there was a massive movemnet of traffic over to Seymour/fromme after the chainsaw. the natural trails of cypress are what evolved, and I would say cypress was/is a way better mountain for it.
the traffic on cypress has probably tripled in the last 3 years. not a good thing for sustainability.
on the topic a good trail with gnarly steeps and loam can handle a limited number of traffic. once you punch through the duff/loam and start rutting things out it all goes to shit really fast and then its toast. In van the critical mass of riders is way to high for the goods to stay good.
Cam, why don't you put the publication date on your articles? Old articles sure could be taken out of context if they were thought to be recent.
Yup, that was a good way to get beat up. 7' dorps to falt galore.
the abyss was more of a drop to hole. only did that a couple times.
i also got to ride pre/reap prior to it's destruction. a classic for sure. as these old trails are disappearing, it would be neat to see some sort of organized historical documentation. an archive of photos, stories, video clips, etc, preserved for future generations. i suppose i'm a little nostalgic of the old days. it was exciting times - the birth of a new genre of riding.
The problem with Cypress now also is that many riders can't handle the knarl and straightline through switchbacks. Corners get blown and tight turns become big swoopy downhill turns. This first happened to Sexboy about 3 -4 years ago when it was getting used for DH training shuttles. It's now happened to other Cypress trails.
but nothing i say can help prevent that.
it's just a lament for Cypress trails. They're still good but I can see a time when they become Seymour'ed.
Were you even here in 1999 Jerry? Didn't you build the full-stunty Jerry Rig trail after 1999? With lots of high skinnies? That seems like a revisionist opinion if you ask me. Reaper may not have been very 2009 when it was destroyed but it was amazing and fun in the late 90s. Mind blowing even.
He's off the team. Don't worry, I'll step in though.
Cam, why don't you put the publication date on your articles? Old articles sure could be taken out of context if they were thought to be recent.
This is an import problem that I haven't tried to sort out yet (or have someone sort out!). Originally all of our articles ended with the month and date in the URL but since they have been imported to the new system those numbers have been dropped.
Something for the to do list.
or just type a date into the top of the article? K.I.S.S.
That could be a solution moving forward but what about the thousands of articles from before this?
something for the to do list?
Things are improving everywhere it seems. Hell, when even risk adverse Toronto is thinking of building a skills park, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
I disagree with you on this Mil. A skills park put in by a muni is like preserving "wilderness" and "biodiversity" by putting in a zoo.
When munis put in skills parks it seems to me like a way of corralling the bikers into one safe homogenized spot, while working behind the scenes to cull the "illegal" riding in the other parts of the jurisdiction.
-m
Been there, done that. A couple years ago, we had trails chainsawed out on private timberland east of Seattle. Thousands of man hours gone. Poof! It's a terrible feeling when you see your hard work torn apart. The longest ladder spanned 130 feet over a bog/seasonal stream. Without it, we had to put in a major re-route at the bottom that shortened the trail considerably.
Another buddy's trail had trees cut down across the entire trail and every ladder destroyed on state forest land. We went in and cleared it out and they came back several months later with a prison crew and dropped more trees. That trail is being taken back by ma nature.
Where I currently live (Bham), they did the same thing a handful of years ago on Galbraith to many of the trails. The new owners (private timberland) are now part of the process and very supportive of the trail building.
EB
I disagree with you on this Mil. A skills park put in by a muni is like preserving "wilderness" and "biodiversity" by putting in a zoo.
When munis put in skills parks it seems to me like a way of corralling the bikers into one safe homogenized spot, while working behind the scenes to cull the "illegal" riding in the other parts of the jurisdiction.
-m
After further thought your right. Especially after riding the Don trails last weekend. There is a trail called The Ridge that runs from Pottery road to the Cricket lot. It's about 6-8km in length. The city is doing a managemet plan in Crothers woods with IMBA type trails. The section is about 3-4km's long.
The CofT and IMBA have basically driven the trail builders out of the area. And it is noticeable. You can see how little maintneance is being done. All sorts of problems that need to be fixed that aren't. Because every one has been driven out of Crothers woods. Only those of the high order of IMBA or CofT can do trail work.
Meanwhile on the remaining few kilometers of the ridge you can see trail work is being done. Trees have been cleared, mud holes fixed , drainage cleared, and so on. All within roughly 48 hours.
oh man, Reaper looks like it awesome…wish i could have ridden it
Relations with WVAN Parks and BPP are light years ahead of 10 years ago. That's what happens when people actually talk to each other instead of shouting. :announce:
Things are changing on Cypress. That sucks, but times change. We don't have much choice in that.
The good news is that bikers are involved and we can influence how things change. If we play our cards right there will still be challenging, technical trails on Cypress.
WVAN knows that if the trails are dumbed down or paved over, then rogue trails will keep popping up. As bikers, we know that if we want to work on and protect the trails we have, then we have to work with the land owners.
It's a balancing act that's just beginning. A l-o-n-g, s-l-o-w balancing act.
Be patient.
Forum jump:
