| A rider navigates through a trail north of Price during a July 4 special ride. The International Mountain Biking Association’s Subaru trail crew will be coming to Price on Apr. 20 through the 22 to assist local bike enthusiasts in construction and improvement of local singletrack trail on Wood Hill. Between 2002 and 2004 Fuzzy Nance built more than 70 miles of singletrack trails in the Price area and more than 200 mountain bikers have stopped in Price to ride since that time. |
During the Jan. 10 Price City Council meeting, Fuzzy and Dondra Nance approached the officials seeking support for the continuation of a trail system that was started in 2002.
The system was started by Fuzzy Nance and the Price Area Singletrack Society (PASS).
The current system consists of 70 miles of singletrack trail on Wood Hill in Price.
The International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) Subaru trail crew will be coming to Price on April 20 through April 22 to design and build up to 20 additional miles of track in the same area.
“The amount of trail that is built will depend on the amount of volunteer support that we can get on Apr. 21, that will be our building day,” said Dondra Nance.
Dondra Nance reported in a press release that, since 2002, more than 200 people have come to Price just to ride and with the IMBA coming this year she is looking for that number to increase.
PASS requested that Price city officials write letters of support for the group’s efforts to design and build sustainable and safe trail systems in Carbon County.
The group further requested that the council members commit to help by volunteering to work on the project on April 21.
In the future, PASS would like to see the local government support a campground on the eastern end of Wood Hill off the Price-Kenilworth road with kiosks and restroom facilities.
According to the press release, the proposed project would be a joint effort with the College of Eastern Utah.
PASS would like to create and maintain bike lanes, ensure safe routes to schools and launch marketing efforts to promote riding a bicycle to school or work.
The group would also like to see a comprehensive plan to bring mountain bike tourism to Carbon County, including environmental stewardship, recreation opportunities, land acquisitions for open space and economic development.
Mountain biking is one of the most popular trail activities among all United States adventure travelers, with more than 39.3 million adults participating every year.
Enthusiasts according to Nance are riders that ride more than one time per month and make up nearly 77 percent of recreational tourists.
The recreational tourists, of which 80 percent report going to Moab on a regular basis, could represent a sizable positive economic impact for Carbon County.
Mountain biking’s annual economic impact to the Moab area is over 8 million dollars according to Nance.
To foster Price’s legitimacy as a mountain biking destination PASS developed a map of the Bookcliffs Trail System on Woodhill that includes trail difficulty descriptions. These maps have been posted on the several websites including Utah Mountain Biking and Trail Finder.
In 2006, PASS hosted three media trips for Utah Mountain Biking, Outdoor Utah and UUtah.com. These trips included guided tours of the trials in the area, gifts from the local bike shops, maps of the trail systems and lunch. Nance is hoping the the additional trail will bring more media opportunity in 2007.
According to Nance a visitors first stop is often the gas station, grocery store or welcome center. If the person there is not knowledgeable about what is available in the area for mountain bikers they may not stay. “For sustainable tourism we need mountain bikers to come ride a “sweet” single track and come back three years later to an area that has improved,” commented Nance.
“The trails that IMBA will help us build will be designed for use by multiple groups, walkers, runners, hikers and of course mountain bikers,” stated Nance.
IMBA is a non-profit educational association whose mission is to create, enhance and preserve trail opportunities for mountain bikers worldwide.
The association promotes volunteer trailwork participation, cooperation among different trail users groups, grassroots advocacy and innovative trail management solutions. IMBA’s worldwide network includes 32,000 individual members, more than 450 bicycle clubs, more than 130 corporate partners and about 200 bicycle retailers.
IMBA will have two teams of trail experts traveling world wide in 2007, leading trailwork sessions, meeting with land managers and working with clubs and members to improve mountain biking opportunities.
“We can’t wait for them to come to Price,” concluded Nance.