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!
