Category: DMBTA News

So what are the most popular trails in Southwestern Utah?

If you’re like me, your favorite trail around here is the last one. I love the diversity here. Sometimes I want to go fast and flowing, and sometimes slow and techy. Based on BLM electronic counters the top five favorite trails are:

Bearclaw Poppy – with 23,162 riders per year
Gooseberry Mesa – with 19,618
Hurricane Cliffs – with 15,831
Wire Mesa – with 14,240
Santa Clara – with 13,680

These numbers are amazing and would be hard to believe except they are based on actual electronic counts. When you do that math Bearclaw Poppy averaged 63 bikers a day for the year. Crazy.

We only have counts on BLM trails. I suspect the Desert Canyon trails would make the top five if we counted next year, and the South View trails in Cedar City are blowing up. We are fortunate to have so many great trails in our area, but it wasn’t luck. A lot of people including volunteers, the BLM, and National Forest Service people, have all worked very hard to make these trails happen.

Economics of Washington County Mountain Biking

So what is the Economic value of mountain biking in Washington County?

This is an important question and one that is usually difficult to answer. Fortunately, in 2016 the BLM collected recreational use data with electronic trail counters. We now have good numbers at least on BLM trails.

There are a number of formulas for estimating how much mountain bikers spend. Washington County estimated $175 day per visitor. The BLM estimated spending by local riders averages around $35 per person per day. Spending on things things like bike shop purchases, bike maintenance, food, and gas. It’s broken down by use type.

COMMERCIAL USE: (Guided mountain biking)

Total Number of Mountain Bike Guiding Permits: 25

Total Number of Clients (annually): 1,368

Average Number of Clients per permit: 54.75

COMPETITIVE EVENTS: (Mountain Bike Races)

Total Number Competitors = 2,560

Gross Income reported: $937,500

Other activities to consider are things like The Red Bull Rampage, Snake Hollow Bike Park, gravel grinding etc. that are not on BLM-managed lands, and so not included in these estimates.

REGULAR OLD RIDING WITH YOUR BUDDY

Total visitors counted on BLM Mountain Bike Trails in 2016 = 149,142. This number is definitely low because it only counts users on established singletrack trails. Nor does it include use on non-BLM trails like Boy Scout, Lake Shore, Kentucky Lucky, etc.

So, if you were to add all those numbers together…..you get 183,070 individual mountain bike visits every year. WOW.

The grand total for the local economy is between 16 and 21 MILLION DOLLARS every year. Whew…

Advocacy DMBTA News Garfield County Iron County Kane County Washington County

What is DMBTA?

SO WHAT EXACTLY IS DMBTA?

Glad you asked. In simple terms our mission is to “Build, Maintain, and Ride”, but of course it’s more complicated. We are a 501(C)(3) nonprofit with a president, a treasurer, and a Board of Directors that represent three sub-chapters in southwestern Utah. The sub-chapters are Washington County, Cedar City, and Kanab. We have many dedicated members and businesses that support us by donating and volunteering. Let me say “Thank You” to all of them right now, but if you’re reading this, YOU are the key to Dixie Mountain Bike Trails Association success. DMBTA is a vehicle to help all mountain bikers create and maintain the kinds of trails they want to ride. We partner with local and national governments, other non-profits, landowners, individuals businesses, and literally anyone that’s willing to advance mountain biking, trail construction or maintenance.

Building the modern flowing bike trails that most people now want is very expensive. It costs between $5000 to $10,000 dollars per mile to design and construct XC trails, and downhill flow trails are much more expensive. In the past it’s not been our goal to raise enough money to fund new trails. Most of our membership dues and donations simply paid for things like insurance, trail tools, events, and supplies. We’ve had success building new trails all over southwestern Utah by forming partnerships. However, trail funding for federal agencies is disappearing. Partnerships will always be important, but we now need more money to match grants from The State of Utah.

We want to do more, but we need your help. Mountain biking is growing in our area, and we can’t keep up without more help. We have many vacancies that could be filled by motivated people.

