Ever-developing Bootleg Canyon helps put Boulder City on the map

Tuesday, March 13, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.

Fifteen years ago Brent Thompson and his friends started riding their bikes in the mountains that line northwestern Boulder City.

In addition to their bikes, they brought a shovel. Then they added a pick. Then a jackhammer. What they were doing was illegal.

"I liked it," Thompson said, smirking. "We were renegade trail builders."

Fast forward a decade and a half and many call Thompson a genius. And he's no longer a rebel on two wheels. He's a Boulder City employee.

About four years ago the small city heard about Thompson's efforts. Although officials could have fined him or pressed charges, they instead put him on the payroll at about $48,000 a year.

They also made Thompson's intricate 35-mile mountain bike trail system part of the city's recreation department, using more than $2 million in state preservation grants to build showers, restrooms and a picnic area. They also allowed the trail master to keep building.

For a city that runs two golf courses, an aquatics facility and a fishing pond, the investment put another notch in Boulder City's belt, one that offered further proof that the city that shuns development has things the rest of the valley can't offer.

Now the city may take another step forward by adding a system of zip cords across several of Bootleg Canyon's peaks.

If the plan proceeds, the lines would be built by a private company and riders would have to pay a fee to use them. The mountain bike trails, though, would remain free.

City officials say publicity from the park has surpassed the money they have invested in it so far.

The annual Interbike races draw thousands to the desert park, which averages more than 1,000 riders weekly. Bootleg also has been featured in dozens of adventure magazines around the world and has attracted professional riders.

"We could never afford to pay for the magazine coverage it gets us," city spokeswoman Rose Ann Miele said.

Some in the community, however, complain that Bootleg Canyon is a waste of space and money. The proposed expansion of services, they warn, would simply increase the city's operational expenses.

Not so, the city responds. The only public expense is Thompson's salary, and about 40 percent of that is recouped through fees associated with the big races that come to town.

Thompson and others believe the complaints stem mainly from hikers upset that the daredevil bikers intrude on the peacefulness of the outdoors.

"The hiker's out there for the solitude," said Scott Kahler, vice chairman of the parks and recreation committee. "The biker is out there for the thrill."

Whether seen from a bike or on foot, Bootleg Canyon offers panoramic views stretching from the Strip to Lake Mead. Bighorn sheep mill about on the sides of the mountains.

Thompson and the city have made one concession to the hikers. They recently created a three-mile hiking-only trail.

"It seems fair to me," Thompson said, as he drove his SUV to the peak, getting ready for another ride down his creation. "We used to have all of it."

He also looks forward to sharing the area with zip line daredevils eager to traverse the canyons at dizzying speeds. The lines could be installed by this summer.

Thompson hopes that the lines will run as low to the ground as possible, to ensure maximum speed and to create the thrilling - or terrifying - impression that an unpleasant collision with the earth may be imminent.

"It's going to be gnarly," Thompson said.