Tag: MTB-Trail

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Oops, we did it again… Mountain Biking Finale Ligure

Dropping on Kill Bill into the next turn
Dropping on Kill Bill into the next turn
Just two weeks after the Enduro World Series came to Finale Ligure to stage the final round of the season we continued our series of trips to Finale.  This splendid, complete package that Finale has to offer is simply hard to beat: besides the unique  Trail network with its flowy, roller-coaster-like trails there are nice beaches, cool cafes, good restaurants, plenty of shops, historic buildings, organic olive oil plantations, fantastic ice cream and much more to excite the whole family.

The local committee to maintain and develop the trails has done an outstanding job over the last years and has shaped or reshaped numerous purpose built trails.  There are plenty of alternatives when you start your descent at the NATO-base or from Melogno.

The Kill Bill lines down to Calice Ligure are a thrilling alternative to the Caprazoppa Trails to finalize a tour from Melogno to Finale.  Kill Bill is a sort of climax to the Roller Coaster Trail from Melogno as it is even steeper and tighter.

The Supergroppo Trail starts from the old NATO-Base but is longer than the other runs and includes as well some uphill parts.  It was built in 2014 and served as an epic stage in the Enduro World Series race. Altogether 11 km of beautifully flowing singletrack trail that ends in Orco Feglino.

I have the strong feeling that this wasn’t my trip to Finale Ligure…

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Mountain Biking The Great Outdoors in Europe – Ål, Norway

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The glacier-shaped Norwegian landscape is unique and stunningly beautiful.  It can be labelled as the Great Outdoors of Europe.  But what about mountain biking in this rugged terrain?

There are numerous great MTB-spots.  In  the Telemark in Southern Norway you can ride for miles on smooth granite rock and several skiing resorts have remodeled their slopes into bike parks in summertime.  There is a cool app for the smart phone called trailguide.no, that shows all the MTB-spots and helps you navigating the routes.

We chose Ål in Hallingdal as our MTB-hot spot.  Ål is about half way between Bergen and Oslo and it hosts the Hillbilly Huckfest, a big air event, in July.  Knut, the organizer of the Hillbilly Huckfest, helped us to hit some of Ål’s  MTB-trails.  So we gave the Hillbilly Enduro Trail literally a trial. Knut drove us up the hill to a place called Nyset where we hiked our bikes up for about 15 minutes to cross Nysetfjellet and to gradually descent back to Ål.

Due to the rain on the previous days the trail was in fact a creek in some sections.  And with the trillions of rocks the trail was quite challenging.  After a while we found our flow while the trail was still soaked.   On one of the ladders across a swampy spot I lost balance and had to step off the pedal with the consequence of wet and cold feet for the rest of the ride.

All in all we had a cool 15 km long trail adventure that encompassed most of the typical Norwegian characteristics: lots of rocks and water, natural beauty, really nice people & fun.  Skål.

Kjerag Bolten
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Carezza. Mountain Biking The Dolomites, Italy

Carezza WallRide

The Dolomites feature the most dramatic mountain range in the Alps.  That’s why I’ve been there a couple of times for work attending photo shootings.  The bizarre rock formations and the via ferratas  – often a remainder from World War I – make the Dolomites the classic hiking and climbing destination on the Southern side of the Alps.  Of course, this is as well a great area for mountain biking and you can even combine biking and climbing.

The legendary rides in the Dolomites tend to circumnavigate a mountain range.  The Sella Ronda is perhaps the most popular tour as you can do it on a road bike, on a mountain bike and in winter on skis.  I did the tour around the Latemar with an total elevation gain of about 2.900 meters and total distance of 56 km/35 miles.  With the usage of 3 lifts, the ride wasn’t that tough, though.

Carezza Flow Trail
Latemar Range

The trails are a mix of single track, dual track, gravel roads and small portion of paved road.  Some steep, root strewn, challenging sections, blended with easy trails and forest roads make the Latemar circumnavigation a great, scenic ride that can be varied for different skill levels.

