A Tale of Two Trails

#followcamfriday bringing you what just might be the best natural descent on the Front Range with James Weingarten. 

This is a tale of two trails. Two styles of dirt ribbons, winding through the woods. Two trails, in the same section of woods that have a distinctly different character. This may be the best example of flow vs natural that I have encountered in a small section of forest. I will preface all of this by saying that there are no bad trails and we as mountain bikers are lucky to have these valuable resources at our disposal. Any trail is better than no trail. 

Cub Creek is an old hiking trail that is fun to ride bicycles on and dead-ends (to us) in wilderness. It has that familiar front-range feel with plenty of rocks, line choice, amazing sight lines, and a pitch that I would describe as "efficient", rather than meandering all over the place. North Elk Creek was completed in 2018 and was built for bicycles specifically. This section has your typical flow-trail construction of incorporated small features, grade reversals and lots if uphill sections after sharp turns. Basically, this was built to control speed and deemed "sustainable".  On this day, James and I rode up and down each of these two trails for the first time. 

If I am being honest, the modern bike-specific flow trail is leaving me feeling empty. Firstly, this "black" trail is a blue at best. I have been fortunate to travel the world and see a fair amount of trail and calling this a black is merely stroking people's ego and fostering mediocrity. ​It's like spinning a yarn at the bar about how you hit that 40ft cliff on the ski hill today. The 10 footer you hit wasn't that sick, and no one actually cares anyway. There is an amazing bumper sticker I saw once that reads " I bet you were a big deal in Colorado- Ski Jackson Hole" This basically sums things up perfectly here. Mountain biking is hard. People need a pat on the back on occasion, but this sport is supposed to challenge you. I prefer to feel like I suck at times. This is essential for growth, on the bike, and in life in general. Real talk. 

But we need these sustainable flow trails to get people into the sport!!! Right. I get it, and my job depends on it. But, there are plenty now, and they all feel very similar. It's hard to go over 10mph on these trails, by design. If you use proper technique and actually lean your bike in turns, you will hit things that have been placed on the inside to let you know where the turn is supposed to be. Duh. For me, speed is what is most fun about bikes. Why we ride to the top. Flow trails are intended to control speed, rather than allow for an individual rider's creativity and line choice. I am the guy who smiles when I am running over brake bumps and having my teeth rattled out by loose rock and chunder. Give me a 20ft wide, shitty, eroded hiking trail with some pitch and I am a happy man. These trails just make me think a bit more and don't feel as homogenized somehow. Again, I get it, any trail is a good trail, but this new trend of manufactured trail is just missing something. Leaving creativity out of the equation. 

Cub Creek has the complete opposite feel to Elk Creek. 10ft wide, line choice, erosion and sight lines. My favorite style of trail. You might be able to go fast enough to flat. Your speed is dictated by your ability to stay off of the brakes, as opposed to being dictated buy uphill sections out of poorly built turns and tight rock jank that is designed to make people ride slow. Cub creek is a thinking man's trail. You actually have to choose some lines at speed, rather than the trail forcing you to ride the main line. I would estimate that the speed is roughly double, on average, on Cub Creek. But that is appropriate here because you can actually see a very long ways down the trail, easily mitigating trail conflict with hikers from a distance. The climb up Cub Creek is hard. That is a good clue that the descent back down will actually hold my attention. Just so you know, if a climb feels "easy", it may not be worth riding back down... If you push to the top, things will be more interesting. 

So, to each their own. As a man who has done his fair share of trail building, I know how much work goes into the back end, working with land managers and raising funding to complete this type of project. I know how hard everyone works. It is a bummer that all of that work has created a trail that I would consider far less interesting to ride than the hundred year old, shitty, eroded hiking trail on the other side of the mountain. But, that is just me. I just want to go fast and run into things. I suppose that is the beauty of mountain biking, it can be different things to different people. We are very privileged to even be having this discussion. Cub Creek is my happy place. James would agree.