I remember the first IMBA trail crew visit. Scott and Aryn (sp) taught a group of rogue dirtbag trail builders and riders about bench-cut trail. This was the only way to build sustainable MTB trail. The way we had been doing it was never going to work long term. We needed to buy these McClouds, start routing everything side-hill enough to create a full bench around 30 inches wide for "Real MTB Trails."
All the expert stuff got closed down. Taken down. Local trail folks were discouraged, displaced. People started bench cutting all new trail.
KT started benching. Trapps jumped in and Pipeline was built. Folks in NE were kind of giddy with the concept of riding narrow ribbons of mostly dirt. Squirrel Land (now part of Bears I think) went in, then bears. All by hand. I watched, I rode. I still kept the old school **** open with some others.
"The 500"...out behind the Bakery...now Cady Hill was being monetized.
I worked for STW, we built Kimmers. Lessons were learned about the cost of hand benching single track in New England. 3 mile wheel barrow laps to put gravel all the way down the MTB trail. It took so much longer than anticipated, we half-assed the upper half, under-building the crazy number of switch-backs. Planting foot shattering stones along the edge of the trail every 50 feet. The number of hours Dwight and I were paid to walk around looking for rocks is hilarious. It was frustrating.
The financial realities of this type of trail construction, imported from out west where it is often the only option to develop trail, were plain to see. Without a very healthy dose of good volunteer work, there was no money to be made. Bring in the clowns...I mean excavators.
Mechanization was the only way it was going to work if people were going to make money. A crew would trundle though the forest like some Dr Seuss thing-a-ma-jigger and poop out "Finished trail" Sustainable, professional, financially viable. Success.
We know the rest. Here's the myth...
Kids and beginners do NOT need green circle, brown sidewalk to learn or enjoy trail riding. They need flat trails. It's not about making a trial a featureless smoothed, compacted, predictable ......you know....dumbed-down versions of trail. It's about the fact that kids weigh 50 pounds and a great kids bike weighs 22. Beginners and casual riders do not have the fitness to climb even mild grades. Flat, meandering,narrow, featured primitive trail is totally ride-able for kids, and families. These trails stay engaging even as skill level and fitness grow. A good example is the old stuff along the Gauge in Carrabassette. My son rode that stuff when he was 6, on a tank with coaster brakes...and loved it.
Folks have bought into the myths of green circle, brown sidewalk completely. It's the only way now to make family friendly trail. Every club and town thinks this is the way to provide riding that is accessible to all skill and fitness levels....but it's not unless it have very low gradient. Blueberry's limiting factor for kids is gradient. NU Shaw center limiting factor...gradient. When I would haul my kid up to the top of these networks at 6,7,8 years old, he would have no problem riding everything. He's even bored with a lot of it now, if we ride blueberry he rides over every guide stone he can, but the climbing makes it not worth it. I got him to the top of pony express the other day and he rode every feature (easy lines) no stopping. If a Pony Express type trail were located through flat terrain, 7,8 year olds would ride it all day long.
The truth is primitive trail that is flat is also very family friendly...and if it's done well, even noobs will appreciate the connected vibe that riding something less than an excavator road through an environment provides. These trails will still be fun as their skill and fitness grow.
It's a bummer to see pictures, or visit places where the terrain would fully support primitive trails. Trail builders now walk around trying to find the right side-hill to bench effectively on, when they could just pick up a couple rakes and go to work.
Some lessons are being learned about the sustainability myth as well. Tons of dirt move when it rains. The quantity of dirt moving, just at the shaw center, is shocking, and our soil types are pretty ideal. Benched trails, even the best ones, are rain gutters. They get soft, they stay soft, they frost jack and get all weird, oh, and they cost 50 thousands dollars and UP...Per Mile. I have calculated 1-2 dollars a foot would provide a fair wage for creation of trails done in good terrain, and a mile a week is pretty viable.
Mechanization happened in the NE so trail builders could have a viable business. That's it. Everything else is just marketing. I know because I was having the conversations, on the crews, doing the work...and riding the trails. Just want to be clear on the history of why and when this shift went down. I feel like we are at a point where folks can reflect on the last 10 years with data.
Some terrain will always need benching. If there are not enough community members involved in the effort to do it by hand, then I would suggest the community doesn't really need that trail. It's a real lost opportunity to develop with machines, terrain that would make wonderful and sustainable primitive trails. It takes an eye, and experience to see what the raked line will become as the tires create the trail, and that's why communities need to rely on their most experienced members, and most skilled riders to make most of these decisions. As much as mechanization was about monetizing trail development for like 3 dudes, it was also about exclusion of the existing community and loss of local control.
