Bailey Trails! Announces 1st Land Acquisition - Trailhead!

Where in downtown Bailey are there 12 acres to develop?

Thanks. :ThumbsUp:

Why purchase or attempt to purchase property when it is close enough and accessible to the national forest via the already established Brookside/McCurdy trails right up the road? It looks like the money could be better used to work on existing trails.

http://www.theflume.com/news/first_five ... b2370.html

Bailey Trails Alliance purchases land in Bailey
Multiuse trailhead, mountain bike course, picnic areas
Posted: Friday, February 14, 2014 12:30 pm
Douglas Stephens, Correspondent | 0 comments
Bailey Trails Alliance took a step forward in its plans for trailheads and trails in Bailey on Jan. 24 when the nonprofit group bought 12.7 acres of land at 60117 U.S. 285 in Bailey.
“The property was purchased by Bailey Trails, and Bailey Trails is on the title,” said Bailey Trails Alliance President Tim Gregg. However, Bailey Trails did not buy the property directly from Ron Green and Louis Gonzalez, who bought the land in 2000. That’s because Bailey Trails didn’t have the money in hand for a direct purchase.

I would assume it's because they can't build a mountain bike course on public lands. Nor could they develop picnic areas. Privately owning the land allows them to do both.

Have to agree Mtn Gramma that a mountain bike course on public lands could be an issue. But the question is why are they purchasing property rather than already focusing on improving the trails in the national forest before usfs change their minds. The land is listed as vacant land, it has to go through zoning for commercial and follow LUR directives including commercial well, not exactly cheap. In this hard economy I think they will be hard pressed to get the funding that they will need. I would like to see them succeed as it will help Bailey businesses but going into massive debt without having the funding is not how to run a business, for profit or nonprofit.

It is great to see discussion on here regarding Bailey Trails!. I invite all who are interested to join us at our meetings and sign up for invitations to the meetings. Our next meeting is at the Bailey Country Store and Sasquatch Outpost on January 27th at 7:00 PM.

For those who might be unable to join, let me address some questions here.

The property is 12.7 commercial acres ACROSS 285 from El Rio, not behind. It is the property adjacent to the Park County property where the sub station and Search and Rescue buildings are. The Bailey Trails! property is just to the East of the County property, running along 285. We will first be working on better access to the property and I ask to refrain from visiting until we get that done and have our grand opening, this Spring.

The property was represented a great opportunity for Bailey Trails! to start down the road to our master plan and the opportunity could not be allowed to pass. We are dealing with chickens and eggs in working towards creating a World Class trail system, based in Bailey. The trailhead/park is included as part of two grant applications we have worked on. Without first securing the property, we could not use it in grant applications. Therefore, the board of the Bailey Trails! Alliance decided to move forward with this great opportunity.

The Bailey Trails! Master Plan includes a trail system, which will connect Bailey to other communities and provide many trails for ALL non-motorized uses. We have received incredible support from the mountain biking community, including the fund raiser from the Dirt Divas, mentioned in the article. One application of the Bailey Trails! project will be providing safe passage for mountain bikers who want to bike the Colorado Trail.

Biking the length of the Colorado Trail is gaining popularity with the mountain biking community. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take a bicycle into the Wilderness, weather you are riding it or carrying it. Therefore, bikers currently leave the Colorado Trail on County Road 68, ride down to 285, in Bailey and ride on Hwy 285 to the Colorado Trail at Kenosha Pass - a pretty dangerous endeavor.

Bailey Trails! is currently working with the US Forest Service to develop an alternative to mountain bikers on the highway. We will be connecting to Forest Service trails both existing and planned to develop a trail, from Bailey to Kenosha Pass, which keeps all users in a safer environment.

Other main arteries planned are between Bailey and Pine and connecting over to the Colorado Trail in the Buffalo Creek area and another trail connecting from Bailey to Staunton State Park, connecting with the Forest Service trail at Cub Creek, currently being expanded into Staunton State Park.

The Bailey trailhead property, just acquired, will give us the opportunity to provide safe parking and easy access into the National Forest just outside Bailey, opening up Grouse Mountain, a trail between Bailey and the High School and the Crow Gulch area. From Crow Gulch, the trail will offer access to Crooked Top Mountain and extend towards they connection to the Cub Creek Trail.

I look forward to seeing more of you at our meetings as we believe all input is important as we build out the Bailey Tails! system. I will begin adding meeting events on our Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/BaileyTrails . These meeting updates will also update to our work in progress web site - www.baileytrails.org

Knowing everyone cannot attend meetings and with the current state of our website, please post any questions you have here and I will respond as often as I can.

Thank you for your reply. Sounds like you all have put a lot of thought into making this a successful endeavor.

Thanks Tgregg for the information. Don't have a subscription to the Flume which may have had more information.

Do you mean a meeting on February 27th?

Family has always wanted to walk the national forest in the Grouse Mtn area w/o having to access via Slaughterhouse and not wanting to trespass through any private property. I will share with them and perhaps some of the them can attend the meeting or lend a hand at some trail work.

I am encouraged to learn you are working on not just one but two grant appl. I really hope that means that this project isn't dead in the water before it even begins as a result of such a large purchase. Liability issues are the major problem I see with doing it this way as opposed to doing how other nonprofits/groups, thinking of those in Jeffco, have worked on and acquired easements/property to make connections.