Category: Advocacy

Building, Maintaining and Riding Trails

With the recent changes the DMBTA has seen, we saw an opportunity to re-think and re-focus what it is we hope to achieve as an organization.

As we looked back upon the couple of years that the group has existed, we can see the rallying of the troops around the announcement and public comment period of the BLM’s Travel Management Plan. The mountain biking community came to life as soon as it was known that we could lose, or possibly gain some trails. And thus the
DMBTA were born.

Since that time we have grown, our relationship with land managers has continued to mature and we are more organized. We became a Charter Chapter of IMBA last year and with the strength of that international organization behind us, we hope to be able to make Southern Utah an even better place to ride.

In our last meeting, there were a lot of ideas thrown around about what we wanted to accomplish. In the end, everyone agreed that it comes back to trails. Without ’em, we have no where to ride. And thus it was settled, our focus has been and will always be trails; Building, Maintaining and Riding.

Status Up-date for the Rockville Bench Trail

The Rockville Bench is closed to bikes until the BLM Travel Plan is complete. Please honor this closure. It is the only possible hope we have of gaining access permanently in the future.

From Joe’s guide to Zion National Park

The Rockville Bench will not be opened until the travel plan is signed and complete. In addition, there is no guarantee that the trail will be open to bikes in the final plan, or if it will even be recognized as an official trail at all. There are a variety of factors that will influence the final decision, the most notable being public comment.

The BLM has at least six months before the release of the draft travel plan for public comment. They have completed preliminary evaluation of 2,000 miles of motorized and non-motorized routes, and have roughly 200 miles remaining.

What can you do to help? Two things. 1) Keep reminding mountain bikers to stay away. We have had numerous incidents of individuals and groups violating the closure. This does nothing but damage to the reputation of all mountain bikers. 2) Offer meaningful comments once the draft plan is released.

We will post links here of the draft, on FB and via e mail with instructions on when to comment.

Unfortunately, the Rockville Bench is a perfect example of why illegal trail building is risky and stupid. By not considering land ownership and access, this was a disaster waiting to happen. Once the Anasazi Plateau subdivision began to be developed, mountain bikers, with a misplaced sense of entitlement, continued to ride there, ignoring private property and angering the residents. This eventually resulted in the closure and the problem continues today.

The BLM realizes that every user group has individuals that make everyone else look bad. Mountain bikers, ATV riders, climbers, and motorcyclists all have similar problems. But lets try to be the shining example, not the norm.

To counter this, please remind everyone that the Rockville Bench is off-limits to bikes–then ask them to join DMBTA.

Advocacy Events

Spring 2013 Trail Projects

Dixie Mountain Bike Trails Association invites you to join us as we build our trail volunteer capacity in Southwest Utah while improving our local trails.

The Dixie Mountain Bike Trails Association is a mountain biking access and trails advocacy group formed in June of 2010 in response to the BLM travel planning process. Our mission is to create, enhance and protect opportunities and experiences afforded mountain bikers in the Southwestern Utah area. DMBTA became a chapter of IMBA in June of 2012. We are working to develop a Memorandum of Understanding with the BLM, and eventually the Forest Service and local municipalities to empower mountain bikers with the ability to grow the trail infrastructure once the new Travel Management Plan is approved.

We have a series of trail projects, clinics and classes planned for 2013. Over the Edge Sports will kick off the season by Presenting 3 clinics on basic trail building and maintenance techniques.

1. Dec 1 – 3:00 PM – OTE Shop Hurricane Rim – Maintenance Clinic
2. January 5 – 3:00 PM, OTE Shop Trail TBA – Maintenance Clinic
3. January 26 – 3: 00 PM – Quail Lake Trailhead – Building Clinic
4. February 9 – 3:00 PM – Quail Lake Trailhead – Building Clinic

Other Trail Projects
5. February 10 – 10am Barrel Rolls and access Trail Maintenance
6. February 23 – 10:00 AM Poppy Trail –Bloomington – Signing project
Signing on going – issues
7. March 28-30 -DMBTA + IMBA Subaru Trail Care Crew Summit, classes, trail work, discussions

Advocacy

JEM Drop Trail Day

The Dixie Mountain Bike Trails Association had a trail day on September 30th. The nasty drop on the JEM that has always been a struggle for many riders, was once again cleaned up. In addition to eliminating all the loose rocks and cleaning out the deep rut, much of the trail was armored to keep erosion from occurring again.

Over a month later and after two races on the JEM, we are happy to say the trail day was a success.

Stay tuned for future projects. We look forward to continuing to improve and expand riding opportunities here in Southern Utah.

Advocacy Events Uncategorized

BIKER/CLIMBERS JOIN FORCES

JOIN US Apirl 15th at 10am at the Zen Trail Head to spend a day trading worlds with the Southern Utah Climbers. The day will start with a mountain bike ride in the Green Valley area. Depending on the number of participants and skill level we will divide and introduce the climbers to the wonderful world of mountain biking. The rides will last approx 2 hrs and then we will reconveen in moes valley for some eats and recovery and discuss ways we can join forces in land use planning, ethics awareness, and land stewardship.

The in the afternoon us Mountain bikers will be treated to a climbing lesson

Climbing shoes are available from Desert Rat for $5.. mention SUCA

RSVP on the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/303360129734089/

We are very excited that this first ever joint advocacy event is coming together

Advocacy Events

Pedal Driven

This past October the Dixie Mountain Bike Trails Association partnered with DocUtah to hold a festival styled showing of the movie Pedal Driven. The movie documents that process of working toward building a trail system and shows why working with land management is the only real way to have sustainable, lasting trails.

John Scarafiotti saw the benefit of combining the showing with an evening of bike related fun as an effort of spreading the word about the DMBTA. He teamed up with Fixie Dave Nice and Lukas Brinkerhoff to bring the idea to fruition. Continue reading

Advocacy Trail Planning

Welcome to Dixie Mountain Bike Trails Association

We enjoy riding great trails almost all year long in the southwest desert of Utah. We want to preserve and expand that opportunity and we want everyone to get involved. Mountain bikers have a strong voice here and together we can make a difference. Our goal is to someday be the mountain bike mecca that all other locations look to for inspiration. We have a working relationship with the BLM and many of the local municipalities and we aim to foster those relationship into new trails. Whether it is a skills park in Hurricane or a race course in Green Valley, advocacy will get us there.

We hope you will come back often. We are constantly adding information on our pages about membership, the current travel and transportation planning process with the BLM, the Hurricane skills and jump parks, local trail infomation and maps and ways that you can get involved or support the efforts of this organization.

Thanks for visiting our site.

The Dixie Mountain Bike Trails Association

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