The Crested Butte Trail Riders Association has changed its name to a new organization to be known as the Colorado Backcountry Trail Riders Alliance - CBTRA, which happens to share the same initials as the old organization. This organization would comprise members from both the Crested Butte area as well as the Roaring Fork Valley and anyone interested in preserving the world class back-country experience these areas have to offer.

This new club to represent the interests of the back-country trail riders of Colorado on a more grass roots level. As most of you are aware there are several groups at the national level such as Blue Ribbon Coalition - BRC, Americans for Responsible Recreational Access - ARRA, National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council - NOHVCC, just to name a few. Then at the state level most areas have groups such as the Colorado Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition - COHVCO for the state of Colorado, the Utah Shared Access Alliance - USA-ALL and the Colorado 500 Legal Defense Fund. All of these organizations do a wonderful job and I hope that you support them in any way you can. Whether it be by donating money, time or subscribing to their action alert lists so that you can be notified of issues that you can write or call your representatives about. Don't ignore issues in other parts of the country as it is all inter-related. Things that take place on the other side of the country can eventually set the precedent and eventually reach your area. Plus your help and voice to help a neighbor might someday come back to assist you at your time of need.

Some of us live here and others of you come once or twice a year to enjoy the back-country of our lovely state. The local grass roots fight so far has been done by a small group of dedicated people. They have been fighting for many years without much help from the vast majority of back-country recreational enthusiasts. There use to be a club here in the Roaring Fork Valley known as the Motorcycle Trail Riders Association - Roaring Fork Chapter which has not been active for many years due to apathy. It takes volunteers and active members to keep these things going. The few dedicated people that step up to the plate and serve as officers, directors, newsletter writers and event planners get burnt out after years of service because no one else is willing to pitch in. This is what has happened recently to the group that was located in Crested Butte. The Crested Butte Trail Riders Association - CBTRA has been fighting for our access issues in the Gunnison Basin and Taylor Park area for a long time without much help.

As a lot of you know the Forest Service is trying to come up with what they are calling Travel Management Plans. These plans will dictate what trails will be available to various kinds of recreational activities. Under this new plan all trails will be closed unless listed on the actual Travel Management Plan Map. In the past all trails were open unless marked closed. The Forest Service uses the excuses that they don't have funding to either maintain trails or to police the violators. So their solution, which is highly favored by those that want to keep everyone out, is to just close it so they don't have to worry about it. There are all kinds of ideas being floated around such any trail left open would have to be maintained by user groups or we would have to pay some sort of user fee. Then there is the whole Roadless and Wilderness designation issues that are sure to crop up again with the recent change in power in both bodies of the legislature.

In other words there seems at times overwhelming odds against our continued access to the back-country. We feel the need to try to establish a more grass roots voice at the local level to represent those of us who are direct stakeholders in these areas. I know that we are all very busy with our own lives and that it is difficult to find the time to be more active. But that is exactly what we need. We need folks to attend meetings, write their representatives, help with trail maintenance and be good ambassadors for the sport while out in the back-country, following trail etiquette ("Stay the Trail", be courteous, stay right, respect private property, yield to horses and stop engine, and don't blow by foot traffic) and reducing noise levels (94db or less). Two exhaust systems that I have had success with are Big Dog Quiet Series and the CRD Off-Road Absolute Performance II. The Big Gun Quite exhaust took a bike that was at 103db down to 89bd, and the CRD took a stock KTM exhaust about 94db down to 86db. I have found that the FMF Q or Q2 doesn't do much better than 94db if that.