Recently, Diamondback Team rider Eric Porter ventured east to his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky to check out the insanely cool Mega Cavern. The Mega Cavern is mega, indeed. Boasting 320,000 square feet of space, the Cavern houses 45 trails, jump lines, pump tracks and more!
Here's Porter's take on the trip: "
I haven’t been back to my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky to visit friends and family in about seven years. Between a busy travel schedule and having kids, it just wasn’t in the cards. As soon as I heard about the Mega Cavern opening and that my friend Joe Prisel was building it, I was in! Fast forward to February 2015 and I flew out with my family for the soft opening of the park and got a few fun days of riding a rad bike park 100 feet underground on my Diamondback Assault!"
"
The crew did an amazing job with the build and is already working on phase two, with another phase following that. This park really does live up to the hype, it’s super fun for dirt jumps as well as mile long laps on the trail bike. Even saw a guy ripping around on his CX bike! They haven’t had the grand opening yet, so make sure to check with the staff for hours before heading down."
Be sure to check out more info on Mega Cavern on
their website.Video: Justin Olson
MENTIONS @diamondbackbikes @ericporter
@justinolsen
My biggest complaint is that my son couldn't come with me. He's 5 and the age minimum is 7, which I was alright with. However, I saw a couple of kids his age in there. Granted those kids were ripping pretty good, my son loves riding the BMX track at EP Tom Sawyer Park and would have loved the Mega Cavern. I know the kids I saw were his age because he has ridden with them at the BMX track. I thought the double standard and high price combo was enough to keep us away for a while.
Cheers, beer:
The XC "trails" they call them are really just short sections that have fun features in them. However, I wish they would have just strung together a 1 or 2 mile trail with some fun flow in it instead of the short "feature rich" trails they have. I think things will get tuned up and it will continue to get better. For us in the South, it is a God send given the limited winter riding season.
I feel I must give some of these commenters the correct info about what's really going on with this "bike park". First I want to thank Joe Prisel for what he has built in the Megacaverns and everything else he has built--as it has given me joy and taken me places I never thought I'd actually see......BUT Joe has nothing to do with how this place is run and that's where the problems start. This place was built as an attraction to the megacaverns-kind of like a rollercoaster is to Disneyland. Also, the dirt was free and they only employ like 5 people for the bike park.
The hours of operation are 10-6 during the week and 10-8 on weekends....They do not offer season passes......what you see in the video is what you get. The 4-5 jump lines are super dialed and a ton of fun-but as for anything else (pump track, dual slalom, xc loops, etc...) it's just not there "yet". I say that as, they had plenty of time to build features and plenty of experience to pull from--I just don't think the owners wanted to pay for that-and am skeptical of the future.
Now, I've lived in Boulder/Wheat Ridge and got to experience Valmont bike park in all its glory and Barnum park, so I may be a little bias, because it's so awesome-with being free and open dawn til dusk. So, I expected to pay for this "bike park" but I did not expect them to deny local rider access as they have (i.e, hours and prices). I could probably write another 2-3 pages on how disappointed for the local kids I am-and all the benefits to local communities having pump tracks,bike trails, etc....But I'm just going to look forward and hopefully will not be disappointed with a proposed outdoor bike park (FREE) called Turkey Run--which is "supposed" to have pump tracks and progressive trails--but so was the MegaCaverns.
Thanks for reading if you made it--and kudos to you--I feel better that it's all expressed and out there...Support local KYMBA and the Parklands so Turkey Run happens
#rhyme
Edit: Hetfield beat me too it
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_Cavern
Christmas lights: www.google.com/search?q=louisville+mega+cavern+lights+under+louisville&espv=2&biw=1920&bih=1075&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=OiLuVNn-PMORyATmhIDQCw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg#imgdii=_