Salt Lake City Foothills Trails Master Plan
SLC folks, if you haven't already...please check out this link and have a look at the future trail planning above Salt Lake City. This is our chance. Get on the record for the trails master plan that will dictate what we build and ride in the future.
https://altaprojects.net/foothills-map/#/
As part of the Salt Lake Valley Trails Society, I've been involved in this process from early on. The city has been awesome to work with and is excited to have the input and energy of mountain bikers as we set up the foothill trail system for the future. Exciting things are happening from Emigration Canyon to North Salt Lake. Is it going to be perfect? Probably not. But it will be a hell of a lot better than the crowded, braided shitshow that is the Shoreline zone right now.
I've been very direct with the City and consultants that we want as much hand cut or natural trail as we can get. I've already repeated :"Don't Draper Salt Lake" to them numerous times and I think it's sinking in, thanks to some good old Valley provincialism.
So please have a look. Use the comment function on specific sections - existing and proposed. Please don't be a jackass.
Enjoy this unique opportunity .
Salt Lake City Foothills Trails Master Plan
Yes much of the land is owned by the city, or at least managed by the city. We’ve got buy-in from pretty much all other landholders (This is the Place, UofU, Huntsman, etc). Red Butte Canyon Natural Research Area is Army Corps of Engineers and off limits, so any trails between Mt Wire and Mt Van Cott get pinched. We run into a similar issue with City Creek Watershed. Long/long term I have hopes of stretching the trails back towards Lookout and Big Mtn, we’ll certainly be talking to Watershed folks about City Creek. We think that a few trails below the water treatment plant wouldn’t be out of the question, and the terrain is so good.
Edit to add: Signs, yes there will many signs with all the new directions, uses etc. As mentioned, it’s historically been like the Wild West up there - basically a free-for-all. It sucks when you don’t know which spurs suck and which are worthwhile. I did a lot of backtracking when I moved back here in 2012.
I was a little reluctant to really push for greater trail infrastructure with the city, because there is always going to be a little ratcheting down, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. They’ve been so cool with I St, Bobsled and Tanners that I have hope.
The plan still has to a ways to with city approval, some enviro evaluation, etc; so stay tuned for the next steps and thanks for your feedback thus far.
We haven’t really talked EBikes yet, but that should be an interesting convoy. Fuck those things.