Wilderness-quality backcountry out the backdoor
Kevin Noreen
Special to the Times
The old adage, “It takes a village to raise a child” just might be true for trail-building, too. That’s the case for the Baxter Gulch trail near Crested Butte — a six-mile section of singletrack years in the making that is finally nearing completion.
When complete, singletrack accessed from a trailhead behind the county shop building south of town will go up Baxter Gulch between Whetstone Mountain and Mount Axtel, before connecting to the Carbon Creek trail. Ultimately, the goal is to provide trail users — mostly mountain bikers — with a loop from town that also includes the Green Lake trail.
The Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association (CBMBA) is a main driver behind the effort to build the trail. Executive Director Dave Ochs said the attraction of Baxter will be “wilderness-quality backcountry,” accessible right from town.
“Whichever way you go, from Green Lake or from Baxter’s, it’s literally door-to-door singletrack and it’s epic country,” Ochs said. “It’s truly just majestic backcountry experience that close to the door.”
This coming weekend, Aug. 26-27, CBMBA will hold their annual overnight work session approximately 3.5 miles up the Baxter Gulch trail. With 2.5 miles of trail left to build, there will be plenty to do, but Ochs said the intention is to get as much done as possible.
“We plan on building and taking out a huge chunk during the overnight,” Ochs said. “We just need human power something fierce.”
Food will be provided by Rim Tours, and volunteers’ camping gear will be shuttled to the site. Volunteers just need to bike or hike in themselves.
‘Booting around those hills’
Due to the challenging nature and location for this advanced ride, the Baxter trail has not come easily. The trail covers rugged, steep terrain with lots of elevation gain — meaning much head-scratching and exploration to sniff out the best possible route for the singletrack.
“We’ve been booting around those hills since 2011. I mean, you should see my Google Earth,” Ochs said about CBMBA’s involvement, adding that he and board member Doug Bradbury have spent a great deal of time doing recon work and scouting for the Baxter trail.
However, the history of a trail up Baxter Gulch goes back even further than that, and has involved the town of Crested Butte, the Crested Butte Land Trust, One Percent for Open Space, the U.S. Forest Service and Western Colorado Conservation Corps.
“Crested Butte has worked for more than 25 years to build a Baxter Gulch trail,” Hilary Henry shared via email. Henry is the Open Space/Creative District coordinator for the Town of Crested Butte.
The project has truly been a collaborative community effort, she explained, involving many “passionate individuals.”
“Trails like Baxter Gulch improve the quality of life for our residents and help us connect with the incredible landscape that surrounds us,” Henry offered.
A June 2017 staff report by Crested Butte Town Planner Michael Yerman indicates that after an easement agreed upon in the early 1990s for a public access trail up Baxter Gulch was nullified, the town and other partners have worked “to secure three additional easements to reroute the trail and provide permanent public access to Forest Service Lands beyond Hidden Mine Ranch property and to Whetstone Mountain.”
The Baxter Gulch trail has now been realigned further north through an additional existing easement, alleviating concerns about trespassing on a homeowner association road at Hidden Mine Ranch.
In a recent interview, Yerman explained that the town was instrumental in the legal documentation and easement process, but Bradbury was “paramount” with regard to the actual trail alignment and reworking existing sections.
Funding secured
Partnering with the Crested Butte Land Trust, the Town of Crested Butte applied for Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) grants and was awarded nearly $150,000 over the last five years for the Baxter trail.
The town provided matching funds each year, and the grants paid for trail construction by Western Colorado Conservation Corps (WCCC) crews. WCCC is a fee-for-service program through Americorps which pays youth crews for the work they do.
Matt Jennings, associate director for WCCC, said the GOCO grants allowed crews hired in Gunnison to consistently carry out four weeks of concentrated trail work a year on Baxter Gulch — something that smaller municipalities often cannot afford to do.
In addition to a primary focus on working with young people, Jennings said WCCC partners with land managers to improve communities in western Colorado.
“To get youth and young adults involved, interested in becoming the next generation of stewards, you know, recreationists — that’s what we’re about,” he said.
A similar attitude among those involved with the Baxter Gulch trail make it no surprise that the project will soon come to fruition.
From Henry, who called WCCC members “a passionate and enthusiastic group of young people,” to Ochs, who said the support and community outpouring is “really a pretty magical thing,” this trail wouldn’t have happened without the hard work of so many.
“We at CBMBA feel pretty blessed that we have so much support and so much, just energy, from the people here because they love trails so much, and they love being involved,” Ochs said. “And that’s really what does make it so special, including this trail.”
For more information, or to join the upcoming CBMBA overnight work session, e-mail info@cbmba.org. Due to the remote nature of the location, CBMBA is requesting RSVP for the event.
