The relations between Ada County and the City of Eagle are on the rocks. And the fate of the Eagle Bike Park, and the unfinished Flow Trail within it – the best examples of state-of-the-art trail design in the valley – is now controlled by one organization that invested nothing in those improvements. Ada County.

It really doesn’t matter now how this came to pass. It is what it is. (Lord, how I hate that expression.) Those involved in the entire lease/ownership process screwed up in ways almost too numerous to count. The debacle has understandably left Ada County with little incentive to enter into further negotiations or agreements with Eagle. I suspect they feel it would be better, if not easier, to manage the asset themselves.

One big problem: Ada County isn’t in the bike trail business.

The vast majority of trails on the Boise Foothills Front are managed by Ridge to Rivers. The Ridge to Rivers (R2R) partnership consists of five state and federal organizations, Ada County being one of them. R2R has publicly said that they don’t have the budget to maintain the trails they already control. They have no plans to build new ones that would relieve growing traffic and user conflicts. And the City of Boise has said, in writing, that they’ll be closing trials in the newly acquired Hillside to Hollow reserve. Even if Ridge to Rivers is not anointed to maintain parts of the EBP, no government agency associated with Ada County trails has demonstrated the desire or ability to build or maintain mountain bike trails that reflect current design trends, including R2R.

And another big problem: mountain bikers could’ve done much more to prevent this situation.

But now, the Flow Trail is paralyzed from the waist down by a gap where it crosses Junkyard Trail. This is a microcosm of what’s happening to the Eagle Bike Park. It’s going downhill fast, and that’s not a reference to the thrill of riding there. We need to bridge the gap and patch things up in the Park. And with Ada County.

The write to ride:

With just one email, you can contact all the Ada County Commissioners, the Ada County Parks, and the Open Space and Trails Advisory Board. Paste ALL these addresses into one email: lmaneely@adaweb.net; bocc1@adaweb.net; prwoods7@yahoo.com; mark.suderman@gmail.com; kyle.hemly@cshqa.com; susangjimk@gmail.com; DMcKinnon@tertco.com; smilycook@yahoo.com; brandy.wilson@ch2m.com; ryzaguirre@adaweb.net; skoberg@adaweb.net; parks@adaweb.net

Tell them if you want the Eagle Bike Park land to once again be leased, or perhaps sold, to the City of Eagle. Tell them if you want the Flow Trail to be completed and not left to rot. Explain that downhill-only trails draw the faster traffic away from multi-user trails that breed conflict between users. Tell them any other ideas you have. Just tell them. Please. They do listen.

Got another minute? Spread the word. Repost this on your wall. Blast the link out in an email to those you ride with. Print it and hang it on your fridge – but, for the love of Stormin’ Mormon – do something.

You may not have invested some of the millions of volunteer minutes it took to create the Park, but if you spend a few minutes now, and the Eagle Bike Park trails still end up looking like the ho hum multi-user trails in the City of Trees, no one can say you didn’t try.

Steve Noyes founded the Big Rocks Mountain Bike Group about 20 years ago. He organizes about 35 group rides per year for a mailing list of more than 160 men and women. He has also coordinated mountain bike trips to Utah, Oregon and Idaho destinations. Email him @ noyes@cableone.net