Go forth and ride, then bring back pics

[homemadesalsa]

GF and I made an impromptu Tetons run for the weekend.

Pm if you need a shower or anything.

[evasive_MT]

Pm if you need a shower or anything.

Thanks - we're staying with friends so we're set, but I appreciate the offer.

[muted]

I guess I am just being reactive to the stacked loops that are so popular over at Targhee. They are great fun but don't really get you anywhere. I like long wild backcountry rides that are still pretty raw (but rideable). This one, the South Fork of Horseshoe Canyon, did get some badly needed reroutes about 5 years ago, but overall kept the wild character of other Bighole rides.

That's what I thought was going on. While I do enjoy park days and DH trails, I completely understand. Riding here in Park City is just loops to nowhere between some mansions and lifts. It's super fun for the most part and I'll never complain about the endless trail system, but I miss the backcountry rides in Montana when I lived there. Some trails a bit too raw though, ha, but it just meant you were alone and out there.

[doebedoe]

Never been to a bike park before. It was fun. And only a few minutes from the house and free means I'll be back. A 160mm travel FS bike with a big wheelbase wasn't ideal. Maybe N + 1.

[evasive_MT]

Mill Creek is fantastic, even after the rain. The service roads from the resort were pretty soft, though.

[muted]

That's what I thought was going on. While I do enjoy park days and DH trails, I completely understand. Riding here in Park City is just loops to nowhere between some mansions and lifts. It's super fun for the most part and I'll never complain about the endless trail system, but I miss the backcountry rides in Montana when I lived there. Some trails a bit too raw though, ha, but it just meant you were alone and out there.

Example from yesterday....the start of a great trail in a gated community. So weird.

[cpj.slc]

Never been to a bike park before. It was fun. And only a few minutes from the house and free means I'll be back. A 160mm travel FS bike with a big wheelbase wasn't ideal. Maybe N + 1.

That's cool! Which city is that?

[Dantheman]

Never been to a bike park before. It was fun. And only a few minutes from the house and free means I'll be back. A 160mm travel FS bike with a big wheelbase wasn't ideal. Maybe N + 1.

Those are some pretty rad looking jump lines.

[WaistDeepGroomers]

Those are some pretty rad looking jump lines.

Pretty sure that's ruby hill in Denver. They have a free little terrain park in he winter too. Awesome municipal effort.

[klar]

Revisited a very pretty and beginner friendly trail option. Pleased to find it got easier since last time.

[doebedoe]

That's cool! Which city is that?

Dunfee is correct -- Ruby Hill in Denver.

Those are some pretty rad looking jump lines.

And this is just the medium slopestyle line. Park includes Xs/S/M/L/XL slopestyle lines ( typically about 3-4 jumps + 3-4 berms each), S/M/L jump lines and a couple of pump tracks. Super well maintained as well.

[sethschmautz]

New trail opened up in the park just a few minutes ride from my house. Found a sitter so I wife and I could get out for a nice ride. The flowers were incredible and the new trail wasn't bad either. :-)

[jamal]

Crashed last week at beer league racing and didn't want to push it trying to do missoula XC (elbow is gouged up and I'm sore in a few spots but that's about the worst of it). So I just went and watched, helped out, hung out at the beer tent, and took pictures.

Juniors



Pro women start, Rose won:



Keegan won the mens race pretty easily



Big sky brought 40 cases of beer. I forgot to take some of the leftovers



The singlespeed race needed more participants. Setting up the lights was a lot of work for like 6 people

[evdog]

A few from this past weekend

Had some visitors at camp who were interested in checking out the bikes





Saturday was a long ride mostly on fire roads but also ancient double track that is nicely converting back to singletrack









Then did some moto-ing

[evdog]

A few from my second ride last weekend. I went out to explore some moto trails to see if they are any good for including in a bikepacking route. One I was interested in that I thought would be decent singletrack turned out to be jeep road that turned into barely there singletrack. Second trail was steep jeep road as expected. Third one, which I expected to be same as #2 turned out to be nice riding jeep trail with some singletrack at the end. So most of that loop is one and done, but the good part can be used as part of a point to point, and maybe a future bikepack route.

Good parts of the jeep road were like this.


But long stretches of it was like this. There was recent moto traffic but those guys must have been hating life


Some very short sections of this


Scenery was nice though


A couple heinous jeep road climbs and some traversing before dropping down a mega steep pitch


And then some nice rideable jeep trail where I was expecting another heinous climb




And some singletrack to finish off the ride


Self shuttle retrieval

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Are you in central CA evdog?

[evdog]

San Diego. But I do travel to ride....

These rides were just north of LA.

[jamal]

Quick ride up to the usual spot yesterday after a bit of maintenance. Managed to rebuild my fork without breaking anything.



Then worked on trail today.



Collegiate MTB nationals are in Missoula the next two years so we needed to build a trail for the downhill race. It's up above Marshall with the other new stuff. Downside is access, the chair isn't ever going to run again so it's kind of a long shuttle ride up. I suppose with the races going on you can do a shorter trip up the ski hill instead of going around.

[mcski]

San Diego. But I do travel to ride....

These rides were just north of LA.

Where abouts???

[evdog]

Where abouts???

Frazier Park area OHV trails

[evdog]

Are they making you build the access road too?

Collegiate MTB nationals are in Missoula the next two years so we needed to build a trail for the downhill race. It's up above Marshall with the other new stuff. Downside is access, the chair isn't ever going to run again so it's kind of a long shuttle ride up. I suppose with the races going on you can do a shorter trip up the ski hill instead of going around.

[RootSkier]

Are they making you build the access road too?

Nope, old logging road. It kind of sucks though because to get to these new trails you have to climb like 1500' up that logging road. Then you have to ride back down it at the end. In other words, you end up climbing like 2500' to ride like 1000' of good singletrack and then you have to go 1500' back down the logging road on the way out.

I confess I don't understand why all this trailbuilding effort is going into places where good future access has not been secured. Maybe jamal can explain what I am missing.

[jamal]

I think his comment was about how wide the trail is there. There is a huge berm going in, and you do have to initially cut a fairly wide bench if you want trail to stay in place over time.

Anyhow, it's getting built up there because that is basically the only place we can build. It's five valleys land trust land that's going to end up belonging to the city I think. The forest service isn't allowing new trails so everything has to be on private or city land.

And yeah, marshall is an issue. mtb missoula is pretty optimistic that it will sell to someone who will open it up again. The owner does allow access for events and races, and you used to be able to go up there until a small group ruined it for everyone by fucking around with the lodge during the winter a few years ago.

After this one I think the plan is to get over to mount dean stone, getting some trails built up there is going to be a big project over the next few years.

[RootSkier]

I think his comment was about how wide the trail is there.

Jeez, you're right. And I'm definitely not trying to shit on MTB Missoula or anything, I appreciate all that's been happening, the Marshall thing is just really strange to me.

[toast2266]

Jeez, you're right. And I'm definitely not trying to shit on MTB Missoula or anything, I appreciate all that's been happening, the Marshall thing is just really strange to me.

My understanding is that there's some benefit to getting trails built and use established, with an eye on improving the situation in the future.

And yeah, that trail doesn't look that wide to me. A bench cut trail on a decently steep slope disturbs a lot of dirt. It'll probably grow in fairly narrow. If that's the DH course, I'd even say it should be wider. Skinny DH courses with only one riding line make for shitty races.