It’s no surprise; we like to ride rowdy, but we understand the importance of giving back through our acts of stewardship and volunteer trail work. That’s why we’ve made one of our key initiatives for 2018 to volunteer some time to the trails outside of the Front Range.

The Colorowdies have volunteered hundreds of hours to our trails in Golden, Colorado. However, some of our favorite riding in the state can be found on the Western Slope especially during the shoulder seasons. It only seemed appropriate that we head out to Grand Junction to ride bikes and do some volunteer trail work in the desert. We rounded up the troops from the Denver area and hit the road.

Our very first Mountain Bike Mission Trip took place in Grand Junction, Colorado earlier this year. Our crew included Colorowdies Ambassadors, Ariana Dittmer, Carrie Dittmer, Dave Ziegler, Dax Julian, John Yaseen, Nate Smith, Neal Jordan and Tony Bentley. We were stoked to see several new riding buddies from our community join us on this 3 day adventure in GJ. We had perfect conditions for the weekend, blue skies, mild temps during the day, but the nights got a bit cold down in the 30’s.

We set up base camp at “The Camp,” an awesome event camping venue just around the corner from Lunch Loops. This was the perfect location for our event; convenience of close proximity to town and the trails we were riding and working. The guys at The Camp were very friendly and welcoming. They’ve been doing a ton of work on their property including a pump track, new bathrooms and a massive fire pit in the center of it all. You can easily hold up to 50 people at The Camp, challenge accepted – we’ll try to pack the place next time.  

On Friday a few of us did a Horsethief / Mary‘s loop. Our hero, Neal Jordan demonstrated how he can clean horsethief bench as several onlookers cheered in amazement.  Mary’s has some amazing views of the Colorado River below and the loop has several fun technical sections to make the otherwise flowy trail quite challenging. Post-ride pizza at Hot Tomato was a must and then it was back to The Camp to enjoy the fire and some ice cold Oskar Blues beers.

Saturday morning we were up early for breakfast and off to Lunch Loops to begin our trail work. Working with one of the original Colorowdies, Trevor Martin, and John Howe with The Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association (COPMOBA), we identified several sections of “Moto,” a trail at Lunch Loops, that were due for maintenance and feature enhancements. Trevor drafted the very detailed descriptions which were approved by BLM and have now become a reality. If you haven’t ridden this section of trail yet add it to you must ride list.  

“The Colorowdies had a great turnout for a workday on Moto, one of the original Lunch Loop trails.  Moto needed some love, and the crew built step ups, step downs, berms, and water control features, and generally made Moto a lot more fun!  The Grand Enduro used Moto as part of its final stage, and the work was well received by the racers. It’s great that a group that loves to ride as much as the Rowdies came out and donated their time to trails, a great cause!”
John Howe, COPMOBA – Grand Valley Canyons Chapter

After trial work was done for the day we shared some parking lot beers and then a few of us headed over to 18 Road for some sunset laps on PBR and Zippity. We then filled our bellies in town at Taco Party with delicious street tacos and margaritas. We closed the evening by fire with MTB tales and high fives.  

Sunday we broke down camp after a quick breakfast and headed over to palisade rim. The brutal Klimp is no match for the spectacular view this trail provides. You get an amazing sense of the scenery from high above overlooking the valley of vineyards and orchards. The trail is fun flowy and offers plenty of technical.

We rounded out the weekend with only a few mechanicals, no injuries and plenty of stoke for the riding and trail work we had done. The Colorowdies can’t say enough about how easy and great it was to work with COPMOBA and the BLM on this project. Also, a huge thank to all the Grand Junction locals who joined us, John Howe and Trevor Martin. It was a pleasure working at Lunch Loops, and you can bet we’ll be back for another project in the future!

Next up is our Mountain Bike Mission Trip – Crested Butte August 10 – 12.
Watch our Events Calendar and social channels for updates coming soon!

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The Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association, Inc. (COPMOBA) is a member-supported, nonprofit organization of volunteer mountain bikers dedicated to advocating for, building, and maintaining sustainable singletrack mountain bike trails on the Colorado Plateau in Western Colorado. Learn more here http://www.copmoba.org/

The Camp is a special event campground and is only open in conjunction with the events/dates highlighted on the Camp calendar. Only 50 campsites available. All Camping Styles – Sleep Under the Stars in Tents or Roll-up in Coach, Car or Motorcycle. Minutes Away from Downtown Grand Junction (Safe Biking Trail). Food, Gas, Restaurants, Beer (Walking Distance – Less Than A Mile Away). Close to Tabaquache & Lunch Loop Trails. Hike and Fish the Connected Lake Area. Temporary Bathroom & Water Services Provided. All sites are primitive, no RV hookups. Learn more here https://thecampgj.com/