The 2.3 Million Dollar MTB Trail

I rode the newly legal $2.3 Million BST between Bear Creek and Willow Park last night. From a MTB perspective what a colossal waste of money. I would rate that section of trail as one of the worst in the valley if not the worst. It is poorly built with multiple unsustainable steep sections that are eroding as fast as the cheap waterbars that were installed can wash away. It seemed like I ended up walking at least 25% of the trail. From an open space perspective I can hesitantly agree with the purchase. It sounded like the other option Sandy City was pursuing was to build an access road and allowing the property owner to develop part of the property (4-5 trophy homes) in exchange for allowing public access to the BST. It is a pretty piece of property and a nice addition to Willow Park. The fact that it is now protected for eternity is probably worth the $2.3 million. My main problem with the purchase is that if the county wanted that property for an oil or gas line they would have just claimed it via eminent domain but since they wanted it for access to public trail (a far more valuable and responsible use of the land) they had to pay out the ass for it.