Video: Why Handbuilt MTB Trails Are Just The Best

For some, building mountain bike trails is an escape. For others, it’s a way to express artistic creativity in an unlikely medium. Most mountain bikers can understand that shaping dirt, wood, rocks, and everything in between to create a three-dimensional space for flow is something that is easy to appreciate: when a trail is built right, it just feels goooooood. Shimano and Mark Matthew’s latest short Blueprint celebrates the art of trailbuilding as it’s known in Cumberland, BC. The trail in question isn’t some super-gnarly pro line – in fact it’s rated as a blue square (with what we're assuming are some optional expert lines), exists within a legal trail system, and was designed to be ridden by everyone.

From Mark Matthews:

Blueprint started with a simple idea - to show sections of trail come to life before the viewer’s eyes. Once we broke ground here in Cumberland, BC, the abundance of good dirt was the ultimate inspiration to challenge ourselves to build something that pushed our creativity further than we had planned. The corners were just asking to get stacked bigger, faster, and smoother! We visualized, developed, and pushed the limits to create something special for all riders to enjoy: a hand-built, blue square level flow trail you’ll want to lap all day long