Letters: The backbone of trails
The backbone of trails
It’s Sunday morning, and I am a bit sore but, once again, smiling having completed another Triple Trail Challenge capstone race yesterday, the Mid Mountain Marathon. With all of the other wonderful summer activities here in Park City, it’s easy to overlook the effort of over 300 runners, and more importantly, how integral the Mountain Trails Foundation is to the essence of Park City.
In it’s 14th year, the TTC consists of a half marathon, steeplechase, and marathon, all challenging in their own right, with the prize being a coveted TTC jacket.
Now in my late 60’s, it takes me a bit longer to complete the courses, yet the MTF staff and volunteers never waiver from providing full service, treating us laggards at the back of the race no different than the frontrunners. We get the same whoops and yells, bells and hollers, at every aid station and at the finish line that the fastest winners do. Despite being slow and behind schedule, they still track us, while providing encouragement and comfort to every single runner.
Yesterday I ran with, or met employees and volunteers, from so many of the other superb organizations here in Park City, including Recycle Utah, Running with Ed, and Summit Land Conservancy, to name just a few.
It became apparent what a backbone MTF, and it’s knowledgeable staff, like Charley, Lora, Ginger, and Clay, and all MTF staff are to our local culture. Park City is going through many changes, yet the consistency of this premier organization shines year after year.
We have all ambled, skied, rode or run a trail here in Park City, summer, winter, spring or fall. Please support Mountain Trails Foundation, and better yet, participate or volunteer for an event and meet some really superb locals. Tell them Fasteddie sent you!
Ed Knapp
Park City
Help on the highway
This past Wednesday August 14th, I crashed my car on Mirror Lake Hwy. About 10 miles from Kamas. I just wanted to thank the countless people that helped me. I don’t know anyone who stopped. I don’t know the man and woman who let me sit in their truck. Or who drove back to Kamas to get help. I wish I knew them. I walked away from the accident unharmed. I was released from the hospital with no more than a headache. Thank you unknown Samaritans.
Ty Martin
Bountiful
Nann Worel offers reasonable solutions
I support Nann Worel in her bid for reelection for Park City Council. I have known Nann for over 13 years, first as a member of the nonprofit community then through Leadership Park City. Over these years, she has consistently shown her ability to listen to others, research issues, then act, not react to community issues. She has always remained an advocate for what is right and needed for the community.
I watched her with admiration in the role as a City Planning Commissioner. She took on this position, knowing she had a lot to learn about the working of Park City. She served for six years, gaining invaluable experience and preparing her for her first bid for City Council. Her hard work over many years in the nonprofit world and the public sector has given her valuable experience and maturity.
Nann has my highest admiration, for who she is, what she has accomplished, and her ambitions to better Park City. She has been and will continue to be a voice for reasonable solutions for the issue that face Park City! Thank you.
Jane Patten
Oakley
The newspaper business
As a former Business editor for The Park Record for a number of years, it pains me to see the paper’s business section shrivel and seemingly dry up to become a mere reprinter of industry press releases.
I understand the pressures today’s newspaper interests face, and bemoan the loss of insightful reporting on the business side of things. With Vail as the new 600-pound gorilla in Park City, and the loss of Deer Valley, The Canyons and PCMR as co-gorillas, Park City deserves a watchful reporter on the ramparts. The city has never been a company town, per se, since the silver boom waned, but it sure looks like it’s in danger of becoming one now.
Not aggressively investigating and reporting on business doings in Park City is short-sighted at best.
Bruce Lewis
Bradenton, Fla.
Bicycling is like camping
Camping has some information for us on the issue of allowing electric mountain bikes on trails reserved for non-motorized bikes. Policy makers will soon be resolving this issue and here is a way to think about it:
We have all seen and maybe done the kind of car-camping in which all the accouterments of civilization are brought along including the kitchens, shelters, toys, lights, everything – to the point where some campers get better satellite TV reception than they do at home. Fine, and we provide places with water, power, showers, stores and so on for this to happen, and everybody is happy.
But of course, camping style is a continuum which gradually leaves more of civilization behind until, at the other end, we have hard core backpackers who do physical training, carefully select high-tech equipment, hone their nature and survival smarts and value episodes of minimalism and solitude. And we provide for them, too, with legislated Wilderness Areas that keep virtually everyone else out.
Why shouldn’t mountain biking be the same way? We already have a system of difficulty classifications, along with some up, down and hiking-only exclusions, so it is not hard to imagine a trail classification system which allows electric assist on some but not on others. Yes, it would require more rules and more management, but that seems to work in the camping world – why not on bike trails, too.
I suggest that policy makers think along those lines; segmentation, rather than all-or nothing.
Tom Horton
Park City
Gratitude in a tragic time
Tara Francyk Wells
J. Bret Wells
It would be amiss if I did not express my gratitude to all friends and family for their love and support during this tragic time.
My daughter and her husband were in their plane, August 7th, traveling to a wedding in California when they had a fatal crash 1000 feet from the runway.
Joni Phillipp
Blackhawk
Like there aren’t enough gas stations
The article published on March 8, “A Maverik gas station could be coming to Quinn’s Junction,” paints a pretty dire picture for motorists searching for fuel in and around Park City.
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