Wasatch Dirt Thread

[basinbeater]

^^^. That's good fun right there.

Rode some pcmr tech stuff today, black forest and ski school (tf calls it red bull) what a hoot. I love that tech shit yo.

[tBatt]

Glad to hear it's getting good reviews, but not surprised as I think Apex Trails (Derek Thomson) makes some of the best trails in Utah

I saw his post about it, haven't gotten to ride it yet. The Herriman trails are super fun.

And he's just all around a really solid dude. The weekend I met him riding Teton pass he drove our bikes and rack back home so I could tow a raft back.

[Boissal]

Ah ok that sounds likely. I guess best to steer clear till they’re done up there.

Soli is super aggressive with their trail closures. Fully locking down the entire resort for the archery thing last week, now Honeycomb... Ride up there after 6pm and ignore the whole thing, nobody's shooting arrows or trundling boulders off the ridge past 5 pm.

On an unrelated note, the trail they're building more or less below Eagle xpress (the one which is currently impacting Upper Queen Bess a bit) looks fairly promising, some really fat berms going in.

[Duffman]

Soli is super aggressive with their trail closures. Fully locking down the entire resort for the archery thing last week, now Honeycomb... Ride up there after 6pm and ignore the whole thing, nobody's shooting arrows or trundling boulders off the ridge past 5 pm.

On an unrelated note, the trail they're building more or less below Eagle xpress (the one which is currently impacting Upper Queen Bess a bit) looks fairly promising, some really fat berms going in.

Soli was ridiculous with the closures for the archery event. Just as much terrain at Brighton was in use for archery courses, but they still had a decent amount of their trails open for hiking , biking , etc, and had other events at their base still happening. Soli locked down the entire mountain basically. Really threw a wrench in the plans of many of the guests of the wedding I was up there for. Even better, Soli didn't announce a thing about these closures until about 3 days before. Prior to that they had nothing on their website and were still sending out emails to purchase lift tickets for the weekend (which is how I found out it was all shut down). Then they had no additional food vendors open despite the hordes of archery people up there so waits for the one pizza place were bonkers. Completely mismanaged .

I knew this shit show was coming the week before so we contingency planned accordingly and were fine, but both wedding guests and archery people got caught up in all of this, let alone unrelated people who just wanted to ride the mountain those days

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[criscam]

Soli is super aggressive with their trail closures. Fully locking down the entire resort for the archery thing last week, now Honeycomb... Ride up there after 6pm and ignore the whole thing, nobody's shooting arrows or trundling boulders off the ridge past 5 pm.

On an unrelated note, the trail they're building more or less below Eagle xpress (the one which is currently impacting Upper Queen Bess a bit) looks fairly promising, some really fat berms going in.

We went up Saturday afternoon not knowing about the closures. Asked some bikers in the lot what they rode and said Honeycomb and ignored the signs. We ended up just doing raptor rd to Kruzer. Got passed by several resort vehicles and know one batted an eye.
Agree w the look of the new trail going in as well.


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[Meconium]

probably just corporate lawyers covering some ass. Blame the electric shaver in the bathtub

[Meconium]

Or maybe further back, A lunchbox falling from a scaffold?

[Clownshoe]

The new DH trails on Solitude should be pretty sweet. There are even a couple of mags on the project.

Unfortunately, there will be some impact to Queen Bess and Serenity when those trails are crossed by the new build, but they will return in a slightly altered form in due time.

Rumours circulating of a fall 2023 soft opening but nothing confirmed.

[criscam]

The new DH trails on Solitude should be pretty sweet. There are even a couple of mags on the project.

Unfortunately, there will be some impact to Queen Bess and Serenity when those trails are crossed by the new build, but they will return in a slightly altered form in due time.

Rumours circulating of a fall 2023 soft opening but nothing confirmed.

any info on the number of new trails? and starting points?

[Meconium]

Brighton also building a trail

[Boissal]

The new DH trails on Solitude should be pretty sweet. There are even a couple of mags on the project.

Unfortunately, there will be some impact to Queen Bess and Serenity when those trails are crossed by the new build, but they will return in a slightly altered form in due time.

