Mountain Trails Foundation

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

Trail Report

March Trail Report – Third Winter

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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!  

MEET MORE OF THE TEAM

Meet the Team

We are passionate about the Park City Trail System.

Lora Anthony

Lora@MountainTrails.org
Executive Director

Rick Fournier

Rick@MountainTrails.org
Field Manager

Ginger Wicks

Ginger@MountainTrails.org
Bookkeepr

Ian Hartley

ian@MountainTrails.org
Resource Manager
435-655-5853

2022 Trail Crew

February Trail Report

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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! 

MEET MORE OF THE TEAM

Meet the Team

We are passionate about the Park City Trail System.

Lora Anthony

Lora@MountainTrails.org
Executive Director

Rick Fournier

Rick@MountainTrails.org
Field Manager

Ginger Wicks

Ginger@MountainTrails.org
Bookkeepr

Ian Hartley

ian@MountainTrails.org
Resource Manager
435-655-5853

2022 Trail Crew

Falling for Trails – July Trail Report

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All trail projects begin with a unique vision, an idea based on a specific need or purpose with some challenge, fun factor and a little dose of adventure. Lines are drawn on maps, a detailed planning process is initiated, stakeholder approval is requested, and funding mechanisms are sought after.  That’s the abbreviated version.  Sometimes several months or even years pass before the actual dirt work begins. 

It’s been my experience that the more interesting the project, the more challenging it is to lay out.  And while lines drawn on virtual maps require only mouse clicks, “ground-proofing” or physically walking that imaginary line, is the designers first interaction with canvas earth.  We can and often do, run into roadblocks in the form of impenetrable rock bands, cliffs, mine shafts, sensitive wildlife habitat and wetlands.  It’s a dynamic process and one that often requires hiking the same area several times, tweaking the route as needed and always looking to incorporate unique terrain features discovered along the way.         

The process of physically laying out a trail typically begins by flagging the alignment – measuring grade with an inclinometer and attaching florescent ribbon to trees, brush or rocks to clearly identify the intended route.  It can be a physically challenging endeavor, as we’re quite often at the mercy of steep, unforgiving terrain, elevation and weather, as well as dead-snags, biting insects and wildlife.  Mid-summer undergrowth hides downed logs and loose rock, creating unseen tripping hazards.  While laying out the Bonanza to WOW trail this past week, all three of us took nasty, hematoma-inducing falls.       

This past month our team performed the flagging ritual on three unique projects.  In early June we completed the layout for a continuation of the Silver Queen flow trail, extending it below Mid Mountain and down to the top of Jenni’s trail.  After several challenging outings, the Bonanza to WOW trail has now been flagged in its 4-plus-mile entirety with just some fine-tuning remaining.  And just last week we began flagging a new, upper elevation hiking trail between the Mid Mountain trail east of the Montage and Charlie’s 9K just below the Io trail. 

There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing a trail project go from vision to flowy fruition.  It’s a process and art-form unlike any other- one that involves many moving pieces and many creative, passionate humans. Though it’s often wrought with hoops, hurdles, bumps, bruises, equipment failures and horsefly bites, I wouldn’t trade any of it.   

Thanks for being part of the MTF community. Your support makes trails happen.        

Rick Fournier, Trails Manager

MEET MORE OF THE TEAM

Meet the Team

We are passionate about the Park City Trail System.

Lora Anthony

Lora@MountainTrails.org
Executive Director

Rick Fournier

Rick@MountainTrails.org
Field Manager

Ginger Wicks

Ginger@MountainTrails.org
Bookkeepr

Ian Hartley

ian@MountainTrails.org
Resource Manager
435-655-5853

2022 Trail Crew

May Trail Report – Meet the Crew!

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The bond that links your true family is not one of blood… Richard Bach

Just two short weeks ago, our team wrapped up the 2023-24 winter trails season in Bonanza Flat. Grooming operations extended from December 5th in Round Valley to April 21st in Bonanza Flat. That’s nearly 5 months of sliding and gliding, rolling, and strolling. A big shout out to Matt and Alec for the stellar grooming this season as well as our community partners, Park City Municipal and Utah Open Lands, for enabling our team to provide this amazing (free) community amenity.         

Last month my sister and I joyfully celebrated my dad’s 90th birthday in New Hampshire with over 60 of our relatives and close family friends.  My Dad came from an extremely large, French-Canadian family of 15, so we grew up with dozens of cousins, aunts, and uncles.  Having been adopted as infants, my sister and I shared no DNA with the “Fournier” clan, but we never knew differently, as we were always loved and treated as “family”. So, as we celebrated my dad’s milestone and caught up with long-lost relatives on a snowy spring night in New England, I was reminded of just how fortunate I was to be welcomed into this big, beautiful family with open arms. 

If you’ve ever worked for a small business or non-profit, you inevitably share many of the same experiences with your team of coworkers that you would with family members – successes, failures, the good times and the bad, losses, births, and birthdays. And like family, you interact daily with many different personalities, hopefully embracing each other’s uniqueness and yes, even a little disfunction from time to time. The reality is that we quite often spend more time with our co-workers than we do many of our family members, and if we’re lucky, we get to work with, and learn from, some unique, fun, talented and inspiring individuals. Such has been my experience with Mountain Trails, and gratefully so.       

This past week, we welcomed back our trails family; Sean, Emma and Derek, each returning for their third season in addition to year-round staff, Matt  and Alec, in their third and fourth seasons respectively.  New to the team are Zach Strickland and Idahoan, Emil Harry. Zach worked trail crew for us during the 2017-18 seasons and will now be assuming the role of Trail Maintenance Coordinator.  Emil brings with him significant backcountry trail experience and will be a huge asset to our team. We’re super stoked to have this group of really good humans working (and playing) with us this year…

MEET MORE OF THE TEAM

Meet the Team

We are passionate about the Park City Trail System.

