BIKEWILD believes that much of the controversy surrounding the Hidden Gems Campaign may be a result of the fact that the Hidden Gems areas are spread out across a large part of Colorado and its difficult to tell exactly what areas will be designated as wilderness, what area won’t be, and what areas used to be part of the proposal but have been removed. Its a lot to wrap your head around.

BIKEWILD asked the Hidden Gems Campaign to provide us with a set maps oriented towards mountain bikers. The maps show bike trails and back-county roads we think mountain bikers will be familiar with. If your favorite trail isn’t shown on the map let us know where it is and we’ll put it on there and let you know if its within the wilderness proposal.

The maps show existing wilderness in green, the Hidden Gems proposal areas in light blue, and areas which have been removed from the proposal because it would have meant closing popular bike trails in red. The red striped areas were removed both for mountain bikers and other reasons.

So go ahead, take a look. Our read is that the Hidden Gems would have a pretty small impact on mountain bikers, but we want to know what you think. The best way to find out more about the maps is to come to our weekly BIKEWILD meetings Tuesday nights from 5:00-6:00.