Rumours circulating of a fall 2023 soft opening but nothing confirmed.

Not to bitch an moan about new trails but last time I rode up there it seems the builders had intentionally piled a whole bunch of dirt across the short downhill section of upper serenity while not actually doing any work in the area. The trail itself wasn't closed, they had just gone across it and trashed it. I understand they get to do whatever they want with their mountain and a new build is going to have some impact but that seemed a bit too on the nose not to be intentional. Keeping one single track option to get up high would have been nice instead of closing the whole lower half of the mountain. QueenBess/Serenity isn't exactly a fun grind up but it sure beats the paved road...
They did the same thing when they built that hideous bit of single track at the bottom last season (down n easy), completely trashed the end of Serenity and left it as is. Now there's not really a good way to go across the base area without being on pavement or climbing some agonizingly lame bullshit trail. I get it, the stuff is lift served and making non-paying people like me happy is not a priority. Which is why I'll continue riding Honey & co despite the closure. Seems fair.

Brighton also building a trail

Lift accessed stuff? Not too many fun ways to pedal up Brighton right now. The bar is high for them, they have the best tech terrain in the area and it's going to be a challenge to make something good. Unless they just regularize all the unsanctioned stuff... Speaking of which, I ran into a dude up there last week who was building a transition for a slab that is going to make everything else in the area feel like child's play. It's MASSIVE. Made me glad my shoulder is fucked so I don't have a chance to try it.

[Dantheman]

Speaking of which, I ran into a dude up there last week who was building a transition for a slab that is going to make everything else in the area feel like child's play. It's MASSIVE. Made me glad my shoulder is fucked so I don't have a chance to try it.

Oh my.

Yeah, I hate to be that guy complaining about new trails, but I'll be amazed if what they build is anywhere near as good as what's already there. I assume there's also decent odds that new trails mean some existing stuff gets closed which will be tragic.

[Meconium]

I believe lift access is the future plan. I'd like to see more emphasis on uphill trail building across the board. Not just afterthought boring climbing grade appropriate. I'll take that stuff over access roads any day but why not make it interesting and challenging? It's a larger percent of your ride time anyways.

https://www.bikemag.com/news/brighton-first-mtb-trail

[Marshal Olson]

From what I understand, Brighton intends to adopt the current trails, including, you know, the ones that we all care about. The mtn already lead a re-route at a trail crossing last summer, so the trail in question DIDN'T get closed.

Making sure to avoid riding into private property, and being certain to cross over to the Millie Rd or the bottom of Americone before the HAB will be important tho.

[mar123]

Anyone know who the contractor is for the Brighton trail(s)? Sounds like it will only top out at Majestic, which is already a fail. Expectations = very low.

[Boissal]

I believe lift access is the future plan. I'd like to see more emphasis on uphill trail building across the board. Not just afterthought boring climbing grade appropriate. I'll take that stuff over access roads any day but why not make it interesting and challenging? It's a larger percent of your ride time anyways.

https://www.bikemag.com/news/brighton-first-mtb-trail

Very much agree with this. I feel like the resorts can't wait to capitalize on their lifts to haul bikers around but they seem to be forgetting the non-negligible proportion or riders who have been and will keep pedaling around up there. Again, probably not their main priority as these riders aren't paying and they're not building trails to support the local community or for the beauty of the sport.

From what I understand, Brighton intends to adopt the current trails, including, you know, the ones that we all care about. The mtn already lead a re-route at a trail crossing last summer, so the trail in question DIDN'T get closed.

Making sure to avoid riding into private property, and being certain to cross over to the Millie Rd or the bottom of Americone before the HAB will be important tho.

I wonder how things are going to play out if/once the stuff becomes lift accessed. It's 3x burlier than anything else around and people are going to be dropping life flies once you remove the filter of semi-secrecy and a mean climb in favor of a 30s pedal and signs telling your where to go. I guess a lot of B-lines are going to be needed...
Re: closure, they did try to close the middle bit last season, right where it crosses the hiking trail. That didn't stick and it's opened again this year, or at least nobody's been up there to rope it off. Too busy with the new lift going in I guess.
Some sections are going to be short lived if they get adopted into a popular trail system. The 2 eastern sections have taken a beating over the 3 seasons they've been around and traffic has increased. It's shocking how much sketchier things can get once the good dirt erodes away and you expose rocks and get to the firm stuff below.

