COPMOBA ANNOUNCES GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO’S LUNCH LOOP BIKE PARK TO OPEN IN LESS THAN 1 MONTH!
(Grand Junction, CO – September 28, 2010) The award-winning non-profit trail organization, Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association (COPMOBA), announces the Lunch Loop Bike Park (LLBP) will be ready to ride October 16, 2010!
The internationally renowned Monument Road Lunch Loop trailhead – which represents a portion of the larger 143-mile Tabeguache Trail system connecting Grand Junction to Montrose, CO – is about to undergo a major facelift. Enter the Lunch Loop Bike Park. A 5-month project led by Jen Taylor, COPMOBA, the City of Grand Junction & the BLM, the LLBP will be dedicated to the community and ready to ride on Sat, Oct 16th.
And a busy 2 ½ weeks it will be…
LLBP Schedule of Events:
• Sat, Oct 2, 9am-12pm: Volunteer Day #1 + Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day
• Mon, Oct 4: Construction begins
• Sat, Oct 9, 9am-12pm: Volunteer Day #2
• Sat-Sun, Oct 9-10, 11am-4pm daily: LLBP fundraiser Huktoberfest on Glade Park’s The Ranch
• Fri, Oct 15: Construction complete
• Sat, Oct 16, 9am: Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony (raffle drawing at 9:30am – must be present to win!)
Here are the details…
As of Friday, September 24th, crews began stockpiling 1000 yards of dirt to build three the park’s four features, including a pump track, graduated beginner to advanced jump lines and a dual slalom (DS) course. Construction of the park’s features will officially start Monday, October 4th and will wrap two weeks later on Friday the 15th. Greg Mazu, owner of Singletrack Trails will oversee construction of the park with his 4-person crew. James Flatten of Grassroots Cycles will also play an integral part in design and construction as the ‘Minister of Flow’.
COPMOBA is hosting two Volunteer Days to build the park’s fourth element – alternate skills lines on the existing Kids’
Meal trail that circumnavigates the basin of the Lunch Loop trailhead. The Volunteer Days will be held 9am to 12 noon on Saturday, October 2nd (also Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day) & Saturday, October 9th. No experience is necessary and the whole family is encouraged to participate.
Volunteers will work with crew leaders to create obstacles that challenge and hone riders’ bike handling skills, balance, and technical maneuverability. Volunteers should bring water bottle, sunscreen, trail shoes and work gloves – and be ready to throw some dirt and move some rocks! As an added incentive, each volunteer will receive a raffle ticket for a grand prize drawing during the Ribbon-Cutting event for a deluxe Cove brand park bike plus gear. Donated by Grassroots Cycles, the raffle package is valued in excess of $2000.
Hosted by Grassroots Cycles, a special off-site fundraiser event for the LLBP will take place on Glade Park’s The Ranch on
Saturday and Sunday, October 9-10 from 11-4 daily. Huktoberfest will be a fun-for-all weekend of amateur and professional dual slalom races, pump track & big air ‘slopestyle’ jumping competitions, skills clinics, local beer and brats. For more information on Huktoberfest contact Grassroots Cycles at 970-243-2453 or visit www.grassroots-cycles.com.
Wasting no time, the Ribbon-Cutting event will take place Saturday, October 16th at 9am at the Lunch Loop Bike Park entrance. Members of the City of Grand Junction, the BLM, the Parks & Rec Department and COPMOBA will host the dedication, and will be joined by the many sponsors who helped make the LLBP a reality. REI will provide breakfast and Roasted Coffee House will brew and provide fresh coffee. At 9:30am COPMOBA and Grassroots Cycles will raffle off the park bike kit to one lucky winner – MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN! After that, professional dirt jumpers will wow the crowd in demonstration of the park’s features. There will also be skills clinics for kids of all ages (young and old) and abilities. This dedication will be a media event.
The LLBP will be a source of recreation and outdoor activity for enthusiastic riders – both young and young at heart. It will also be worthy of competition events. COPMOBA and the City of Grand Junction anticipate the park will be utilized to host regional and national competitions, such as the Mountain States Cup Series and collegiate events. According to the BLM, in 2009 the Lunch Loop trailhead experienced over 50k unique user days, contributing to an economic impact of over $24MM to our Grand Valley that year. The LLBP will be a welcome addition in supporting the recreation component to our Valley’s economy.
LLBP Sponsors to date include: City of Grand Junction, BLM, COPMOBA, REI, Singletrack Trails, Grassroots Cycles, Monument Graphics & Communication, All Metals Welding & Fabrication, Hanson Equipment, Whitewater Building Materials, Redlands Power & Water, Riverbend Equipment, Community Hospital, Williams Production, Enstrom’s Candies, Rocky Mountain Health Plans, Bud’s Signs, US Bank, Doubletree Hotel, MRP, White Brothers, DT Swiss, GJMountainBiking.com, SOAR Physical Therapy, Safari LTD, Rusk & Rusk Court Reporters and Rocky Mountain Orthopaedic Associates
LLBP: Concept to Reality
It came to Jen Taylor at the end of a ride. An epiphany that she says, “truly came out of nowhere”… the basin of the famed Lunch Loop trailhead was the perfect location for a bike park!
Taylor and her husband, Chris Muhr, were wrapping up an afternoon of riding the Lunch Loop trails. “I remember vividly,” recalls Taylor. “It was April and I had just finished with the MOG Fest [a local, annual outdoor event Taylor founded and still organizes]. Chris and I were finishing one of those perfect rides, and while I was waiting for him at the bottom of Kurt’s Lane, I was looking around wishing those old dirt piles were still around to jump. And that’s when the light bulb went off. And by the time Chris rode up to me, I was so excited I could hardly get the words out! From then on, it was all I could think about.
