Josh McCreedy wrote:The economic study of Glacial Hills cites a 1.5 million dollar yearly benefit to the community. The majority of users are on foot, but mountain biking got a lot of major players involved in fundraising and is part of the fabric of the town.
Odd. From my experience riding there mutiple times a week all year long, I see WAY more people on bikes, especially when you get a mile or more from the trailheads.
Regarding discussion around trails that 95% would walk. That's a cultural thing here. 13 years between west Texas desert riding and Colorado and there is a clear difference out there. No one there seems to expect 100% of riders to be able to ride 100% of the trails in a given network, which sounds like a big thing here. And for the record, Highland isn't that technical. Like DTE, I'm not sure why its looked at as some sort of benchmark. There were trails Colorado Springs that took me years to master. Some of these were trails in a city park by my house, not up in the mountains. Yes, the soil and geography are vastly different, but more so is the attitude.
We're mountain biking, right? One of my neighbors has a bunch of PRs on his CX bike. All I think is that they should leave some more of the roots and rocks in the trailbed. If machine building is required, maybe try to use the available terrain with more creativity. I can think of several spots where the trail was practically bulldozed flat right next to what could have been used as jumps or rollers depending on your skill and speed. Even some sanctioned B-lines would spice things up.
Anyway, I rode with the GH board chair again last night. He mentioned that he'd like to have some more challenging stuff out in the "never never land" area past Orchard Hill. Fingers crossed. He also offered to give me a tour of the unmarked VASA goods. I'm curious how that compares.