Mountain Trails Foundation

We build, maintain and protect Park City, Utah's trails

Rick Fournier, Field Manager

Perspective… Let’s Help Emma Paden

by

By Rick Fournier, Trails Manager

What you see depends not only on what you look at but where you look from.  – James Deacon

Two years ago, the crew and I attended the annual Utah Trails Conference in Vernal, Utah.  One of the outdoor field workshops that I, and many from our team attended was titled, “Universal Design in Trail Building: Adaptive Mountain Biking.”  It was an opportunity for able-bodied participants to test-ride a variety of adaptive bikes and to hear from adaptive athletes on the challenges they face with accessibility.  It was an eye-opening experienced for me.      

Eileen May-West from Wasatch Adaptive led off the workshop with this comment. “The disability community is the one minority group that any of us could join at any point in our lives.”  That really struck a chord with me.  In a post-conference email a few weeks later, she went on to say, “It’s really why we put so much effort into trying to educate people who have influence in outdoor spaces. We have met so many people through our program who had to completely rebuild their identity after their injury, not because of how their body changed, but because they could no longer access the spaces and activities they love.” 

A month ago, just after 6am on a Sunday morning, I awoke to a text from one of my long-time trail crew members, Emma Paden.  She said she had been in an accident, was at the hospital and had broken her back.  She would go on to tell me that she had undergone an extensive back surgery with several vertebrae being fused.  What she didn’t know at the time was that she had also suffered a spinal cord injury.     

The first thing that grabs your attention with Emma is her smile.  It’s infectious, lights up the room and exudes positivity.  Quite often, when returning to the MTF shop after a long day out on the trail, that smile would be commingled with a face covered in the dirt from whatever project she had been working on that afternoon. Emma’s work ethic and energy level are impressive.  She would often work 10 hours for us and either go for a trail run, play soccer or drive to Heber to spend the evening at the climbing gym, teaching 10-year-old boys how to climb.  Climbing is her passion, and she has excelled at it, with her weekends typically spent working on the next big climbing “project”. 

When Emma first moved to Park City, she worked part-time with the National Ability Center and she currently spends her winters with the NAC, as an adaptive ski instructor.

Emma has been an invaluable member of our trail crew over the past four seasons and has been instrumental in overhauling the several hundred signs we manage.  She’s also pretty darn good at keeping me on task when I’m chasing squirrels.  At the start of this season, she was determined to have each of our staff identify goals for the upcoming season.  I admittedly pushed it aside, as I was more focused on getting staff trained, but Emma is also persistent as hell, (some might say stubborn;) and if she has her mind set on something she believes in, she won’t let it go.  A week later, she had put together a “pre-season goals” spreadsheet and had everyone on the team fill it out including me, and I was glad she did.

Speaking personally, Emma has become a friend and someone I have immense respect for.  She is kind, honest to a fault, and one of the strongest and most resilient humans I know.  She once thanked me for being a good mentor, but I think that she is the one who’s been teaching and inspiring me, and so many others, who have been fortunate to cross her orbit.  Emma has spent much of her young adult life teaching and giving of herself to others. 

Please consider helping Emma as she faces the biggest challenge of her life.         

Bumps in the Trail

by

Chalk it up to my eating, sleeping and breathing dirt for the past 20 years, but I’ve always felt that trails and life have a lot in common.  There are twists, turns, ups and downs, and the occasional snag of blowdowns that can slow forward momentum and force us to work through, or around the obstacles.  Both trails and life challenge and test us regularly and you never truly know what lies around the next bend.    

Our team has had its share of challenges this past month.  We were forced to pull off the Silver Queen & Loose Moose Extension projects while we navigate a “NEPA” process for the first time.  There were multiple excavator mechanical issues, struggles to get a workable alignment on a major reroute and unforeseen resort construction that has shut down sections of two high-use trails for the first half of the summer.  And then there were the tree toppling wind events and the ongoing drought.  Tis the season.

Despite a few “bumps” in the dusty trail, we have plenty of June highlights to share and our team absolutely killed it in June.

