By Chris Winter. Photos
Anthony Smith.One thing that makes our sport unique are the different natural landscapes that we traverse on our bikes. Some of us ride the ancient Appalachians and its mixed forests, others spend weekends pedalling the sub-alpine of the Rocky Mountains while flowy Arizona singletrack starts on the end of some of our streets. In certain regions the land changes dramatically from one town to the next and a single ride can offer staggering diversity. Rider and guide Paulo Valle is just like the rest of us, he loves to ride trails and hunt for new zones. His backyard is different than anything that we have in North America. Valle, you see, lives in San Jose, Costa Rica.
For most of us, Costa Rica conjures up images of lounging half-naked in the sun on a sandy beach sipping on a cold cerveza after a surf session. Up from the hot coastlines of the Pacific and Caribbean are vast and rugged rainforest-clad mountains and active volcanoes that are home to one of the highest biodiversities in the world. It’s not uncommon to hear a noisy Mantled howler monkey in the forest canopy, or see a red-eyed tree frog on a giant leaf or a colourful Scarlet Macaw parrot in the sky above. What people don’t know, along with the amazing biodiversity lies an amazing web of hand-built trails that sees few riders.
As it is for most mountain bikers, land use is a challenge and it’s no exception in this Central American country where every inch of the land is privately owned or protected and people’s idea of mountain biking consists of dirt roads. To ride good singletrack Valle has had to build his own and to do this he’s had to network with landowners to earn their trust. Sculpting singletrack in the remote, steep and dense rainforest is no easy task. Maintaining these trails is a whole other matter in a place where tremendous buckets of water falls during rainy season and plants grow like they’re on steroids. After the rains stop Valle and his team of machete-wielding locals disappear into the forest to clear the new growth and shape the newly eroded sections so that bikes can flow down the mountains. Considering the great effort that has gone into building and the lack of bikes that the trails see, one feels privileged to ride good singletrack in Costa Rica.
In his proud and understated manner, Valle has designed and diligently built an impressive web of fun and technical trails over the years. His creations reflect the way that he rides; strong like an ox on the climbs and equally so on the descents. Don’t expect to find a map at a shop in San Jose to lead you to the goods, Valle’s had to keep his bounty under the radar to satisfy the landowners and keep the masses from schralping it. There is an exception however; you can explore the unique landscape of Costa Rica on Valle’s trails with the man himself by contacting Whistler-based guiding company
Big Mountain Adventures who offer downhill and all-mountain trips exclusively with Valle. From your backyard trail to Valle’s, we are all inherent explorers and we long to ride our bikes in new terrain.
The DetailsBig Mountain Adventures is offering five small group
Pura Vida DH trips this winter. 8-day trips for $1895 USD per person.
Are you more of a cross-country rider? Check out their new
Peaks and Beaches 8-day XC trip for $1795 USD per person.
Big Mountain has partnered with
Peaks n' Swells Surf Camps.Finish their XC trip or the March 10-17 DH trip and head out to the beach for five days of surf coaching, yoga and the beach life!
A few words from Paulo Valle:I’m a bit of a perennial rider, I've been biking since I was a kid. I started riding BMX and then mountain bikes in the early 90’s. Having gears on my bike really opened a whole new world to me.
Thanks to mountain biking I have met some great friends and travelled to many unreal places. As a former racer, what I’m most proud of is to be able to ride as much as I want without having a number plate on my bike or aiming for a finish line.
Geographically Costa Rica is a small but very intense country, you can drive coast to coast in four hours and in between there is nothing but mountains, some as high as 3800 meters (12,400 feet). Most people come to Costa Rica for the beaches, but there are many unexplored gems higher up.
There are a lot of land access issues in Costa Rica. Basically, public land doesn’t exist. I wish that we had as much public land as other bigger countries, but somehow I also think that our shortage of public land makes trail riding here more special.
A great trail should be a mix of vertical drop, flow and challenge. Put it in a jungle rainforest in the middle of nowhere and it makes it even better. That’s what we ride here. Ride in Costa Rica and you feel like the trail was built exclusively for you, on areas that even the Lonely Planet doesn’t know exists. You’ll feel the country’s real vibe from the land and the locals that helped give Costa Rica the title of the “happiest place on earth.” Pura Vida!
It’s always warm here. If you are from the northern hemisphere, it doesn’t sound too bad to take a break from freezing temperatures during the winter and go biking where the sun is shining.
Cross-country riding is actually quite popular in Costa Rica. To most of the local riders, cross-country means dirt roads. Road riding is also a very big scene here.
Pura Vida indeed
matosmalo seems to know how the things are around....and indeed is true that some people are neglected to the fact of building/cleaning trails, but there is a bigger percentage of people that are willing to...the problem here is that not that many people have the $$ to own a car and get to where the trails are, also, 80% of these people is still at high school level and starting college, so, there is not much time they can take there.
