It’s so satisfying when mountain bike advocacy work pays off! After an extensive four-year-long review by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Solstice flow trail in Salida, CO, has officially been protected from a proposed gravel pit expansion, according to Salida Mountain Trails.
Back in 2020, Matt Miller wrote about the proposed gravel pit expansion in Salida that threatened one of the area’s newest — and best — mountain bike trails: Solstice. Solstice is unequivocally Salida’s best flow trail, with manicured tabletop jumps, flowing berms, and rollers that set riders up with the perfect amount of speed for the next hit. As a result of this sublime swoop and flow, Solstice has become one of the most popular mountain bike trails in the region.
In 2020, local mountain bike advocates sounded the alarm that the new Solstice flow trail, which had just been completed in 2019 following a six-year approval process, was threatened by a proposed 50-acre expansion by the Hard Rock Paving & Redi-Mix Main Pit aggregate mine.
“It is inconceivable to approve a mining expansion that would destroy this trail that was fully approved by the BLM after years of formal BLM process, including an extensive environmental assessment and two rounds of public comments,” said the SMT in a press release.
Local trail advocates rallied opposition to the mine expansion to protect Solstice. Salida Mountain Trails also worked with IMBA “to sharpen our messaging and push out the call for support and comments to be submitted to the BLM,” according to a Facebook post.
That hard advocacy work paid off, and the BLM has finally “rejected a proposed mining expansion that would have required relocating Solstice,” according to Salida Mountain Trails. “Instead, the BLM approved a partial expansion that will keep the trail in place. Although we had hoped for a bigger buffer than 30 feet between the new mine boundary and the trail, our number one priority was keeping the current trail alignment, and this decision does that.”
