West Feleciana Sports Park in St. Francisville is home to one of the best trails in the area: The Beast...and The Beast is tough to tame! The trails were built by and are maintained by BRAMBA, and in my opinion it is the best of their three systems. The only negative about this trail system is that its located 45 minutes north of Baton Rouge, making it more difficult to get volunteers rounded up for trail days.

I finally found elevation changes that are similar to what we see in the Midwest...to the tune of 500-600 feet per lap. One lap around the loop is about 6 miles, but the locals say that it feels more like 8 miles due to all the climbing involved, and I agree! The trails attack the hills in a different manner than most FORC trails, which utilize bench cuts and traverses to make their way up the hills...The Beast attacks the hills by going straight up! This results in steep, rooty climbs that are very technical, and there are a lot of them!

The trend of sandy soils continued, but only on the lower portion of the park running along Alexander Creek. The sand that I encountered at The Beast was deeper than the other trail systems, and there was more of it, allowing riders to get a feel for letting the front wheel float and meander a bit. The upper portion contains the majority of the climbs and is made up of a typical timber soil which provides good traction.

I managed to do three laps at The Beast on Sunday, and was feeling pretty spent by the end of the day...definitely a good trail for race training as well as technical skill building.

The trailhead looks so innocent...


Shortly after dropping in, you come to the "Carpet Climb" ...very steep, and it keeps on going!




Did I mention they have large Oak trees in south Louisiana?


Steep, fun downhill bridge section...



Tough rooty climb around a corner


The uphills are steep, but the downhills are steeper!


More rooty corner climbs...


There are quite a few ravines that only require pumping, like this one. Fun trails!




The trails are laid out over this valley...up and down, rinse and repeat.




This climb was my nemesis...finally cleaned it on my last attempt.


The Escalator...drops down into a narrow spine between sections of creek bed.

The approach to The Escalator.





Immediately after the escalator comes a long climb up a soggy trough that Strava says averages over 21%

Here is where the climb get especially soft and rooty...

It dries out toward the top, but remains steep!


After the climb, the trail drops down into a string of bridges and benchcut trail, making up the Ewok Canyon!


The switchback climb takes riders back topside...these corners are very tight and steep, requiring some serious balance to clean.



More bridges...


Don't get bucked off the trail!


The beach!



Hope you enjoyed the tour of The Beast!