  • Nearly 100 volunteers joined us on National Trails Day for two unique projects- hand work on the new Huntsman Hiking trail, and drainage, side-veg and noxious week clean-up on Somewhere Elks in Round Valley.  
  • Phase 2 of the Round Valley soft-surface restoration is well under way.
  • The crew completed a much-needed top-to-bottom overhaul of CMG from Mid Mountain down to the base area.
  • With the help of our new water tank/pump (thank you Basin Recreation!) our team re-treaded brake bumps, blown out turns and lips on Silver Queen, Mojave and Change Reaction. 
  • The crew just wrapped up side-veg work on Armstrong, clearing all 4 miles.
  • Our South Summit crew also gave the White Fir downhill at Slate Creek a much-needed haircut on its 3-mile entirety.
  • The South Summit crew also did a ton of hand/machine work on the Ponderosa flow trail.
  • Hundreds of blowdowns have been cleared to date.
  • Over 100 signs were installed throughout town. 
  • We had a very successful dig day with nearly 30 volunteers lending a hand on the Charlie’s 9K to Mid Mountain, hand-built, hike-only trail.  
  • And last but certainly not least, dirt/rock work commenced on the Bonanza to WOW connection- one of the most challenging and uniquely awesome, projects we’ve taken on.                       

Trails, like life, aren’t simply a means of getting from point A to point B.  It’s all about the journey, and that journey is rarely straight or smooth.  Enjoy the ride, bumps, dust and all!

Meet the 2025 Trail Crew

by

May has traditionally marked the kickoff to the dirt season here in Park City, a time when we welcome back our seasonal staff and on occasion, bring new faces into the fray.  Such is the case this year with four new hires.  More often than not, the hiring process coalesces organically, stimulating our team with passionate, talented and unique individuals.  The latest rendition of this long-running Mountain Trails ritual now includes a cast of 11, our largest trail crew to date. 

Twenty years ago, my first “crew” consisted of myself and the boyfriend/girlfriend duo of Phil and Jess.  In the two decades since, many things have changed, but the one constant has been the quality of the staff who’ve crossed the MTF orbit.  I can’t help but smile looking back on the long list of amazing individuals (and individual characters), who’ve left their mark on our local trails and on me, personally. 

As I enthusiastically look forward, I’m stoked to introduce this most excellent trove of humans who comprise the 2025 Mountain Trails Trail Crew…  

March Trail Report – Third Winter

by

As the snow falls in earnest outside my window on a Monday morning I ponder, is this 3rd winter?  I say this because just yesterday, as I was skate-skiing at 8,500 feet in beautiful Bonanza Flat sporting only a t-shirt and windbreaker, it most definitely felt like second spring.  March came in like a kitten but you knew it couldn’t last.  Fast forward to Thursday morning and we’ve picked up 6-8 inches of Sierra cement at the Quinn’s trailhead.  Here we go again boys… time to pack some glop.   

It has been an extremely challenging winter from a trail management standpoint, and in the nearly 20 years that I’ve been involved with winter trails and grooming, I can’t recall a season where Round Valley melted out completely, twice.  And experiencing “mud season” any time before April is no bueno!  I’d prefer that Slicky the Bear remain in hibernation until 3rd and final spring.     

On a positive note, as the Round Valley winter trails rise from the ashes (gravel) once again for what will likely be a short-lived weekend grooming mission, Park City Municipal is trying hard to reboot the Transit to Trails program for the remainder of March and early April weekend service. Can I get a HELL YEAH!?  If the City can align the stars, we will have FREE weekend transport to the spectacular, higher ground bounty of snow that is Bonanza Flat. In the meantime, the MTF team will continue lay down some farm-fresh cord and classic Friday through Sunday (weather dependent) for those who care to hike, skin or ride up to Bonanza Flat.