Ways you can help:

You can join DMBTA, or donate on our website at dmbta.org
You can donate on facebook, or at paypal.me/dmbta
Buy one of our t-shirts or hats from local bike shops.
You can also help trail funding when you shop on AMAZON by going to smile.amazon.com first, and ask them to make a donation to the Dixie Mountain Bike Trails Association.
If you own a business we need more cooperate support.

If you have questions you can contact me at Kevin@dmbta.org.

Your Board:

Kevin Christopherson – President

Toni Bain – Treasurer

Marc Mortensen – Washington County Representative

Aden Sahagun – Cedar City Representative

Jan Gilespie – Kanab Representative

Key Volunteers:

Ben Warburton, Jay Bartlet, Carl Sigg – Trail Maintenance Coordinators

Lukas Brinkerhoff – Newsletter and Web Page Editor

Teena Christopherson – Merchandise Sales

DMBTA News Kane County

Kanab Says Goodbye to Christina Hansen

Farewell to a true a mountain bike leader.

We will miss you Christina

Kane County’s most dedicated cycling advocate, former Kanab Cycling Club President, Christina Hansen, has moved to California to start a new chapter in her life. Christina, a veterinarian for Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, will continue to maintain a relationship with her employer by coming back to work in Kanab one week per month and occasionally traveling to far off destinations for special assignments. She is currently assisting with a Spayathon in Puerto Rico.

In late 2013, Christina held a meeting in Kanab to determine if there was enough local support to put together a group interested in promoting trails in the area. The input received showed that there was great interest in both paved and mountain bike trails. Christina then contacted IMBA for organizational help. By January of 2014, the newly formed Kanab Bike Trails Committee hosted a public meeting to discuss the possibilities of designing and building a series of paved and mountain bike trails. Christina was instrumental in bringing DMBTA and Kanab Cycling Club together.

Throughout the following years, Christina facilitated meetings between City, County, State and Federal officials and the local cycling community. She pushed to create and maintain trails throughout Kanab and surrounding areas. She connected riders through Facebook, email and meetings and coordinated group outings and fundraisers. Now, Kanab now has a few local trails with more in the works. There is a strong group riders who would have never connected without her vision and determination.

We’re grateful for all the work Christina has put into our community, and look forward to riding with her during her monthly trips to Kanab. We promise to continue pushing for an amazing trail system in Kane County.

DMBTA News Washington County

Washington County Updates

A good news, bad news update on BLM trail projects. First the bad news. Washington DC cut the funding our local BLM office was planning to use to match money from Utah for the West Mountain DH Trail. It is canceled. Ugh.

Now the Good news.
1) We will ask for an extension for the funding from Utah and hopefully find a way to match it next year.
2) There were several projects in the BLM pipeline that will go forward this year.

– Hurricane Cliff network: new restroom and parking on Sheep Bridge Road at the intersection of JEM and Crypto
– JEM trailhead: New restroom and parking/fencing upgrades
– Wire Mesa: new restroom and fenced trailhead parking
– Bearclaw Poppy: Navajo drive trailhead with flush toilets and running water. It is a cooperative project with Saint George City
– New dry camping sites along Sheep Bridge road in The Hurricane Cliffs Trail Network (pictured below)

Advocacy DMBTA News

We need you!

The Dixie Mountain Bike Trails Association started out as a group of five dedicated individuals who were willing to put in a whole bunch of volunteer hours in an effort to help improve and create mountain biking experiences in Southern Utah. Since we started in 2009, we’ve grown from Washington County to include Iron, Kane and Garfield counties where there are active sections of the DMBTA working to bring you new and better trails.

This growth has been great. It’s meant that we have more singletrack in more locations. It’s meant that the DMBTA has grown to include more than just five people and based on the predictors we have, this growth is only going to continue at an exponential rate.

We are committed to our original goal of building, maintain and riding the amazing trails in Southern Utah. To continue this effort, we need your help. We need people who can take over some of the positions that are due to be released like a book keeper. We need folks who are willing to help maintain our website. We need people to help maintain the trails that we already have and we need people who are willing to help build trails. In short, we need you. Regardless of what your passion, what your skill set, we can find something for you to do.

So join us. Shoot an email to info@dmbta.org with your contact info and what you feel you could do to help out. We’ll get back to you within 24 hours.