This summer, the Slate Creek mountain bike trail will grow from 6 miles to 14.75 miles long.
The trail begins at the Yellow Pine Trailhead on Mirror Lake Highway, 3 miles up the road from The Notch in Samak.
The South Summit Trail Foundation expects to complete construction around mid-July. President Corey Dutton said her organization saw a 75% increase in trail traffic from 2021 to 2022.
“So obviously, we have the demand there,” she said. “We've expanded [Slate Creek] now to be almost a 15-mile trail. So, we're hoping it will draw more people out there to use it.”
Funding for the Slate Creek expansion came from the Summit County restaurant RAP tax, a Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation grant and a Park City Community Foundation grant.
Although the new portion of the trail won’t open for another month or so, the rest of South Summit’s trail network is good to go.
Dutton did say some have been wet from rain and flooding, and riders should stay off muddy trails to prevent trail damage.
She highlighted two other upcoming South Summit Trails projects. The foundation is building a short half-mile connector on Hilltop Road in Francis.
Funded by Vail’s EpicPromise foundation, Dutton said the short trail may improve pedestrian safety along the road.
“There's a ton of traffic,” she said. “I mean, the speed limit’s 25 miles per hour and people drive like 55 down that road.”
The new Hilltop connector would link the center of Francis, where the city park and rodeo grounds are, to homes on the city’s northwest side.
Lastly, Dutton says the trails foundation will renovate the Oakley Trail Park on Pinion Lane south of Weber Canyon Road. It’s getting two new lines of jumps.
“We've more or less just revamped that trail to make it a lot better and have a lot better rideability,” Dutton said, “kind of a better flow.”
This one’s funded by Vail’s EpicPromise too, as well as another Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation grant.
