Bobsled drop and signage

I have starting riding Bobsled a lot more as it makes for a great cool down lap before the parking lot.  

I know that the trail is rated green/blue, but what about the sign before the ladder drop?  Not sure how high that drop is, but the landing always feels flat to me.  It feels larger than anything on Floppy, which is rated black.

If it's not there a black diamond pointing at the drop might prevent some destruction.

Also, saw Digger chatting with some parks guys as they are extending the fencing around the parking lot to effectively block the alternative entrance from the south end. Digger mentioned that someone wrecked themselves on the little drop at the end, needing an ambulance.  Not sure if he was serious or not...

Isn't that route signed black diamond? I thought that it was. 

Bobsled can be really fun. It's good and fast and a flowy way to end the day. But I prefer Floppy myself!

I don't bother with that drop anymore, it's too slow/flat and you have to kill your speed to get onto it. Would agree it's a black feature in the context of the surrounding trail network. To me, the fun of Bobsled is going fast and hitting the little doubles.

Caveat emptor if you're just going to charge any kind of woodwork with giving it a slower run through. It's a tough drop for sure though on a green trail.

I'd rather have some orange deer fence put up on the outside of the corner on the rise after that drop. It just doesn't look like a sharp left corner until you get right on it at speed from the preceding slope. Something that used to always have me hit the anchors fast until I remembered it.

Something about the way the trees naturally lie, I think, kept fooling me into seeing a trail straight ahead.

I always felt weird riding that drop too... but I would never had admitted it since it's a blue rated drop on a green trail. Good to know I'm not the only one!

I'll be pretty disappointed if they closed the Fromme south parking lot entrance for bikes - that was a great way to end a ride and was getting better the more people that rode it. #dumbingdowntheshore ;)

In regards to the Bobsled drop, I agree a single black diamond sign at the ladder drop would not be out of place on this trail. I hope they never remove the drop - it's the one feature that keeps Bobsled fun! A little more flow to get on to it would be nice but then I suppose overshooting the landing would become more of a problem.

If you really want to get into Fromme / Seymour grading inconsistencies though you could pick many more examples. My favorites are:

• Why is Ladies Only a double black when Crippler and Bookwus are only single blacks?
• Why are Crinkum Crankum (with the new-ish wood ramp ride around) and especially Kirkford still rated as black rather than blue?
• Why is Forever After on Seymour a Blue trail when Asian Adonis is Black?

Interestingly, someone edited Trailforks to make Expresso a Black, which to me is kind of ironic considering the upper half is as smooth as butter now. However, if Kirford is a Black then I suppose Expresso should be too =)

What is happening with Bookwus? Rode it the other day and it isn't signed and it looked like efforts had been made to hide the entrance (branches put there, etc...)

Posted by: Xorrox

If you really want to get into Fromme / Seymour grading inconsistencies though you could pick many more examples. My favorites are:

• Why is Ladies Only a double black when Crippler and Bookwus are only single blacks?
• Why are Crinkum Crankum (with the new-ish wood ramp ride around) and especially Kirkford still rated as black rather than blue?
• Why is Forever After on Seymour a Blue trail when Asian Adonis is Black?

Other ones that come to mind for me:

• C-buster - rated a single black but I always have more trouble with it than others that are rated double black (CBC, Boogieman, etc.)

• Boogieman - The only real double black section is the very bottom  (below Boogie Nights entrance), which most people don't ride anyways.

Boogieman is a single black if you don't ride the skinnies. Otherwise its rated correct IMO.

Posted by: Ddean

What is happening with Bookwus? Rode it the other day and it isn't signed and it looked like efforts had been made to hide the entrance (branches put there, etc...)

the entrance was always meant to be a concealed walk-in, though it's gotten a bit clearer in recent years. perhaps someone has replaced some of the camouflage?

Posted by: Xorrox

I'll be pretty disappointed if they closed the Fromme south parking lot entrance for bikes - that was a great way to end a ride and was getting better the more people that rode it. #dumbingdowntheshore ;)

In regards to the Bobsled drop, I agree a single black diamond sign at the ladder drop would not be out of place on this trail. I hope they never remove the drop - it's the one feature that keeps Bobsled fun! A little more flow to get on to it would be nice but then I suppose overshooting the landing would become more of a problem.

If you really want to get into Fromme / Seymour grading inconsistencies though you could pick many more examples. My favorites are:

• Why is Ladies Only a double black when Crippler and Bookwus are only single blacks?
• Why are Crinkum Crankum (with the new-ish wood ramp ride around) and especially Kirkford still rated as black rather than blue?
• Why is Forever After on Seymour a Blue trail when Asian Adonis is Black?

Interestingly, someone edited Trailforks to make Expresso a Black, which to me is kind of ironic considering the upper half is as smooth as butter now. However, if Kirford is a Black then I suppose Expresso should be too =)

The fence was going up on Wednesday.  Maybe too many people got their car run into?  Gotta dumb it down....

I agree with your examples for grading inconsistencies. Crinkum could be a blue/black now that the wood had a ride around.  I love that trail right now, so fast!

Yeah I forgot about C-buster.  I tried to ride it for the first time this year and was thinking "this isn't too bad" on the top section until I got to the super steep, blown out section with all the sharp turns in the bottom half ... and walked most of the rest of the way down :)   C buster and Asian Adonis are on two completely different "black diamond" rating scales.

Posted by: Ddean

What is happening with Bookwus? Rode it the other day and it isn't signed and it looked like efforts had been made to hide the entrance (branches put there, etc...)

It didn't look any different to me last week as it has been in the past few years. I seem to recall that the entrance has always had that quasi-X root/branch start. I can't recall there ever being a sign...or maybe I always have my head down.

Posted by: Xorrox

• Why is Ladies Only a double black when Crippler and Bookwus are only single blacks?

I had a good chuckle a week ago...as I was about to enter Grannies/Crippler, some kids (15-17 years old?) were riding by the entrance and saw the sign ....one of them said "What is that trail?...Oh it's only a single black diamond". I smiled and nodded.