that they have to deal with. It was said to me by a BLM staffer ”all we even think of doing is mitigation, there is no plan”. They basically wish we would go away at times as we're in the way of managing important things like cattle, oil, gas, etc.

Here's what we need; Recreation to be seen as a valuable resource. It brings in dollars; not to Federal level campaign donors  and VP ”get rich quick schemes” like Haliburton but  it brings dollars to local comminities and airlines and gas stations and real world jobs like you and I have (aka ”the economie”). It is a huge economic resource with added benefits beyond. If it were viewed as such, we / recreation use and development; would sudddenly stand it's own ground in planning against any other resource and not be shrugged off and shoved off the desk as it is.

Beyond the economic benefits of recreation, recreation has the unique and too often ignored ”resource” ability to fight obescitiy in America, fight polution / global warming and do so with less impact to enviroment and less use of fossil fuels and minimal damage to natural resources. This argument could be long; I'll let you take it from here and you probably already knew it. But lets get that moving somewhere that can make a difference in the way Goverment regards resources above recreation. We the people need the resource of recreation for our mental health, physical health and community health.

Fight On my brothers

global warming

Mountain Biker trail etiquette!

Can you believe it's 10 years of Fruita and most of our trails are still 18-24 inches wide! Thanks!

We still need your help... 

In this picture you can see how off trail riding has began the process of widening a narrow trail. If you see riders doing such damage to our desert soils and one-track such as this. Try to persuade them to ride only IN THE TRAIL! You see we get about 7 inches of rain a year. Things dont ”wash away” and things dont ”grow back”. When we do get rain it falls in torrent on loose desert soils, tose tire tracks become rivers and get worse, not better. Also other riders see them and think it's part of the trail and soon a 18” singltrack is a 4 foot wide road.

Keep singletrack single!

The picture above shows how to yield and not widen  trail. It's also why our trails are often directional. That keeps us from having to deal with that and helps keep trails narrow. We love having visitors in Fruita, but none of us want to see the place destroyed. Ride only IN the trail, never make new tracks in the dirt, if you make a boo boo kick out your tracks (replace your divets). 

Support these organizations, way cheaper than green fees...

COPMOBA

Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association - this long standing advocacy organization has a new energy and many new faces as efforts are well underway to grow and encompass the wide varitey of MTB projects and concerns in the area. With Freeride concerns, new trail needs and the explosion of Fruita on the world MTB scene. COPMOBA has re-organized, strategized and is setting a strong effort to be the leader of the expanding needs of this legendary cycling community. You can help in one simple way - JOIN COPMOBA - it gives us a bigger voice, the more cyclists we represent in these efforts. It also helps to support the numerous Projects underway. Please Help!

Grand Valley MTB Patrol

Founded in 1999 by Kevin Foote the GVMBP is an organization that assists riders on the trail with directions, education and first aid. But maybe even more significant is the efforts Kevin and the GVMBP have put together in the area of Trail Building. Kevin has been in charge of assembling the largest trail day efforts around. In 2005 renewed focus on the GVMBP should keep those efforts effective and growing to the benefit of all of us who ride!

IMBA

Supports advocacy and trails around the world.

MTB Access

Strong defense of trail access issues. Excellent resourse for fighting trail closures and strong scientific MTB support

”Keep Singletrack Single” - support ethics... support the sport!

The ”Keep Singletrack Single” yield; demonstrated by 3 guys who's dna is in pretty much every inch of trail in this area... support these guys, support singletrack... keep in narrow!


(Jon Rizzo, Kevin Foote and some dork from Fruita - Rich etchberger photo)

Above is a picture of a proper trail yield, ”how to pass without making a divot”, don't ride to the side... stop and step aside then step back in and proceed. NO OFF TRAIL TRACKS!!!! Means long life for killer good narrow singletrack! WALLA! 

Please help us preserve our area and it's famous narrow singletrack!

Hey, how 'bout we preserve all our riding areas here and everywhere. There's a good idea.
How about joining the fight for good trail ethics, low impact use and clean camping.
Mountain Bikers are becoming known as a pretty bad user group, lets turn that around! We need your help.
Join IMBA, join the fight, if theres not a group to join just live a good example
and teach others the right way to yield singletrack and use trails without causing damage that we all want to avoid.

• No cutting switchbacks
• No off trail yields
• No skids
• Do some trail work
• Ride over obstacles not around
• Have fun and keep this all as good as you found it.

Thanks for joining the fight!

Troy's Fruita Singletrack Rules

• Ride only in the Trails-No Off Trail Tracks
• Camp in designated sites only-No New Campsites
• Bring firewood or don't burn-No Firewood Cutting
• Don't tear up our trees-No Firewood Gathering
• If you accidentaly make tracks in our soil-please erase your divets
• Uphill riders have right-of-way-unless trail is a one way loop
  (i.e. horsethief goes clockwise, Zippety goes clockwise, Chutes goes  clockwise).

The key to keeping Fruita Pristine is you. Please spread the word that the desert soil is fragile, please help us stop the brutality on our 300+ year old Juniper trees (campfires are not that important). Please encourage the BLM to take up the cause of protecting our public lands (970-244-3000) sometimes they forget. And most importantly, be a land Advocate, the land can't speak for itself!

Rustlers Loop (new in 2003) built by COPMOBA and lots of locals

A bit about camping

Best campground: Highline Lake state park 970-858-7208
Second best: Colorado National Monument
      ...both about $8-13 a night

There is a few campsites on the doubletrack at the top of 18 road in the Bookcliffs area. Existing sites only, establishing a new site or cutting/gathering firewood may result in a ”rude awakening” or a BLM ticket. Depending on who finds you first. Be cool, camp kindly!

We are still striving to control our camping situation. So if you come please know how to be a ”low impact camper” and help us spread the word. The biggest issues are human waste and the gathering of firewood. Please bring in your own wood or don't have a fire. Please also pack out your trash and use a porta-pottie. Thanks.

More about the Fruita area here.