Growing A World Class Trail System
by Matt WeiserNot many people know this. But word is spreading anyway, so we’ll let it out: For those in the know, Ely is a world-class destination for mountain biking. And it’s about to get even better.
There’s a brand-new connector trail on Ward Mountain — the town’s signature peak, at nearly 11,000 feet — that links up two existing single-track trail systems to create a big new network of mountain biking trails. The new connector means the whole trail network can be accessed by riding straight from town. It’s also readily accessible from the Ward Mountain Campground, only a few miles from downtown on Highway 6, which was completely renovated by the U.S. Forest Service in 2017.
“We have such great terrain for mountain biking here,” said Kent Robertson, an Ely optometrist, longtime mountain biker, and a founding member of the Great Basin Trails Alliance. “It’s open, and the hills are about the right size and shape for mountain bikes — not so abrupt and rocky that you can’t build a trail a mountain bike can go on. There’s just lots of potential. And I think the climate for building those kinds of trails is right, too. People want to see that kind of recreation: It’s quite and clean, and it gets people outside and experiencing nature.”
The trails alliance, a volunteer group, worked with the Ely Ranger District of the U.S. Forest Service to construct the new connector trail. It started because the Forest Service sought a way for all-terrain-vehicle users to safely cross Ward Mountain and travel between Ely and Lund without having to trailer their vehicles. The trails alliance agreed to let the Forest Service dedicate an existing trail for this purpose — in exchange for the opportunity to build a brand-new connector trail dedicated to muscle-powered travel.
It was a win-win: The Forest Service and ATVers got a safe new travel route around the peak, and mountain bikers got the opportunity to build an even better new trail dedicated to their needs.
And now they’re working together on something even bigger. The Forest Service plans to apply for $1.2 million in grant funds from the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act to construct up to 50 miles of additional mountain biking trails on Ward Mountain. If the grant is approved later this year, construction will take place over a five-year period to create one of the best single-track trail systems in the state.
“It will be a major, major project,” said Jose Noriega, district ranger for the Forest Service. “I believe in the motto ‘Go big or go home,’ so it is time we go after the money we need. It will link back to the community, so that from a tourism standpoint, when people come here to ride the trails, we can market a truly high-quality mountain-bike trail system as part of all the other cool things going on in Ely.”
It will be a great fit for Ely, which is already home to Fears, Tears and Beers, the nation’s oldest enduro race for mountain bikers. Kent Robertson explained that Ely embraced mountain biking in the beginning. His father, Don Robertson, started riding local trails in the early 1980s on an old Schwinn he had modified — before the first dedicated mountain bike even hit the market. Kent, a longtime motorcycle dirt biker, started going along with his dad on a bicycle and it just clicked for him. Now Ely, with its historic downtown and friendly vibe, is poised to become a major mountain biking destination.
“Even up until just three or four years ago, it was pretty rare for me to run into anybody in the hills or see evidence of anybody else riding,” he said. “But now it’s become pretty common. With our five-year plan to create another 40 or 50 miles of trails, and some of the publicity we’ve gotten, I see it growing quite a bit.”
For more information in mountain biking in and around Ely, visit:
Ely mountain biking trail guide (Trailforks.com)