If mountain bike trails were food, hand-cut singletrack would be filet mignon.
Flow trails would be Lasagna
And jump lines would be pizza, craft beer, and tacos.
By now you can tell that I’m hungry.
But I make these analogies because today’s video is about what goes on in the kitchen.
What goes into making trails?
Why does it matter how they’re built?
What tools are used?
What are the chefs actually doing?
Today we’re at Northwoods in Hot Springs Arkansas, thanks to my invitation back to
The Natural State from the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism.
The city has paid to have these trails built by professionals, and will be conducting ongoing
maintenance to keep them running like new.
It’s a commitment, but there’s good reason to think it’ll pay off.
Bentonville, which is only a few hours away from Hot Springs, has attracted thousands
of visitors from adjacent states.
They come to ride purpose built gravity trails, jump lines, and stuff you would expect to
see at ski resorts.
While all these trails are free, the restaurants, hotels, and bike shops around them are getting
a huge boost from all the traffic.
Using Bentonville as a case study, Hot Springs is hoping to do the same thing.
But to actually attract visitors, the trails need to be impressive.
They need to drain well, hold up to repeated use, and serve a wide range of skill levels.
To remove the guesswork and speed things up, Hot Springs is having these trails professionally
built.
Digging trails for a living sounds like a dream job; You get to be out in the woods
all day, and you’re required to test what you built.
But it’s not all roses.
Just yesterday they were clearing trail in the rain and last month it was 95 degrees
out.
But this October day is as good as it gets, and this section of flow trail has already
been marked by flags tied to trees.
Builders start by clearing out brush and fallen trees using cutters, handsaws, and heavy artillery
when needed.
The debris is placed right in the middle of the pathway, so the excavator can grab it
all in one shot.
Josh, the Project Manager, makes the initial cut.
He digs down to fresh dirt, adds material where needed, and even makes the area adjacent
the trail look like it was never touched.
This will be a roller, and this will be a berm.
We normally don’t think of excavators as precision tools, but an experienced operator
can roughly sculpt much of the trail using only this machine.
The kind of flow and jump trails you’re used to seeing at bike parks are almost always
machine built, since they require so much dirt to be moved.
On a trail system like this, professional builders can lay up to 250 feet of flow trail
each day.
But even machine built trails need to be finished
by hand.
Using
mostly rakes and McLeods, builders remove rocks and plant matter from the trail surface.
This shale especially, is creating a lot of bonus work for our builders today.
Once all the rocks, twigs, leaves, and logs are removed, the more desirable dirt which
will make up the tread is left over.
Now the shaping begins.
This part is why build companies need to hire actual mountain bikers, who know from a rider’s
perspective what the trail should look like.
When additional dirt needs to be added or removed these builders use dirt bags to move
it around.
These are lightweight, precise, and easier to transport across a hillside than a wheelbarrow.
Once the basic shape is complete, flat sections and rollers can be finished with a plate compactor.
By running over the surface a few times, the tread becomes durable enough to hold its shape.
Berms are usually compacted by hand, using a flat shovel.
Since it rained the day before, this dirt is packing down quite nicely, but during a
dry spell the builders may choose to work on something different, like clearing a corridor
or hand cutting a bench.
Once the tread is shaped and smoothed, the builders do their final finishing touches,
like using clippers to remove hair roots from the tread.
Then, it’s all covered with a tarp to give the soil a chance to harden.
Once these trails are ready to ride, the builders will test them themselves, and make a list
of edits to refine the trail even further.
But even after all that, there’s still work to be done.
Trails get ridden, and rained on.
This perfect tread will eventually give way to loose rocks, and get covered in pine needles.
To keep the trails running like new, maintenance like this must be done on an ongoing basis.
Rocks and debris are raked from the surface, patchwork is done to fill holes, and the process
is repeated many times per year.
But the section we saw today is only a fraction of what’s out here.
When Northwoods opens later this month, you can rest assured that the builders will have
tested every inch themselves.
They say great riders make great builders, and that’s no coincidence.
If you’re going to build a challenging feature, you had better be ready to test it yourself
to make sure it’s intuitive and safe.
And more importantly, you need to make sure it’s addictive and fun to ride.
If you live in Dallas, Austin, Kansas City, Memphis, or anywhere within earshot of Hot
Springs Arkansas, these trails were built in the hopes that you will come here.
For the residents of Hot Springs who are about to wake up to network of gravity trails in
their backyard, these trails were built for you to enjoy every day.
If you want to ride the trails pictured in this video, check the description for links
to everything.
And if you want to know how to convince your city to build trails like this, stay tuned
for the next video which takes place at a public gravity park in Bentonville.
Thanks for riding with me today, and I’ll see you next time.