RFMBA's vision is for world class mountain biking to be available for all types and levels of riders in the Roaring Fork Valley and connecting regions.

Since RFMBA’s founding in 2008, our mission has been to create and sustain the best possible mountain bike trail system and experiences in the Roaring Fork Valley. 

Why?  Simply put, we believe that world class mountain biking trails and amenities provide significant benefits for both locals and visitors.

Our Strategies

RFMBA has worked on multiple trail plan processes throughout the valley, in collaboration with our land agency partners.  We’ve also taken the lead in locations where the trail planning has not yet started. Planning efforts have included the Smuggler – Hunter Creek Cooperative Plan, the Hay Park trails plan, Basalt POST master plan, the Upper Roaring Fork Trails Plan, the Red Mt. Trail Improvement Project, the South Canyon Trail Plan, planning efforts for new and rerouted trails on the BLM Crown area and BLM New Castle area, and many others. These plans serve as guiding documents for prioritizing trail improvement projects, new trail construction projects, public land conservation and acquisitions, and desired easement accesses. The plans help us to communicate our intentions to our many land agency partners, allowing RFMBA to clearly advocate for policies and actions that lead to the achievement of our mission. These planning efforts will continue to be a  main focus over coming years, while we simultaneously work to implement and execute these trail plans as approvals and funding for specific projects come online.

Developing a mountain bike trail system recognized by IMBA as a Gold level Regional Ride Center has positively impacted our community’s recreation and economic opportunities.  This rating system provides a relatively objective evaluation of many mountain bike related amenities, serving as a guide to meeting our mission statement.  We were awarded a Bronze Level Ride Center designation in 2014, and achieved the Gold Level Ride Center status in 2020.  We’re currently joking about a non-existent Platinum level, while taking our continued trail system improvement efforts as seriously as ever.

In order to open the sport of mountain biking up to a larger portion of the community, and most importantly to the next generation of riders, we have focused on the creation of easy, beginner level mountain bike specific singletrack trails where possible. These trails allow entire families to enjoy public lands and open spaces in a way not previously possible. At the same time, we recognize that both our membership, and visiting riders exploring our shared public lands, include significant numbers of experienced mountain bikers who enjoy seeking out challenging trail experiences.  During each summer trail building season, RFMBA focuses on the creation of new trails that appeal to a full range of rider experiences, filling in the gaps for each trail system’s range of offerings whenever possible.

Launched in 2017, our Trail Agent Program trains up independent trail volunteers to maintain local trails on their own time and schedule, complementing our scheduled group volunteer events.  We also partner with Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers (RFOV), increasing the participation of volunteer mountain bikers on trail creation and improvement projects.  We increase participation through marketing scheduled events and trainings, and publicizing additional volunteer opportunities offered throughout the summer by RFOV.  We educate riders that to get newer and better trails open, we also need to maintain and improve the quality of the trails we already have available to us.

Using a combination of education initiatives as well as communicating to the public our progress on trail creation and improvement projects, we’ve worked to change the paradigm that lead to the creation of social trails in the past.  In some places, social trails have appeared due to the bureaucratic difficulty of gaining official approval for mountain bike trails. By creating a clear path of progress for proposed trail projects by working closely with our public land agency partners, we have greatly reduced the need and desire for individuals to work outside of the established processes.

Working with land conservation advocates, we seek to preserve existing mountain bike trails, and negotiate for the continued possibility of creating new trails where they are most appropriate. Retaining quiet natural places to ride our bikes is an important part of our mission to create and sustain the best possible mountain bike experience.

Using project specific fundraising campaigns, RFMBA works to further our mission by directly contributing funds towards professional trail planning & trail building services where appropriate, while also securing funding for our Seasonal Trail Crew Program which is dedicated to on-the-ground trail maintenance and improvement projects throughout the spring-summer=fall riding season.

Becoming an official IMBA Chapter in 2013 moved us from being a grassroots club – that was making incremental steps towards achieving our mission over our first 5 years – to an organization that has grown & become much more effective thanks to a turn-key membership system, and the countless advocacy best practices that IMBA has shared with RFMBA.  Funding provided by our annual and monthly Members, and the many administrative resources that have become available to us through IMBA, both help us to achieve our mission more effectively than ever before.

RFMBA is a founding member of  the Colorado Mountain Bike Coalition, a coalition of Colorado non-profit mountain bike and trail organizations.

COMTB’s mission is to strengthen the individual and collective impact of Coalition members, to protect and expand mountain biking access. COMTB addresses statewide challenges and opportunities and makes positive and lasting changes in communities across Colorado.

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