Despite this less than stellar winter, our crew has managed to stay busy with weekend grooming in Bonanza Flat, planning for the upcoming dirt season, interviewing new staff for hire, grant applications, map production and miscellaneous signage work.  And then there’s the never-ending punch list of shop projects and equipment maintenance.  It may be “third winter” but we’re officially less than two months out from dipping our toes in the dirt once again, and we’ll be ready.

Have a great one out there!  

February Trail Report

by

It’s February 2nd, Groundhog Day, and earlier this morning in Punxsutawney PA, the town’s namesake rodent soothsayer, Punxsutawney Phil, allegedly saw his shadow, suggesting six more weeks of winter.  Meteorological science aside, here in Park City, after an extremely chilly and dry January (no I haven’t quit drinking), the traditional January thaw has procrastinated and opted to present itself this first weekend of February, with rain and temps pushing 50-plus degrees.  Thanks for the heads up, Phil!    

Winter trail management and grooming operations are an extremely fickle and challenging endeavor.  In recent years we’ve experienced increasingly more variable and extreme weather patterns, adding to the challenge.  Who could forget the record snow year just two seasons ago when the vault toilets in Bonanza were submerged beneath several feet of snow and Round Valley was an unrecognizable sea of white, with all but the tallest sagebrush engulfed in nearly 5 feet of snow. 

Contrast that to this less-than-stellar winter, with well below average snowpack (60% of avg), where full-fledged Round Valley grooming ops didn’t truly get rolling until late December.  In fact, our team has yet to rock ‘Roy, the City’s high-tech grooming machine and snowflake slayer, on the Round Valley Nordic trails.  There just hasn’t been enough snow and ‘Roy remains camped out atop Empire Pass, for weekend grooming missions in Bonanza Flat, sans Transit to Trails. 

Up until this warm, wet, week, and despite a marginal base, our team has been able to provide a consistently good snow surface, thanks to daily tandem snowmobile and drag grooming efforts.  The operators lower an electrically actuated “tooth bar” into the groomed surface, renovating the snow, while a weighted, polyurethane comb leaves the telltale corduroy finish.  This team of two regularly grooms nearly 30 Km of trail- that’s roughly 18-20 miles a day.  The cold temps we experienced during the latter half of January and consistent weekend “storms” that delivered a big toe to ankle deep refresh, have been key factors in enabling our team to do a lot with a little. 

In low snow years such as this one, groomers are quite often at the mercy of the elements, and hopping on a snowmobile at 6am with single digits temps and a sub-zero windchill is not for the faint of heart.  It can feel like a 3–4-hour cold plunge without the physiological benefits. Our crew must also contend with the original “Postholios”, those entitled and ill-behaved elk, who think they own the place and regularly post-hole the crap out of the Nordic track.  But you can’t explain etiquette to Elk.  Seriously though, they can do a number on the track, but it’s all part of the adventure and we love seeing them.

Not only has the Nordic been surprisingly good, the low snow, cold temps and high pressure have contributed to a great fat bike season, with over 20 miles of groomed, rock-solid singletrack online throughout the month of January.  So, even in an off year we’ve had it pretty darn good but it’s not without effort.       

Meanwhile, I just returned from taking the dog for a run on the Rail Trail, where the snow surface had the consistency of a 7-11 Slurpy. While I’m not going to place much weight in the prophesizing of an oversized, shadow-seeing ground squirrel, I do have faith in the Open Snow forecast provided by my man, Evan Thayer.  Evan’s latest forecast calls for colder temps later in the week and a solid shot of a storm rolling in on Friday.  So, hang in there, Park City.  We’re not done just yet…             

Have a great one out there! 

January Trail Report

by

“What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year.”  Vern McLellan

Last week we ushered in the new year and with it, welcomed the return of winter to the Wasatch Back.  Thanks to a few well-timed holiday snowstorms, the Mountain Trails crew was finally able to ramp up grooming operations in your favorite winter wonderlands.  We’re super excited to get the snowball rolling and provide some amazing winter recreation to the greater Park City community once again.     

