August Trail Crew Update

It’s that time of year. The leaves are beginning to change colors and cooler weather is on its way- which signals riding season. Riding season is always a blast and here at Red Rock Bicycle Co, we love shredding the mountain trails when it arrives. Cedar City becomes a slight refuge from the raging heat in St George and we, along with a bunch of others, take advantage of it. When traffic starts increasing on these trails, we see erosion and debris build up. It’s our mission to leave the trails better than we found them which is why Red Rock Trail Crew exists. The best part about it is that RRTC is for everyone. With the support of Greater Zion Tourism office and Visit Cedar City, we are able to keep the trails in great shape, lessen the impact of mountain bikers on the environment, and keep riders safe.

Our Trail Specialist, Bill, started August by continuing his work on the Virgin River Rim. This trail is extremely popular in the area and needed quite a bit of work. He spent most of his time cleaning the debris out of existing drains. When it was effective and made sense, he would also cut new drains.

Bill uses a few different hand tools out on the trails. One of the most helpful is the hand saw. He took time to saw several trees that were blocking the trail, allowing riders to more safely shred up and down the trail. By the end of August, Bill started working on the erosion damage in The Cedar Valley Floor.

We saw quite a few storms in August, along with some flash flooding. These rains can cause more debris to build up on the trails, especially in drains. Erosion damage also occurs when we have large amounts of rain. This creates ditches which could be unsafe for riding. To maintain these trails, Bill starts by scouting out the damage. He then needs to assess and prioritize what needs to be done. He checked in on The Southview Trails, Red Hollow, and Lightning Switch. He found that Red Hollow was where he needed to start. He started cleaning the debris out of the trail and the existing drains then he began to fill in the massive ditches which are created by the storms.