TASU Origins and Project Development
Our Origins
TASU was formed in 2012 to have a voice in local trail development and coordinate with local governments. We were the first International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) affiliated chapter in Southern Utah.
The BLM asked us to be the voice of the local trail users. The BLM had the funds but lacked the staff resources to design and supervise trail construction and maintenance. We offered to take on these tasks. TASU President Kevin Christopherson has over 20 years of trail maintenance experience and has completed the IMBA “Building and Maintaining Sustainable Trails” course twice. With this training and experience, he has taught classes in safety and sustainable trail maintenance many times in Washington County, and in other communities including Cedar City, Kanab, Price, Vernal, and Roosevelt, Utah.
Over the past 14 years, TASU has conducted 5 to 20 volunteer trail maintenance days every year, except the first COVID year (2020). We continually reach out to the local trail community for guidance. In 2012 people told us they wanted to make the JEM trail a loop. It was an up-and-back trail, and the 2-way traffic led to congestion and a degraded recreation experience. We partnered with the BLM to design Goosebumps and Cryptobionic trails to create better traffic flow.
In 2015 people said that beginners wanted more easy trails and an alternative way down to avoid the difficult JEM switchbacks. So we partnered with the BLM and designed and supervised the construction of the Dead Ringer and More Cowbell trails.
In 2016, we partnered with the BLM to design and supervise the Wire Mesa trail.
In 2017, we partnered with Saint George City and led a team of volunteers for several months to build the Kentucky Lucky trail on City property.
In 2018 Saint George lost the race loop (NICA) at Green Valley, so we worked with a local landowner and developer to open the Desert Canyon trails. We also constructed the Claim Jumper trail. Later in 2018 we partnered with the BLM to restore the Broken Mesa and Ice House trails to “bikeable” condition.
We heard many times from both local riders and mountain bike-related businesses that we need professionally machine-built directional mountain trails with easy/moderate (green/blue) and difficult (blue/black) trails. To this end, we started working with the Pine Valley District (PVRD) to try and meet this need. The PVRD never had the funding or staff resources to take this on. With the expansion of UOR Grants, it became possible for us to raise the money.
In early 2019 we assisted the PVRD with a public scoping process to further refine the public desires. At the same time we started fundraising for the trail and laying the ground work for grant application. We raised over $50,000 for the trail from mountain bikers and local businesses. This is amazing and speaks to the huge community support for these trails as designed.
In 2021 we partnered with Trails Utah (TU) to bring in their expertise and ability to administer the contracts. Together with TU, we applied for a Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation Grant (UORG) and using the $50,000 from TASU and providing volunteer time of at least another $25,000 as a match, we were able to raise the funds needed for phase 1.
In 2022 we partnered with Washington County to raise the additional money needed. The County recognized the need and has provided most of the matching funds for the project going forward.
The fundraising, partnership-building, grant applications, meetings, designing, flagging and mapping the trail took hundreds of additional hours. The total TASU volunteer time that has gone into the PVRD project exceeds 2,000 hours, not to mention the donated transportation costs, office supplies, etc. This has resulted in the construction of over 30 miles of trail with another 10 miles coming in 2027. This trail network has been named Cliffrose.
In 2022, we partnered with the BLM and Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation to create the Revenant Trail system on West Mountain. Construction was completed in 2024. That project won the Utah Outdoor Recreation Project of the Year. The Hell Hole downhill trail was added in 2025. An expert downhill trail and a new climbing trail, will be added in 2027.