I don't bother riding the extra few feet to upper Dales as it is not the kind of trail I enjoy, but neither was the old rutted out erosion disaster that some pass off as "gnar."
My wife and I have come to "appreciate" flow trails for the fact that they attract most of the DB riders (as you all refer to them as) and leave the classic "old school" trails relatively unused. Half Nelson is always touted as "the best trail in Squamish" but in reality I rarely see anyone ride it fast enough to gap the jumps, most people roll over everything. A lot of these changes have come with the invention of the bike park and machine built trails. When I moved to BC, there was no such thing as a machine built trail and quite frankly, they are a waste of elevation IMO. Crashing at 30 km/h hurts and riding uphill for an hour for a downhill that takes 10 minutes is really stupid. They make sense at Whistler where you pay for your downhills in $ rather than sweat and you wear armour, c-spine protector etc.
As far as modern day trails go, I have to say, the hand cut trails done in the last 10 years in BC are incredible!!!!! Although Good sir martin and forever after are far from the most difficult trails on the shore, they are still among my all time favorites. So thanks to all the quality trail building that has been done in the past 10 years and don't listen to the haters. Even if I don't ride your machine built trail, someone else will and love it even if I don't get it.
July 30, 2018, 1:06 p.m. - Reed Holden
I don't bother riding the extra few feet to upper Dales as it is not the kind of trail I enjoy, but neither was the old rutted out erosion disaster that some pass off as "gnar." My wife and I have come to "appreciate" flow trails for the fact that they attract most of the DB riders (as you all refer to them as) and leave the classic "old school" trails relatively unused. Half Nelson is always touted as "the best trail in Squamish" but in reality I rarely see anyone ride it fast enough to gap the jumps, most people roll over everything. A lot of these changes have come with the invention of the bike park and machine built trails. When I moved to BC, there was no such thing as a machine built trail and quite frankly, they are a waste of elevation IMO. Crashing at 30 km/h hurts and riding uphill for an hour for a downhill that takes 10 minutes is really stupid. They make sense at Whistler where you pay for your downhills in $ rather than sweat and you wear armour, c-spine protector etc. As far as modern day trails go, I have to say, the hand cut trails done in the last 10 years in BC are incredible!!!!! Although Good sir martin and forever after are far from the most difficult trails on the shore, they are still among my all time favorites. So thanks to all the quality trail building that has been done in the past 10 years and don't listen to the haters. Even if I don't ride your machine built trail, someone else will and love it even if I don't get it.