USGS Multimedia Gallery: (Video)--Rotarun Trail

CROY CREEK TRAIL #2
“CROY CREEK TRAILS…..COMMUNITY INNOVATION & COLLABORATION:
FINAL NARRATION COPY

During the summer of two thousand ten, a very unique mountain bike trail was constructed in the Wilson Gulch area of the Croy Creek drainage, west of Hailey, Idaho.

Along the one mile segment of trail, riders encounter eighteen single or double “rollers” and eight “table tops” - which they can either jump from one end to the other or roll through without their tires leaving the ground.

Mountain bike enthusiasts and planners from the Bureau of Land Management, the Federal agency responsible for the lands the Croy Creek routes traverse, wanted a “flow” trail in the Rotarun area that would be a fun and challenging way to enjoy public lands from early spring to late fall.

John Kurtz, the Outdoor Recreation Planner for the B L M Shoshone Field Office, explains how important on-the-ground collaboration was in designing and building the trail. We’ve worked actually very closely with local government, with county officials in order to help get support for the project, to see that through. They actually help fund an individual that came out and flagged the trail corridor prior to construction, to help us try and get that flow, design that flow into it. And then we actually worked a lot with local trail users to one, to understand the type of experience that they do want to try to have. And then we have had some people come out on the ground and walk the flag line with us looking for the types of terrain and features to design into the trail system.

Western communities, like Hailey, Idaho, increasingly thrive on outdoor recreation. When people have the ability to get out and recreate, they are really happier and have a better quality of life. So in some ways that reflects the number of cases we get to have to pay for medical expenses, for instance, and we really want to strive to have a healthy community and this trail system fits exactly into that plan. So the bike system, the trail system that we are developing in cooperation with B L M is helping out our community. The bike shops are doing better, hotels are even doing better because the word is getting out about our great trail system. This opportunity came at just the right moment for Blaine County.

Funding came in two thousand and nine as an allocation under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The “Recovery Act” allowed federal agencies across the county, including the B L M in Idaho, to fund projects that could lead economic turn around.

Projects like the mountain bike trail in Wilson Gulch meet the B L M’s multiple use objectives and the needs and desires of people whose lives and work are tied to public lands.

Beyond immediate economic stimulus, these projects are a long term investment in local communities - attracting visitors and future residents…building and sustaining quality of life and the health of public lands.