So long, 2020!

 

What the full and challenging year 2020 has been! The Trails Cache experienced a small hiatus after Dayton Crites, the County’s first Trails Planner, moved to Vermont. In June of this year, Carly Lansche was hired as Dayton’s replacement and looks forward to continuing to build momentum for trail projects across the valley for years to come. 

 

      As 2020 comes to a close, let's take a moment to look back on all that was accomplished this year: 

 

• At the mouth of Blacksmith Fork Canyon, you will see 2.5 miles of paved trail connecting Hyrum City to the mouth of Blacksmith Fork Canyon, pictured above. Read more about this project here.

   

   

   

• We completed a section of the future 800 W Regional Trail that will become a paved trail eventually connecting Logan’s River Trail near Rendezvous park with Nibley City’s Firefly Park.

 

• We made great progress on the Murray Trailhead project, a trailhead that will provide great access to the southern end of the Wellsville Range trails. Keep reading on for more information about this! 

 

• Logan City and Cache Trails Alliance were recognized with the Project of the Year Award for the Bridger Bike Park from the Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation. Read more about this honor here. 

 

• Additionally, we have made progress with planning studies and funding for additional trail connections, such as the US 89/SR 165 Trail Feasibility Study, a CVTD First/Last Mile Study, and the Logan River Blue Trail project. 

 

• We also participated in the first Statewide Trails and Waterways volunteer clean up event with USU Extension and pulled approximately 900 pounds of garbage off of our public lands, trails, parks, and rivers! Our volunteer events look a bit different this year compared to other years, but we were able to conduct a successful hazard survey of the Logan River for the Blue Trail and have lots of turn out for our National Bike and Pedestrian Documentation project. 

 

• We are also gearing, quite literally, up for a tool rental system for a robust Adopt-A-Trail program in 2021, so stay tuned for more information!  

Thanks to COVID-19, we experienced record numbers of people getting out on our trails: 

 

 

 

Despite its many challenges, 2020 proved to be a successful year for the Logan Ranger District’s Trails Program. Here are some of their major highlights:

 

• Weste Hodges motorized trail reroute to Worm Fence and Turkey Trail. This project resulted in 1 mile of new trail and 1 mile of decommissioned trail. 

• Juniper Jardine got some extra attention from the trail crews this year with a reroute that hugs the hillside. Most of the new cut is done this year and is now weathering, however, the first few hundred yards leaving the trailhead still need to be machine cut. There will also be some hand cut work that will be done near the spring. The existing old trail will be decommissioned and revegetated. The reroute will be completed in 2021. 

• The Logan Ranger District has also installed new kiosks at key trailheads, you can expect to see new maps and information posted in 2021. 

• The District met their targets for motorized trail maintenance.

• Cache County and the Logan Ranger District have made incredible progress on the Murray Trailhead, a new trailhead on the south end of the Wellsville Range. In the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) work that must be done prior to new projects on Forest Service land, the trails in Narrow and Wide Canyon were added to the Logan Ranger District’s system of trails. This means that they will receive more maintenance moving forward. The Logan Ranger District is placing an emphasis on trailwork in the Wellville Range in 2021. The Murray Trailhead will have an official opening in the spring of 2021. 

   

Last but not least, thank you to everyone who has volunteered their time to give back to our trails, donated their own hard-earned, or continues to advocate for new trail connections here in Cache Valley! 

 

For more information about Cache County's Trails Program, check out this StoryMap.