The mountain biking community has constructed a large number of the current very popular trails used by hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers. The fairly new Dry Creek Vista trailhead is surrounded by mountain biker created popular trails. Chuckwagon is now a major connector to the Devil’s Bridge formation which is a close second to the West Fork hike. The several year old Adobe Jack trailhead is at the base of the Soldiers Wash multi-use trail system. The majority of those popular trails were created by the mountain biking community in the late 90’s and early 2000, most of those early trails have been adopted by the US Forest Service.
The most popular iconic hiking/mountain biking system trails in Sedona are Hangover, Hog Heaven and Hiline. Those three trails were constructed by the mountain biking community and would never exist today if the mountain biking community wasn’t involved with the project.
Prior to the mountain biking community being involved with the construction of popular hiking/mountain biking trails there wasn’t the USFS will or resources available to build a comprehensive trail system like we have now. Due to those efforts the USFS has decided popular well constructed trails are good for the local community and individuals visiting Sedona. Currently existing popular trails in the Carroll Canyon and Schuerman Mt. area are in process of being adopted. In the Dry Creek area there is an effort to adopt existing trails and construct a new system of beginner trails for Sedona families and visitors to enjoy.
My hope would be to have the local Sedona community who enjoy the popular trail system more involved with the maintenance of their favorite trail. There were over 50 trails that had been adopted by local citizens, but according to recent FS emails the Adopt-a-Trail program is floundering. I believe with a different approach the Adopt-a-Trail program could be more successful. My idea would be to have a point person help motivate the 50 trail adopters to go out and do some maintenance on the trail they had adopted. The motivation to work on the adopted trail would come from the point person joining the trail adopter and sharing the maintenance experience with them. With a little on hand instruction of simple maintenance practices the trail system could be much better maintained.
Sincerely,
John Finch
