The Outsider | Routt County ranchers’ ire over bike race reflects challenge of recreation in rural regions

Recreation vs. rural lifestyles reaches crescendo over Routt County gravel bike race “Recreation and agriculture are the backbones of Routt County. We need each other to survive.

” — Amy Charity, founder of the SBT GRVL bike race Estimated spending by 3,000 racers and spectators for the one-day SBT GRVL bike race around Steamboat Springs in August There were 1,500 racers at the inaugural SBT GRVL gravel race around Steamboat Springs in 2019. Three years later there were 3,000, making it the largest gravel bike race in the country. The ranchers in the Yampa River Valley think that’s too many.

The race lands on the final days of their haying season and the cyclists clog rural roads. Promoters say the one-day, four-course race that draws weekend crowds in August pumps $4. 5 million into the region.

(And those ranchers argue most of the racer spending stays in Steamboat Springs and does not trickle into the county. ) The no-longer simmering feud between local lifestyles and tourism in mountain towns is exemplified in the Steamboat tussle over the nascent gravel bike race. On one hand, recreation can be an economic engine for rural communities.

On the other, too much recreation can be an intrusion that threatens rural culture. The challenge of balancing recreation and agriculture is highlighted in the angst over the Steamboat gravel race. The speedy pedalers and thousands of cowbell-clanging spectators are irking ranchers, who are asking Routt County commissioners “to be brave and visionary enough to block out some of these things that are not going to be good for us long term,” rancher CJ Mucklow told Colorado Sun reporter Tracy Ross.

Race founder Amy Charity told Ross the race donates to local nonprofits, engages with underprivileged kids and donates to a local agricultural alliance. “So what would I say about us impacting the roads in our county and downtown Steamboat? I’d say we do, but the benefit to our town and the greater good far outweighs the impact on a public road that happens for a few hours. ” The county commissioners are considering revising the permitting process for the SBT GRVL.

The 2024 race sold out quickly in November. As the nature of Colorado tourism promotion evolves into tourism management, the impact of recreational events that spill beyond the borders of race-ready tourist destinations is under intense scrutiny. There are despite the state’s reputation as a cycling destination.

Could the SBT GRVL join Colorado’s crowded bike race graveyard? Colorado drivers deliver with $29 Keep Colorado Wild Pass “Hopefully it’s the start of the foundation we need. ” — Jeff Sparhawk, executive director of the Colorado Search and Rescue Association Number of $29 Keep Colorado Wild Passes in 2023, generating $41,088,650 in revenue for Colorado Parks and Wildlife Drivers are delivering for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. In the first year of sales for the Keep Colorado Wild Pass, 1.

49 million Colorado drivers have paid $29 to include the parks pass on their vehicle’s registration. The first year of the program delivered $41. 1 million to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which is more than the agency’s conservative projections for the first-time pass.

The agency’s fiscal planned for $311 million in spending, with $112 million of that going parks. The agency projected $365 million in revenue for the year, with 55% coming from selling hunting and fishing licenses and parks passes. While the Keep Colorado Wild Pass program operates on a June to July fiscal year, the first 12 months of sales means it’s very likely that Colorado’s search and rescue teams will get $2.

5 million in additional funding and the Colorado Avalanche Information Center will get $1 million. “To see Colorado residents supporting the backcountry in a different way is really cool,” said Jeff Sparhawk, the executive director of the Colorado Search and Rescue Association, which represents more than 50 search and rescue teams and 2,800 volunteer rescuers in Colorado. The Keep Colorado Wild Pass launched on Jan.

3, 2023, as an add-on to every vehicle registration unless drivers specifically opted out of the extra $29 charge. The 2021 legislation that created the pass hoped to generate more revenue for parks than the $23 million that came from sales of an $80 annual pass in 2020. The plan was that the first $32.

5 million in sales would go to parks, then deliver funding for search and rescue operations and avalanche forecasting. At $36 million, the tap switches back to parks and wildlife funding for trails, wildlife programs and inclusion projects. The agency’s projected revenue from sales of the $29 Keep Colorado Wild Pass ranged from .

But it was always uncertain just how many Coloradans would be OK with the extra charge on their vehicle’s registration. The 1. 49 million Keep Colorado Wild passes sold in phe last 12 months represents about 30% of the registered in Colorado.

A similar parks pass program in Montana had about 86% of drivers in 2020 paying for the $9 pass as part of their vehicle registration. Michigan asks drivers to opt in to pay an additional $12 for a parks pass and statewide participation was at 33% in 2020. About 37% of Washington State drivers chose to pay an additional $30 for an annual parks pass as part of their vehicle registration in 2021.

Now, the question is, will Colorado’s 42 state parks see an increase in visitation from all these new passholders? Visitation to state parks was , which ended in June 2023. That’s down from the pandemic peak of 19. 5 million in 2020 but 22% above the three-year average of 14.

6 million before the pandemic. The cost to operate and maintain state parks has soared, from a three-year average of $5. 8 million before the pandemic to $15.

1 million in 2023. The benchmarks for funding search and rescue and avalanche forecasting are for the first fiscal year, which runs July 1 through June 30. So the first full year of the program ends June 30 this year.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center will use the extra revenue to establish permanent staff in mountain towns and to improve tools for forecasting and communicating avalanche information to the public. The avalanche center received extra state funding two years ago to kick-start improvements until the Keep Colorado Wild Pass revenues rolled in. transferred management of the backcountry search and rescue fund from the Department of Local Affairs to Colorado Parks and Wildlife and to the agency to support backcountry search and rescue until the Keep Colorado Wild Pass funding kicked in.

