Some users of the popular Creek Trail in Silverthorne have expressed concerns that step-over bars meant to deter e-bikes could instead negatively impact mountain bikers, older residents and recreators with disabilities.
The Creek Trail, located near Wildernest, is a half-mile path that connects to the larger Salt Lick Trail System. According to David Boyd, a public affairs officer for the White River National Forest, a step-over bar was installed on the Creek Trail earlier this summer, along with other trail improvement work.
Wildernest resident Susan Walker said she has seen recreators of all ability levels using the trail in the past. She believes the installation of the step-over bar could prevent some of these people from using the trail moving forward.
“I’ve been hiking on those Salt Lick trails and seen many older couples with … a walking stick or a cane, even. I’ve seen a younger person with a knee brace walking to rehab,” Walker said. “Those are the kind of folks that are going to have a very hard time stepping over something that’s 18 inches high.”
Walker sits on the board of Staying in Summit, a nonprofit that advocates for Summit County’s “rapidly growing senior population,” according to the organization’s website.
“This is a very important topic to me — being almost 60 years old myself — that trails be accessible,” she said.
According to Boyd, these step-over bars have been implemented in places where trails are already not considered accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act due to their “rugged terrain.”
The bars are only meant to keep out e-bikes, which have historically been heavily regulated on U.S. Forest Service land, though recent proposals from the federal government have sought to revise these policies.
“Under Forest Service policy, e-bikes are considered motorized vehicles. The White River National Forest only allows e-bikes on roads and trails open to motorized vehicle travel. This includes all hiking and biking trails in the Dillon Ranger District,” Boyd wrote in an email. “The step over bar is an effective management tool used across the country to keep e-bikes and other motorized vehicles off of the areas they are not allowed to go.”
But Walker shared that the barrier has impacted her ability to ride her mountain bike on the trail, which is listed as mountain bike-friendly.
“You have to get off your bike and lift it over the pole, which stops all your momentum to be able to continue either up the road or on the trail,” she said. “This is not the way to keep out e-bikes, because it creates that barrier for everybody else.”
She also said that, though the trails may not officially be considered ADA-accessible, this doesn’t mean that people with disabilities don’t use the trail.
Along with other disabilities like blindness and deafness, the ADA website says it protects those with “mobility disabilities such as those requiring the use of a wheelchair, walker or cane.”
“(Creek Trail) is clearly used by … people who are using a cane or a stick for support. People in their 70s, even 80s, who live around there, who I’ve seen hiking on those trails,” Walker said. “The trails themselves are not inaccessible. Yes, they have rocks and they have roots, but nothing like that barrier that goes across.”
Boyd said the installation of these barriers is a response to “an increase in illegal equipment encroachment from our front country/urban trailheads such as Wildernest.”
He also noted that the decision to install more e-bike barriers in the future will be based on where the Forest Service receives reports of motorized vehicles on regular trails.
“Future step over bar installation will be focused on urban access points and trailheads where there is a higher likelihood of motorized users entering non-motorized trails, and any other areas where our rangers are seeing consistent encroachment with motorized equipment,” Boyd said.