On the Latemar Tour you would use the new Carezza cable car to avoid most of the gnarly climb up the Catinaccio (Rosegarden) Range to the Carezza Pass.  However, going down the freshly built Carezza Flow Trail is so much fun that you want to use the Carezza lift multiple times.

What a blessing that our hotel in Welschnofen was directly located on the mountain and literally on the Carezza Flow Trail.  So, all those berms, jumps and wall rides – that offer great downhill fun even for novices – became a sort of daily routine to me for one week.

According to the legend the rocky walls of the Rosegarden are King Laurin’s sunken kingdom.  Noble trails, I’d like to say…

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The Best Mountain Bike Trail

So, after riding all these renowned, magnificent trails this year, which one was best?  Websites like singletracks.com or mtbproject.com rank the world’s best mountain bike trails based on the ratings of users, so I used these rankings as an orientation.  However, it is obvious that those highest ranked trails aren’t necessarily the best for everyone.  It pretty much depends on the criteria and actually on personal preferences.  Technical difficulty makes a trail challenging but not great.  And the beauty of nature is even more difficult to rate.  Anyway, here’s my take:

Whole Enchilada, UPS
Thunder Mountain Trail
Corviglia Flow Trail
McKenzie River Trail

Best trails with both breathtaking nature and trail fun are

  1. Thunder Mountain Trail (near Bryce Canyon, CO)
  2. McKenzie River Trail (Central Oregon, OR)
  3. Tahoe Rim Trail & Flume Trail (Lake Tahoe, NV)

Best trails in terms of fun and flow are

  1. Corviglia Flow Trail (St.Moritz, Switzerland)
  2. Bend Trails, e.g. Tiddlywinks (Bend, OR)
  3. Sandy Ridge Trail System (Portland, OR)

Best trails in terms of overall experience are

  1. Whole Enchilada (Moab, UT)
  2. Melogno Roller Coaster and  NATO Base (Finale Ligure, Italy)
  3. MAG7 Trails (Moab, UT)
  4. Phil’s World (Cortez, CO)
  5. 18 Road Trails (Fruita, CO)

Although I am tempted to add more categories to list even more great trails I think it is better to stop here.  My bottom line is: The best trails are where mountain bikers are to make them great trails, by painting dots on rocks, by shaping berms or by just riding on…

 

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Season Finale in Finale

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Finale Ligure (Italy) is probably my favourite mountain biking mecca in Europe and fall is just the perfect season to be there.  The temperature is still warm but not as hot as in summer.  And as well the water temperature at the beach is still decent for a refreshing swim after a long ride.  The combination of awesome singletrack trails, scenic landscape, culture and beach is unique.

After hitting several of the best MTB-trails in the world this summer, Finale Ligure seemed to be the adequate spot for my season finale.

The trails from Melogno, Pian dei Corsi and Terre Rosse are rollercoaster-like.  In fact, at least 2 trails in Finale are even called rollercoaster.  Pedaling up all the way to the old NATO-base to access the fantastic downhill runs to Orco Feglino and then up again to descend to Final Borgo is an epic ride of 46 km and 1750 meters of elevation gain.  So, I was happy to enjoy some shuttle rides in addition to the epic loop.  Thanks, Hendrik and Isa, for the lift and the company!

LeManie2NATO
LeManie24hVarigotti
Melogno_Rollercoaster

 

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Magnificent Flow on the Rocks – Moab

I wrote about our MAG 7 ride already in an earlier post (Moab – Mountain Bike Mecca), however, now I have put this video together that shows a bit more of the magnificent flow on these magnificent trails.

Going back up on Gemini Bridges Rd. after Bull Run brings you to the trailhead of the Getaway Trail which simply means extended fun and pleasure with “flow on the rocks” for all levels of riders.  The combination with the Moab Brands (Bar M) Trails makes it an epic but throughout pleasurable ride.

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Monarch Crest Epic – Salida, CO

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Elevated Biking would be my two-word-summary of the Monarch Crest Epic ride.

