Happy trails!
Mountain biking club helps preserve ecosystems, recreational corridors in Santa Fe area
The myth of the typical mountain biker is truly a myth, particularly in Santa Fe. The Santa Fe Fat Tire Society is one of the city’s greatest advocates for building and maintaining the many local trails. The goals of this local chapter of the International Mountain Bicycling Association include working closely with city leaders and land managers to preserve the trails, while cultivating the mountain bike community through organized rides, volunteer work and social events.
Club members are typically around 50 years old, and about 40 percent are female. Women’s rides draw new and experienced riders on Tuesdays, and a Wednesday coed group ride continues all year — even in snow and with lights during winter months.
“From the beginning, I was welcomed warmly and encouraged to join in various activities,” said Courtney Janak, board secretary of the Santa Fe Fat Tire Society. “I participated in my first trail-building class and workday even before I bought my own bike.”
The board has 14 members, and the club has 175 dues-paying members. About 55 of those riders participate regularly in the rides and trail work, a strong contingency for a volunteer organization.
Of particular interest to the Santa Fe Fat Tire Society is the popular Winsor Trail. Spanning several ecosystems over 3,400 feet of elevation change and 13 miles of forested land, the Winsor Trail is the crown jewel of the area’s mountain bike trails. Throughout the centuries-long history of Santa Fe and the surrounding communities, the trail has served as a route for driving goats, sheep and cattle along Tesuque Creek. It also served as a two-track road accessing a sawmill at the junction with the Chamisa Trail. But for the past couple of decades, the Winsor Trail has become a heavily traveled, multiuse recreational corridor for hikers and bikers.
In the past few years, the Fat Tire Society has partnered with local conservancy groups such as Trails Alliance of Santa Fe and the U.S. Forest Service to maintain and improve the Winsor Trail. “The group advocates for mountain biking access, and we host rides, but in terms of accomplishments, it’s primarily the work we do on trails,” said Brent Bonwell, president of the group. Several of the group’s members are certified forest crew leaders and sawyers, meaning they are trained by the Forest Service to lead work crews and design and improve sustainable trails and are qualified to run chain saws.
The group recently completed a reroute of the upper Winsor Trail where it was eroding. The workers cut a new trail and built switchbacks, as well as adding a section for one-way downhill riding with signs to direct hikers and riders. “We are working on laying groundwork for more gravity-oriented trails to get downhill traffic off Winsor,” Bonwell said, and part of the group’s mission is to educate riders about proper etiquette on shared trails.
The group officially adopted more than five miles of the Winsor Trail from the Borrego intersection to the ski area parking area, and the entirety of Winsor is maintained primarily by the club. Over the past summer, club volunteers cleared hundreds of downed trees from the Pacheco burn area trails northwest of Winsor for the Ultra Santa Fe trail run. In addition to working the Forest Service land, they also help maintain the Dale Ball Trails as needed. They regularly attend to about 100 miles of trails in and around Santa Fe.
Partnering with the Back Country Horsemen of New Mexico, the volunteers hauled decking materials and 16-foot beams as far as 2½ miles from trailheads to build 12 bridges and reroute the trail where it previously crisscrossed the stream. There are plans for more bridges or bypasses for the remaining four water crossings.