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Letter: Connecting communities

I recently had the pleasure of attending the Eagle County Outdoor Recreation Economy Summit. Chris Romer and the Vail Valley Partnership did an excellent job of hosting the event. The meeting was well-organized and very informative. The friendly staff at the Vail Golf Course Clubhouse provided an exceptional lunch in a beautiful setting.  

Our valley was well represented by Ernest Saeger with the Vail Valley Mountain Trails Alliance, and Steven Barber from Eagle Valley Metro District, discussing connecting communities through trail systems. They did an excellent job discussing the Eagle Vail and Everkrisp trails. Both of these trails are fantastic additions to our existing trail network.  The trails are well-designed and properly built for longevity. The trails cleaned up the many braided social trails reducing environmental erosion and impacts to wildlife.  

I have been fortunate to be a member of the ECO Trails committee for over twenty-five years. Under the exceptional guidance of dedicated founding members Dick Cleveland, Paul Gotthelf and Bill Fisher,  the ECO Trails committee has been in the pursuit of completing the paved Eagle Valley trail from the top of Vail Pass to the entrance of Glenwood Canyon. With the addition of Robin Thompson’s fundraising efforts as well as trail planning from Kevin Sharkey of Eagle County, we are very close to completion.  



I cannot think of a better way to connect communities than by completing the Eagle Valley Trail. Completion of the Eagle Valley Trail will provide a tremendous boost to the Eagle County outdoor recreation economy. It has been proven that the paved recreation trail provides great economic benefits to the outdoor recreation economy in Summit and Pitkin counties.  Hopefully, soon you will be able to ride from Breckenridge to Aspen on a paved recreation trail with Eagle being the midpoint. We are very close to completion with only 7.5 miles left to build.  Let’s make it a community effort to complete the Eagle Valley Trail. The longer we wait the more the construction costs increase. For more information or to donate please visit Eaglevalleytrail.org.

Thank you for your support.

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John Bailey
Eagle


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