[mar123]

...It's 3x burlier than anything else around and people are going to be dropping life flies ....

Id much rather ride any of the B stuff then upper Fireswamp, Thieves and a couple of the OG lines on NCS. IMO Canyons DH was/is probably more gnar then the B trails too...I think if B decides to adopt any of the social trails they will probably build up some of the sketchy rock stacking and steep corners. ...but will any of that stuff be accessible by lift anyways?

[Boissal]

Id much rather ride any of the B stuff then upper Fireswamp, Thieves and a couple of the OG lines on NCS. IMO Canyons DH was/is probably more gnar then the B trails too...I think if B decides to adopt any of the social trails they will probably build up some of the sketchy rock stacking and steep corners. ...but will any of that stuff be accessible by lift anyways?

Canyon DH feels more gnar these days cause it's so neglected and so full of loose rubble
At least the ground doesn't run away from you at Brighton. But agreed, supporting some of the off camber stuff that is now barely rideable would be nice. The start of Snake Creek takes some serious motivation to stay on the trail, last time I ended up sliding off and straightlining into the the shrubs.

[Dantheman]

How about that thunderstorm last night? Might be some carnage on Draper trails.

[Marshal Olson]

How about that thunderstorm last night? Might be some carnage on Draper trails.

Sounds like Days got mangled (evidence of flash flooding), but the storm didn't make it up to Beartrap (wet, but no rut/not muddy).

[MegaStoke]

Anyone have a local bike fitter they can vouch for? For a hardtail bikepacking MTB if it makes any difference.

[g_man80]

If anyone is headed to Park City today or tomorrow it’ll be great. I rode this morning, started about 7:30am and it was just on the wet side of optimum. The unmarked steep stuff was a bit too greasy. Should be amazing by this afternoon.

[Canada1]

Anyone have a local bike fitter they can vouch for? For a hardtail bikepacking MTB if it makes any difference.

There was a guy at slim and knobby’s that always wore a kilt. He helped me with one of my boys who was having some back pain and identified the issue in about five minutes. I don’t get over to Heber enough to know if he is still there?

[tBatt]

Rode PowMow today. Fun place. Excited to see it when the new trails are done.

[Boissal]

Sounds like Days got mangled (evidence of flash flooding), but the storm didn't make it up to Beartrap (wet, but no rut/not muddy).

Silver also seems unaffected which is shocking considering the state of Days. That tstorm cell must have been sitting right on top of the upper drainage and dumped all of its water in one zone. The main creek bed has turned into a 6' deep trench at the usual crossing spot right below Hideaway Park.
The spot which got devastated 4 of 5 years ago (directly below Main Days) got worked again, the debris field is now so wide that there is a new section of trail in the meadow to avoid having to walk/ride in debris. Not sure if the FS was involved in building it?



Some of the erosion in that zone is impressive, the water went straight through the existing debris piles and cut new trenches, in some spots deeper than I'm tall.


Things also got trashed down low, the creek destroyed the trail between the bottom of Lazy Days and Lucky Days. I'd recommend not putting a wheel in the new rut, you may never come back out...






Some of the log piles would look very much at home in a slot canyon in Southern UT:



There's evidence of water flowing the entire width of the drainage pretty much all the way to the flats. Super impressive to see the extent of the damage, it would have been a really sketchy place to be when it happened. Not as bas as a slot, but finding high ground would have been mandatory to avoid getting worked by flowing debris.
I have no idea how any of this is going to heal overtime but the trail itself has changed for the worst, formerly flowy section are now dug up and rutted with lots of fresh rocks exposed, and formerly janky sections are now extra spicy. I cut a bunch of leftover deadfall and I think it's now 99% rideable (1 bigass tree down low will require a chainsaw) but I'd advise against sending it too hard for now...