By Shannon Lukens.

 

Bikers are poaching the closed trails at the Steamboat Ski Area. They’re going past closed signs and around netting to access the closed bike trails. Loryn Duke with the ski area says safety is the biggest concern. She sent Steamboat Radio News the picture of people standing in front of the red CLOSED sign and then going around the green netting that shows the trail is closed.

 

“It’s unsafe for the trails to be ridden because they have not been maintained. It’s unsafe that people might be working on the trails and that a poacher could encounter something in their way at any time. And it’s unsafe for the construction crew. So it’s absolutely a safety issue that these trails are closed. And that’s why it is really disheartening for these closures to be disregarded.

 

The bike trails on the mountain have been closed because of construction of the new gondola, helicopters have been working in the area, and trail maintenance is being done to make the bike trails better when they do reopen.

 

Duke says that if the poaching of the closed bike trails continues, they may have to involve Steamboat Police to issue citations, or winter access could be impacted.

 

Here is the full interview with Loryn Duke with Steamboat Resort.