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DEFINING THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN CYCLIST

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UNDERSTANDING THAT FRESH COAT OF PAINT
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UNDERGROUND
TRAIL SYSTEM COMES TO LIGHT
DISCOVERY BY DEVELOPER MAY NOT MEAN THE END
By Justin Schmid

Riders at Fantasy Island North have a steep and loose climb

ahead of them to make their underground trail system official.
Morgan Lynch

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Temporarily avoiding some prickly access issues, a cyclist enjoys the narrow, flowing singletrack at Fantasy Island North.
FANTASY Island North Singletrack system
really isn’t supposed to exist. Every ride on its 12 miles of
groomed singletrack near Phoenix, Ariz., is technically trespass-
ing since it was built on a developer’s land without permission.
The trail flew under the radar of Newland Communities for
nearly three years before it was discovered this summer.
But that discovery gives the trails a shot at going from rene-
gade to recognized. The trail’s builders are now opening talks
with Newland to explore how the trails could be folded into the
master plan for Estrella Mountain Ranch, a 20,000-acre develop-
ment in the town of Goodyear.
Jenn Allen, a Newland marketing director, said the FINS
trails came to the company’s attention when a surveying crew
noticed a group of mountain bikers and backtracked their route.
There, they found a marked trail network that wasn’t part of the
development’s master plan. A Newland employee rode the trail
system to evaluate it. Allen was not able to provide more details
since that employee no longer works for Newland.
Allen admits that FINS is a legal liability for Newland and
that using the trail is technically trespassing. Though the devel-
oper isn’t throwing the welcome mat out for riders, it also has
not blocked access.
“I think, in defense of the residents, they thought it was on
state land,” Allen said, adding that company officials will wel-
come input from the Estrella Trails Club, a recently formed
organization whose members participated in designing and
building the trails.
Portions of the trail are on land plotted to become a gated
community. The company has made no decisions but wants to
explore making it part of the community’s plan. It’s still too early
in the process for Newland to predict the outcome. Allen said
the company believes in outdoor lifestyles, so the trail has
potential benefits as an amenity to the community, which now
includes 3,500 homes. When it’s built out, Estrella is expected
UNDERGROUND
TRAIL SYSTEM
Morgan Lynch
to have 50,000 homes.
“The trail system needs to coexist nicely within the master
plan,” Allen said.
Kim Doud and Murel Stephens laid out much of FINS
before the master plan had taken shape starting in the summer
of 2005. Both are veteran riders, having explored every local
trail in the ubiquitous Fat Tire Tales & Trails book that is a bible
to many Arizona riders. Doud, an Estrella resident, and
Stephens aimed for a trail that would require skills but still be
accessible to a wide variety of skill levels.
“We made it to swoop,” said Stephens, who lives in the
nearby town of Buckeye.
Stephens said other local trails aren’t known for fast, flowing
riding. The Estrella Mountain Regional Park, five miles from
FINS, features the Pedersen Trail and a competitive track that
hosts Mountain Bike Association of Arizona races. Neither trail,
however, gets much love from local riders. About 25 miles away,
the White Tanks also has a competitive track that gets mixed
reviews. So Stephens and Doud decided to create a trail system
that fit their own vision of what mountain biking should be.
They named FINS after Fantasy Island, a rolling, winding collec-
tion of singletrack trails more than 100 miles away in Tucson.
They labeled each section with hand-painted signs telling riders
the trail name and level of difficulty.
They also made it to blend into the desert. FINS is difficult
to see without being right on a trail, a lesson Doud borrowed
from architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
In laying out the trails, Stephens, Doud and nearly 30 vol-
unteers would stand on opposite hills, scanning the topography
for routes that would allow a flowing trail with turns
and switchbacks. Some days, they could create 600 feet
of new trail. Other times, they could only advance about
50 back-breaking feet.
But the challenge of working into the community’s master
95
 UNDERGROUND
TRAIL SYSTEM
Morgan Lynch
Despite a proposed 50,000 new homes in the area near Phoenix, devel-
opers and mountain bikers are now working together to help keep trails
like this one open for all to enjoy.
plan could prove slower than carving a trail into a hillside. To
smooth it along, Doud formed the Estrella Trails Club. The club
is offering to work with Estella Mountain Ranch officials not
96
only on FINS, but any future trail systems for any user. Club
members have also attended International Mountain Bicycling
Association (IMBA) trail-building classes. Doud said Estrella
already has a few trails, but they’re not suited for serious trail
users.
The Estrella Trails Club announced its existence in the sum-
mer of 2008 at a homeowners association meeting; one of the
association’s board members is a Newland vice president,
according to Doud.
“Newland has a history of being favorable to mountain bik-
ers,” Doud said. The developer worked with riders in South
Carolina to cut a trail in a development there, Doud explained.
The developer even footed a $25,000 bill for construction
equipment. “I think Newland is being very supportive. They
have to be careful and do things the right way.”
According to Sonia Overholser, the Arizona IMBA represen-
tative, the trails are skillfully designed and built; in many sec-
tions, they conform to the IMBA trail design philosophies. The
trails follow the land’s contours and loop back to a central point,
allowing riders to ride as much or as little as they want. The
overall impression is fast, flowing and exciting, she said.
Overholser is unfamiliar with Doud and his volunteers but
thinks FINS could be a great amenity for Estrella Mountain
Ranch.
“The value of trails has proven itself over and over and over
again,” she said. “It depends, ultimately, on the land owner or
manager. Ultimately, it’s their asset.”