# They're going to destroy my trails!



## kylefuller (Jun 17, 2017)

Nope this isn't an E-bike rant thread,

I'm Kyle Fuller and I live in Vernal Utah. A little while back Uintah County put out an article saying that they were going to destroy half of our biggest trail system, McCoy Flats, in order to build a highway which will bypass Vernal completely.

Currently US40 runs right through the middle of Vernal. The problem is that Vernal only has a few trail systems. Red Fleet, McCoy Flats, and Lapoint. There are a few other trails but they are single trails not in a system.

Vernal is an oilfield town, however we have alot of the same terrain that the huge meccas like Moab have. The first question that the council asks when talking about trails is "And what does that have to do with oil?" I do have to give them credit though because recently they decided to create a trail committee (because the oil prices are down many of the oil companies out here have significantly down scaled production which is hurting Vernal's economy.)

Due to the slow in oil the highway project has been put on hold and the trail committee is looking at Strava data to determine interest/usage of the trail systems. The trail committee is also looking at building new trails (except they're not because their new idea is a paved bike path......which is great for road bikes and all but its not a "trail")

The trail committee is great and all, but once oil picks up I know they will resume the highway project and all the trail buzz will fizzle out. Vernal has in the past been focused on one thing and one thing only...oil. So I decided to try to showcase some of the trails in the Vernal area by making a youtube channel and posting our trails on the cyclelifehq website, updating singletracks.com, trailforks.com, mtb project etc...

If you don't mind here is a link for my channel if you could throw down some likes and maybe a comment or two about the trails. The council will see a lot of the comments etc because I am active in trying to keep our trails and build more actual trails. I am basically just wanting to be able to show them the feedback that we are getting and make Vernal a more mountain bike friendly place. If anyone is near the area, or wants to take a trip down here let me know and i'd be more than happy to show you around.

I know this is a long post but thanks for reading!!

Kyle Fuller

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2RPH9U6PxhZAmxROQ7kzug
Some photos from our trails


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## drboudreaux (Nov 1, 2004)

I love McCoy Flats. Save the trails man!

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## watermonkey (Jun 21, 2011)

Quick, go transplant some endangered species in to the area so they can't build the highway. That place looks awesome...on the "to ride list".


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## Legbacon (Jan 20, 2004)

I did visit Vernal a few years back to ride. I had met the owner of the LBS (Troy?) a long time ago in Moab, and had always wanted to go. I live in BC, and mountain bike tourism is a big thing. It could really take off there, and bring a lot of money to town.


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## evdog (Mar 18, 2007)

I stopped in a couple years ago on the way home from Idaho. Fun trails! 

Something to point out to council is that if they build the highway to bypass town, they need to consider the impact that will have on local businesses who no longer get all the traffic through down. It could really hurt the town itself.


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## Sid Duffman (Oct 5, 2015)

evdog said:


> Something to point out to council is that if they build the highway to bypass town, they need to consider the impact that will have on local businesses who no longer get all the traffic through down. It could really hurt the town itself.


Just like the movie 'Cars.'

Those trails look sweet, would love to ride there!


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## jochribs (Nov 12, 2009)

evdog said:


> I stopped in a couple years ago on the way home from Idaho. Fun trails!
> 
> Something to point out to council is that if they build the highway to bypass town, they need to consider the impact that will have on local businesses who no longer get all the traffic through down. It could really hurt the town itself.


^This. But I guarantee they have instant gratification glasses/blinders on, and their hubris will allow them to kick that can down the road under the guise of "they'll address that concern later".


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## dir-T (Jan 20, 2004)

I commented during BLM's EA process when they were first evaluating that highway a few years ago. I assumed whatever was decided was final already. Did they shelf the whole EA when the oil prices went down and are now reconsidering? 

I've ridden Vernal a couple times and loved camping near the Red Fleet trails. 

