Читать книгу Mountain Bike: Park City - Jared Hargrave - Страница 11

Park City was settled in 1868 after silver ore was discovered. The town was incorporated in 1884 and it boomed as mines tunneled into the mountainsides. But by the 1950s, silver mines shut down and the town lost most of its population. Skiing saved the economy in the 1960s and ’70s, and today Park City is booming once again, with tourism as a primary economic driver.

But skiing is a winter sport, and back in the ’70s there wasn’t much happening in the summer months. So, in the early 1980s, when mountain biking was in its infancy, Tom Noaker opened the town’s first bike shop, New Park Cyclery. Back then, riders pedaled on old mining roads. In 1985, Charlie and Kathy Sturgis started their shop, White Pine Touring. To create actual singletrack trails, Charlie began the Thursday Night Ride series, an event that doubled as a pirate trail-building mission.

Meanwhile, Deer Valley started cutting mountain bike trails with the goal of creating an interconnected network. In 1992, the ski resort opened Utah’s first lift-served mountain biking off the Sterling chairlift. Around this time, other local mountain bikers banded together to create the Mountain Trails Foundation. This nonprofit worked with private landowners, public lands administrators, and the ski resorts to build the massive singletrack network we enjoy today. Their crowning achievement was the completion of the Mid Mountain Trail, which became a 23-mile hub that connects Deer Valley to Park City Mountain Resort’s Canyons Village.

Over the years, other nonprofits have stepped up to meet the growing demand of multiple-use singletrack trails. Basin Recreation has built and now maintains 145 miles of trail in Snyderville Basin and Summit Park. They’ve also been instrumental in creating open space on the outskirts of town. The South Summit Trails Foundation has been constructing trails in eastern Summit County. And the Wasatch Trails Foundation has turned the Wasatch Back towns of Heber City and Midway into mountain biking destinations with singletrack that is every bit as good as Park City’s worldclass riding.

What’s unique about Park City is that most of its trails are located on private property. But due to the partnerships Mountain Trails Foundation and Basin Recreation have forged with landowners, mountain bikers are free to enjoy the singletrack through public easements. That’s why it’s important to stay on the trails, not litter, and be respectful of other trail users.