Green Circle, Brown Ribbon should be the goal in all terrain that would support that development if we are to stay true to the aesthetics of real NE single track. Only where available land are too steep should be start benching. It's a last resort technique, but that's just like, my opinion man.
All the expert stuff got closed down. Taken down. Local trail folks were discouraged, displaced. People started bench cutting all new trail.
KT started benching. Trapps jumped in and Pipeline was built. Folks in NE were kind of giddy with the concept of riding narrow ribbons of mostly dirt. Squirrel Land (now part of Bears I think) went in, then bears. All by hand. I watched, I rode. I still kept the old school **** open with some others.
"The 500"...out behind the Bakery...now Cady Hill was being monetized.
I worked for STW, we built Kimmers. Lessons were learned about the cost of hand benching single track in New England. 3 mile wheel barrow laps to put gravel all the way down the MTB trail. It took so much longer than anticipated, we half-assed the upper half, under-building the crazy number of switch-backs. Planting foot shattering stones along the edge of the trail every 50 feet. The number of hours Dwight and I were paid to walk around looking for rocks is hilarious. It was frustrating.
The financial realities of this type of trail construction, imported from out west where it is often the only option to develop trail, were plain to see. Without a very healthy dose of good volunteer work, there was no money to be made. Bring in the clowns...I mean excavators.
Mechanization was the only way it was going to work if people were going to make money. A crew would trundle though the forest like some Dr Seuss thing-a-ma-jigger and poop out "Finished trail" Sustainable, professional, financially viable. Success.
We know the rest. Here's the myth...
Kids and beginners do NOT need green circle, brown sidewalk to learn or enjoy trail riding. They need flat trails. It's not about making a trial a featureless smoothed, compacted, predictable ......you know....dumbed-down versions of trail. It's about the fact that kids weigh 50 pounds and a great kids bike weighs 22. Beginners and casual riders do not have the fitness to climb even mild grades. Flat, meandering,narrow, featured primitive trail is totally ride-able for kids, and families. These trails stay engaging even as skill level and fitness grow. A good example is the old stuff along the Gauge in Carrabassette. My son rode that stuff when he was 6, on a tank with coaster brakes...and loved it.
Folks have bought into the myths of green circle, brown sidewalk completely. It's the only way now to make family friendly trail. Every club and town thinks this is the way to provide riding that is accessible to all skill and fitness levels....but it's not unless it have very low gradient. Blueberry's limiting factor for kids is gradient. NU Shaw center limiting factor...gradient. When I would haul my kid up to the top of these networks at 6,7,8 years old, he would have no problem riding everything. He's even bored with a lot of it now, if we ride blueberry he rides over every guide stone he can, but the climbing makes it not worth it. I got him to the top of pony express the other day and he rode every feature (easy lines) no stopping. If a Pony Express type trail were located through flat terrain, 7,8 year olds would ride it all day long.
The truth is primitive trail that is flat is also very family friendly...and if it's done well, even noobs will appreciate the connected vibe that riding something less than an excavator road through an environment provides. These trails will still be fun as their skill and fitness grow.
It's a bummer to see pictures, or visit places where the terrain would fully support primitive trails. Trail builders now walk around trying to find the right side-hill to bench effectively on, when they could just pick up a couple rakes and go to work.
Some lessons are being learned about the sustainability myth as well. Tons of dirt move when it rains. The quantity of dirt moving, just at the shaw center, is shocking, and our soil types are pretty ideal. Benched trails, even the best ones, are rain gutters. They get soft, they stay soft, they frost jack and get all weird, oh, and they cost 50 thousands dollars and UP...Per Mile. I have calculated 1-2 dollars a foot would provide a fair wage for creation of trails done in good terrain, and a mile a week is pretty viable.
Mechanization happened in the NE so trail builders could have a viable business. That's it. Everything else is just marketing. I know because I was having the conversations, on the crews, doing the work...and riding the trails. Just want to be clear on the history of why and when this shift went down. I feel like we are at a point where folks can reflect on the last 10 years with data.
Some terrain will always need benching. If there are not enough community members involved in the effort to do it by hand, then I would suggest the community doesn't really need that trail. It's a real lost opportunity to develop with machines, terrain that would make wonderful and sustainable primitive trails. It takes an eye, and experience to see what the raked line will become as the tires create the trail, and that's why communities need to rely on their most experienced members, and most skilled riders to make most of these decisions. As much as mechanization was about monetizing trail development for like 3 dudes, it was also about exclusion of the existing community and loss of local control.
Green Circle, Brown Ribbon should be the goal in all terrain that would support that development if we are to stay true to the aesthetics of real NE single track. Only where available land are too steep should be start benching. It's a last resort technique, but that's just like, my opinion man.
