May 27 2022, 6.1 miles official BST. Trailforks Log

Today we’re back in order, picking up the trail in the Corner Canyon area where we finished Episode 10. This area has the largest city-owned trail network in the state, including at least 10 miles of BST, so it was a great place to learn more about what cities have done and can do to improve our trails with Greg Hilbig, the manager for Draper City Trails and Open Space. Greg has worked tirelessly to build over 150 miles of trail across the Traverse Mountain in Draper, and has also helped other cities (adjacent to Draper and around the state) conserve and develop their foothills open space.

Over the past 20 years, Draper has acquired over 5,000 acres of land on Traverse Mountain, both to conserve the land and water (Corner Canyon is one of the major sources of Draper’s drinking water) and to provide recreation opportunities through its trail system. When combined with neighboring Alpine and Lehi, there are about 11 square miles of city-preserved land, which would be one of the ten largest city parks in the United States if it were designated as an official park or preserve. A truly impressive effort!

Greg was very informative explaining how Draper has invested in building the Corner Canyon trail system and has continued to invest in maintaining it as it has become very popular, famous, and crowded. A highlight of that commitment is the Bear Canyon Bridge (2015), possibly the most impressive trail structure on the entire length of the BST (yes the I-80 bridge is bigger and more expensive, but not as downright cool). Fortunately, they were able to build an impressive sponsorship team, including a local contractor, that was able to build it at a reasonable cost. This allows us to get a great view of this beautiful perennial stream, while preserving it as a valuable culinary water source.

In addition to the bridge, this segment of the BST has several highlights, including crossing several small streams, ending with the Rocky Mouth Waterfall in Sandy, which is in my opinion, the most unique waterfall along the Wasatch Front (it has a very southern Utah feel). To reach it, we traversed the short section of the BST recently built by Sandy City, an impressive task considering that it is in the extreme corner of the city and they are still a ways off from being able to built the entire length of the trail in the city. So for now, we will spend the next few episodes bouncing to several isolated segments in Salt Lake County.

May 21, 2022: 5.1 miles, 3.8 miles official BST. Trailforks log

Yes, this is not an error, we are jumping ahead. We have some great guests lined up on some segments of the BST that they know very well, but to work around their schedules, we will be filming much of the Salt Lake Valley out of order. The episodes should still come out in order, if a bit delayed.

Today we traversed the face of Mt. Olympus, an area with a few very popular trails (judging by the multitude of cars overflowing the trailhead parking lots). We were joined by the person who has probably put more effort into this stretch of the BST than anyone else (who is still with us), John Knoblock. John is currently the chair of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail Committee, the citizen organization that has been primarily responsible for encouraging the construction of the trail since its inception in the early 90s, especially in Salt Lake County. He first got involved in the BSTC around 2010 as this section was first being built in his own backyard, and moved into a leadership role as the original leaders retired. In addition to running the BST website, John has been personally instrumental in getting several recent additions to the trail done in the valley, and continues to do the often challenging work of forming long-term relationships with land owners and coordinating the multiple jurisdictions and user communities necessary to extend the trail piece by piece.

Our hike started up Heughs Canyon, which looked a little uncertain with no real trailhead, having to pass through a gated community and up a driveway to reach the trail. John verified that the trail has full legal access here through easements put in place by forward-looking planners. Heughs Canyon is a steep trail, but a beautiful walk along a perennial creek, which has been significantly improved in recent years to handle increased traffic.

The southern segment of the BST here was completed in 2019 with incredible effort of the Forest Service, the BST, and local citizens. Watch for the plaque honoring Brett Alan Smith, one of the original champions of the BST; this segment was his personal crowning achievement, completed just weeks before his death. Much of it passes through the Mt. Olympus Wilderness, so it had to built by hand through very rugged terrain, including several sections of solid rock. The views were incredible, though! Due to the wilderness, mountain bikes are not currently allowed here (the trail is currently too rough to be very enjoyable anyway), but the Bonneville Shoreline Trail Advancement Act (H.R. 2551, S. 1222) aims to solve this issue by adjusting several wilderness boundaries to move this and other BST segments from wilderness to normal National Forest administration, in which multiple types of users are allowed. The bill compensates by adding an equal amount of land to another part of the Mt. Olympus Wilderness. As of this writing, both bills were recently reported favorably out of committee, so they may actually pass this year!

Continuing the trail south of Heughs Canyon to Big Cottonwood Canyon will be a challenge, as the route is almost entirely on private land. The main impediment is a large gravel pit, but at some point in the future, operations there will be completed, and the owners will likely want to develop the land, which would probably require a trail route.

