If I were living in Minnesota this would be the perfect day to go fat biking.
But here in the Southeast, we’re wholly unprepared to make the best of this weather.
So I’m actually going to ride park today.
Park?
In the winter time?
Well it just so happens that only three hours away, there’s a downhill park that didn’t
receive any snow.
It’s called Windrock, and it’s one of my favorite places in the world.
Those of you unfamiliar with downhill parks should know that the vast majority of them
turn to ski resorts in the Winter time.
In fact, most downhill parks are primarily ski resorts, with mountain biking being a
relatively recent addition for summer revenue.
But Windrock’s bike park is open year round.
Windrock is the most gloriously backwoods, characteristically Southern bike park you
could ever hope to visit.
This is their lodge.
This their chair lift.
And are their culinary facilities.
And rental shop.
Windrock has their priorities straight.
It’s also pretty unique for a downhill park.
Unrefined, raw, natural.
Almost sounds like an ad for Whole Foods.
It’s big enough to offer challenges, but small enough to feel intimate.
The trails range from steep, to really steep, to steep as hell.
And they’re exactly as Neko described: Raw.
Many would take this to mean beat up and poorly maintained, but that wasn’t the case at
all.
Windrock’s has traditional flow trails like you’d find at any other bike park.
Most notably, Talladega is a really fast blue trail with serious flow.
But the rest of the park looks more like this.
This is the stuff I really like.
Did I mention that it’s steep?
Instead of some grand plan to eventually add a chairlift, Windrock has doubled down on
shuttles, even buying this truck and building out this trailer from scratch.
This shuttle was able to accommodate everyone that Saturday, and there were two school buses
of additional capacity waiting in the lot.
If you watch my friend, Phil’s video you can see this first hand.
Since the trails are really steep you’ll likely finish your run before the shuttle
returns.
Instead of waiting on a lift line, you hang out by the fire.
Everyone then jumps back on the shuttle at the same time for a surprisingly short and
wild ride up the mountain.
At the main summit you’ll have access to Taladega, and most of Windrock’s other trails,
but continue up the mountain and you’ll reach a singletrack descent called Windmill,
at twice the elevation.
I had the task of attempting to follow Neko down Windmill, and he was going easy on me.
While most of Windmill reminds me of the traditional singletrack you’d find outside of a bike
park, there are lots of goodies there you’d rarely find on public trails.
Windrock doesn’t need to worry about other trail users, or even making the trail predictable
or safe.
This is the kind of singletrack that pre-dates the machine cut jump jump berm superhighways
of today.
It’s unpredictable, loamy, raw, and not without its share of hazards.
Neko said these trails would make me feel something, and I think I feel it in my abdomen.
And there are other parts of the park with the same characteristics.
After the pro GRT race earlier this year, there were a few parts of the course leftover.
Horseface isn’t marked and isn’t officially part of the downhill park—but the builders
showed us where it was.
Be prepared for some serious GoPro effect, as the play back doesn’t do the steepness
any justice.
But our reactions say it all.
Rachel is a pro downhill racer, and all she could do was laugh at the bottom of Horseface—hysterically.
That is a genuine and not uncommon reaction.
But after watching this on a 4 inch phone screen in 2 dimensions, at least one commenter
feels the need to say, “If you think that’s steep, you should ride…”
Insert trail here.
but without a video link, it’s just another cool story.
My guess is that the trail in question also looks pretty mellow when filmed from a GoPro.
I had to go back up to smash Horseface properly.
And shaggy had pretty much the same reaction as Rachel did.
Time to get to work on Alexander.
With a little work, I could goad him into riding it.
It was getting cold and dark, and I would unfortunately have to drive 3 hours back home
to Snowy Asheville.
But Windrock ended up being everything I had hoped for and more.
No, I’m not going to rate it like I’ve done with other downhill parks.
Windrock is too different and I’m too biased.
This is now my favorite bike park, and if you’ve ridden Windrock I want to hear about
it in the comments.
And no, I’m still not getting a downhill bike.
Thanks for riding with me today, and I’ll see you next time