"Beloved Mountain Biker Shot and Killed on Colorado Trail"

[TexasProgresive]

Tim Watkins was shot to death in an area known for illegal activity

‘Have you ever ridden Limbaugh Canyon?” State Sen. Michael Merrifield asks over a strained cell phone connection.

I’ve mountain biked the Mount Herman area a little, I tell him, but have a poor sense of direction and a bad memory for road and trail names.

“Oh, you’d remember it,” the prolific cyclist says. “ ... The flowers are beautiful, the grass is high.” Then his voice slows. “I don’t think I’ll ever do it alone again.”

Despite the fact that the U.S. Forest Service banned shooting there in 2014, Merrifield says gunshots are a constant at Mount Herman, which is near Monument and Palmer Lake. Once, near the drop into Limbaugh, he saw a man and his son shooting right next to a “no shooting” sign. He reminded them of the ban, but he says the father told him to “mind your own fucking business.” Unarmed and alone, Merrifield simply moved on.

Other times, drivers have tried to run him off the road. And once, he “heard and felt [a] bullet go over my head.” It was, Merrifield says, in about the same area where the body of his friend was recently found.

https://www.csindy.com/coloradosprings/tim-watkins-was-shot-to-death-in-an-area-known-for-illegal-activity/Content?oid=7441765


Beloved Mountain Biker Shot and Killed on Colorado Trail

The Colorado Springs cycling community was rocked last month by the murder of Timothy Watkins. The 61-year-old mountain biker and bike mechanic was found shot to death just west of Monument, a town about 20 miles north of Colorado Springs.

Watkins reportedly left for a ride on September 14 and never returned. Three days later, a hiker found his partially buried body off Mt. Herman Road, near a popular mountain biking trail. An earlier search party had come across his abandoned bike. The El Paso Sheriff's department is investigating, but the case remains unsolved.

Watkins was a fixture in the local cycling scene. His friend Jeff Tessier told reporters, "I think of Tim as a legend in the mountain bike community. He had a passion for riding and loved it so dearly."

Watkins' unsolved death near a popular route has created unease among the local cycling community. That unease intensified when, about a week after Watkins disappeared, several riders independently reported that they had been threatened by a man with a hatchet in the Monument area.

[ret5hd]

1. Is there a militia/bundy type group that wants to claim the area?