All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

Sweet rig!

 

lol - local "associations" have gone to shit. You should see up in New England, actively destroying trails.

Trailforks is decent, and honestly I do get it - from an association standpoint, gotta be on the up and up and protect yourself legally. Can't really present yourself as a "legitimate" operation when you advocate and advertise potentially illegal trails. And, to be fair there's a huge influx of newbies riding who haven't a clue what they're doing. TF is good for them, I guess, at least gets them out and finding trails that are well known rather than into trespassing and shenanigans.

 

Oh don’t get me wrong, I use Trailforks and like it. Super duper useful.

I just didn’t like that she was so pompous about it being the end all be all when sometimes it was in direct opposition to what the park actually said. I just don’t want a bad rep with my local association since they are in fact the ones that help keep the bike stuff open, but I also don’t want one dictator telling me when they think I can or cannot ride lol

 

Someone needs a lesson in diplomatic communication and technological usage... oh well. Time to grab my pitchfork and stage a coup.

 

https://trails.morcmtb.org/

Here's what our local association has for trail status, if you wanted to show your local association this as an example of a better solution than trailforks? It's still at the mercy of whoever is in charge of updating that certain trail network but the more popular ones are 99% up-to-date.

 

I like it.

To be fair - if someone is constantly updating and in charge of trailforks, it can work.



If the local association said "we don't wan to build our own system, we are going to just use a tool already available, and Nancy will be in charge of keeping it up to date" that, to me, is fine too.

One thing I hate (and this comes up at work all the time) is we have the capability to do something in a software we already have, but we make things harder for ourselves by adding a new non-integrated system that doesn't talk to what we are already using to accomplish something (usually less efficiently) that can be done by systems we already have and have already paid for.

To me - if Trail Forks does the same thing, and someone is maintaining your trail system in it, that's fine.

 

wait, what is going on with Trailforks? I think I missed something here... can someone fill me in?

 

Now that you explain it that way ; it makes a lot of sense... saves cost using an existing system too. One of the main things I like about the site our locals use is that all the trail networks are on one low resource web page. But like you said, you need someone updating *something* regardless... so using trailforks, in theory, should be ok. It's mostly having the volunteers being able to update trail status.

 

Yeah I mean...that’s the same thing really...

Nothing will ever work perfect unless someone is designated to walk every trail every day and update the actual status.

I just thought it was ridiculous that she would go on a little tirade because someone would ask how the trails were, after the 24-48 hours post rain window the state park requires, and she was like WE UPDATE THE STATUS ON TRAILFORKS but it had been 8 days since the last status update and it wasn’t accurate.

 

Lol nothing, just back to a conversation a few weeks ago where the VP of my local bike association preached that Trailforks was the end all be all of the trail statuses when it wasn’t up to date.

 

oh got it lol. thought there was something going one with the app. lol

 

You'll be hard-pressed to find dispersed camping in PC. I don't know of any. BUT...

I'm guessing that you'll be coming to PC area in the summer. Check out Redman and Spruces campgrounds in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It's a short drive to Guardsman's Pass where you can access Crest trail and a little farther to Empire Pass (splits PC resort and Deer Valley). Top of Empire Pass has easy access to PC trails and Deer Valley. Redman campground is higher elevation (not much) but is closer to the passes...probably a 10-15 minute drive to top of Empire Pass. BCC is a watershed canyon, so if you are bringing a dog, forget it. No dogs in the canyon.

Another option is Jordanelle State Park. It's a little farther out, but has highway access to the base of PC resort in 15-20 minutes. It's also pretty nice to camp next to a lake that you can swim in after riding all day!

You mentioned Wasatch Mtn state park...they have nice campgrounds in Pine Canyon. There is a small bike skills park at the bottom of the canyon. It is also where the WOW trail ends (it starts near the top of Pine Canyon). You could drive to the top of Empire Pass from here in about 15 minutes...it's a windy, curvy and steep road.

The closest thing to dispersed in the vicinity is Little Deer Creek Campground. It's way above Wasatch Mtn State Park on a nasty, washboarded gravel/dirt road. It is run by the FS or BLM. There's pit toilets and no running water. Lots of ATVs, motos & UTVs (toy hauler crew) set up base camps here in summer to ride on the trails/dirt roads between Wasatch Mtn & American Fork canyons. It's pretty remote and would be close to a 45 minute-1 hour drive to get to the top of Empire Pass (PC riding). However, this cg would give pretty good access to bike trails in American Fork canyon.


I'd make a reservation right now for any of these campgrounds. They fill up fast! Also, be advised that Guardsman's Pass (connects Big Cottonwood to PC) won't open until early/mid-June depending on snowpack. You can check winter road opening dates on the UDOT website.

If you want true, dispersed camping, the closest I know of is above the town of Heber. Drive east up past Timber Lakes community or Center Creek Rd to the top. There's options in all directions...Mill Hollow, Duchesne Ridge, Heber Mountain, Currant Creek. It's beautiful and mostly quiet up there on the ridges but would be a haul to PC for daily rides.

 

Or find a friend who lives in the area. Lol. That's honestly the best choice.

 

yup, we have all these fancy systems at work that people don't use, so the answer must be "we need a new system", not "let's use that system and enforce its use..."

I do like that it's low overhead though, that has annoyed me nowadays - everything has to be like a million gigs to load like bitch I just want a text file I don't need pictures of cupcakes.

Tell them it's not updated

Or, realistically, it's not worth your time. If they're anything like out here, they're always right and everyone else is a low life degenerate, not a real cyclist just someone who wants to look that way.

 

the latter is correct, not worth the time. I told them the first time it wasn't updated, and that's what set her off lol

 

just pulled the trigger on some new 5.10s. never liked the flat spot on my 5.10 contacts so I went for the freerider pros this time.

 

that sounds great! I might have to look into that next winter

On Friday, I was most likely the oldest one in the building!!

Went up again yesterday and the place was a ghost town...which was AWESOME. For the whole 6 hours we were there, I think there were no more than 12 people there at all!!! We had every room pretty much to ourselves...I am hurting today though....

 

I was also complaining that a club was telling its users to go to an app that you need to pay for in order to retrieve “official” trail updates.

 

It looks like they went the way of every other money hungry app (shocking) too.

It looks like you can download a region but anything outside your chosen region is a monthly fee. So I ride in Rhode Island, it would cost me a fee to use it in northeast kingdom - downloading or not. From what I can read anything outside your chosen region is off limits unless you pay.

 

this is an aspect I was not aware of. I bought the app when it went "freemium" ... but I'm not ok with them profiting off the work of people who are volunteering to build, maintain, and update the trails and information.