Also, the investment of the brands in the gravity scene and basically the cycling scene is around the 10%...which is nonsense if you want to have trails and other options. The cycling in CR...?!!!....Well, eventhough I'm fairly new in the public scene in CR (~4years) I have done many more things...such as DEVELOPING the people, creating opportunities for the young rippers be expose and show their skills, now I join probably the REAL DEAL guy in the sport in CR, many national titles, WORLD MASTERS 2nd Place, Carlos Castillo....he has done so many things for the sport...just go to a group of guys (don't matter if they are XC,DH,FR,DJ you name it) and ask for him...
I personally have speak to many landowners to give us the permission to build a trail, and they have agreed, actually there is a bike park that I influence and I personally started the builds, but like I said before, I have a family to feed and don't live out of cycling, so I had to give up on that project and talk to the landowner for him to continue the build....and wanna know the difference...ITS CURRENTLY OPEN TO THE PUBLIC....and I don't see the farm wreck or anything, actually I know some of the people mentioned here have being there riding...
Let me ask you a question to all....if I read what you guys are saying...this means that in 5-10years the DH scene in CR will desappear?!!!....we are not in this world forever...we need to share the knowledge, the experience to continue the process of growing the sport...if you don't do that...then you are doing shit for the sport....and I bet I will get a phone call in the next few days....
..buenas fotos mop, hablammos.. Pura vida
The riding scene here is a very unique one, though influenced by Canadian and American riding.
There is a lot of gravity riding... what they call "doawnhil" which are dirt jump hardtails with 100mm RSTs riding down dirt roads.
There are some real downhill bikes but very few.
I live in the southern zone, in the mountains above the sea, so yes you can ride up to the mountaintop in the fog and shred the way down.
The struggle for ridable trails is a hard battle but ironically we are blessed with hurracanes and bad roads- hurracanes destroy the cow tracks down the mountain, leaving riverbeds and deep ruts, which add up to more technical riding.
the land is very steep, and there is a scarcity of flowy trails. Most people just ride down roads, which are in such bad shape they appear to be world cup technical tracks. I built a mini bike park on my farm, with ladder bridges, jumps and the best flowy trails in Costa Rica. Follow Me at www.facebook.com/pages/Pacuarito-Bike-Park/303545366323086. There are many bike shops here though. There is a big XC scene, a little more decent with actual national races and stuff.
The nicest thing about Costa Rica is being able to ride DH and surf or swim at the beach all in the same hour.
Pura Vida,
-From the heart of Ticolandia...
"..struggle for ridable trails is a hard battle but ironically we are blessed with hurracanes and bad roads- hurracanes destroy the cow tracks down the mountain, leaving riverbeds and deep ruts, which add up to more technical riding.
the land is very steep, and there is a scarcity of flowy trails."
Dude, get your facts straight last time CR was hit by a hurricane was way back.... back in July of 96. torrential rains, thats another story, yes trails get wacked by small landslides, rocks and logs...but riverbeds..common. Also you living near San Isidro I'm surprised that you havent hooked up with singletracks in your area. For example there is this horse trail that goes down to the valley from La Georgina - this is a steep single track descent (3000 meters in just about 35 Kms). Also the trail to Chirripo, although bikes "arent allowed" is a killer.. I personally havent ridden it but do have a buddy that managed to rip that one up with the park ranger's OK.
I travel to the south on a regular basis, perhaps I'll run into you one day so we can explore / clean up some trails I was told about that go down to Dominical
cheers kid.
I live here.
Last year there was a hurricane called Thomas, killed something like 14 people in Escazu.
There were a large multitude of giant slides, including one near Palmar Norte that closed the Inter-American highway.
On the highway from San Isidro to Dominical near my house there were like a 100 slides, covering the road, leaving us isolated for 3 days.
Actually yes, that descent from La Georgina is one of the trails with most traffic, also one of the best, since its in the fog and super steep.
I also have not ridden the Chirripo trail, I was planning to do a "first descent" this December, but it sounds like someone beat me to it. Who's your friend? That trail is super steep and can only be ridden in the summer, since it's very dangerous with all the mud and hikers tearing up the ground.
When was that? I still haven't asked about riding in the park, but I didn't think they would be very understanding, they probably dont want you running in to climbers or horses...
The trails are not that flowy, more like chattering, steep, technical downhills.
Sounds good, contact me through pinkbike, and come over to ride.
pura vida
Lots of people do not know the truth!
@razcr and @matni :
You know there is a large XC MTB scene here but it’s a bummer that the larger part of bikers have no respect for the montaña, much less for private land (not that it should be used without consent !!), meaning: leaving thrash, destroying fences, harassing cattle(yeah,lol) and other such destructive behaviors. This means a bad rep for those of us that try to change the direction of the sport here in CR and most importantly try to change landowner's attitudes.
Since riding single track here involves meeting the people, hoping fences and in some cases taking some risks I don't blame Paulo for having his trails under the radar. A lot of people like to ride single track but when the time to build or clean up trails comes around there are few willing...
Same as @lonchera I have my machete, pick and shovel at hand and give in a good amount of time each year to work on some "x" type trails that a group of conscious FR and DH rides use.
word to Paolo: Keep it up dude and take me to one of your trails !! I'll bust my back cleaning up now that its temporada de transicion.