News
South St. Vrain Trail Opened To Mountain Bikes
On August 1, 2010 BMA and WRV (Wildlands Restoration Volunteers) finished the second year of a joint trail project to reroute a portion of the South St. Vrain Trail and restore the old trail alignment. With the successful completion of the July 31/August 1 trail project the South St Vrain Trail east from Brainard Lake is now open to mountain bikes.
Several years of planning and multi-day projects in 2009 and 2010 finally completed a reroute of the old South St. Vrain Trail. The reroute moves the trail out of the wilderness, resulting in the opening of the trail to mountain bikes. The new trail alignment offers a greatly improved experience for all users, some special features for experts, and allows the restoration of environmental impacts from the previous trail. BMA thanks WRV and the USDA Forest Service for their support and contributions to this accomplishment.
Completing this project also brings to an end a five year effort by BMA to construct and open an expert mountain bike trail loop in the Brainard Lake Recreational Area. Since 2005 BMA has been working with the Forest Service to construct the reroutes and bridges necessary to convert the Little Raven ski trail to a year round multi-use trail and to open the western section of the South St. Vrain to mountain bikes.
Riders looking for some challenges can now connect the Sourdough Trail at Brainard Road to the Little Raven Trail (south on the Sourdough, then west on the Little Raven or ride up the reservoir road), the Little Raven to the South St. Vrain Trail (via the Brainard Cutoff Trail just north of the Brainard Lake damn), and the South St. Vrain Trail to the Sourdough Trail (north of the Brainard Road and the South St. Vrain stream).
To make this all happen, more than 500 volunteers worked 15 project days and contributed almost 4,000 hours of labor (BMA and WRV contributed more than 2,500 volunteer hours to the South St. Vrain reroute project alone). BMA also planned and organized the projects and contributed several thousand dollars for trail design services and construction materials. Again we thank the USDA Forest Service, WRV, our sponsors, and all the volunteers for their support and contributions to this accomplishment.
Photos of the South St. Vrain Projects can be found at:
2010 South St. Vrain Project Photos.
2009 South St. Vrain Project Photos.
Details and photos of the Little Raven projects can be found at:
2008 Little Raven Bridge Project.
2006-2007 Little Raven Trail Projects.