Mountain Trails Foundation maintains dirt and paved trails in and around the Park City Area and this year, crews are getting out earlier than normal.
Connor Maher is the foundation’s new trails director and has a long history of trail work, building and maintenance for nonprofits and the U.S. Forest Service. He said there are still patches of snow and mud on the mountain, but seasonal crews are getting a head start on some big maintenance projects.
“Some of the maintenance projects, kind of heavy maintenance, rebuilding, redoing things over in Round Valley, we're working on Big Easy trail and Pulp Friction,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” April 8. “And then up on the mountain some of the ones we are working on this summer are going to be Mojave, Silver Queen, Change Reaction and Sin City.”
Maintenance can range from minor erosion repairs from people riding in the mud and rain or moving out big sections of rocks.
“Sometimes we'll go in with some machinery, like a mini excavator, to really fully redo the trail. Basically, think of it as repaving a road, like you're kind of tearing up the surface and making it smooth again,” Maher said.
Mountain Trails also plans to finish its connection project linking the Loose Moose and Silver Queen trails near Park City Mountain.
Executive Director Lora Anthony said the project should fix some previous traffic issues by extending Silver Queen past the Mid Mountain trail.
“Mid Mountain is a multi-use trail, and it's very heavily used,” she said. “So what we're trying to do is take the bike traffic off of Mid Mountain and send it straight down past Mid Mountain. There will be an intersection, you'll hit Mid Mountain and then go straight through and continue on a bike downhill flow trail.”
Anthony said the flow trail will end at the base of Park City Mountain near the First Time lift.
Some trails are dry and open for hiking and biking including at Round Valley and in the North Basin area near U.S. 40.
Trail users can learn more about Mountain Trails Foundation’s projects at the organization's third annual Regional Trails Mixer May 13. Admission is free but attendees are encouraged to make a $5 donation to cover food costs.
Mountain Trails Foundation is a financial supporter of KPCW.
