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Red Hill trail counters show heavy year-round use; town tapping endowment for two-week professional trail crew
Summary
Town staff reported about 60,000 annual trail users at Red Hill in 2024, described new counters (including a buried bike counter), and said the town will use $12,223 from an Aspen Valley Land Trust maintenance endowment and contract Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers for skilled trail armoring work.
Carbondale staff presented trail-counting results and maintenance plans for Red Hill, reporting sustained, year-round use and a plan to deploy professional trail crews for heavy repairs.
Eric Brenlinger described the town’s sensor network and said the new buried bike counter at the trail network entrance will better capture bicycle traffic. He said existing infrared counters produce conservative counts because they also record nonhuman triggers (animals, dogs) and because some users do point-to-point routes the counters only register one direction. “We feel like our numbers are are pretty good,” Brenlinger said, and staff reported an estimated 60,000 individual trail users in 2024, with April and May the busiest months.
Daily averages and use patterns: staff provided daily-average figures by trail segment (for example, Ruthie's Run average ~203 users per day; Lower Three Gulches ~129; Upper Three Gulches ~66; Beeline downhill bike daily average ~18) and noted that weekday use was only moderately lower than weekend use (weekday average roughly 65% of weekly totals), indicating consistent everyday local use. The most popular hour on trails was 8–9 a.m., staff said.
Maintenance and funding: Brenlinger said the town will use $12,223 from an Aspen Valley Land Trust maintenance endowment raised during the Save Red Hill campaign to contract a two-week Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers (R.F.O.V.) “veil” crew with specialized skills for armoring and erosion control. That work is targeted to reduce long‑term maintenance from the heavy user load. Staff also said spoils storage and parking conditions require attention; streets staff will periodically grade the access road but it degrades quickly after grading.
Next steps: staff will continue counters and data analysis, begin the contracted trail-armoring work, coordinate with the Red Hill Council and BLM on shared trail corridors, and return with updated comparative metrics next year.
Ending: Commissioners asked for additional comparatives with prior years and requested improved signage and wayfinding (distance markers) on trailheads; staff agreed to include that in future planning.
