Drama in Boulder

No, not for me in particular. For those who haven’t been following along, the Boulder Mountainbike alliance has been trying to get improved (or any) bike access to the mountain parks to the west of town (referred to by locals as the “West TSA”).

Not that interesting, right? Well, the debate has raged for over 2 years (well, ok, longer than that, but really raged for the last 2), and things come to a head tonight as the Boulder City Council decides whether to allow any access (they are also deciding a number of other, probably more important issues).

So 2 days ago, the OSMP (land managers) who are notoriously anti-bike and anti-recreation, announce to the local paper that they’ve found a renegade bike trail through protected Golden Eagle nesting areas. The article generated more comments than any other that day, with plenty of idiocy and vitriol on both sides.

Suspiciously, the incident actually occurred on March 19th (more than a week before OSMP contacted the Daily Camera) – leading the conspiracy-minded to believe that OSMP had been waiting to announce the story until it would have maximum impact (or even ignoring the trail in the last few months/years in order to “discover” it now).

But that isn’t all. While most of the bike community held our breath and the president of the BMA wrote a furious open letter, it was revealed that the fellow who got caught was a local pro, and well-liked family man.

The result? Tonight’s City Council meeting should be riveting, for the first time in history!