Cedar City, UT: Bring On the Beginners!

Volunteers from the Color Country Cycling Club in Cedar City (let's hope they don't run out of Cs) prepare to create a new beginner trail.
The Bureau of Land management was a close partner for this innovative project.
The trail will feature interpretive signs, including tips on riding techniques and environmental issues pertaining to mountain biking.

If you own multiple bicycles, have at least one chain ring mark on your leg, and live to ride, you are already a mountain biker.

The big question here at IMBA is, "How do we make more of you?" More mountain bikers means more riders advocating for trails, more kids growing up with a respect of nature, and more people turning off the TV and turning the cranks instead. Mountain biking should be an easy sell. The sport runs the gamut from freeriding to singletrack epics to a pedal in the woods with your kids. It can be whatever you want it to be.

According to the Outdoor Industry Association while cycling is still the most popular outdoor recreational activity, the number of mountain bikers has receded in recent years. The reasons behind the decline could be debated ad nauseam, but there is only one fact we know to be true - communities are built from the bottom up. Every mountain biker starts off in the same place - standing at the trailhead, their eyes filled with apprehension and excitement, their helmet on backwards, and their trusty Huffy by their side. We all start off as beginners (except Ryan Leech who is a sexy robot from the future).

If we want to create more mountain bikers, we need to create more beginners. That's exactly what the Bureau of Land Management and the Color Country Cycling Club are trying to do in Cedar City, UT. The Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew worked with both groups to build a two-mile interpretive beginner trail at the Three Peaks Recreational Area. Located close to town, this trail is easily accessible, well mapped, and offers anyone on any bike the chance to have mountain biking demystified. Interpretive signs along the way explain basic bike skills like braking, climbing and descending.

But, mountain biking isn't just about a set of skills. Additional signs introduce new riders to trail etiquette and teach them about the sensitive desert environment. Pulling from similar successes, like Rustler's Loop in Fruita, there is a lot of excitement about how this trail will grow the local riding community.

By the end of the IMBA Trail Care Crew weekend, the two-mile trail stood completed and a map of the trails was affixed to the trailhead kiosk. The dusty and sunburned volunteers sat on the fence to enjoy the late-afternoon breezes when a minivan pulled up to the trailhead. The couple inside walked over to the new map, looked over at the new trail, and muttered words about coming back with their Huffys.

And just like that, we grew by two.