The northern half of the trail connects the Mt. Olympus summit trail to the Olympus Cove neighborhood, which was completed in about 2013 after three years of construction by volunteers and forest trail crews. This is a very nice trail through the woods on the north-facing slopes of the mountain. Fortunately, Salt Lake County was able to secure access into the neighborhood, but continuing the trail from here to Neff’s Canyon and on to Millcreek Canyon has proven to be an insurmountable challenge so far, due to private land owners and some extremely challenging terrain. This could be one of the last sections of the BST to be completed.

May 14 2022, 7.5 miles, 6.5 miles official BST. Trailforks Hike Log

Today we officially started our sojourn in Salt Lake County at the Point of the Mountain, hiking across the southern benches of Draper to Corner Canyon. Draper is one of very few cities along the Wasatch Front that has completed the entire Bonneville Shoreline Trail through its jurisdiction (at least in a “version 2” constructed singletrack form), and they have done a great job here.

This was one of the nicest sections of trail we’ve hiked yet. In the 20 years since it was built (around the same time that the South Mountain area was developed), the vegetation has reclaimed the cut slopes, so it looks very natural. As one of the few segments on a north facing slope, it is mostly wooded, so you feel like you’re in nature, even though for much of the time, you’re basically in someone’s back yard. The only drawback we could find is that it had to make a couple significant climbs to weave its way around subdivisions and cross under Traverse Ridge Road. That said, there are other segments with more hills.

Along the way, we got a good view of the soon-to-be-demolished state penitentiary, the scars from the old Widowmaker motorcycle hill climbs, and the Draper LDS Temple, where we finished. All in all, a great day, and a highly recommended segment of the BST.

April 30 2022, 7.5 miles, all official(ish) BST. Hike Log in Trailforks.

At the end of Season 1 (Episode 7), we started the beginning of the Sensei Trail, but decided to call Utah County done and skip ahead to Draper. I knew that a connecting trail had been completed in 2021 over the ridge, but only found out after filming that Lehi and Draper are considering designating it as a temporary official BST connection, so we decided to give it a try.

Lehi City has been proactive in acquiring the unbuildable highlands of the Traverse Mountains from developers, creating (along with Draper City) a permanently conserved area of at least 7 square miles. Working with the Traverse Mountain Trails Association (TMTA), the city is building an impressive trails network in the foothills here. While the process has been largely driven by the mountain biking community, and the trail design shows that emphasis, these trails are also popular with hikers and trail runners. A combination of the Sensei Trail (completed in 2018), Mo-mentum (2020), Tráverse Travérse (2021), and Ann’s Trail can be used to connect Lehi to Draper, with its extensive trails network including the BST (which we’ll explore in Episode 10).

Since we had already hiked part of Sensei last year, we cheated a bit and started in the middle, at the top of Fox Canyon Road. A new phase of the Hidden Canyon/Canyon Point development is actively being built up the canyon, so this access is officially closed to the public. However, they are in the final phases of the project, butting up against public property, and the approved plan includes a trailhead about where Sensei Trail crosses the old road.

Unlike a lot of the older trails above the Wasatch Front, these trails are being designed and built very carefully, with an emphasis on having very gentle grades despite the rugged terrain. The advantage of this is that we climbed more than 600ft to the summit and hardly ever noticed we were going uphill. The disadvantage is that the trails have to go around every little ravine and ridge, creating an extremely circuitous route. We could have taken less than a mile following an old (very steep) trail straight up the canyon to the summit, and instead it took us 4.5 miles (including a shortcut that saved an additional mile). Perhaps future trails in the network will provide a more efficient route to the top with a balance of grade and distance (please?).

The Draper side of the traverse is a much greater elevation gain (1,000ft to the Oak Hollow Trailhead, the nearest access), and generally steeper, so I’m glad we were going down it. The climb is mitigated somewhat by being on the north slope with lots of shady oak, and a multitude of switchbacks (at least 20) to temper the grade. We encountered a lot more traffic on this side, especially mountain bikes.

So what is the “state of this BST?” For having to climb over this ridge, this was actually an enjoyable hike. Maybe it was just the great weather, but it did not seem at all difficult, and the views of both valleys, as well as Lone Peak, were awesome. I would fully support this being a connecting route for the Bonneville Shoreline Trail for the time being.

Rocky Ridge, Mona, 6 miles, 3.5 miles unofficial trail

It is great to back in the swing of State of the BST again! We look forward to a great season on the trail. Our goal is to complete Salt Lake and Davis Counties this year, saving the northern end for Season 3. This year we are going to try releasing shorter episodes (10 minutes) more regularly (about every 2 weeks). We’ll see how it goes.