The curators of corduroy this season include 3rd and 4th year groomers, Matt Jones and Alec Johnson, respectively, along with this salty dog.  New to the program are rookie groomers and year-round staff, Zach Strickland and Emil Harry.  Zach and Emil have been getting dialed in on the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of pre-dawn, winter trail operations.  We’re super-stoked to have these guys onboard for what we hope will be another stellar winter trails season. 

For the third consecutive year, our partners in snow, Park City Municipal and Utah Open Lands, have been providing transportation via the Transit to Trails program, shuttling skiers, snowshoers, fat-bikers, and four-legged friends up to Empire Pass and the Bonanza Flat Conservation area. Until we have enough coverage in Round Valley to warrant the relocation of ‘Roy, the City’s awesome new grooming cat, we’ll continue to groom Bonanza Flat Thursday through Sunday for some spectacular, high alpine and lung-busting, winter recreation.   

Besides the early/late season grooming in Bonanza, our team will be crushing snowflakes on all the usual suspects – 30km of multi-use Nordic in Round Valley and another 5km on the Rail Trail from Bonanza Dr. to Hwy 248.  For our fat-tired friends, we’ll once again be grooming nearly 20 miles of singletrack in Round Valley along with the 3.5-mile Sparky loop at Clark Ranch. 

Daily Winter Trail Updates

As always, we’ll be posting daily grooming updates on our Facebook, Instagram pages and website.  For a visual look at what cord and classic has been set along with recently groomed singletrack, be sure to check out the interactive map on the Trails Resource Page as well:  https://parkcitytrails.org/winter-interactive-map-conditions/

Also listen in at 7:21am daily on local radio, KPCW, at which time members of Mountain Trails, Wasatch Trails and Basin Rec teams will provide up-to-date info on regional winter trails.

Winter Etiquette

Winter trail etiquette is all about R-E-S-P-E-C-T!  Make it your New Year’s resolution to acknowledge that ALL winter trail users have an equal right to a great experience out on the snow, whether that’s on fat tires, skinny skis, snowshoes, trail running or taking the pups for a cruise.  We want everyone to have the best possible experience out there and that means being considerate and appreciating the needs of your fellow trail users. 

Late last season, we worked with our long-time graphic designer, Scott Collett, to create a simple, yet comprehensive, winter etiquette overview, showing a variety of winter trail users and the expectations of each.  Here are a few more winter etiquette dos and don’ts…

•Fat Bikes– Don’t ride down the middle of the Nordic track – stick to the outside edge (opposite the classic lanes) or consider using the groomed singletrack.  If you are creating a rut deeper than one inch, conditions are too soft. Try lowering your tire pressure (2-5psi) or turn around and give the trails a chance to firm up. #RutsSuck!

• Foot Traffic– Please stay to the outside edge (opposite the classic lanes), on the wide-groomed Nordic track and avoid blocking the trail for other users, especially skiers.  Don’t run or hike on the singletrack if you are leaving a footprint deeper than 1-inch, especially in soft, post-storm conditions. Consider taking the snowshoes out for a tromp instead.  Don’t be a Postholio! 

• Skiers– Contrary to summer bike etiquette, skate skiers trending in the uphill direction should yield to the downhill skiers. Remember that Round Valley is NOT a Nordic center, it is a public, free, multi-use trail system. Please SLOW DOWN at busy intersections and alert other trail users when passing.  Pass with patience.

• Dog Owners– Maintain control of, and keep your dog(s) within sight, AT ALL TIMES! Always carry a leash in case you run into wildlife out on the trail. Pick up after your pups (including tossing sticks/sage off-trail) and DO NOT leave poop bags lying on the trail. There are 14 trash cans spread throughout Round Valley. PLEASE use them!

Lastly, because Round Valley is a truly special place for so many, let’s also make a concerted effort this winter to “leave it better then we found it.”  That can be as simple as picking up a forgotten poop bag or trash, tossing sticks off the trail, picking up a sign that’s blown over, or simply avoiding negative wildlife interactions and alerting others. And Charlie’s 10 Seconds of Kindness is always encouraged. 

Wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year, filled with plenty of playtime on and in the snow!

Mountain Trails