Blazing new trails
Dodge Ridge offers first ever lift access for mountain biking
Mountain bikers in Tuolumne County will have a new destination with new access to new trails beginning this weekend, when Dodge Ridge Mountain Resort, the popular ski area that operates on a special use permit in the Stanislaus National Forest near Pinecrest Reservoir, plans to begin offering lift access mountain biking for the first time.
Dodge Ridge promoters are billing this Saturday as the grand opening of the resort’s new mountain bike park, which initially will offer a designated descent for all trails from the top of the Motherlode Chairlift 3 at 7,400 feet elevation, leading to more than 4 miles of beginner to lower-intermediate level trails for opening day.
According to Dodge Ridge marketing staff, the resort has crews building an intermediate technical trail and an intermediate freeride trail, with completion hoped for by an unnamed date shortly after opening weekend.
“Additional trail builds are planned throughout the summer and into fall, introducing more intermediate to advanced trails with approximately 9 miles planned for this season,” Dodge Ridge marketing staff said.
The inaugural mountain bike season at Dodge Ridge is scheduled through October, with evaluation for November operations in late October, weather permitting. Beginning next spring and summer, existing mountain bike trails at Dodge Ridge will be the starting point for further expansion of the trail system at the resort.
Asked Tuesday if mountain bikers at Dodge Ridge will have to stay on designated trails, or can they rip down the mountain any way they want to, Michael Sher, the Dodge Ridge marketing partnership manager, said, “We highly encourage our guests to utilize our designated trail (s), which are maintained by our trail crews and patrolled by our bike patrol team.”
Single day lift tickets for the inaugural Dodge Ridge mountain bike season will cost $49 for ages 13 and older or $39 for kids 12 and under. Mountain bike season passes will also be available for $199 and $139, respectively. Mountain bike season pass discounts will be available for 2022/23
Dodge Ridge winter season pass holders.
Rental packages that include full suspension bikes, helmets, knee pads and elbow pads will be offered for $79 for ages 13 and older and $49 for kids 12 and under.
Chairs on Motherlode Chairlift 3 will have bike carriers that can hold two bikes at a time, Sher said Tuesday. Bicyclists will get to ride the chairlift seated on separate chairs directly behind their bikes.
“We are really proud of our trail crews, lift operations, and lift maintenance teams for all of their hard work in getting us to opening day,” Sher said Tuesday. “We’ve put a great deal of effort into making sure all of our trails provide one of the best mountain biking experiences possible for all ages and ability levels. We couldn’t be more excited about our grand opening and future developments throughout the mountain.”
Dodge Ridge first opened in 1950, and new owners of the resort were announced in August last year. The new owners are Invision Capital, which also owns Mountain High Resort in Southern California, and Karl Kapuscinski, president and chief executive officer of Mountain High Resort.
Mountain High offers disc golf, camping, a nature trail, and archery this summer. Mountain High does not yet offer chairlift access for mountain bikers.
Closer to Dodge Ridge in the Central Sierra, the Bear Valley Resort off Highway 4 in Alpine County is also offering lift access mountain biking for the first time this summer season.
Some of the first ski resorts in North America to offer chairlift access for mountain bikers were Mount Snow Resort in Vermont in 1986, and Deer Valley outside Park City, Utah in 1992.
In a September 2017 Rei.com blog post headlined “Bike Parks and the Evolving Ski Resort Economy,” freelance writer Betsy Welch said “if you let people bring their bikes on the chairlift, you better have sustainably built trails for them to bomb down. Otherwise, they will make their own (unsustainable) trails and/ or clog your service roads. This approach played out at ski resorts in Colorado — like Snowmass and Vail — in the mid-90s, and it wasn’t until 1998 when Whistler Mountain Bike Park opened in British Columbia that American resorts had somewhere to look up to.”
A 2015 report produced in Whistler on economic impacts found that on average, summer visitors spent less than half of what winter visitors spent — $148 per day vs. $350 per day — but summer visitors also represented the lion’s share of total annual visits — 60% vs. 40%.
In short, Welch wrote, summer tourism represents a significant pool of potential revenue for mountain towns like Whistler that’s ripe for growth.
Here in Tuolumne County this summer, chairlift access for mountain bikers will play a major role in helping Dodge Ridge Mountain Resort to develop itself as a destination for year-round outdoor enthusiasts, Jeff Hauff, the Dodge Ridge director of marketing and sales, said Tuesday.
“Chairlift access for mountain bikers goes hand in hand with sustainability of winter sports at Dodge Ridge Mountain Resort,” Hauff said. “Our yearround team members create a community around the resort, which is what makes this experience more than a job. This community of team members translates in how we do everything and it resonates throughout the resort for all of our guests to feel and remember following their experience at Dodge Ridge.”
Mountain biking at Dodge Ridge will be offered every weekend, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday, beginning this weekend. Opening weekend festivities this weekend will include live music both days; games such as cornhole, pingpong, foosball, shuffleboard, horseshoes, giant jenga and more; and the presence of bike shop retailers and other industry vendors on the Base Camp Bar + Grill sundeck.
Summer activities at Dodge Ridge already include chairlift access disc golf, picnicking, hiking, yoga classes, and bounce houses for kids. For more information visit www. dodgeridge.com online.