Lora Anthony

Lora@MountainTrails.org
Executive Director

Rick Fournier

Rick@MountainTrails.org
Field Manager

Ginger Wicks

Ginger@MountainTrails.org
Bookkeepr

Ian Hartley

ian@MountainTrails.org
Resource Manager
435-655-5853

2022 Trail Crew

April Trail Report – In Like a Lamb Out Like a Lion

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By mid-March, our team was ready to wind down winter grooming operations in Round Valley.  After a few weeks of sunshine and near 60-degree temps, spring was in the air, mud-season had arrived, and the gravel and asphalt trails were edging out the snow-covered trails.  If you’ve lived here long enough, you know that springtime in the Wasatch is never a sure thing.  Ol’ Man Winter returned with multiple storms and several spring powder days to close out March.    

When a weather window opened last Wednesday, ‘Roy (the City’s grooming cat) took an Uber XXL up to Bonanza Flat where at 8,500 feet, the vault toilets are buried up to the rooflines and the snowmobiles are still buzzing like mosquitos.  We spent the day re-establishing the double-track connector and Nordic track, buried under nearly three months of winter since we exited the premises in early January. 

The journey began at Empire Pass where the old “Church of Dirt” is now the synagogue of snow.  As we tenuously traversed the steep, south-facing hillside above the Guard Road, more often than not, the location of said double-track was purely a guess, as our 10-foot-tall markers were either buried, broken or folded over by the wrath of a big Wasatch winter.  My trusty co-pilot, Alec, kept an eye open for markers or any recognizable terrain features that would keep us on the righteous path, or any path for that matter. 

Repeatedly moving forward and then backwards, we put ‘Roy’s blade to work, carving out a bench to keep us upright and on semi-level ground.  In some of the steeper areas there was a little pucker factor, as the underlying sun-cooked snowpack was rotten and would sometimes settle beneath our tracks.  In between the sun and flat light, we were able to catch brief glimpses of the two remaining markers and shadow on the hillside ahead, insinuating something well below the surface.

After nearly three hours of a somewhat arduous journey, we made the final ascent down to the “Y” at the Pine Canyon Road crossing and navigated around one last obstacle- a beat-up old Subaru wagon parked squarely in our path.  We both breathed a sigh of relief that the hardest part was behind us.  All that was left now was to track-pack and re-establish the remaining 10 kilometers of trail, leveling numerous drifts along the way.  Piece of ice cream cake!

MEET MORE OF THE TEAM

Meet the Team

We are passionate about the Park City Trail System.

Lora Anthony

Lora@MountainTrails.org
Executive Director

Rick Fournier

Rick@MountainTrails.org
Field Manager

Ginger Wicks

Ginger@MountainTrails.org
Bookkeepr

Ian Hartley

ian@MountainTrails.org
Resource Manager
435-655-5853

2022 Trail Crew

February Trail Report – Island in the Sea

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Island in the Sea

As I write this we’re in the midst of a nasty January thaw that’s now extended into February.  In our favorite public open space, Round Valley, the unseasonably warm weather, coupled with rain, has shrunken our tenuous base down to the asphalt and gravel in some areas, leaving pools fit for pond-skimming elsewhere. Our team has been vigilante about farming snow and patching the bare spots in an effort to keep everyone sliding and gliding but alas, mother nature is having her way with us.         

A few winters back I participated in one of the Summit Land Conservancy’s popular, “Moonshine Adventures”.  This reoccurring social gathering on skis included a full moon “tour” at conversation pace, up the Home Run ski run at Park City Mountain to the old angle station.  Once there, skins were peeled and warming beverages were poured before the ski back down, turns illuminated by headlamps. 

Gazing downward under the glow of moonlight, my attention was drawn to a large, dark, island surrounded by a sea of lights.  As I got my bearings, I came to realize that this expanse of black matter, seemingly void of light and life, was the Round Valley Open Space in its 2,200 acre, undeveloped and semi-wild glory.  Here, surrounded by residential neighborhoods, schools, historic ranch lands and State Routes 40 and 248, was a slice of precious real estate, somehow kept in its natural state. It was at that moment that it really hit home just how special Round Valley is.    

Round Valley consists of no less than five different conservation and agricultural easements, created to protect the area’s natural scenic, recreational, and visual open space values, and none of this happened accidentally.  Less than 30 years ago, mass development of the area seemed imminent, including a large golf community known as Valderone (ring a bell?), that included several-hundred homes and boutique hotels. These ranch lands, once bifurcated by barbed wire, now provide a refuge for wildlife and an amazing year-round recreational outlet for we domesticated animals. 

So, the next time you’re out skate skiing, fat biking or taking your best friend for a walk in Round Valley, consider what might have been, and how differently the landscape might look. We should all tip our hats to those individuals who had the foresight and fortitude to fend off the development of this high-desert, backyard, gem.  They were truly looking out for the best interest of our community, and they are all heroes in my book. 

This month we begin the Trail Origin Story of the Month series. Scroll down for the story of Rademan Ridge trail . . . a first in many ways. 

And the snow is starting to fall… Have a great one out there! 

Support Our Awesome Crew!

MEET MORE OF THE TEAM

Meet the Team

We are passionate about the Park City Trail System.

Lora Anthony

Lora@MountainTrails.org
Executive Director

Rick Fournier

Rick@MountainTrails.org
Field Manager

Ginger Wicks

Ginger@MountainTrails.org
Bookkeepr

Ian Hartley

ian@MountainTrails.org
Resource Manager
435-655-5853

2022 Trail Crew