Boulder Offroad Alliance hires first executive director to speak for mountain bikers

By Kevin McCullen
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

The voice for one of the primary recreational users of Boulder County's public lands has taken a professional turn to keep trails open to mountain bikes.

Dirk Vinlove has become the first executive director of the Boulder Offroad Alliance, a volunteer group of several hundred mountain bike enthusiasts who united to preserve access to the nearly 340 miles of trails in Boulder County managed by city, state and federal agencies.

Vinlove, a former collegiate bicycle racer in Oregon, came to a county with an average of 2.6 mountain bikes per home, according to surveys.

A Boulder County Open Space survey last year found hikers accounted for 38 percent of all users of open space, followed by mountain bikers at 29 percent, said Tina Nielsen, assistant director of county parks and open space.

Vinlove and others don't believe the county is at ground zero in the conflicts over the recreational use and designation of trails. Yet, he said, the offroad alliance is concerned about keeping access to trails.

"We're trying to create more awareness so people know who we are," said Vinlove, who moved with his wife and 14-month-old son to Boulder last fall.

"BOA has very committed people, but they'd like to spend their free time riding their bikes and not meeting with land managers or publishing newsletters. My job is to be the person land managers know they can contact and to provide comment to them on issues that are of concern to BOA," said Vinlove, the group's first paid official.

One of the group's major concerns is trail access under the Forest Service's management plan for the Boulder Ranger District. The plan calls for the preservation or restoration of fauna and wildlife habitat in critical areas.

"They're changing how they have to look at the land, and all we're saying is we want to be a positive voice in the procedure," said Vinlove, 32.

The Boulder Ranger District this year won't complete its controversial proposed management plan for a nearly 38,000-acre area called Winiger Ridge that stretches north from Eldorado State Park, said Christine Walsh, Boulder District ranger.

Over half the area is designated for fauna and wildlife, but the area now includes some trails and a series of paths that cut through public and private land.

"We'd need to close some trails and restore some other areas before we could add any new trails there. We've heard the public say they want to have trails there, but we're not going to be able to do anything with Winiger this year," Walsh said.

The alliance also is monitoring Boulder County's proposed management plan for the sprawling Hall and Heil Ranch properties in the foothills north of Boulder. The two ranches have been closed while extensive biological surveys were conducted.

Although several hundred miles of trails are open to mountain bikes throughout the county, few routes lead directly from Boulder to the trails. Mountain bikes were banned in Boulder Mountain Parks in the early 1980s.

"We believe there is enough open space land to reasonably accommodate mountain bikes," he said. "Things like the blanket closure of Mountain Parks is a real blow to mountain bikers and we want to avoid that in the future.

"Boulder has a mystique for being a haven for mountain bikers, and mountain bikers come to Boulder and find out how few trails are open," he said.

Vinlove also represents a fresh face in the Boulder County recreational fight over public lands. He said he's asked off-road alliance members not to detail their personal histories with particular land managers or public officials, so he can approach them with a clean slate.

"I don't want to know the personal battles," he said. "I want the land managers to know I'm coming to them with open arms."