Anthony Smith headed to Costa Rica with Big Mountain Adventures for a Bike Mag article. Inside you'll find some of the coolest photos and an article from Chris detailing the experience. It's well worth the read.
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Photos: Anthony Smith
Words: Chris Winter
Courtesy of Bike Magazine
One thing that makes our sport unique is the different natural landscapes that we traverse on our bikes. Some of us ride the ancient Appalachians and its mixed forests, others spend weekends pedaling the sub-alpine of the Rocky Mountains while flowy Arizona singletrack starts on the end of some of our streets. In certain regions the land changes dramatically from one town to the next and a single ride can offer staggering diversity.
For most of us, Costa Rica conjures up images of lounging half naked in the sun on a sandy beach sipping on a cold cerveza after a surf session. Up from the hot coastlines of the Pacific and Caribbean are vast and rugged rainforest-clad mountains and active volcanoes make up one of the most biodiverse places in the world. Its not uncommon to hear a noisy Mantled howler monkey in the forest canopy, or see a red-eyed tree frog on a giant leaf, or a colorful Scarlet Macaw parrot in the sky above. What people dont know, along with the amazing biodiversity lies an amazing web of nearly unknown hand-built trails.
Paulo Valle (trail builder and riding guide) is just like the rest of us, he loves to ride trails and hunt for new zones. His backyard is different than anything that we have in North America. Valle, you see, lives in San Jose, Costa Rica.
As it is for most mountain bikers, land use is a challenge, and its no exception in this Central American country where every inch of the land is privately owned or protected and peoples idea of mountain biking consists of dirt roads. To ride good singletrack Valle has had to build his own, and to do this hes had to network with landowners to earn their trust. Sculpting singletrack in the remote, steep and dense rainforest is no easy task. Maintaining these trails is a whole other matter in a place where tremendous buckets of water fall during the rainy season, and plants grow like theyre on steroids. After the rains stop, Valle and his team of machete-wielding locals disappear into the forest to clear the new growth and shape the newly eroded sections so that bikes can flow down the mountains. Considering the great effort that has gone into building and the lack of bikes that the trails see, one feels privileged to ride good singletrack in Costa Rica.
In his proud and understated manner, Valle has designed and diligently built an impressive web of fun and technical trails over the years. His creations reflect the way that he rides; strong like an ox on the climbs and equally so on the descents. Dont expect to find a map or to drop into a San Jose to lead you to the goods, Valles had to keep his bounty under the radar to satisfy the landowners and keep the masses from schralping it. There is an exception however; you can explore the unique landscape of Costa Rica on Valles trails with the man himself by contacting Whistler-based guiding company Big Mountain Adventures (Big Mountain Camps) who offer downhill and all-mountain trips exclusively with Valle.
From your backyard trail to Valles, we are all inherent explorers and we long to ride our bikes in new terrain.
To see the full photo article and ride report, head over here!
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