IMO, the Bike article that came out some time ago didn't do you any favors when it mentioned the author had the rear window of his car shot out by a roughneck just because he had bikes on it.


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## drboudreaux (Nov 1, 2004)

evdog said:


> I stopped in a couple years ago on the way home from Idaho. Fun trails!
> 
> Something to point out to council is that if they build the highway to bypass town, they need to consider the impact that will have on local businesses who no longer get all the traffic through down. It could really hurt the town itself.


From what I recall, the new road is intended to do just that - reduce traffic, especially oil field traffic, through the heart of downtown. And reduce drive time for the trucks to transport our precious oil.

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## fiveo (Apr 26, 2006)

I'm trying to figure out how a highway can destroy half trail system?


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## fiveo (Apr 26, 2006)

I'm trying to figure out how a highway can destroy half trail system?


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## kylefuller (Jun 17, 2017)

The highway will be going directly through the East side of McCoy flats, so unless you enjoy playing frogger with your life you probably wont be able to ride the trails. Each trail would have to be shortened significantly, and possibly a new center hub put in for just those trails. While some of the Moab Navajo rocks system crosses a "highway" this one would be much bigger and much busier.

Its my understanding that they are re-considering, but even if they say they are I highly doubt they will scrap the plan. I am betting the kick the can idea is correct, but once the oilfield kicks back up it will be back on.

Also I am a proponent of oil, however I am not sure how many times it will take with the turbulent ups and downs before they come to the realization that they cannot put all their eggs in one basket. Basic finance principals.


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## fiveo (Apr 26, 2006)

Gotcha. Makes sense


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## Humpy (Jun 7, 2015)

Petition the committee/council to throw in some money for tunnels/bridges and trail reroutes?


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## Mr Pig (Jun 25, 2008)

Great trails and nice videos, thank you for not slapping crap rock music on them! The wind and tyres are the best soundtrack.

Towns that get bypassed, die. 

Did you paint all those white trail markers?


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## Harryman (Jun 14, 2011)

Geez, tell them to call the Fruita Chamber of Commerce and ask if mtbs have had any impact on the town. Small towns all over the west are building trails trying to snag mtb tourism. It's cheap and it works. You could pick up traffic out of Steamboat during the shoulder seasons for sure.


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## Schulze (Feb 21, 2007)

kylefuller said:


> The trail committee is also looking at building new trails (except they're not because their new idea is a paved bike path......which is great for road bikes and all but its not a "trail")


Your trail committee needs to talk to the Austin, TX trails people. I don't know who they are, maybe go on Austin Voodoo on bikemojo to find out. Anyway, their public path system is NATURAL SURFACE, and it's awesome (Barton creek greenbelt trail from Zilker Park). No need to concrete. That just ruins everything, and it's expensive!


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## Shotgun Jeremy (Mar 14, 2017)

evdog said:


> I stopped in a couple years ago on the way home from Idaho. Fun trails!
> 
> Something to point out to council is that if they build the highway to bypass town, they need to consider the impact that will have on local businesses who no longer get all the traffic through down. It could really hurt the town itself.


Get with the Chamber of Commerce for Copperas Cove, Tx. They recently finished two bypasses around town, so the Chamber may be able to give you feedback about how it has affected local business. Then you can decide weather to move that on to your Chamber of Commerce.

It hasn't affected our trails because we never had any but if you Google it, you'll see HWY 190 and HWY 9 are both newer bypasses put in within the past 5 years.

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## NRP (Sep 8, 2015)

Damn, I'd ride those trails. Hope it all works out.

I agree with the suggestion to see if they can build tunnels to allow existing trails to go under the new road. They do this is Sedona and it works fine. Win-win.


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## kylefuller (Jun 17, 2017)

Mr Pig said:


> Great trails and nice videos, thank you for not slapping crap rock music on them! The wind and tyres are the best soundtrack.
> 
> Towns that get bypassed, die.
> 
> Did you paint all those white trail markers?


