Hurricane hosts demo pump track, Mountain Bike Festival

Hurricane youth enjoy a portable pump track that was set up next to the Hurricane Fine Arts Center as a demonstration of possible things to come for the city, Hurricane, Utah, March 25, 2017 | Photo by Reuben Wadsworth, St. George News

HURRICANE – Cooler weather and occasional sprinkles didn’t scare away the bike and scooter enthusiasts at the Hurricane Community Center Saturday. The Fine Arts center hosted a portable pump track while 100 West was lined with mountain bikers and vendors participating in the Hurricane Mountain Bike Festival.

Several mountain bike companies were on hand for the Hurricane Mountain Bike Festival at the Hurricane Community Center, Hurricane, Utah, March 25, 2017 | Photo by Reuben Wadsworth, St. George News

Hurricane Assistant Recreation Director Matt Patterson said hosting the demo pump track was a trial run of possible things to come to the city. The City contracted with Progressive Bike Ramps, a company from Joplin, Missouri, to bring the track to the city for the weekend so residents could try it out.

“We wanted to gauge the community’s interest on whether or not they’d like to see a pump track in Hurricane,” Patterson said.

A pump track is a course of dirt berms and dirt mounds called rollers and jumps that a cyclist can ride continuously using a pumping motion with their body to loop around the track.

The city disseminated surveys to the riders and spectators at the portable pump track. If the popularity of the pump track demo is any indication, one might think that a pump track in Hurricane is inevitable, but Patterson was quick to point out that they are just in the planning stage of this idea, funding and otherwise.

“The only funding that has been discussed is $5,000 for the design,” Patterson said. “The $5,000 is coming from a RAP tax grant. All other sources of funding have not been specified.”

Mountain Bike Festival organizer Quentin Morissette was all smiles while talking about this year’s Mountain Bike Festival. He said that it has never been bigger and that there were over 700 demo bikes there for patrons to test out on local trails, including the JEM and Quail Creek trail systems.

The festival’s growth will be good news to the Hurricane City Council, who has told festival organizers repeatedly that they’d like to see it become self-sufficient so they don’t have to approve funding to help support it.

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3 Comments

  • [email protected] March 26, 2017 at 9:33 am

    While SW Utah / Washington County has a great mix of outdoor recreation opportunities for: off-road vehicles, and hiking/touring State and National Parks, we still have a deficit of mountain biking options, when compared to Moab, or even the Wasatch Back.
    The local Mountain Bike organizations deserve credit for enhancing the existing trail options. Cooperation with BLM cannot be underestimated.
    Thanks go out to DMBTA and Friends!

  • Proud Rebel March 27, 2017 at 8:31 am

    I don’t recall seeing or hearing anything about this event, prior to it happening. Perhaps I just missed it. But it seems that many events that happen here in Dixie are not publicized until after they have happened.
    I’m betting that each of these events would have more people at them if residents knew about them in advance. In time to plan to attend them, rather than schedule something else, preventing them from attending the events.
    As an example, I drove by this on Saturday, on the way to something else. I would have liked to stop and see what was going on, but couldn’t due to a prior commitment.

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