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Category: DMBTA News
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News from Kanab
2015 was a big year for Kane County and Kanab for taking steps towards developing mountain bike trails in the area. In May-June Joey Klein from IMBA’s Trail Solutions spent time in Kane county scouting the area for existing trails and for potential new trail sites. From that visit a 50 page trail concept plan was created and delivered to Kane County Commissioner Dirk Clayson and the Kanab BLM field office in November. Also in November the Kanab City Council voted in favor of developing two small areas of land near the city park for youth and family-friendly mountain progression zones; which may include a pump track and a flow trail. Joey Klein returned to Kanab in December and flagged approximately 17 miles of trail on both city and BLM land. The Kanab bicycle committee met and voted unanimously to create a formal bike club now called the Kanab Cycling Club (KCC).
2016 is looking very exciting for the area. The club’s first event will be to host a IMBA Trail Care Crew visit from January 28th-30th where they will be giving a presentation on club care and a workshop on trail building. This event is open to anyone interested in learning how to build trails. Check the DMBTA and KCC Facebook pages for information. Our goals for 2016 are to train and grow our group of trail building volunteers, grow our club membership, get the archeological clearances for the currently flagged trail and start building trail.
Photo by John Scarafiotti
This has been a fantastic year for mountain biking in our area, and as the DMBTA Board it’s been very rewarding coordinating this great work. Remember, YOU are DMBTA. Give yourself a high five. This year started with a bang by the completion of two new trails in the Hurricane Cliffs Trail Network. Dead Ringer and More Cowbell are a huge success thanks to the help of many people including the BLM, ACE, Team Z, OTE, and a lot of volunteers. Dead Ringer is an intermediate flow trail with purpose built bike jumps, and More Cowbell is a much needed beginner trail with amazing vistas and easy climbs.
One my favorite memories from the past year involves finishing Dead Ringer. The trail was built from both ends, and as chance would have it, they came together at a very difficult rock outcropping. The ACE crew ran out of time and was not able to connect the trail segments leaving Dead ringer mostly finished except for the last few hundred feet. The local bikers were not going to let that stand and answered the call by organizing a crew connecting the segments. It was very hard work requiring a hammer drill and building a rock retaining wall. Nice work guys.
All of the new trails including Goosebumps and Cryptobionic were celebrated with a ribbon cutting ceremony with food from Sole Foods, and prizes from OTE. It was a great time. The local NICA kids the Flying Monkeys were also there representing the future of mountain biking.
While we were celebrating the newly completed trails, Bill Bergeron was busy laying out the next big project. We hope to get Wire Mesa done early this year, and it’s going to be a great trail. It will be a fast and flowing intermediate mesa trail. Sound Interesting? We also partnered with the City of St. George to design a new trail on Webb Hill. The trail will be an intermediate loop that will open up the ability to easily pedal to the top. Construction started a few months ago. Web Hill will be all volunteer built so come out and help make this trail a success.
In addition to the new construction, we hosted several maintenance days. Many of you showed up to help keep our amazing trails in tip top shape. As our trails get more recognition and use, they will also need more maintenance. 2016 will see many more trail maintenance days to keep everyone rolling with a smile.
We also organized a Trail Love trail maintenance work shop and had over forty people show up on a Friday night, and over 25 made it for the trail work Saturday. It just shows the love and commitment all of you have to mountain biking in our area. Lets keep this going and make 2016 an even better year.
Remember it’s all about trails. Join us!
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Bear Claw Poppy is directional
The image above is the development plan for the Green Valley Competitive Area or the Green Valley Race Course, as it is commonly referred to. This is a plan that was developed and approved years ago. We’ve known that we would be losing this section of land and some of the trails in the area at some point as it has been privately owned and waiting development. Unfortunately, that time has arrived.
The red patch work areas above are slated for home construction. The corridors in between will be open space. The developers plan calls for 30% open space as dictated by the city. There will be several roads. Most notable will be Plantations Drive which will run the length of the valley and become the main access for the area. The developers are hoping to begin excavation in February starting with the northern plots. The excavation will include the construction of a road to carry material being removed and deposit it in the southern area.
The most immediate effects of the development will be a disruption of the competitive use of the area. The developer has committed to working with race promoters for the first two races of the year that happen in March. True Grit and the Red Rock Rampage will be held as normal this year.
Races held later in the year will not be able to use the Green Valley Competitive Area due to the construction.
Immediate access for casual trail users could be effected but should be maintained throughout the process. The open space designated in the development plan is strategically placed to maintain trail access. The developers are touting the trail system as part of their sales pitch making it in their own best interest to maintain as many trails as possible while still selling plots for homes.
The DMBTA is actively working with the developers to ensure that access is maintained and to work with the BLM to realign any trails that are lost to maintain the integrity of the trail network. While their may be some short term loss of trail, we are confident that the overall trail experience will be improved. The development will limit motorized access and we have verbal commitment that the trails will be signed and have trailheads once construction is complete.
The biggest casualty is the loss of the bottom of the valley. The area has been used as a giant staging area for most of the races in the area and most notably for the NICA State Championships which have been the biggest mountain bike event in Utah. We are currently working with the BLM and Washington County to find a new location that can provide the staging and a race course to replace the Green Valley Competitive Area.
This is an ongoing process and we will keep you updated as things progress.
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