Nice work!

[Trevize1138]

Finally brought my bike down while visiting the folks and rode this trail. Nice work on this, FORKers!

I was impressed that the longest, continuous loop was beginner trail. I believe beginner/intermediate singletrack is entirely under-rated and having a 2 mile loop of fast, flowy trail is a great thing. I could take my 60-year-old dad here for a couple loops around that and not worry. I also took a "hot" lap just around that beginner loop and saw some potential for good speed once I got to know the turns better.

The expert loops certainly lived up to their classification. I was glad I picked a 32:20 ratio for my SS otherwise I would have stalled out on a couple of those super-steep climbs. Only comment I'd have for some of those expert loops would be to consider a bit more sustainable design as braking bumps and rain ruts are starting to form on some trail that's a bit too straight or close to the fall-line. I don't know how long these trails have been around but I'm sure they don't get anywhere near the traffic I've seen on the ones in Minneapolis. If they did, the braking bumps would have gotten bad pretty darn quick! Perhaps that's something you guys will be more able to "get away with", though.

The Sugarbottom loop had the best flow of the whole trail, I thought! Another example of how intermediate trail can be some of the most fun and under-rated.

Finally, there's some awesome terrain to work with here! First thing I thought of when I saw all the drainages in the first expert loops was the new "Luge" section at Lebanon Hills in Eagan, MN. Basically, it's a series of fast, downhill berms banking up the walls of a drainage. Any low spots that are continually wet you just bridge over. They figured out some tricks to doing it sustainably in MN and it's really damn fun. Something to think about, maybe.

I'll try to get out there once more before I head back to MN Wednesday night. Working remotely so I'll either need to zip on down during a longer lunch or after 5.

[SweetSVT99]

I'm glad you enjoyed SBP. Tons of FORCers have put in hour and hour building and maintaining singletrack that everyone can enjoy, and I think the goal has been pretty well met.

As far as the sustainable part...I'm assuming you are referring mostly to L.T. There are a couple sections that we knew were questionable when we built them, but have actually held up a bit better than expected. That area of SBP is so steep it was quite a challenge to put trail in that we were 100% comfortable would be sustainable.

[Trevize1138]

I'm glad you enjoyed SBP. Tons of FORCers have put in hour and hour building and maintaining singletrack that everyone can enjoy, and I think the goal has been pretty well met.

As far as the sustainable part...I'm assuming you are referring mostly to L.T. There are a couple sections that we knew were questionable when we built them, but have actually held up a bit better than expected. That area of SBP is so steep it was quite a challenge to put trail in that we were 100% comfortable would be sustainable.

If the planets ever align right and my schedule allows me next time I'm in the area I'll gladly volunteer to push dirt around! :banana: What night of the week you have trailwork? Don't think my parents will be moving any time soon so I may as well do my part for my trail away from home.

As for sustainable vs. otherwise, I'm doing my own "experiment" in that with a trail I'm building in southern, central MN that will be lucky to get 1/10th the traffic of SBP. So, I'm not worrying so much about being 100% sustainable, either. Still, seems like I always end up re-building or re-routing something to be more of a sustainable design usually due to better riding/flow issues! Kinda funny, that.