I wondered about the music, I have seen pretty good videos ruined by crappy music so I don't put it on there.

There are tons of great people out here that take care of the trails. The White markers are BLM, some of the signage at RedFleet was eagle scout projects etc.... cool group of riders out here for sure.

Thanks for all the comments guys, i'll have to contact TX and Fruita. If they actually do the underpasses like Sedona i'd be good with that, I just don't know what kind of impact a complete bypass would have on the town. If anyone wants to come down though, seriously though I'll show you all the hidden gems out here. There are some awesome trails and it just blows me away that more people dont know about them.

Lets organize a ride!! ha ha


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## fiveo (Apr 26, 2006)

I think the trails in Sedona take advantage and use wash tunnels.


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## dir-T (Jan 20, 2004)

Kyle,

I mean no disrespect here but are you sure that you're fully in the loop with what's going on with the project? I just ask because I remember that a tunnel under the highway was mentioned in the plan, at least as an alternative, back when BLM was soliciting comments. It was a few years ago though, so maybe that is no longer being considered for some reason.

FWIW, a good friend of mine is friends with a guy named Tildon who lives in Vernal. Tildon was interviewed in that Bike magazine article I mentioned and is the one who organized the letter writing campaign that I got involved in. You should look him up if you don't already know him. He seemed to have a good grasp of the whole project.


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## tim208 (Apr 23, 2010)

I fully understand save the trails. but highway bypass's are typically awesome. the town is usually better off and the pedestrians in town love it.


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## andytiedye (Jul 26, 2014)

Mr Pig said:


> Towns that get bypassed, die.


Depends on if people have reasons to go into town (other than being on the highway to somewhere else).

Too little traffic kills business, but so does too much.
Need to find a balance.
And we need more trains. A thriving rail system can really give a downtown a boost.


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## bamwa (Mar 15, 2010)

Schulze said:


> Your trail committee needs to talk to the Austin, TX trails people. I don't know who they are, maybe go on Austin Voodoo on bikemojo to find out. Anyway, their public path system is NATURAL SURFACE, and it's awesome (Barton creek greenbelt trail from Zilker Park). No need to concrete. That just ruins everything, and it's expensive!


Fake news alert:...there is singletrack, paved trails and pea gravel trails.... like any city actually. COA isn't really bending over to let us get more trail. Actually they paved paradise and put up a parking lot. And closed off thousands of acres to protect warblers while still selling out to developers. Maybe talk to Park City or Bend actually.


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## SonOfKonzan (Aug 11, 2017)

Live in Colorado, I'd totally drive to Vernal to visit these trails and the town.


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## Harryman (Jun 14, 2011)

It's BLM right now, so not ebike friendly. 

I just spent the weekend there, there is some good riding for sure, especially for the size of the apparent mtb population, which doesn't seem huge. We probably saw less than 10 people total in morning and afternoon sessions at McCoy and no one on Sunday morning up at Red Fleet. McCoy reminded me of 18 mile in Fruita and Albuquerque without the cactus. Red Fleet has some Sedona-esque qualities. There's a ton of really cool terrain, which as a trail designer and builder had me pretty excited, but I have no idea of ownership, if there could be access etc. 

The town really has nothing to lose promoting it as a stop over destination at the very least, the signage at the trails was really good for an out of towner like me. If I hadn't known they were there though, I saw nothing to let me know they existed. Even simple signs in town on 40 "McCoy Flats mtb area 5 miles ahead" sort of thing. If they built upon what they had, they'd get more destination traffic, I was with people from Salt Lake, one of whom drives down at least once a year, for them it's only @ 3 hours and a good overnighter. 

For me though, being on the Colorado Front range, it's 6.5 hrs and I have plenty of more extensive options within that range.


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## roughster (Dec 18, 2017)

Can you bargain for an overpass bridge that would allow you to go under or perhaps a pedestrian / cyclist overpass to go over the freeway? Seems like in that terrain an overpass will be required.


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