The trail starts at the Monarch Pass in an altitude of 11312 ft/3448 m and on the first miles of the ride you continue to gain elevation to an altitude of about 12000 ft/3646 m.  The Monarch Crest Trail ascents and descents moderately, but ascents are in the beginning a little longer than descents and let you gasp for air unless you have slept for weeks in a hypobaric chamber.  The elevated epic ride is made possible (or better enjoyable) by a shuttle service that carries bikes and riders from Poncha Springs to Monarch Pass for 20$.

The Monarch Crest Trail leads to the Continental Divide Trail, then to Silver Creek Trail that turns into Rainbow Trail.  Including the fast slight downhill ride back to Poncha Springs on Hwy285 the total mileage of the ride is about 35 (55 km).  Over the length of the ride you experience very different conditions: singletrack and doubletrack, surfaces from smooth packed dirt or sand to loose, bumpy rocks and finally to paved road.

The ride is most fun in the lower part of the Rainbow Trail as it winds alongside the hills and crosses numerous ravines with little creeks.  Altogether, this epic ride is perhaps not distinctly spectacular, but it leaves you with a feeling of deep satisfaction for a while.

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Crested Butte, Colorado

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Crested Butte is a ski resort in fairly high altitude in the most beautiful alpine scenery.  And this is basically what the mountain biking there is about.

My feeling was that Crested Butte is not as MTB-affine as e.g. Park City.  Of the many different types of taxes and fees that were added to the room rate on our hotel bill not a lot could have gone into MTB-infrastructure.  There is a downhill park, but there is not really a coherent trail system or purpose built trails.

The classic ride is the 401 trail.  As a loop from Gothic Road, it starts with a climb in high altitude over 11000 ft/3400 m that makes it breathtaking before the views will cause the same again.

A favorite ride among locals is Doctor’s Park.  Ideally done as shuttle, it wasn’t an option for us travelling in one car.  A shuttle service did not exist, due to constraints of the local authorities (according to the website of a shuttle company that wasn’t in operation).

We finally did the Strand Hill Trail with moderate climbing and nice singletrack between birch trees and alpine meadows.  A typical Crested Butte ride, yet moderate in length and altitude.

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Phil’s World near Cortez, CO

VIRB Picture

Phil’s World is a trail system that offers plenty of loop options for rides of different length.  The trails are one directional to avoid oncoming traffic.  What they all have in common is that they are zippy and fun, the famous Rib Cage Trail with berms and jumps in particular.

We did an evening ride of about 10 km and a ride the next morning of about 20 km.  Without really knowing the history of the trail system, I just like to say: Thank you Phil for the pleasure!

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Moab – The Whole Enchilada

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Whole Enchilada is the most raved about MTB-ride in and outside of Moab. And as the name suggests, it has it all: high-altitude alpine riding, smooth slalom berms, slickrock, views, technical challenges, etc.  It can be ridden as an epic loop with a length of 61 miles/100 km and a total elevation gain of 8300 feet/2500 meters.

For some reason we chose the shuttle ride option (like almost everybody else) that saved us almost about 1800 meters of climbing and costed only 25$.   There is still a climbing part at the beginning up to Burro Pass that made us gasp and feel a bit dizzy due to the high altitude of 11.150 ft/3.400 m.

The trail from Burro Pass down is steep with some switchbacks and loose rocks, but all rideable.  As the vegetation changes from alpine firs to birch trees the trail gets faster.  In Hazzard County the trail is zippy and fun as it is winding through wide open plains.  The Kokopelli Trail which is more a road than a trail leads to UPS and LPS, the upper and lower Porcupine Singletrack.  This is the best section: the trail goes up and down slickrock with fast and flowy sections on packed sand surface.  Views are stunning as the trail runs along the Porcupine Rim.   At the intersection with the Sandflats Rd the Porcupine Rim Trail starts, a gnarly Jeep track that beats you up.  Hard to enjoy.  
Eventually, when you are well shaken, the Porcupine Rim Trail becomes a singletrack again.  This is where the fun comes back. The trail turns towards the Colorado River Gorge and comes up with some tricky technical challenges and spits you finally out at a parking lot at the river.  The paved bike path along the Colorado River brings you back into town with sore wrists from the hundreds of drops that you did on this 35 mile/55 km ride and a big, big smile on your face.

Whole Enchilada, UPS