Thursday, April 9, 2009

River Legacy Mountain Bike Trail

Yesterday I learned if I don't get around to blogging within a reasonable amount of time some people start wondering what's happened to me. Well, I've recovered completely from yesterday's viral assualt. I think the Chicken Tortilla Soup and grapefruit fixed me.

I got a comment to that blogging about ailing from Mister Twister. Mister Twister commented...

Yup, I was wondering what was wrong, too. By the way I finally made it out to River Legacy Park and took a little spin. On one the trails I was on it spilled me out onto the concrete walking path. A few minutes on, I saw a sign warning about being fined while on the concrete path. The sign was right by a dirt path so I went back out. One question and one observation. What do the two red dots painted on the trees mean? Also River Legacy is a more enjoyable ride than Sansom Park, although it's not near as challenging as Sansom Park. River Legacy is much prettier, being that it is river bottoms, dirt trails and meadow like conditions, while Sansom is rocky and scree. Now there's definitely some challenging loop do loops at River Legacy but overall it is much more enjoyable and pretty too.

Well, I was planning on biking River Legacy today, but rain has intervened and disrupted that plan. To answer Twister's questions, I have no idea what the red dots on trees mean. I've seen them too and wondered. I don't think it means those trees are going to be cut down, they don't cut down trees in that park.

I think Twister misunderstood the bike warning sign. It is perfectly okay to bike on the paved trails. The warning signs are put wherever a dirt trail takes off of the paved trail. You aren't supposed to bike those dirt trails. The only dirt trails you are supposed to bike is the Mountain Bike Trail. I think the park is being real wrong-headed with those warning signs. The bike riders have turned the mountain bike trail into the best non-paved trails in the park, with hikers feeling safe walking on them. Biking the other dirt trails would do no harm, in my opinion, it would instead make the trails be in better shape.

I can understand how Twister may have gotten off on a wrong trail and ended up at the paved trail. The Mountain Bike Trail is quite a maze of intersections. Most are well marked, but there are a couple key junctions that are not marked with directional arrows with the result of going the wrong way possibly being on the pavement.

The Mountain Bike Trail is a one-way trail, though every once in awhile you'll run into someone, literally, going the wrong way. To get it right, follow the directions on the map above. Get to the mountain bike parking lot, you'll see a sign at the west end of the lot (that's it in the picture on the left), with a map of the trail, though this map does not show all the new loops, like Fun Town and the Prairie Loop and others.

To the left of the sign is where the trail begins. Follow the arrows. You barely enter the trail when you take a right turn and go on a minor roller coaster for a bit, just keep following the arrows and you shouldn't see any pavement.

3 comments:

  1. The red dots on the trees at RL mean nothing to bikers. We believe they are the work of the local UTA ROTC or the Gas and Oil Survey. Regardless, they are idiots.
    Glenn Showers
    Trail Steward

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  2. Further notes on the MTB trail. One: the map in the parking lot bears very little resemblance to today’s trail. That map shows trail approx. 3 miles long. Today the trail is closer to six miles. Two: The exits to the concrete path that have been mentioned are not part of the trail and have a sign stipulating “no bikes”. It is a little confusing because trail runners and other foot traffic have made it appear that those exits are in fact an extension of the trail.
    Glenn Showers
    River Legacy MTB Asst Trail Steward

    ReplyDelete
  3. If you contact me, my phone number is 682 241 7958, if some people want to do some donation, I'll be so thankfull, because I'll spend more than one month "resting".
    Thank you again.

    Vasti Fernandes

    ReplyDelete