Utah mountain bikers are taking matters into their own hands by connecting the Bonneville Shoreline Trail on private property

The Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST) is a Utah trail project of mammoth proportions. The BST was originally envisioned as a 280-mile trail running from the Utah/Idaho border in the north to the community of Nephi, UT, in the south. Roughly 100 miles of the 280 have been built, and the remaining miles are proving to be the most challenging.

Pedaling the shoreline of an ancient lake

The shoreline of the ancient Lake Bonneville inspired the present-day BST route. Roughly 13,000 years ago, the vast lake stretched across what is now Utah, Nevada, and Idaho, covering approximately 19,800 square miles. The lake’s waves gradually sculpted a terrace into the mountainside, forming what today serves as the eastern edge of Utah’s Salt Lake Valley. For generations, local inhabitants — from the region’s first indigenous residents to modern suburbanites — have uncovered remnants of this prehistoric lake, including fossilized shells.

This distinctive landscape provided natural paths along the mountainsides, routes that have been in use for thousands of years. With the growing population along the Wasatch Front, these trails became increasingly popular. In 1990, the Bonneville Shoreline Trail was officially designated to curb damage from unauthorized motor vehicle use, which was degrading the terrain and negatively impacting the experience for hikers and mountain bikers.

Local riders in Logan concocted plans to connect a missing section of the BST themselves

Connecting the final sections of the BST is proving difficult, particularly around communities like Logan, UT. Local mountain bikers are taking matters into their own hands by constructing a critical BST connection near Logan on a piece of private property. H. Paul Gibbons originally acquired the land in question with the intent to build mountain bike trails.

Gibbons and his good friends, Brent Thomas and Paul Richins, co-founded the Cache Trails Alliance (CTA) back in 2017 to advocate for trail access across the region and address the Forest Service maintenance backlog on historic trails. The CTA was designated as a multi-user group, and eventually, horsemen, hikers, and trail runners joined the board as well.

Unfortunately, the scope of the organization became a bit too big. “Nobody was getting along,” said Thomas. “Trying to work with the Forest Service is always such a challenging aspect of moderate trail projects.” While the CTA had some successes, particularly with trail maintenance, they were unable to get any new trails approved by the USFS despite eight years of diligent advocacy.

So, the three co-founders resigned from the board in 2024 to found a new non-profit focused solely on mountain bikers, known as the Singletrack Cyclists Syndicate (S3).

Then tragedy struck.

Shortly after their board resignation, the group of friends, along with Gibbons’ children and grandchildren, took a trip to the Whistler Bike Park to celebrate the life of Paul’s wife, Arla Gibbons, who had terminal cancer and didn’t have long to live. While riding in the bike park, Paul crashed, and tragically perished from his injuries.

As you can imagine, the friends spent much of 2024 reeling from the blow of unexpectedly losing their friend, and trail building took a back seat.

S3 is carrying on their friend’s legacy by connecting the BST with his property

Arla passed not long after, and as the friends grieved, they also waited for things to settle with the estate and the property that Paul had purchased.

But now, the details have been worked out, and S3 is ready to talk about their plans.

The parcel consists of 340 acres on the mountainside between Providence and Logan. Since the property is too steep and rugged to be buildable, Gibbons was able to acquire it for a reasonable price.

“His idea from the beginning was, ‘Let’s get this…’ because he was frustrated, man, with the Forest Service and some of the walls we were hitting early on in CTA’s history,” said Thomas. “And here was a way we could get up there, build some epic trails with [the] best views in the valley.”

Work began in December 2024 to build a new singletrack connection for the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, which S3 is calling the H. Paul Gibbons Memorial Trail. The route has been flagged, and a group of local builders is already at work digging the new route in.

“We’ve got a team of guys that have built a bunch of great trail [in Logan] already, and these are all my riding friends,” said Thomas. “We go up there, and we flag out where we think the singletrack should go, and we literally take picks and shovels, and we’re starting to dig it in.”

