With half the FlowRide crew hailing from the Midwest, we’ve been pleasantly surprised to see the growth and enthusiasm for the gravity biking scene in Minnesota. We rolled into Duluth, MN to help Spirit Mountain introduce the local riders to our passion for flow. Our assignment in 2013? Construct a trail to cater to opposite ends of the cycling spectrum: those who catch a lift up to the top, and those who prefer the pain/gain of riding a bike up to their descent. We built our “Happy Camper” trail for both––to be a fun, fast, and friendly downhill green flow trail on weekends…and on weekdays, to be a heart-pumping, leg-burning cross-country climb for riders to earn their way up for a free ride downhill (since the lift doesn’t run then.) In Duluth their majority hardtail and xc crowd look to the rollers and berms of a green flow trail to help regulate/generate speed and then to progress and learn the rhythms and speeds that let them turn a double roller into a single jump. From the reports we hear, our “Happy Camper” trail has become a hands-down favorite for a new crowd that’s schooling themselves to step up to the blues and blacks designed for Spirit Mountain Bike Park’s serious downhill adrenaline seekers.
“Happy Camper” quickly and safely showing new riders the ropes, 2014 saw us back at Spirit Mountain to help expand their intermediate and advanced freeride and jump-trail offerings. As much as we love green trails for their ability to school and shape early experiences positively, it’s blue and black trails that push the creative limits of the builder along with the physical limits of the rider. So we designed blue/black “Wild Cat” and “Boss Hog” to the limits––some of the most action-packed gravity trails we’ve ever built. Access to our creations is gained by riding the upper half of “Happy Camper.” Signs point to where you cut over to “Wildcat” for full-on freeride action. After a short, speedy rhythm section, your options come fast: Blue or Black? You choose your “option” lines: Up Over & Off Massive Boulder/or Circle Boulder Lip & Air Drop onto it a storey below? Then two monstrous berms catch and redirect momentum to Option Zone #2: Off Blue Jump/or Up, Over & Off Black Rock? “Wildcat” then rejoins “Happy Camper,” allowing you to wind on down to its finish or––“Boss Hog” Ahead!––step your game up a notch by dropping into this short & definitely sweet black trail, where you face mandatory gap jumps up to 20 feet in length.
Surviving two weeks of building in near swamp-like conditions at the top of the hill, we were ready to undertake “Progression Zone” at the base of Spirit Mountain. Designed to test and develop riders’ skills, it previews terrain and features encountered when riding lift-access trails up top: beginner rollers/berms, wood ladder bridges/drops, expert jumps, all with a high enough fun factor to keep you swinging by for more. Weather extremes and unpredictability in this region made these some of our most challenging builds ever, but it has tested our passion and mettle as trail builders and proven to us once again that “if you build it, they will come.” We’re happy to say that if you’ve got an appetite for gravity, our top-to-bottom FlowRide trail experience of riding Happy Camper to Wildcat to Boss Hog to the Progression Zone will satisfy it!
