Pikes Peak Region Trail Finder

Boulder is one town where, if you're an elected official, you anger cyclists at your peril. One councilman is discovering this.

From the Boulder Daily Camera:

Boulder City Councilman Macon Cowles touched off a firestorm among the local mountain biking community today after sending a group of cyclists an e-mail in which he dismissed as "a bunch of s-t" their complaints over a recent vote to bar riders' access to a new trail.

The council decided in a split vote Tuesday night not to open up a planned 5-mile pedestrian and equestrian trail on Anemone Hill, the open space property just west of downtown Boulder, to mountain bikes.

The nine elected leaders have faced a barrage of e-mails from angry and disappointed cyclists in the days following that decision, but one council member's response to a group of cyclists has riled mountain bike advocates.

"I voted for the mountain bike loop on Anemone last night," Cowles wrote in an e-mail late Wednesday night. "In fact, I made the motion and spoke for it at length. All any of us are hearing today -- regardless of which side of that issue we were on -- is a bunch of s--t from people with a single minded focus on mountain bikes."

Read the rest here.