gotdurt

Josh (Firstblood) also brought this up... if anyone has material that can be used to protect it from scarring, shoot him a message, he's open to ideas.

You're right... pretty sure they are lining the bypass. Josh said he's going to put up some signs today, I'll see if he wants to re-armor it while he's there.

Okay, confirmed with Josh that it's not legit. All clear now. Thanks for the help Andrew, if you're on here.

Wwwwwwow...

You're missing the point, go back to my first post. What does 2000' have to do with anything? Just about all of them. Same problem and category. By public shaming, and if that doesn't work, maybe a baseball bat or hefty cedar limb. I realize that you'll continue to argue no matter what, but I'm pretty sure everyone else gets my point, if they haven't already moved on.

Like... Whistler? Lots of public parks have black+ trails, see my comments on South Mountain Park in Phoenix. There are also plenty of public black trails and features in Austin... as well as blue... and both get bypassed and sanitized by ignorant, entitled knuckleheads on the regular. Umm... yea, exactly... I'm sorry, what were we talking about again?

Okay, gotta call BS here. While I can't speak for Whistler or Bentonville, I've been to plenty of other bike parks and, if there is an alt line at all, it's not for those that are in over their head; they still maintain the character of the trail... in other words, if it's a black diamond, then both lines are black, just maybe of a different flavor (if not one up-graded). If you drop in on Jam Rock or Even Flow at Keystone, you are committed. Trestle and Evolution have some alternate lines, but they aren't bypasses; black trails have black lines. Now, sometimes blue trails have a black feature/line or 2 and black trails might have double black alternates, and for those, there will be a blue (or black) alternate. Even popular public trails, like National, Geronimo and Holbert (!) in Phoenix don't have easy bypasses for anything; the only alternates to the black lines are double black, and alternates to double black are almost certain death, lol. If you drop down East National, you will either ride or walk the Waterfall, no bypasses. Same for Chili Dog and Jagged Axe in Glorietta. Yet, somehow these trails are all respected; no easy alternates or bypasses appear. If you don't care to ride blue features, then walk the blue features, or ride a green trail.

Zactly. It's like buying a house on a lake, then complaining about the boats.

Agreed, I used to add Rim to my routine just so I could do Up and Over in both directions. But, I guess it was never really ours to begin with. I don't remember the last time I rode Mulligan...

Yeah, in my mind I call that section under the bridge "Criss Cross Crash" when I pass through... it's going to happen. As for the Up and Over connector, I really enjoyed that one in both directions. It had some fun features if you worked it right. I'll miss that one.

I did that in a couple of spots on Double Down a couple of years ago, screwed with 3" and 4" deck screws, came back a few days later and someone had spent a lot of time wrecking it... that's when Josh finally just put up signs at the spots and hoped for the best, because no matter how we tried to block it, it didn't last.

After taking a year off, I was really disappointed return to see all the B-lines, C-lines, D-lines, cut-throughs, etc. It's a cluster. I gave up trying to correct it, it's a losing battle. Hikers are getting worse too... I was out there Friday at 1pm (mid-week/mid-day used to be my safe time) and had 3 run-ins with clueless hikers. One was a woman standing at the bottom of the Swag drop with her Weimer; she was standing kind of hidden on the right side of the left turn... I already had momentum and dropped in my normal line, only to discover that her dog was off leash when it jumped out in front of me, almost killing us both, then tried to run in front of my tire... I finally slid to a stop while she tried to call her panicked dog, which stood down-trail and wouldn't come to her. Next, I got to the drop at Satellite, checking my line of sight through the original right-line as I passed, then dropped in only to see the blur of a person jump out of my way... must've been standing on the other side of the big oak as I approached. Further into DD, I came up on a guy with 2 dogs on leashes; they stood off to the left side and seemed like they would be fine so I continued... it was a climb, so I wasn't moving fast... suddenly both dogs split different directions and when their leashes stopped them they freaked out, then each doubled in the opposite directions, tangling each other and the owner and jerking him all over the place... in the trail in front of me. Who wants to start a new secret rogue trail?

[Bartman-esque comment deleted]

We got some good showers up in Leander the night before last; the bare areas in my back yard would indicate that it is still too wet to ride if Brushy got the same showers... but they were isolated, so I figured it was worth asking...

Has anyone by chance been to Brushy today to check conditions?

Cut at ground level until it wears down enough that the roots are exposed, then take it out at the roots... otherwise you're doing a lot of unnecessary work and digging a hole. It didn't take but a few seconds per stump to do it last time.; it doesn't hurt anything. It took years for the trail to wear down enough to cut them the first time, but the increased traffic has reavealed them much more quickly this time around. Oh, and yes, their previous cutting was coordinated with Eric and Josh, I'm not new.

1/4 and DD are GTG, aside from a few deceptively slick spots... started my ride by throwing it hard into Rainy Day Berm expecting hero traction, but RDB instead threw me down HARD... so fast that all I heard was "VVVVVVVVVVT!" from my back tire, and my bad shoulder was instantly augered into the ground, the same shoulder that kept me off the bike for the past year. Oddly enough, it's my right shoulder, but I also somehow gouged up my left knee and bruised my left heal, left palm and my right thigh... lol. Like I said, it happened fast, and I'm still trying to figure out the geometry of my impact... something like Seinfeld's "magic loogie"...

And I'm thankful for that... with easy options elsewhere, maybe people will finally ease up on the bypasses and sanitizing on my preferred trails. Definitely. Each time I take time off the bike for months to a year then return, I'm always surprised at the trail condition and increased traffic, even mid-day M-F when I like to ride. This last year though was the biggest change; D has seen some serious traffic, and it shows. It actually seems that they do, except they do more than a lap (I would hope). when I rode the other day, D was a ghost town, but PP was a party... seemingly mostly of newbs and Barneys, but that's okay though, if that's what it takes to free up D a bit, I'll celebrate it.

Give me a chance to build some legs and lungs, I was out of shape as it was a year ago when I hung the bikes, I'm in an even sadder state now. I still shouldn't be riding yet, but I'm beyond stir crazy (and I wonder why I can never quite heal 🙄).

So, how long is the current version of Peddlers? I went over there again today after riding Deception, were I saw one other rider... but there were at least a dozen on PP, including an e-bike, and I am pleased to say that even in my current sad state, I caught up to him. I also didn't see him roosting or doing throttle wheelies, so that's good 😉 BTW, I'm shocked at how much the trails have worn down in the year that I was out; 1/4 is about to turn a solid black (if it hasn't already), and most of the stumps I cut a couple of years ago are already showing 4-6" again... guess I'm due for another saw walk.

I'm just "bench racing", that scenario and conversation would exist only in my mind... it's doubtful that I'll ever even race again.

Ha, I'll bet. I look forward to replying with, "yep, but don't be too hard on yourself when I smoke your ass" 😜

At 1:30, represent! I've often thought that if I ever do another enduro, I'll do it on the hardtail... maybe even singlespeed! 😁

Yea, my comment was pretty much tongue-in-cheek, but I really should have known that I would just revive the "discussion" 😏

Sorry, my bad, I thought it was a timely and fitting way to cap the topic... I should have known better.