With booming NICA programs and an ever-growing riding population, Ogden Valley, just north of Salt Lake City, Utah, is constantly looking to expand its trail systems. Although it has existed for only three years, Eden Valley Trails (EVT) has already added about 30 miles. Their most recent 5-mile build at North Fork Park required unique engineering to keep the trail mountain bike- and descending-only.
Digging deep to keep the new 5-mile trail directional
The new trail EVT is wrapping up at North Fork Park currently doesn’t have a name. Alan Wheelwright, Executive Director of EVT, told us trail names are chosen after the project wraps up.
What we do know is that it will be another bike-only option in North Fork Park, a trail system of roughly 50 miles of multi-use trails. The new trail will be five miles long and directional. But to keep this new trail mountain biking-only and directional, EVT had to get creative with problem-solving.
Due to the limited corridor Weber County gave EVT to build in, the new trail would cross an existing multi-use trail at roughly mile four. With the potential for trail conflict and collisions due to higher speeds on a descending-only mountain bike trail, the county didn’t love the trail crossing.
“The people who run the park said, ‘You can’t run a directional trail across an existing one.’ So we had to go underneath the existing trail,” Wheelwright explained. “ And [the tunnel] was the solution we came up with.”
EVT dug deep and installed two egg-shaped corrugated metal tunnels for descending mountain bikers to pass through. Wheelwrite said they are roughly eight feet tall and five feet wide. He also mentioned a pretty big price tag of around $22,000. The entire trail project has been funded through state recreation grants and private donations.
Aside from the underpass, the new descending trail will include multiple descents. Wheelwright said the 5-mile new trail will have four significant climbs and descents, with roughly 600 feet of total elevation gain and loss. It will be blue, but a “solid blue,” as he put it.
On the descents, Wheelwright said riders can expect “mountain bike-specific” features that you would commonly find on flow trails. The features will include shark fins, berms, tabletops, and rollers (that can become doubles).
“Some wooden features as well,” Wheelwright added, specifically mentioning a wallride. “There really aren’t many wooden features up here in this park.” He also mentioned some rock drops, up to about three feet, but those features do have alternate line options.
For the four or so climbs, Wheelwright said they won’t be overly technical or challenging. The relatively smooth flow riders can expect on the descents will also be present on the uphill portions.
EVT is getting a lot done in just a few years of existance
To be fair, Wheelwright has been building multi-use trails at North Fork Park for the past 15 years — the last three of which were with EVT. In that time, the new trail organization has built two trails designed specifically for mountain biking. The first was a trail called Spork, also in North Fork Park. The other is the 5-mile trail they are currently wrapping up.
EVT isn’t necessarily a mountain biking-specific trail organization; they work quite a bit on multi-use trails in the area. That said, Wheelwright did tell us that, “We build trails, but the trail crew is mountain bikers. We build a little bit of everything, but we really like building mountain bike trails.”
Along with Spork at North Fork Park, EVT also built a mountain bike-specific trail at Snowbasin Resort called Canyon Rim. Like Spork and the new trail they are working on, Canyon Rim is rated intermediate, about five miles long, with roughly 600 feet of elevation change and a series of climbs and descents.
And building trails is really all EVT wants to do. Wheelwright says that people ask them about putting on events or providing things like shirts and other merchandise. While they aren’t necessarily opposed, taking on projects like that would mean less time spent on the trails. With a 10-mile-per-year average for the new organization, they’d like to stay focused on new trails.
“It’s been a learning adventure for us to understand what our mission is and to stick to our mission,” Wheelwright shared. “But our goal was to build 50 miles of trail in the first five years. We’re three years into it, and we’ve got about 30 miles done.”
The work has been mostly donation-funded. Wheelwright pointed out that aside from three full-time staffers, EVT is comprised of volunteers. While many have given their time, they have also given money to keep shovels in the dirt and trails expanding throughout the Ogden community.
The new trail, and all EVT trails, are adaptive
Wheelwright says that the new five-mile descent at North Fork Park is adaptive-friendly. That can help secure grant funds, but it is also something EVT does on all the trails they build.
For EVT and Wheelwright, it just makes sense and, ultimately, isn’t that much extra work. “Bridges need to be a little bit wider. The corridor needs to be a little bit wider,” he said. “You can make a drop that’s four feet wide that everyone can enjoy and also adaptive riders can enjoy.”
More trail options in Ogden Valley are really helping NICA
In just three years, EVT has added 30 miles of singletrack to Ogden Valley trail systems. In the next two years, they hope to add 20 more. With booming NICA programs in the area, Ogden Valley will take every new trail they can get.
And EVT is happy to oblige. “You come [to North Fork Park], and there are 200 kids practicing a night,” Wheelwright said.
Along with adding more multi-use trails, EVT hopes to keep adding mountain bike-specific trails to Ogden Valley trail systems. NICA doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
Wheelwright said they have just over a mile to go and hope to wrap up construction on the newest trail before snow falls.
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