For Taylor – a mom of 3, BMX rider as a kid and avid mountain biker as an adult – it was all about the kids. “Every aspect of the bike park has been centered on the pivotal goal of getting kids outside and connecting them with nature. I have worked for years on the topic of getting kids outdoors, and for me, this project is a manifestation of that passion,” Taylor said. Founder of the youth outdoor-apparel manufacturer Mountain Sprouts® and a leader in the Outdoor Industry’s ‘Getting Youth Outdoors’ movement, Taylor received the Boy Scouts of America’s “Peak Vision Award” for her work on the subject.
“The Lunch Loop trailhead couldn’t be a better location for a bike park,” said Taylor. “The infrastructure is there with
the parking lot and bathrooms in place. But access for kids is also key. Not all parents ride bikes. And those parents likely don’t have bike racks on their cars. Not only is it within a few miles from downtown, a bike path now connects Monument Road with the Riverfront Trail system.” The location is also ideal for maintenance and emergency vehicle access. “We want to minimize our impact on the terrain and keep a low profile regarding the view-shed. These are key principles in responsible trailbuilding.”
As the course of events was set in motion for the bike park, Taylor first spoke with core members of the downhill MTB
community, namely the folks at Grassroots Cycles and a man by the name of Bill Taylor. “Bill had worked for years to build a bike park across the street, just below the Redlands Mesa community. Although that process did not come to fruition, I wanted to involve Bill in this new project, and I needed to learn from his experience. It has been a team effort.”
From there, strategic discussions took place with key members of the agencies that hold jurisdiction over the Lunch Loop trailhead property; including the City of Grand Junction, BLM, Parks & Rec, “and of course my COPMOBA board peers,” said Taylor. “I wanted to get everyone’s blessing and support, and through that have approval to proceed. But I really wanted folks to feel the passion for the project. And they certainly have.”
Things started moving quickly after that. Taylor and COPMOBA applied for a $10,000 REI grant – and got it. They also entered the Pepsi Refresh Grant project at the $250k level. According to Taylor, “the idea is to eventually build a bike park in each of the communities that are touched by the 1500+ mile COPMOBA trail network, including Fruita and Palisade. The Pepsi grant was written for the three parks in the Grand Valley.”
Although they did not win the vote-generated grant, Taylor and COPMOBA were raising funds all the while toward the LLBP – and the project is on track for completion Friday, October 15th. The Fruita Bike & Disc Golf Park will soon see activity as well. COPMOBA and the City of Fruita will build the singletrack portion of the park located at Snooks Bottom sometime in late 2010 or early 2011. And as Taylor received approval from the Town of Palisade to seek funding opportunities for a Palisade Bike Park, she hopes to see a park built in that community in the next few years.
“It has been a near-insane pace since June” said Taylor, an active community-non-profit advocate with her husband and family and PR Manager for Jackson Hole-based outdoor apparel manufacturer, Mountain Khakis®. “If you’d told me six months ago this would be happening – let alone by October – I would have thought you were crazy! It is amazing to me how much can be accomplished when people are fueled by passion.”
For More Information about the LLBP Contact:
Jen Taylor
Spearhead, Lunch Loop Bike Park
Officer, COPMOBA Board of Directors
jen.taylor@mountainkhakis.com
970.250.9682
Additional LLBP Contacts:
1. Greg Mazu, Singletrack Trails (contractor) greg@singletracktrails.com 970-222-4839
2. Chris Muhr, COPMOBA President allmetalswelding@qwestoffice.net 970-243-6310
3. Rob Schoeber, Parks Director robsc@gjcity.org 970-254-3842
4. Trent Prall, City trentonp@gjcity.org 970-256-4047
5. Kathy Portner, City kathyp@gjcity.org 970-244-1420
6. Chris Ham, BLM chris_ham@blm.gov 970-244-3000
7. Chris Pipkin, BLM chris_pipkin@blm.gov 970-244-3000
8. James Flatten & Matt Bollig, Grassroots Cycles grassrootscycles@hotmail.com 970-243-2453
9. Bill Taylor, Mesa County wbtaylor@bresnan.net 970-250-3640
About COPMOBA (Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association)
In 1989, a visionary group of mountain bikers worked tirelessly with Colorado Plateau land agencies to establish the first interstate mountain bike trail, Kokopelli’s Trail from Fruita, CO to Moab, UT. As a result, COPMOBA was formed to advocate for, design, build and maintain the now-extensive and world-famous 1500+ miles of singletrack and doubletrack trails in western Colorado and eastern Utah. Trail systems include Kokopelli’s, Tabeguache, and Paradox, as well as the Grand Mesa, Palisade, Gateway, and Ridgway, CO. Through volunteer trail construction and maintenance projects, land-agency advocacy, rides, and fundraising efforts we act as a positive voice for mountain biking and trail recreation, dedicated to the development and maintenance of mountain bike and singletrack trails on the Colorado Plateau.
For information about COPMOBA Contact:
Amy Agapito, COPMOBA Coordinator
coordinator@copmoba.org or trails@copmoba.org
970.244.8877
www.copmoba.org
Follow COPMOBA on Facebook!
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source: Jen Taylor [mailto:Jen.Taylor@mountainkhakis.com]
