The grand opening of the Castle Country Trail System took place on Saturday, bringing not only people from the local area, but travelers from outside of the area to the Carbon County Fairgrounds.
The event consisted of a short unveiling ceremony for the new trail system kiosk, vendor booths, demo rides and guided trail rides. There was also motocross races taking place for most of the day on the newly refurbished motocross track.
Shalee Johansen from the Carbon County office of tourism welcomed everyone, introduced the speakers and announced that Yamaha donated $10,000 to the project.
“We’ve waited a long time for these 250 miles of trails to be designated,” Johansen explained. “There have been a lot of groups involved for many many years to make this happen. We are really excited to be here today and we really appreciate your support.”
Speakers at the event included BLM Field Manager Ahmed Mohsen, Chairman of the Carbon County Recreation and Transportation Special Service District Pace Hansen, Joan Powell representing Castle Country OHV and Carbon County Commissioner Casey Hopes.
“We started 15 years ago in the home of Tony Coss and we are still together and still strong,” Powell said. “We’re looking forward to expanding our trail system even more. We’ve been working with the county for about four years now. Jana Abrams got us to come to the table and it was the neatest thing. There were [representatives from] non-motorized, motorized and equestrian, all of us were sitting there. It’s been nice to be able to sit down with each other and hear each others needs and wants. Castle Country OHV is number one in my eyes. We are going to go forward and keep working with our land managers. We appreciate what we’ve done with them in the past and look forward to a future with them.”
The event concluded with guided trail rides and demo rides from vendors.
