What makes a mountain bike trail difficult?
When I moved back to the flatlands of the southeast a couple years ago I found it odd that mountain bike trails had difficulty ratings. Some ratings were official (like the beginner and advanced trails at Little River) while others were a bit more informal and passed along via word of mouth (the river side trails are easier than the creek side at Yellow River). But I gotta say, I just don’t get it. All the trails seem the same to me!
Of course in Colorado it’s pretty easy to tell the beginner trails from the advanced ones: long climbs and technical descents easily take trails from mild to wild. When a trail is marked “black” at Palmer Park, you know it’s pretty gnarly and beginners should steer clear while sticking to the “green” paths. But what’s so advanced about the “advanced” loop out at Beaver Dam near Raleigh? It’s longer? That’s about the only difference I could see, all the trails have roots and rocks and short steep sections that beginners may need to walk.
Out at Yellow River it seems like the rumors have it backward. The supposedly easier river-side trails seemed much more eroded and rocky in spots despite being wider and a little flatter. Perhaps this is a just a local myth that’s meant to keep the masses off the creek-side trails so they don’t end up as eroded and wide as the river-side trails.
The point of all this is to say you can’t always rely on the trail recommendations of others, especially experienced riders who have been biking for years. If you’re a beginner, don’t let labels intimidate you (especially informal ones) – give the more difficult trails a try and if you don’t like ‘em, turn around and go back the way you came! You’ll be surprised how much you can handle if you just give it a try.
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August 21st, 2007 at 10:07 am
This also reminds me of another fact of expectations: they’re usually wrong. How many times has a friend told you a movie stunk but you went to see it anyway – and you thought it was great! Well, maybe it wasn’t great but it didn’t stink and it was definitely better than you thought it would be.
The same is often true for mountain bike trails. If someone tells you a trail is tough but you try it anyway and live – then you tell yourself the trail was easier than your friend said. Or if someone else says a trail isn’t worth the drive but you go anyway and have a blast, it isn’t because the trail is super great – it’s just that you didn’t expect it to be worthwhile.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:01 am
This reminds me of my very first trip to Moab… I made the mistake of letting everyone read the trail book and collectively decide what to ride… It was a disaster!!!! No one wanted to do Amasa Back or Poison Spider or Porcupine Rim due to the incredibly difficult ratings the book gave them. We ended up riding on some flat gravel road that was painful at best… ratings usually are exagerated, even a beginner can get off and walk their bike through nasty sections… Moore Fun in Fruita is one painful exception…
September 11th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Difficulty ratings will likely never be much more than subjective guidelines. For starters, who’s opinion should we trust as objective and reliable? I’ve learned to not trust the opinions of experts or beginners alike. I also don’t trust the opinions of people who are inclined to overstate their own skills by calling difficult terrain “easy” and there is no shortage of that particular mind-set. Then comes the inequity of skills – some people might think nothing of 4 foot drops, but throw a few baby heads and them and they freeze up like Windows 98. Even if you could address all that, the same rider on the same trail on different days will see the trail differently, depending on how “on” or “off” they are that day. Even if we could somehow make ratings based on consensus, the “greying” of our sport is going to throw the curve as well as the same old geezers first gain skills and then age. There’s also the matter of shifting trail conditions to throw in the mix and I haven’t even begun to address regionality.
If you look at the ski industry, where there are fewer trails, more financial resources, more specific criteria, terrain that can be maintained to some degree and a sport that has had more time to mature, there is still a great deal of disparity from resort to resort, not to mention state to state. Mtn biking trails will probably never have ratings even that accurate or consistent.
There is a cure, however, and I’m happy to say it’s a great cure at that. The only solution is to put the books away and get on your bike. It’s about the ride, not the guide. After all, I want a certain amount of unpredictability and risk. When I want safe and predictable, I’ll get on my townie.
Perhaps as users and contributors at Singletracks, we should get more in the habit of using specific descriptors in favor of assigning inherently ambiguous ratings.