Walnut is hero dirt, and CROWDED.

[TheX]

Hit the trails at ~6:45am, done around 9. Even Mark's is nearly perfect. Lots of people, obviously.

Question...

I have been told that 1/4 Notch was a name given to the Brushy trail when a builder remarked that it was just a 1/4 notch harder than Walnut. That must be a HUGE notch if a quarter of it is that big. Is that really how it got named?

[CBaron]

9 hours ago, TheX said:

Hit the trails at ~6:45am, done around 9. Even Mark's is nearly perfect. Lots of people, obviously.

Question...

I have been told that 1/4 Notch was a name given to the Brushy trail when a builder remarked that it was just a 1/4 notch harder than Walnut. That must be a HUGE notch if a quarter of it is that big. Is that really how it got named?

Yes, sorta.

Back during the early 'comming out' of the Brushy trail system, oftentimes people would come onto this (Mojo?) forum and ask about the difficulty of the that trail.  At the time there wasn't near as much there.  I recall it primarily consisted of Deception, Picnic, Muligan, (& Daves Ditch area which was slightly hidden).  So someone was asking about Deception and one of our local riders quiped that it was about 1/2 notch harder than WC.  I'm failry certain he was referring to the 'easier' (Eastern) section of deception but it created a littel bit of an online ruckus.  Thus when Deception became legit official and needed a name (cuz the municipality wasn't keen on the 'deception' moniker), the Brushy Creek Trail Stewards decided to sarcastically name it 1/4 notch.  

I'm pretty sure I've got most of it correct.  But there are others who know the story a little bit better than me.  @WhoAmI  @rugger

Cheers,
CJB

[CBaron]

Its also VERY worth noting that the trail has gotten MUCH more 'challenging' of the years.  When it was first cut in it had a decent layer of dirt in the trail bed.  I recently ran across a buddy's early gopro footage back when it was still an "unmentionable" and I was shocked at how smooth it was compared to the current state.  Likewise, you can go look at most of the top times on the Strava segments and quite often they are from around 2013 which is evidence of how fast the trail use to be.

Later,
CJB

[TheX]

Thank you! Very helpful replies.

[WhoAmI]

On 6/23/2024 at 7:39 PM, CBaron said:

Yes, sorta.

Back during the early 'comming out' of the Brushy trail system, oftentimes people would come onto this (Mojo?) forum and ask about the difficulty of the that trail.  At the time there wasn't near as much there.  I recall it primarily consisted of Deception, Picnic, Muligan, (& Daves Ditch area which was slightly hidden).  So someone was asking about Deception and one of our local riders quiped that it was about 1/2 notch harder than WC.  I'm failry certain he was referring to the 'easier' (Eastern) section of deception but it created a littel bit of an online ruckus.  Thus when Deception became legit official and needed a name (cuz the municipality wasn't keen on the 'deception' moniker), the Brushy Creek Trail Stewards decided to sarcastically name it 1/4 notch.  

I'm pretty sure I've got most of it correct.  But there are others who know the story a little bit better than me.  @WhoAmI  @rugger

Cheers,
CJB

That's how I remember it coming about.   Calling it a 1/2 a notch harder than Walnut Creek was more tongue-in-cheek than a serious jab.

There were also a lot fewer technical sections due to erosion than there are today, so it was a lot easier then than now.  I used to be able to clean the Deception in one take back in the day; there are now a few sections I can't clean anymore and stopped trying to clean.  

[TheX]

I thought it had gotten more technical but I don't have a lot of history on the Brushy trails so I wasn't sure.

[TheX]

A LOT of people getting out there early. I was on the trail by 7:15am and there were already a lot of people at Walnut.