For our first outing, we decided to make a detour and go back to where we started, at the south end of Santaquin, and explore the possibility of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail continuing south toward Nephi. There is not a continuous trail extending through Juab County, but there are some short stretches, mostly ATV doubletrack, that could be used. We tried out two short segments today, both of which are part of the state-owned Santaquin Wildlife Management Area.

First we hiked south from Santaquin on a track that crosses into Juab County. The WMA has designated it as an open ORV route (except in winter when the big game are there), but it doesn’t have an official name; I put it into Trailforks as the Santaquin Pass Trail. It is an enjoyable gradual climb and drop, with some great views of Juab Valley and Rocky Ridge, the small town built by the Apostolic United Brethren group.

For our second segment, we followed a faint double track from Mona Pole Canyon (a rough road that connects up to the Nebo Loop Road) that follows the base of Bald Mountain to North Creek. It wasn’t a great BST candidate trail, too much up and down, but North Creek is a beautiful canyon that we never notice as we drive by on I-15 focused on the traffic. The trail up the canyon is not maintained, but the Creek and the cliffs were incredible.

Will the BST ever be built through Juab County? Here are a few factors: 1) unlike most of the rest of the route along the Wasatch Front, this is a rural area without lots of urban neighbors wanting recreation in their backyard. 2) Nephi City is thinking about building a stretch around town, but there isn’t any usable trail there yet. 3) Most of the upper parts of the foothills are either WMA or National Forest land, and it is usually easier to get permanent trails on public land. 4) On the flipside much of the land between there and I-15 is private, which limits access to the foothills. Personally, I don’t expect to see this trail completed in the foreseeable future; we have a lot of more pressing needs.

September 4: 7 miles total, 0 miles official BST, 5.5 miles unofficial route

Spencer and I had a great hike along the base of the Traverse Mountains to wrap up our filming of Episode 7. And Utah County. And Season 1 of the State of the BST. We need to take a break for the fall so Spencer can focus on paying jobs, including teaching a filmmaking class at UVU (yes, this professor dad is very proud of him). Originally, we had planned to skip most of this area because Lehi, Draper, and Highland have plans for the BST here, and there is no way to follow their intended route. However, for the sake of having a nice ending, we decided to cross the general area however we could. Fortunately, there are several old 4×4 roads crossing the south face, so we set out from the Hog Hollow Trailhead in Highland and headed West. It turns out Highland has very little involvement with BST planning, as this trailhead is at the extreme northern edge of the city, 50 feet from the Draper city limits. But we do appreciate the trailhead at least.

Jeep roads seem to have been created with little regard for grade, and we spent a lot of today going up hills and down into ravines. Clearly, this was not a good route for a permanent BST, but it is in the general vicinity for the planned route, and it was a lot shorter than a more level route that would have to zig zag a lot more around the topography. For example, the Fango trail just uphill, which could actually become part of the BST, covers the same breadth of the hill as we did with twice the length.

Much of today’s hike and discussion revolved around the Micron memory chip plant, which was visible below us most of the time. It is amazing to remember when they built this plant in the early 2000s, people thought they were crazy to build a high tech facility up on this barren hillside, so far from all the tech companies in Provo and Orem. They were able to buy 1,000 acres of “practically worthless” land for a steal. And we all thought the “little town” of Lehi was nuts for giving them a huge tax break, with the pie-in-the-sky idea that they might attract other tech businesses to the Point of the Mountain. Boy, were we wrong! Lehi has more than doubled in size in 20 years to become Utah County’s third largest city with the boom of the Silicon Slopes area. This year, Micron sold most of their undeveloped property to developer D.R. Horton; I’ll bet they made more profit with that sale than with chips this year. D.R. Horton has big plans for developing this hillside. Although there is a lot of debate in the community on the details, it looks like they will be preserving a fair amount of open space, especially in the upper reaches where the BST will pass through. Lehi and Draper have a good track record of reserving large blocks of open space on this mountain while allowing pockets of development.

As we walked through the upper part of the Micron property, I was amazed at the beauty and solitude of oak woodlands and meadows, despite the houses and businesses visible above and below us in the distance. We did not encounter a single other person the entire time. I hope the inevitable future development will retain significant areas like this.

Eventually we returned to civilization in the Traverse Mountain neighborhood. Here the Traverse Mountain Trails Association (TMTA) is actively working with Lehi City to build a multi-use trails network, and they already have an exemplary track record. Their first project, the Sensei Trail, is a well-designed, well-built, well-maintained trail that is as enjoyable to hike or run as it is to bike. Much of it could easily become part of the BST, depending on how Lehi, Draper, and Geneva Rock figure out how to get the trail around or over the Point of the Mountain. We followed it for a little while, but another 5 miles would have been too much today, and this episode is already chock-full of footage.

Here’s our route in Trailforks.