Sundance White Ranch Park Project
The SCGMBA was approached by the Sundance White Ranch Park to bring hiking and biking trails into land nestled below the Sundance Mtn and this land is set aside in perpetuity for the publics use. #SWRP
Association President Whitmore took lead in laying out the trail utilizing club members and others, in developing a sustainable singletrack trail with a fun flow and old school single track feel to offer the hiker and bikers an opportunity to view the splendor of the mountain and the surrounding countryside.
Work began in April with many hours of tuning the trail , water dispersion, views, landscape features, and utilizing as many natural features that could be utilized while building a trail on a ancient landslide flow. The flow is mainly composed of Rhyolitic rock from the Eocene aged intrusion/uplift that produced Sundance Mtn eons ago. We used IMBA sustainable trail building methods to assure the longevity of its creation.
The hopes of SCGMBA and SWRP is to utilize the property in it's form, as open space, with only trail development to enhance these experiences.
In doing so the SCGMBA is also working with City of Sundance to increase the trail foot print by utilizing City of Sundance property i.e Etta trail.
“Etta trail” will be placed where property has been used for pasturing a few horses every year.
The project began as one non-profit (SWRP) sought another (SCGMBA) to assist in their goals, in turn SCGMBA asked for the help of another non-profit (BLACK HILLS TRAILS) into borrowing, renting and/or lending a hand in equipment to build the trail where hand tools would not be as efficient.
This lead to Black Hills trail.org coming over after our volunteers assisted in working on the system trails in Sturgis SD. Approximately 36 hrs after arrival on May 2021 the first 2.2 mile trail was built with many volunteers, two Grillos and Mini Ex doing the earthwork. Volunteers had many diverse backgrounds to assist.
The work of the three non profits build a trail with one goal to give the public a place to hike and ride. This is so much the “advocacy” that we the SCGMBA strive for in the SCGMBA Mission Statement.
So Far in dirt single track-
Outlaw 2.2 mile
Sun Dance .3 mile
Etta 1.8 mile
