noheavennohell

Awesome piece Brice! Most of the trails in Duluth were built after I left the midwest (WI native) but it is a beautiful city and one of the few places I would consider living if we ever ended up in the upper midwest again. Between Duluth, the Camba trail system in northern WI, Marquette, and Copper Harbor, you could really link up an epic week of riding in Northern MN/WI/MI.

To this day, Seasons and Life Cycles are still the two best MTB movies ever made, IMO. Nothing in the past ten years has come close.

I've been racing enduro on Time MX4s for 4 years now. The composite body absorbs rock strikes if you manage to catch one, they shed mud and clip in/out smoother than any pedal I've ever used, and if you get em on sale online, they're dirt cheap, I've gotten em for $40 a pair. They're the only clipless pedal I've used that I can foot out in turns regularly over and over again and get in and out without thinking or trying, almost as if I'm riding flats. I've tried the higher end pedals in the MX line are lighter, but they tend to be far less durable, I've cracked multiple spring axles. The MX4s are the cheap sweet spot.

@pbraunstein: I think he was complaining that there were fallen trees not cleared on rock gardens, not the smoothness of trails. I like Creek, but the last time I was there mid season I stood in long lift lines to ride the rocks on the L side of the mountain, and half the trails in that area had trees down and weren't taken care of as well. 90% of riders there ride the same 2 or 3 jump lines all day, the rocky side of a mountain is usually a ghost town. "Rides DH park bike on the same 3 flow trails that you could ride a hardtail on and doesn't ride anywhere else on the mountain." - most of creek

Good to see the MASS series get some press, it's well organized, and super close and convenient for PA, NJ, and MD folks. Glen Park is legit fast and loose ripping, Blue is already well known for DHs and enduros, and Bear Creek has some burly rock descents, and fast chutes with some flat sprints mixed in. Steel City is........pedally. I've never raced Raven, but I've heard pedally as well. I race stuff a lot further away, but I'm still very glad to have a solid local series to race that I don't have to drive 4+ hours to get to though, for sure.

@briceshirbach: The Shed is going through some changes, mostly for the better. We had our first legitimately sanctioned DH trail work day last weekend, and the local advocacy group is working with the city to build more trails and maintain the ones we have after decades of being rogue. It's an awesome time to ride the shed, message me if you're coming down and we can show you some killer loops :)

Awesome piece Brice, so happy to see so many of my friends and so many trails that I've been racing and riding on make PB. The WVES is one of the most authentic and hardcore enduro series in the country, long days on the bike, backwoods riding, parties every night. Benji and John and co. built something truly awesome over the past few years, and I highly recommend it to any enduro racer on or near the east coast.

The Frederick watershed could have an entire article devoted to our trails alone. The most under the radar world class trail system in the entire US, imo.

As someone who rides and races on these trails and is friends with the builders, I definitely appreciate the exposure to what WV has to offer!! It rains in WV. A lot. But most of the trails can handle the traffic in the rain without much difficulty. The GoPro doesn't do the trail justice, that left line Brice took at the triple drop is sketchy as sh*@t, especially in the wet. The two drops before that are nothing to sneeze at either.

@RideAllamuchy: A friend who raced his first ESC race ever at Glen Park last weekend had a chip that refused to register at the end of stages multiple times. He lost a minute+ due to it, and after reporting it to a ESC official, they replied that "Some chips are more finicky than others." I've had this same thing happen with the chip system at ESC and other races, and so have multiple people I ride and race with. For a series as well-attended as ESC, they should not be using this system anymore.