State Of The Dirt: Spring 2019

Thanks for your support of Falls Area SingleTrack! 

We’re looking forward to continuing our mission to protect, create and enhance quality trail experiences for mountain bikers in cooperation with other trail users in the Sioux Falls area during the 2019 season!

Last year was a big year for FAST thanks to our community. As we pushed forward on the Tuthill Park Singletrack project, new people and groups continued to step up and show their support. This allowed us to reach our initial project fundraising goal. At the end of the year we had just shy of 2 miles of professionally built trail completed. The trail was designed and built in cooperation with our contractor, Trail Arts. We are extremely grateful for the support we continue to receive and sincerely thank everyone that has helped us along the way with this project! Also, a special thanks goes out to Dave Dessel from Trail Arts and our great partners at Sioux Falls Parks & Recreation for working together with FAST to move this project along.

Many of you have noticed that Trail Arts has been back in Sioux Falls for the past few weeks wrapping up a few more sections of trail at Tuthill that mother nature wouldn’t allow us to complete last year. We’ve added a new line down the drainage from the upper parking lot and we’re working to get the north side connection to Pasley Park completed. We hope to be installing trail signage and markers soon! Also on the docket for this summer are bridge upgrades in some of the drainage areas. 

A few other notable updates…

• Leader’s Park is in pretty good shape. The dock drop on the section called snakebite is built and will be replaced in the next week or so. There will be efforts scheduled to finish and improve new sections built last year and we will continue to address issues with erosion.

• Yankton Trail Park – much of the trail was under water for 4 weeks and we’re not certain of the future at this point. Our efforts will be concentrated on Tuthill and Leaders in the short term and once things appear to dry out and stabilize we’ll further assess and plan to restore what we can.

• Bike & Gear Swap – the swap continues to grow and was a success in terms of networking and fundraising. Nearly $1,500 was raised for FAST.

• Tools/Equipment – We’re applying funds from the swap to the purchase of some new power tools and a new trailer that FAST needs to store and transport equipment. Additionally, in March, FAST board members caught up with organizations, Save The Maah Daah Hey and Black Hills Trails to talk about the Grillo walking tractor and trail best practices.

• RTP Grant Application – FAST has again applied for grant money through the State’s Recreational Trails Program to fund proper bridge spans for several locations at Tuthill Park. We’ll find out if we have been awarded grant money in early July.

• Mayor’s Meeting – In early March, Brad, Bob, Clay and Reva spent a half hour with Mayor Paul TenHaken and Deputy Chief of Staff T.J. Nelson discussing FAST goals and the future of trails in Sioux Falls. They expressed their support for our efforts of maintaining and building new singletrack in the area.

• Events – follow our social media channels for updates on upcoming rides, volunteer sessions and other events happening throughout 2019.

  • Trail Maintenance

  • Trail Challenge

  • Take a Kid Mountain Biking

  • Members Meeting/Elections

• Membership – although FAST is now an independent 501c3 non-profit organization, we have renewed our agreement with IMBA as a local chapter organization. The new local program puts more money back in the hands of the local chapters. The FAST board felt it was the right decision to continue this relationship. Membership processing through IMBA is now $15 of the $39 membership fee per member per year instead of a 50/50 split. Join or renew here.