Letter: Creating a trails system
Ogden City and volunteers created the Ogden Trails Network in the mid 1980s. We knew the obstacles we faced including camping, trash, hobo camps with stolen electricity, hunting, vehicles and the coming of golf and mountain bikes. We were faced with private, city, county, university, and federal lands. We knew private interests such as a proposed new skiing facility and the ever-present threat of “development” was coming. We knew that the Bureau of Reclamation/Pineview Water had a right-of-way from Ogden Canyon to Washington Terrace and any interference with the delivery of water to the terrace would be met with a fence. That right-of-way goes down the middle of the Mount Ogden golf course.
We met each challenge including what to do with individuals who would ignore whatever we had collectively worked so hard to create. We received grants including from the National Park’s Service. We enlisted the Police and even proposed having the Ogden Police Bike Patrol occasionally rove the system. We developed agreements with property owners, built parking lots, bridges and placed directional signs. We suggested that when individuals broke the rules by crossing the golf course and its greens, a use fee be applied equivalent to the cost of a round of golf.
Some individuals learn at an early age, that ignoring rules and nagging will eventually beat down some parents. We wondered if that was what we have come too after all these years of work by over 3,500, volunteers and dozens of organizations of planning and accommodations to build a nationally recognized trail system. We are wasting time on a few grownup children who never lifted a tool to help. When we surpassed 1,500 volunteers we contacted Sunset Magazine. Sunset visited and wrote; “OGDEN: BEST ACCESS TO THE MOUNTAINS” I hope the Visitor’s Bureau and the city makes use of this knowledge.
We have done well!
Jay Hudson
Ogden
Founding member of the Ogden Trails Network