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i have the impression it means something entirely different than i think it does...
ttp://www.mapmyride.com/us/portola-hills-ca/santiago-truck-trail-gt-old-camp-gt-down-route-4808246
We have some excellent trails here in So Cal.
I live in LA for quit a while. People tell me about gnarly stuff all the time and usually i tend to find it rather boring to ride.
Usually its just rocky stuff, tough on your rims but as long as you carry enough patches in your backpack not really much of a problem or a challenge.
So I am asking for your definition of a "gnarly" trail just because I am curious and i try to understand.
Keep in mind English is not my first language. I really wanted to figure out if there is some miscommunication one the term "gnarly"
And by the way, thanks for neg propping a question meant to understand USA USA USA...
And you missed the point. Your post was a blatant negative statement targeted towards Americans in general, not a specific group of Americans. You were clearly not just asking a question so you could better understand the country you've been living in for "quite a while". Get over it, you wrote something stupid/ignorant.
One last thing, you live in LA which is hardly the pinnacle of riding/ the riders in the U.S. Pull that head outta your ass so you can properly ride a bike again. That last bit was harsh but, man... grow some balls instead of trying to backtrack.
The definition of the word gnarly is the same everywhere. The thing to realize is that the perception of gnarly is subjective. I've known people that are good on tight slow trails full of tree roots that get scared on fast dry rocky trails, and the opposite, riders that fly down the dry rocky trails like they are nothing that have no idea how to deal with wet tree roots. I've even seen riders that kill it on super steep technical stuff, or ones that are super crazy jumpers that are afraid of really high speed fire roads. Also, whatever is the most difficult trail a person has ridden, that's going to be they're perception of gnarly, conversely, someone else may not perceive that same trail as gnarly if they've ridden something more difficult before. Maybe the people that have been showing you trails haven't ridden very many places before, and their perception of gnarly is simply limited to what they've seen? By the way, Los Angeles is really pretty far from being the best place in California to ride. Santa Barbara isn't too far away, I would suggest looking into doing some riding there. You might find something that would interest you in that area.
Anyway my question was serious. In German (or Austrian), my first language there is distinct different between a couple of words that can be used to describe a trail an according to the dictionary could all be translated to gnarly.
Like "Zach" would mean a trail is physically demanding... "Ras" would be a Trail that just throws you around and the only thing you can do is hang on for your life... "Oag" is something I would use to describe a trail that runs along a couple of hundred feet high cliff an one wrong move would send you over the edge.... And so on....
I take it from the response that gnarly is used to describe the toughest most bad a** trail in general. That about right?
I did get that your question was serious, I think I just may have slightly misunderstood what exactly it was that you were asking before, but it's clear to me now.
Typically, if someone says a trail is gnarly it's pretty safe to assume their meaning is that they feel it's "the toughest most bad a** trail in general" as you said.
However gnarly can be used to mean rough, tough, disgusting, cruel, malodorous, bad a**, dangerous, brutal, challenging, difficult, painful, harsh, ugly, or crazy.
A tricky thing with English (at least in my mind) is the way that slang words and swear words are so interchangeable or can mean multiple things depending on the context of the sentence or the tone of your voice.
Another weird thing is the way it's possible for them to be interchangeable in one situation, but not in another.
Take for instance the words gnarly and sketchy. Gnarly and sketchy can both relate to Ras and Oag, however only gnarly relates to Zach, while sketchy does not.
A good example of context is, if someone described a trail to me as being "sketchy" I would automatically think "Ras", but if they described it as being "so sketchy" I would think "Oag".
I know one that confuses second language English speakers is if you say something "is s**t" which would mean it's horrible or the worst, but if you say something is "is the s**t" it would mean it is amazing or the best. English can be pretty goofy I suppose.