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Motorized riders aid pedal-powered peers

ADAM BOFFEYsummit daily news
Summit Daily/Mark Fox
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SUMMIT COUNTY – In a rare meshing of two recreational groups that often clash on the local trails, four motorized bikers helped put on Wednesday’s installment of the Summit Mountain Challenge (SMC).Summit County Off-Road Riders (SCORR) will have a presence at about half of this summer’s local mountain biking races, according to SMC director Jeff Westcott.Where motorized use is permitted, bikers from the local club will be utilized for marshaling, safety support and course tear down.”They were a huge help on Wednesday,” said Westcott, who also cited the Firecracker 50 and Pennsylvania Gulch Grind races as major benefactors of motorized assistance.SCORR began volunteering its time and resources to the SMC last summer after its president, Chuck Ginsburg, approached Westcott with a proposition.

“Chuck said, ‘I have an offer you can’t refuse,'” Westcott recalled by phone on Friday. “He told me SCORR was reinventing itself and wanted to offer us free support to help with its public relations.””It’s a bit of networking,” Ginsburg said. “We want to get the word out there that there are motorcyclists giving back to the community.”In addition to helping out with the physical operation of mountain bike races, SCORR riders in the SMC seek to foster good relations between motorized and non-motorized users, according to Westcott.”I’m a non-motorized guy, but I’ve never had a bad interaction with a motorized user,” Westcott said. “But others have and I think that’s why SCORR is doing this (volunteer work).”An avid cyclist, the race director is not against off-highway vehicles (OHVs), and even employs one himself when it’s time to set the course for the long and far-reaching Firecracker 50.SCORR was founded in the late 1990s, but fell into a relative state of dormancy a few years back, according to Ginsburg.

When a management plan was being created for recreation in the Golden Horseshoe open space area early last summer, the group rallied to advocate for its rights to use the land northeast of Breckenridge.”The Forest Service told us we needed to get involved and to get active,” Ginsburg said, “or some of the rules governing our use would change.”Although many motorized trails in the Golden Horseshoe are now being taken away because they’re not sustainable, the Forest Service has added a large area of Tenderfoot Mountain in Dillon for seasonal off-road motorcycle use to the proposed travel management plan for the White River National Forest, according to SCORR’s website.Now roughly 150 members strong, SCORR holds monthly meetings as well as group rides and trail maintenance projects.”Our main purpose is to preserve our rights to ride by maintaining trails, educating our memberships and co-existing with other trail users,” Ginsburg said.



SCORR is currently in the process of becoming a 501c3 non-profit organization, which means it will be eligible to receive grant money for its projects.Ginsburg said the local group is interested in growing its membership. To learn more, visit http://www.scorr.org.Adam Boffey can be contacted at (970) 668-4634, or at aboffey@summitdaily.com.


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