On Sunday, Phil and I drove 11 hours in one day to ride someplace dry, and slightly warmer.
A cavern, full of dirt jumps.
Now the geologists in my audience will be quick to point out that my thumbnail says
the word “cave”, while as the name implies, the Louisville megacavern is in fact a cavern.
But the fact remains that below a parking lot, a supermarket, and an active highway
is a 3 million square foot space which includes a 320,000 square foot bike park that stays
at about 52 degrees year round.
It’s full of jumps, singletrack, and completely unsupervised nooks and crannies that may get
us banned from ever going there again.
Although the megacavern has touristy stuff like zip-lining and guided tours, their bike
park is impressive by any standards.
It’s vast, the lips are steep, and the builders know what they’re doing.
You sign a waiver and check in like at most other bike parks, and if you don’t have
your own equipment there are hardtail 29ers and dirt jumpers for rent.
Perfect, for Kevin.
You may recognize Kevin from the Singletrack Sampler, as the road biker Alex took to a
downhill park.
I always knew that Kevin was a mountain biker, trapped in a road biker’s body.
You can see that he hasn’t quite finished his transformation.
Not that it really matters.
Welcome to the dirt Kevin, you should have been here a long time ago.
Time to see how closely I can follow Phil.
I’d like to take a moment to pat myself on the back for bringing the perfect bike
for the Cavern—a single speed hardtail.
A lot of commenters keep saying it’s like a dirt jumper, and in many ways it is, but
it’s not . The wheels are bigger, the fork is longer, the frame has different geometry,
and the components are 100% what you’d find on a trail bike.
This means it’s pretty good for everything at the Cavern including the stuff outside
of the jump lines.
Of course, it still pumps like a hardtail should.
Phil has had a lot on his plate lately.
So much in fact that he hadn’t ridden in over a month.
This road trip was like therapy for Phil, a day of healing.
Healing, to Phil, requires a healthy dosage of sketchy lines.
As the day wore on and people kept arriving, the air quality started to take a nosedive.
Even the visibility was reduced as more and more riders stirred up the dust in the cavern.
It added to the surreal feeling of riding there, but we decided to take breath of fresh
air and explore the fringes.
I present to you my favorite dirt quarter pipe ever.
Even Kevin took a shot at it.
I could have spent all day at the dirt quarter, but Phil was already looking for new and creative
ways to—heal.
Any
time I ride with Phil, there comes a moment where I stop following him.
And with that, we all had our fill of dry riding weather.
It was 5am when we left my house, and almost midnight by the time we got home but it was
totally worth it.
The Megacavern was the perfect place to ride on weekend where the trails were a wreck.
The next time I go there it’ll probably be for a Patron ride, but if you want to see
more of the Megacavern just make sure you’re subscribed to Phil to see his perspective.
I also left some links to other videos of the Megacavern, including one from the Singletrack
sampler, and from Kevin.
Where do you guys ride when the weather isn’t cooperating?
Let me know below.
Thanks for riding with me today, and I’ll see you next time.