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Highbridge Park (Manhattan) freeride trail work last Sat...

jbogner

Monkey
May 8, 2006
315
0
Fort Collins, CO
Huge thanks to everyone who came out and made this our best and biggest all-mountain-biker-volunteer work day. We built some crazy, awesome stuff that's going to be a BLAST to ride.

Here's the trail in a nutshell:

5 foot intro drop into a sweeping berm that shoots you up into a left-hand turn down a steep rock face. Carry speed down to the doublebuilt up on the rock, then make a tricky (currently flat, but will be bermed) turn into a nice tech section with a little rock roller and a left-handed berm interrupted by a log drop into a 3-footer off the rock. Carry speed across the slope and you've got options- the low line that goes right into the AS drop (which you can roll, or launch and land on the tranny about 10 feet below), the middle line (tricky off-camber rock to 4-footer that shoots you right into the AS drop), or the upper line, which climbs through some rocks and sets you up for a steep rock roller to a 3 foot drop off the table rock and to the end of the trail. Climb back up the hill, and repeat. ;)

Photos courtesy of Juan:

The intro drop, before:



Intro drop after:





Christening the intro drop (Jim on a TMX):



The AS drop at the bottom (takeoff is the small rock under the guys standing mid-pic, and you can see the groomed out landing- it's about 10 feet from the takeoff to the tranny, and is roll-able if you don't want to launch it):




Of course, as always, everything is steeper than it looks in the photos. Good stuff. We had 22 volunteers show up. Huge thanks to:

Mike Vitti (sick4surf)
Jim Dellavalle (who drove in from PA just to work on trails with us!)
Antonio (AS)
Ross
Simon (Gumby)
Kevin
Iggy
Eric (Bicycle Rider)
Jason (B4L)
Scotty B
Rob (rpet)
Chris (csoskin)
Bob (bunkerchunks)
Yoni
Juan (xredhitx)
Karen
Junior
David
Charles
Bob (BMXer)
Ron (GT Rider)

Can't believe this stuff is right here in Manhattan. The trails will open to riding most likely in late November/December, so keep an eye out for our official announcement (and come on out and help build!)...
 

jbogner

Monkey
May 8, 2006
315
0
Fort Collins, CO
I got a question on a PM about the legality of this. Let me assure everyone that we're partnering with NYC Parks to build these first legal mtb trails in NYC Parks. This is the culmination of a three-year process- countless meetings, lobbying by the president of IMBA (who met with the NYC Parks commissioner a couple years ago), presentations by IMBA to NYC Parks officials, the direct involvement of the president of CLIMB (the Long Island MTB club), lots of legal maneuvering, etc. The trails we're building are fully sanctioned by NYC Parks.

The ONLY parks where riding will be legal are Highbridge Park and Cunningham Park (for now- if we're successful here, we will expand and hope to have trails in all five boroughs within the next few years). This trail is part of a larger project of trails in Highbridge, consisting of Beginner through Expert XC trails, this freeride trail, and a dirt jump park (yes, legal dirt jumps in NYC!). Construction is being funded by a grant we received from NY State for $100,000. It's completely legit!

Here we are with Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe at the press conference at Highbridge last fall:



Follow the link for pics of us leading a group of 250 volunteers from JP Morgan through trailbuilding:

http://web.mac.com/jbogner/iWeb/JB%27s_MTB_Photos/Highbridge%20trail%20building.html

So I'd encourage you all to check out NYCMTB.com, and get involved helping us build. This is an incredible opportunity to build trails, do it right, and prove that we can maintain them successfully.
 

tmx

aka chromegoddess
Mar 16, 2003
1,683
2
Portland
Jim D's also nursing a smashed up hand I think too, right? Top bloke.

Props to the whole crew and the Parks Dept for all the efforts. Amazing to think of a full downhill run in NYC.