That legislation also immunized volunteer rescuers from civil lawsuits and provided disability benefits to volunteers injured during a rescue. Colorado’s sheriffs oversee volunteer search and rescue teams and the most recent numbers show those 50-plus teams responding to more than 3,600 calls a year. Volunteers donate anywhere from 200 to 400 hours of their time every year for missions and training.

The number of calls for help increased during the pandemic and have not eased, . “Search and rescue has been kind of run on a shoestring forever and we are trying to relieve the volunteers from having to do fundraising while responding to calls,” Sparhawk said. The Keep Colorado Wild Pass money will go directly to teams and local sheriffs will figure out how to spend it.

The bump in funding sets the stage for a larger, eventual push to establish a permanent funding system for the country’s busiest search and rescue state, with worker’s compensation programs, funds for teams to upgrade gear and maybe a stronger mental health program to support volunteers. “Is this ($2. 5 million) enough? Probably not,” Sparhawk said.

“But hopefully it’s the start of the foundation we need to better support our responders. ” An artist-homesteading renaissance in the San Luis Valley “We wanted to live more harmoniously with the Earth. ” — artist Gigi Douglas, who designs and builds interactive art installations for urban clients on her 100-acres outside Saguache There’s an artistic renaissance underway in the San Luis Valley with a growing number of young creatives settling in towns like Del Norte, Monte Vista and Saguache.

“It’s a landscape of extremes in all ways, shapes and forms,” 31-year-old artist Jocelyn Patterson told Sun reporter Tracy Ross. “It attracts a particular type of person. And for some creative people, when they step into the valley they are instantly inspired.

” As home prices soar on the Front Range and Western Slope, the San Luis Valley is one of the least expensive regions in the state, making it a draw for artists. Remember, it was the artists and river rats who first flocked to Salida a couple short decades ago, transforming that town from a down-and-out railroad stop to a coveted hot spot. Like Gigi Douglas and her partner, Victor Rivera, who design and build interactive art installations and events for clients like Meow Wolf at their nearly 100-acre spread outside Saguache.

Eventually they hope to transform the property into an artist retreat. “The natural world could be a backdrop for inspiration, but it also brings teachings and learnings and lessons,” said Douglas, who left Boulder for Saguache. “We wanted to live more harmoniously with the Earth.

” Madeline Ahlborn is rehabbing a former church she bought in Monte Vista, converting it into a community space for teaching art. The 31-year-old painter bought the 8,000-square-foot church for $100,000 from a local who heard her plan and slashed the price. That type of kindness is increasingly common in the valley, Ahlborn said.

“I mean there’s a reason they call us ,” she said. Beating back the blues following an injury “It’s my job to give them hope. When people see hope, it changes their ability to recover.

” — Eddie Boyer, athletics mental health coordinator at the University of Northern Colorado Last month Colorado Sun freelancer Dan England wrote about and malaise after finishing a big goal, like a sense of loss. Dan recently visited with athletes who had struggled with depression following an injury. It’s entirely understandable to feel blue when an injury blows up your life and you need to spend months in painful recovery to find your way back.

But health care providers only recently have begun working to stem the effects of depression, which can delay healing. That means helping patients find not just the physical strength to endure the pain of rebuilding, but the mental fortitude to thwart the anxiety, financial strains and isolation that follows a major surgery. “It’s part of my job to destigmatize depression,” said Molly Brady, a UCHealth psychologist.

“It doesn’t mean you are weak. We need to consider the depression part of your overall management. ” Hospitals are training medical providers to better identify depression and encourage recovering patients to push through the dark days.

Mental health providers are finding a growing role in athletics too. The University of Northern Colorado a couple years ago hired Eddie Boyer as a mental health coordinator for the school’s athletes. He deals a lot with college athletes who are injured.

“Most of them have done sports for 20 years, so their identity is wrapped up in it,” Boyer said. “So they are questioning who they are at this point. It doesn’t have to be a year either.

Just six weeks of being hurt can do it. ” Low-tide conditions at ski resorts do not mix well with holiday crowds “This is a challenging loss for our resort, our community, and especially our ski and snowboard school team. ” — Greg Willis, Vail Mountain senior director of skier services, in a statement The ski school at Vail was rattled this week with the death of one of their own.

Roger Porter, a 69-year-old instructor, was found unresponsive on Vail’s Born Free intermediate run around 8:35 a. m. on Dec.

28. Ski patrollers worked to save Porter and he was transported to Vail Health and eventually Denver Health, where he died from his injuries. Porter is at least the third Vail Resorts employee to die on the job since 2021.

Scott Lewis, a 53-year-old zipline guide at the company’s Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont, was killed on Sept. 23, 2021, when riding on the resort’s zipline. Christian Helger, a 29-year-old ski patroller at Park City Mountain Resort, died Jan.

2, 2023, when a tree fell on the cable of the Short Cut lift he was riding and ejected him into a ravine where he suffocated in deep snow. Both deaths resulted in fines from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Porter was skiing before the lifts opened to the public, a perk for instructors known as a “milk run.

” On Jan. 2, a 47-year-old Colorado Springs man, Gavin Scott, died after a collision with a tree at Breckenridge. These are the first two reported deaths of the 2023-24 ski season.

Accidents tend to increase as snowfall fades. It’s been a couple weeks without significant storms and snow is thin, icy and fast. The low-tide conditions do not mix well with holiday crowds.

Emergency rooms in Vail and Summit County have been standing-room only through the exceptionally busy holiday. Be careful out there. Notice something wrong? The Colorado Sun has an ethical responsibility to .

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