To whom it may concern:

This afternoon, while planning an 8-day mountain biking trip to Arizona 
for next week, I ran across a draft forest plan for new wilderness areas 
in the Coronado Nat'l Forest.  Amazingly, this includes quite a few 
trails I've ridden on extensively in the past and hope to be able to 
continue riding on in the future.  These include the Bug Springs, Green 
Mountain, and 50 Year Trail in the Catalina and Samaniego area, and some 
lesser used trails in the Chiricahuas.  I'm particularly concerned 
because I don't see mountain biking listed as a current use in the 
plans, which unless I overlooked it, is a huge oversight on the part of 
the Forest Service.  People like me come from around the country to ride 
some of these trails, and friends of mine in the Tucson and Phoenix area 
ride these trails regularly. 

The addition of some of these small wilderness areas would also add more 
non-bike-friendly areas along the Arizona Trail, which has been 
constructed with the intent of creating a mostly-singletrack 
bike-friendly route across the state.  In fact, this is the reason for 
this particular trip to Arizona.  Adding more wilderness along this 
route would splinter what has evolved to be a spectacular and 
one-of-a-kind trail allowing mountain bikers to experience the 
remoteness of that part of the country without having to circumnavigate 
more than a few existing wilderness areas.

While I am an advocate for wilderness areas, the bicycle restrictions 
are frustrating, though I would be very pleased to see additional 
wilderness areas designated if more forms of human-powered 
transportation were permitted.  Allowing horseback riders but not 
bicycles is an issue that I hope will receive more discussion in the 
coming years.

Thanks for reading,

Kurt Refsnider
3671 Pinedale St Unit D
Boulder CO 80301
kurt.refsnider@colorado.edu