Today was the first time back riding my local steeper trails after recovering from a bad crash two months ago. Prior to my crash on a jumpline jump, the local kids had been amping up all the jumps, and building new big jumps. It's dry arid landscape with some rock, chaparral and cactus with mostly hard clay / silt trails. They are dry and chalky right now.
These kids are using white plastic sandbags filled with dirt and staking them to new heights. A perfect flowy single jump was all the sudden two sand bags higher and now an 8' gap with 4 sand bag white vertical face landing ramp that just appeared. Casing this one is a clear it, or go to the emergency room jump. Then two jumps later the same thing.
I figure they are putting in the effort and are willing to take that risk, so they own jumpline now. I hit one of their modifications that looked manageable to me, but I hit it with too much speed and cleared everything, but was too high and off balance. I paid for it........
Today I was surprised to see one of their six or so sand bag high, level drop ramps gone. A bunch of the other sand bag buildups were gone as well. The trail was back to flowy and fun jumps... It was so nice. These trails are or military land, not public, but they seem to be fine with the use and trail developement?
Maybe the military didn't like the white plastic bags being used which would eventually pollute the landscape, so they removed them?
Back woods jump lines are always sketchy when you don't know who is building them. I much prefer the jump lines at bike parks where there are professional designers who put a lot of thought, effort, and testing to make the jumps safe. This bunch of kids experimenting in the woods? Who knows. If the take off angle isn't right or the run in doesn't provide enough speed, these jumps could be super dangerous. A very skilled rider can adjust for that but I think most guys, me included, don't have that in the toolbox. Or at least not at the level that I'd be comfortable hitting something built by a random kid with who knows what level of experience in building features.
I'd say there's a good chance the land owner removed those jumps because they didn't want people getting hurt on their property.
I've only once ridden in a professionally developed bike park when I rode in Mammoth Mtn the first year they opened for mountain biking. Nobody had any suspension back then (almost 30 years ago). There were no jumps, just flowing trails. We have so many developed local trails throught our hills and mountains now, that I don't feel the need to drive hours to a ski area / bike park. Needless to say, most of the jumps are kid built and risky. I've learned to not trust any of the wood ramp jumps either. They all look questionably built I should go to a professionally developed modern bike park just to experience what well thoughtout jump lines and flow trails ride like....
Sounds like some unsanctioned/unofficial trails near me. Lots use them as trails with minor features, and old school MTB technicality and they have flown under the radar for basically decades.
Kids come in and build some crazy features, gaps, borrow pits that might as well be hidden traps alongside the huge features, and kids go out in ambulances.
Trails now under threat of being closed.
Sounds like some unsanctioned/unofficial trails near me. Lots use them as trails with minor features, and old school MTB technicality and they have flown under the radar for basically decades.
Kids come in and build some crazy features, gaps, borrow pits that might as well be hidden traps alongside the huge features, and kids go out in ambulances.
Trails now under threat of being closed.
Pretty much the same story in the area I do most of my riding in. The trail builders are not being stealth..... and multiple have left in helicopters to the ER.
I was riding at Dog Park last week and was watching a group kids ride down this 3-story vertical drop that leads to a straight up to flat jump. They just built it. Serious compression at the bottom of that drop. They hadn't quite worked the jump out and one of the kids almost endo'd off it. It was fun watching them. Reminded me of my old BMX jump building days. I could sit there and go off the same jump over and over all day long with my buddies And we'd crash all the time and just dust ourselves off. As I sat there, this guy in his 20's passes by me on a steep downhill trail he didn't seem to confident as he was talking to himself "oh ****.. oh ****". I watched him hit a big jump, and he landed it. Then it goes into a big wood berm. Right when he hit the wood, he just face planted. Bammm! He was actually closer to the kids, and they heard the crash. They yelled at him to see if he was all right? He was slow to come around. I was going to ride down and see if he needed help, but he got up and picked up his bike. He told the kids he was alright. Then he walked his bike the rest of the way down the trail. I felt his pain. Been there done that.
Lots of Airlifts to the ER out of DogPark.
I was riding at Dog Park last week and was watching a group kids ride down this 3-story vertical drop that leads to a straight up to flat jump. They just built it. Serious compression at the bottom of that drop. They hadn't quite worked the jump out and one of the kids almost endo'd off it. It was fun watching them. Reminded me of my old BMX jump building days. I could sit there and go off the same jump over and over all day long with my buddies And we'd crash all the time and just dust ourselves off. As I sat there, this guy in his 20's passes by me on a steep downhill trail he didn't seem to confident as he was talking to himself "oh *.. oh *". I watched him hit a big jump, and he landed it. Then it goes into a big wood berm. Right when he hit the wood, he just face planted. Bammm! He was actually closer to the kids, and they heard the crash. They yelled at him to see if he was all right? He was slow to come around. I was going to ride down and see if he needed help, but he got up and picked up his bike. He told the kids he was alright. Then he walked his bike the rest of the way down the trail. I felt his pain. Been there done that.
Lots of Airlifts to the ER out of DogPark.
Land managers facing possible litigation probably don’t agree with you. Personally, I think airtime is airtime and it’s better if we get to keep airtime instead of having things destroyed or completely closed because it’s been built poorly.
I think it's good to have both the sanctioned trails that go through the proper channels to authorize and the side areas where kids (and adults) can build and experiment to their heart's content. These make for the most interesting riding areas in my opinion.
In any event, most trails do get de-tuned if they see any kind of maintenance, because erosion and other issues make them more challenging than intended. I get a little bent out of shape when someone gets all over trail-work meant to stabilize and restore, given that their perspective is probably short-term as far as the trail construction and condition. It's just a continual process usually, trail slowly degrades, it needs work, reinforcement, possibly re-route, and gets back into a condition where it's good for a while, but eventually it will degrade and need that work again. Not completely related...
I don't see this as 'detuning' a trail. As long as trails have existed people have built janky, crap jumps. I was expecting rock removal or grading or such like!
I've ridden Mammoth but that was only a few years after they opened it. No one had FS bikes or even suspension forks. It was rough but fun. There were no jumps back then.
It's called 'shale'. I've ground myself on it before. It looks almost like dirt, but it breaks loose and becomes a slip & slide. Further down the mountain there is actually some dirt, but not at the top.
Very informative and interesting post, thanks to the author.
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