Video: Building Trails on the Oregon Coast
Nestled between the quaint coastal cities of Coos Bay and Bandon, Oregon lies several thousand acres of rolling county-owned timberland; the Coos County Forest. The forest is a working forest - originally established only to produce timber - and it has served as a critical revenue source for the County for decades. Characterized by a relatively small and stable population, Coos County has historically been dependent upon resource extraction to make ends meet, but now non-consumptive tourism such as mountain biking is providing the County with another, less intensive economic opportunity.
It was not all that long ago that the first mention of mountain bike trails arose amongst Coos County Staff, Commissioners, and Land Managers. Yet within months, overwhelming community support, local political advocacy and the cooperation of a once-reluctant land manager, all culminated to get the Whiskey Run Trail system put in the ground with record speed. Last summer when we visited, they already had ten miles of flowy singletrack weaving through shaded canopies of fir, spruce and alder. The riding is swoopy and fun with a plethora of natural features to pop off of, and enough trees and roots to keep you on your toes and polish your cornering game. Oh, and did we mention loam?
Since our visit, they’ve not put their shovels down and now boast roughly 16 miles of trails at Whiskey Run, complete with some more advanced trails, jump lines and features. And they aren’t anywhere near complete - with plans to weave another fifteen miles of trail through these coastal forests, Coos County has all intentions of making the Whiskey Run Trail network a must-ride destination for anyone cruising up or down the coast.
The network is up on Trailforks now, so be sure to get out there and ride it if you’re in the Coos Bay/Bandon area!
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morro bay, CA, United States
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If you like gnar you are very much a minority and quite frankly bike manafactures do not make bikes that suite this style of riding.
Does any one make a single crown Free Ride bike? Nope not one.
single crown free ride bike?? they are out there, you'll have to pull your head out of your ass to get any perspective though.
The trails I ride for the most part are not on any map. I have no desire to ride flow trails.
Trail builders , land managers and the data compiled from trail forks offer overwhelming evidence that the majority of people ride easy flow trails.
Check out Mt Fromme. North Shore.
Expresso and Bob sled both flow trails get 90 percent of the riders as shown on trail forks. Can't make this stuff up son.
What's a Squid ? Other than a marine creature?
And to be clear- I love Alsea. It's a blast, and Team Dirt does a killer job maintaining and building new stuff. Seriously awesome crew of people. I just take issue with over rating as it is a legitimate safety concern, just like under rating difficulty. I think a lot of the folks building that area were/are beginner level riders, which makes it easy to over estimate how difficult something actually is. I want to be clear me dissing the rating is not a dig on the trails. Like I said, I love Alsea and recommend it to most people visiting our area to ride.
Also, the newest trail, Misery Whip is about to open and it's awesome.
There is so much that goes on with creating a trail system that you may not be aware of, dealing with BLM, government officials, etc. way before considering trail designations and even though a trail would never be considered black by any of the riders who built it...it simply has to be labeled as such because in relation to the other trails in that system it is the "hardest" one so by default it's labeled black. Until the newest one actually is black and then they all get to be relabeled.
Sorry, I don’t mean to sound like I’m taking it personal, but I guess I am. I’ve put my time in building out there, and I take great pride in the progress that going on out there. The crew that has been involved of late is straight up killing it. Come check it out, Misery Whip is opening on the 22nd for the shuttle fundraiser. Come check it out, then give your revised feedback. Or, come out and help build. Yeah, come out and build and put your $.02 into the trail system, and make it what YOU want it to be.
I agree you need to pull your head out of your ass on the single crown freeride bikes..there are tons
Transition TR250
Specialized status 1
Specialized SX trail
Are just a few long before the word Enduro was coined and long travel bikes started to have lockouts on the forks pretty much any bike with a marizocchi 66 or rockshox lyrik RC2DH on it or any fork like that were put on freeride bikes.
Go back to NWD days and watch Darren rip his SX trail those were the days.
Still that fork would hold up to today's standards and SHRED
Yes the totem forgot about that fork
Also, didn't see you at our 6 Hour Whiskey Chaser Fundraiser race.... too "green" for you?
For those that care... There will be 30 miles of trail completed when this project reaches completion. Current contract is for 75% of funds for Blue and Black trails. (Keep in mind our ratings and all trail ratings differ based on all sorts of factors. A Black Trail here is probablg a Green in Squamish. Phase 1 was specifically designed for FAMILIES and people new to mt biking to get the youth, working professionals, and travellers to stop and pedal and enjoy our working forests. Heck, we are even starting a NICA team for kids now!
There are plans for fall-line black trails, more jumps, and technical stuff. (We dont rocks and massive vert here, it's just not what this area offers.) Not sure what "switchbacks" you're referring to, I'm assuming the green climbing trails which allow the rider to sessio the Black trails?
Also, who the heck cares?! More people on bikes is the goal. Negativity is not welcome around here, opinions are always welcome if you're a WRCMBA Club member and actually come out and volunteer. If you can refrain from complaining you should come back this winter and see what we've completed with Phase 2.
I'm swamped with trail building stuff in my area and likely won't be able to help, but I'll show ya mine if you show me yours! Still planning on coming down to ride this trail at some point.
Ooh also when I said "switchback-traverse-switchback" I'm referring to the style of trail design where a trail traverses into a 180 turnaround and repeats. It's something people use to get more mileage out of a hill when they really should just be focusing on quality of the trail. Very common with flow trails. Quality>quantity IMO. Sorry again if my comment was negative, from what I hear and see you guys are off to a great start and I can't wait to see this area develop.
Look up IMBA standards. Ode to Joy isn't the gnarliest black but it's a black run. If you want larger jumps come try the new Gift trail.
Those trails are not necessarily free. They are paid for by local property and business owners from property taxes and business taxes.
Always fun to hear the expert haters. As builders we know people want more and we try to work that in. But we have a job to do. We are moving in to steeper terrain and more complex trail texture with a lot more variability. There's so many factors involved in how the "free trails" get built.
We're building trail for lots of visitors, not just mid 20's expert riders in their tacomas and vans. I'm sorry but the goal is local trails, economic diversity for our community and for people willing to spend money in town on lodging and food. That was the main goal in the first phase.
The fact that we get to build steeper, rooty and challenging trail in phase II has been a bonus. Let's just keep in mind that there's nuance in everything.
Oregon builders are not "green" riders. Jeeze man, just take a pause before you write stupid things. We do our job, and trust me, we hear you loud and clear. We too want the gnar. We just dont always get to build it first.
Thanks again Pinkbike!
I would basically base every trail system on their own subjective merits. What is blue at Alsea could be green in Hood River. A "black" sinewy, hand built trail built in 1998 is obviously not going to match the ratings when you go to Black Rock.
Haven;'t ridden all of Oakridge, but I wouldn't call the main draw ATCA green by any means. The speed and exposure alone, if you are skilled rider, moves the raiting in to the blue square zone.