Killer Company's: People-powered trails ...

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People-powered trails ...

The Western Slope is home to a wonderland of trail networks — trails for hiking and mountain biking, for winding oneself into a deep landscape and picturesque horizon.

This past week, our reporter Kylea Henseler chronicled a West End effort to realize ever more trails, with the West End Trails Alliance's ambitious plan to build 54 miles of new, high-quality singletrack within the Sawtooth and Naturita Flats areas over the next five years. The trails would be accessible from Naturita and the project is being billed as an economic driver.

While the estimated cost of this trail development project clocks in just under a couple million dollars, WETA board member Paul Koski tell us that much of that cost is expected to be offset by volunteer labor.

Just like the rest of the trail networks in the region, this new West End effort will likely rely on the energy of volunteers to muscle the trails into existence and maintain them thereafter. Next time you're looking for a way to dig into your local community, such trail building efforts could scratch that itch.

There's a number of opportunities to get involved. To learn more about WETA's efforts in the West End, visit https://www.westendtrails.org/. You can also check out Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association, or COPMOBA, which is a collective of regionally-based trail building groups, including the Montrose Uncompahgre Trails (MUT) chapter locally, as well as the Delta Area Mountain Bikers (DAMB) and Grand Valley Canyons (GVC) chapters to the north, and Ridgway Area Trails (RAT) chapter to the south.

Have a Good One,

Jeremy Morrison,
managing editor

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