Colorado Springs has a new mountain biking advocacy group.

That’s Colorado Springs Mountain Bike Association, or COSMBA, which launched with a website this month. The association calls itself the city’s “newest trail building and conservation initiative,” with an aim to “improve trails, conserve landscapes and build community through volunteer trail work days, group rides and community events.”

In the absence of pending nonprofit status, Trails and Open Space Coalition has offered to be the fiscal sponsor of COSMBA, which is soliciting donations and members.

Membership involvement “is one thing that is going to set us apart,” said the organization’s executive director, Keith Thompson. He explained the intent to certify trail builders in an overall goal to model Crested Butte

Mountain Bike Association. That group is regarded as the sporting world’s oldest of its kind, dating to 1983.

“We want members to have a close connection to the board and the decisions that are made,” Thompson said. “We want to make sure our members feel not only that they’re helping to build trails, but that they’re helping to steer the organization as well.”

COSMBA was born from a recent collaboration with volunteer hands and city parks department staff to build

what became known as Black Sheep Trail. Spanning the south face of Pulpit Rock, the bike-only, downhill-only trail joined a short list of trails with that designation in the city parks system.

The effort included volunteers who shared frustration over singletrack developments in recent years. They have accused city officials of “sanitizing” trails and closing others deemed environmentally degrading. The Black Sheep crew included some who had taken matters into their own hands, carving desired “rogue trails” on public lands.

In a statement, Cory Sutela of the Springs’ 32-year-old mountain biking group Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates, said his organization took issue with those rogue builders and the arrangement at Pulpit Rock. He said Medicine Wheel “supports the existence” of the trail but noted “that an opportunity to maximize the trail experience in this small space was missed, in favor of rapid construction.”

The comments hinted at early discord with COSMBA. Emphasizing a long history of trail development and coordination with various land managers, “Medwheel suggests that it benefits the mountain biking community to have a coordinated voice when negotiating during public land use discussions,” Sutela said.

Still, he said his board “is excited to hear about new enthusiasm for trail work in the region.”

COSMBA “is just simply providing an alternative voice and another choice for people in terms of their involvement,” Thompson said.

He said he saw the need as a lifelong rider in the Springs and as director of civic engagement for the Council of Neighbors and Organizations. In the role, “I teach (residents) how to develop relationships with elected officials that moves advocacy in the direction they want it to go,” Thompson said.

Amid recent years of controversy, “I saw this growing gap between riders and land managers,” he said. “I knew I could kind of overcome some of those barriers and apply what I do on a regular basis to my hobby.”

At a contentious time between some enthusiasts and the city, the volunteer building Thompson helped rally at Pulpit Rock “help(ed) to establish some trust between both parties,” David Deitemeyer with city parks previously told The Gazette. He expressed hope to “have real good dialogue and respectful conversation and build that positive momentum moving forward.” • Public open space is hard to come by in parts of Colorado’s San Luis Valley. But it’s growing thanks to a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado.

The agency spreading lottery funds to outdoor initiatives around the state recently announced $825,000 toward a recreation oasis in Costilla County. In partnership with the county, Colorado Open Lands will buy nearly 400 acres straddling Rito Seco Creek — what GOCO called “critical to the growth of recreation opportunities” in the area.

The property connects what the county calls its only two formal trail networks. The northwest side of the parcel meets the Greenbelt trail system while to the east looms Rito Seco Park, where about 8 miles of new trail were celebrated last summer.

The nearly 400 acres cover close to a mile of Rito Seco Creek. That “will expand public access to fishing and other water activities,” according to GOCO.

The agency called it an expansion of Rito Seco Park, which Costilla County established in the 1970s for locals lacking public land close to the town of San Luis. In the wake of Mexican land grants after 1821, the county has considered itself 99% private, subdivided land.

One of Colorado’s poorest counties, improvements to Rito Seco Park have long stalled while locals have bushwhacked to creek banks and negotiated overgrown hillsides. Shirley Romero Otero, a native and activist in San Luis, said the trails that opened last year were the first professionally built trails her town had ever received.

“It took too long, way too long,” she previously told The Gazette. “And my reasoning for that is we are a rural, brown community, and anything that has to do with communities of color, things just take forever. It’s part of the lack of responsibility to care for such communities.”

The Rito Seco Park trails were spearheaded by San Luis Valley Great Outdoors, which gained nonprofit status in 2018. That group’s director, Mick Daniel, said he hoped momentum could continue for this end of the valley, following something of a trail revolution around Del Norte.

“We saw what happened with Del Norte and those downtown businesses,” he said. “It’s funny, the things a trail can begin to move in a community.” • For people with disabilities or otherwise unable to hike trails, El Paso County officials have a possible solution.

They recently announced reservations starting April 1 for what they call “the ultimate off-road vehicle designed to provide access to adventure, making the inaccessible accessible.”

Those are electric-powered Terrain Hoppers, which look like small, one-seat ATVS. The county parks department last year announced acquiring two of them — one to be based at Bear Creek Nature Center and the other at Fountain Creek Nature Center.

Upon reservation, the vehicles will be available for mornings and afternoons in May through October. The Trailability Program invites interested individuals and friends and family for tours through the woods and wetlands outside the nature centers. A volunteer or staff member tags along for the trips covering 1 to 3 miles.

Starting April 1, reservations can be made at the county website: https://bit. ly/3tnhey6

More information is available by calling Bear Creek Nature Center at 520-6972 or Fountain Creek Nature Center at 520-6767.