High School MTB = crowds?

[westoxified]

And dont bogart that thing,pass it around

to the highschoolers? it might help things.

[evdog]

I wouldn't blame high schoolers as I never see them on the trail. But the trails are definitely a lot more crowded, wider, and dumbed down than even a couple years ago. For the latter I blame mediocre riders who try to ride every trail like its an enduro run. Trails are a lot busier in general, both with hikers and bikers. With things like strava and trailforks everyone finds out about new trails right away so they get dumbed down and pussy-lined before they even bed in properly. In San diego we also have tons of meetup and social groups and the like that do massive group rides multiple times a week. There are a lot of trail systems I will only ride during off hours, and definitely never Sat/Sun am. Go late Sunday afternoon or Monday/Friday after work and I sometimes see no one on the trails.

[plugboots]

I'm with evdog on this. Even in the boonies of Winthrop, the new trails get pussified right away. God forbid there's a rock in the trail. No high school kids though, phew.

A couple years ago, a part-timer whined to me about the lack of "flow" trails in Winthrop. I told him to ride somewhere else, where every trial becomes a flow trail after a while...
No flow:

[Sirshredalot]

Yeah, Middle fork to Maples was always the defacto way to get down, but there are just so many people now that "rules" are out the window. It's been tough to even find parking at Wheeler's this year.

I heard Nordic Valley and Pow Mow are both building new trail. If it's any good, that will take some pressure off Snowbasin and it's environs.

[zion zig zag]

I heard Nordic Valley and Pow Mow are both building new trail. If it's any good, that will take some pressure off Snowbasin and it's environs.

Nordic Valley is pretty good but there is no reasonable way to pedal uphill, it's really steep. And I'm not sure there is enough trail to make it worthwhile just yet. The trail they are building at PowMow is being built really well. Only 6 miles of it is very rideable at this point, the rest is loose and rough cut and doesn't connect to much, but will get better. It feels a little far for me to drive before or after work but weekends are a good time to hit it. It's crowded as well, and since it's a six mile, non-directional loop, it doesn't take too many people to make it feel that way. I hope that they start having weekend food and beverage events that pull people away from Snowbasin and that motivates Snowbasin to build some good trail. They have plenty of land to do it on.

So yeah, it's coming. PowMow is supposed to have almost 40 miles of trail by the end of next season and they have the perfect terrain for it. A mid-mountain style trail that runs from North Fork park to windsurfer beach at Pineview is also in the works.

[Dromond]

I'm with evdog on this. Even in the boonies of Winthrop, the new trails get pussified right away. God forbid there's a rock in the trail. No high school kids though, phew.

A couple years ago, a part-timer whined to me about the lack of "flow" trails in Winthrop. I told him to ride somewhere else, where every trial becomes a flow trail after a while...
No flow:

For what it's worth, most of the trails I rode in Winthrop were easier and less technical than most of the trails I ride near Seattle. I'm sure there are a lot of exceptions and variation of course.

[plugboots]

For what it's worth, most of the trails I rode in Winthrop were easier and less technical than most of the trails I ride near Seattle. I'm sure there are a lot of exceptions and variation of course.

I agree with you. The part-timer wanted banked-curve, one-direction downhill trails. We have more and more of those now. Some of my favorite narrow trails are starting to become this style because of their popularity. It'll take a long time before Black Bear becomes the Grand Ridge trail, but you can see it starting. BTW, next time you go, PM me, as there are a lot of new trails that can make for nice 15 mile singletrack loops.

[Dromond]

I agree with you. The part-timer wanted banked-curve, one-direction downhill trails. We have more and more of those now. Some of my favorite narrow trails are starting to become this style because of their popularity. It'll take a long time before Black Bear becomes the Grand Ridge trail, but you can see it starting. BTW, next time you go, PM me, as there are a lot of new trails that can make for nice 15 mile singletrack loops.

Cool! I figured there must be some good stuff off of the beaten path. I don't mind flowy, easy trails sometimes as they are great for beginners or when you want to turn your brain off - but they don't satisfy the enthusiast long-term.

[Redsmurfer]

Here in the North SF Bay area. HS MTB teams are very large and can have impacts. A couple of weeks ago I was riding up a common climb on Mt. Tam. I was passed by at least 20 HS riders blasting down the trail with numerous blind corners. These kids were flying and were clearly skilled riders. One of the riders was the son of my frequent riding partner. When I got to the top there was about 5 or 6 riders left and two coaches were sending the kids down the trail in groups of three every 3 to 4 minutes. Both coaches had radios, however they seemed not very experienced in dealing with larger training groups. Only a few of the kids had bells on their bikes.

I stopped and discussed their management strategy and suggested they take lesson from larger ski training groups that typically send a coach down first, then radio up and alert skiers to any folks or obstacles on the route.

It sure would have been nice to know how many riders were on the way down and it would been nice for the riders to know that there were several up riders on the route as well.

Unfortunately, I believe if these groups train in such large packs it is just a matter of time until an accident or collision going to happen unless the coaches up their management game. HS MTB teams are growing very fast in my neck of woods (some teams have 50 or more participants with freshman, JV, and varsity teams) and if they are not careful there could be conflicts.

Just sharing my point of view. I still love to see the young ones hammering around the mountain but it does make me feel old and slow.

Ps. Many of these teams have trail maintenance requirements for the team members which is great.

[54-46]

I share Mt Tam with Drake HS and San Rafael HS. They don't create issues for me, but I don't park...