Rode the new upper Dale's on the weekend.
It is the most ridiculous thing - what's the point of a skateboard park that takes 45 seconds to ride dropped down basically in the middle of nowhere? Completely out of character with the area, ugly, too big/wide, a huge waste of money. Shaking my head on this one…
Yup, I had a "WTF!" moment when I was abruptly spat out onto a rickerty old bridge….
Yup, I had a "WTF!" moment when I was abruptly spat out onto a rickerty old bridge….
You must be good at 110 degree corners…
That trail is super fun and forces you to get into your cornering/bike park zone. Although it does spit you out in the middle of a technical trail, I see it as metro vans first foray into machine built trail. Obviously paddy Kaye knows how to build fun trail with a machine, I'm glad they hired the right person for the job. If they get positive reviews, maybe they will hire him to build more? Imagine an upper dales type trail that was built as an alternative to cbc. That would quickly become the most popular trail in North Vancouver.
While it's a shame to lose Upper Dales it does open up the intermediate beginner option of pedalling up the small climb back to the roadway linking the Powerlines to Upper Dales, coasting down the roadway and then heading over to Severed D and continuing down other options. Paddy Kaye's work is topnotch; it's quite something to see how a professional builder with machines can create something like that. Note how the berms were watered and prepped for example.
below Upper Dales is CHMC land so thankfully Metro won't be putting machines in there. I still don't know why Metro closed off the reroute around the big rock face when it's not even their land to manage?
:canada:
At first, I was bummed to lose Upper Dales, but those huge berms are pretty damn fun. I'd love to see something like that top to bottom on Seymour (though not at the expense of existing trails).
Good point about Lower Dales being on CMHC land. That's a relief, but makes the work they've done on Upper Dales somewhat puzzling.
I think their plan is to redo CBC with a machine but that's going to be costly and maintaining machine built trails isn't easy… especially in a rain forest. The environmental impact is way higher with a machine as well.
:canada:
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