“It’s so great, because we don’t have to wait for [approval],” Thomas continued. “How much greater is it that we have an opportunity on private land to do what we want to do, and we don’t have to wait for NEPA studies and wait for funding?”

While the first trail S3 is working on is the Memorial Trail, they also plan to develop additional connector trails on the land, providing rugged climbs and descents on the mountainside above the Memorial Trail.

Additional BST trail expansion taking place in Cache County

While some portions of the BST feature high-quality MTB singletrack, others consist of 10-foot-wide multi-use gravel paths. Cache County is currently working to connect several sections of the BST with these wide paths and recently received a $570,000 grant to fund two miles of trail construction.

The county is building missing trail segments extending from Green Canyon to Smithfield Canyon, which will connect the communities of Hyde Park, North Logan, and Smithfield. The $570,000 grant has funded the construction of phase 1A.

“Phase 1B is two miles to finish everything within the jurisdictional boundary of North Logan,” said Landis Wenger, Regional Trail & Active Transportation Coordinator, Cache County Development Services. “And then there’s phase 2, which is the gap that’ll still exist between North Logan and Hyde Park, and then finishing up to Smithfield Canyon. So we noticed three miles in phase 2 that we don’t exactly know where [the funding] is going to come from, but we’re working closely with the state, and they’re helping us direct our efforts.”

Building these multi-use gravel paths is dramatically more expensive than building singletrack by hand, which has required the local governments to collaborate closely. Instead of each municipality applying for grant funding individually and thereby competing with each other, the three local communities have partnered with Cache County, and the County has taken the lead on the project. This collaboration has proven successful: Wenger estimates that their collaborative approach has cut down the timeline to get phases 1 and 2 constructed from what would have been 10 years to hopefully five years.

While Cache County has secured grant funding from the state for phase 1, they’re also approaching the Cache Open Space Advisory Committee for future funding, which Thomas sits on.

“A few years ago, Cache County passed a bond issue specifically for preserving open space, preserving scenic vistas, adding trails, and trails connectivity,” said Thomas. “We’ve got $20 million to spend. And, you know, property owners in the valley could choose to come to us, and if they have matching funding sources, it’s huge.”

Thomas shared that they have a scoring rubric to determine how the advisory committee allocates funds, and new trail construction always “scores pretty highly.”

Utah Senators want the BST to be designated as a National Scenic Trail

In the midst of the hard work by local advocates to connect the missing sections of the BST, Utah Senators John Curtis and Mike Lee have just introduced the Bonneville Shoreline Trail Feasibility Study Act, which will determine if the BST can be designated as a National Scenic Trail.

In a post on X, Curtis wrote, “Utahns love the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, which provides recreational access to over 80% of the Wasatch Front. My bill with Senator Mike Lee takes proactive action to ensure the trail’s completion, maintenance, and protection.”

“This bill is a commonsense step toward recognizing the value the Bonneville Shoreline Trail already holds for so many Utahns. Conducting a feasibility study affirms what locals have known for years—this trail is worth understanding and preserving,” said Senator Lee.

If the trail qualifies as a National Scenic Trail, it will become eligible for federal funding for construction, planning, and maintenance; land acquisition tools to help complete the trail; and priority status for environmental protection and trail development. That is, if federal funding is made available for any trail maintenance projects and the public lands aren’t sold off.

Eventually, Gibbons’ property may be turned into a community park

The work on the BST is inspiring because it takes place on so many levels: from the federal level all the way down to the individual level. While Thomas and S3 are literally taking matters into their own hands by building singletrack by hand, he also envisions partnering with the county to establish a section of the wide gravel path running parallel to the singletrack. Eventually, the property may even be turned into a community park.

“In the end, Paul’s vision was always to partner with Logan City or Providence City or the county to donate [the land],” said Thomas. “Maybe[…] it’ll become a permanent, adopted regional trail park in the end.”

Despite Gibbons’ tragic passing, in the hands of his good friends, his vision for public singletrack trails is becoming a reality.