Letter: Increased OHV use disturbs homeowners

John Fitzgerald

When my wife and I purchased our home in Summerwood, Highway 6 was still two lanes and only the Oro Grande Trail and a few seldom-used side trails existed across from us at the base of Tenderfoot Mountain. Occasionally, an off-road motorcycle or two would ride from the cemetery trailhead and disappear into the back country, returning sometime later to load up and go home. That was the “historical use” of Tenderfoot by motorcycles.

Over the last eight to 10 years, the number of off-road vehicles has multiplied dramatically, and consequently so has the level of activity from the cemetery trailhead. Additionally, the motorcycles have created a plethora of loop trails on and in the vicinity of the landfill property, including the wetland area, and many if not most ride these loops directly across from us for hours, bombarding our homes with their roaring noise.

As homeowners, we can't easily opt out of this situation. We didn't bring it on and we don't go to the motorcycle riders' homes and harass them. Surely our opposition to the currently intense activity on the mountain and to their request for a half a million dollar grant to expand the trails and make Tenderfoot an off-road motorcycle recreation destination for all of Colorado and beyond is understandable.

Denigrating homeowners in letters to the editor because they oppose your practicing an activity that degrades their ability to enjoy their own homes is not.

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Source: http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20090814/LETTER/908139984/1025

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