in Middleton Bike Park

The two-way entrance and exit trails with assorted convergences and intersections with the jump-line has served us tolerably over the years when traffic was pretty low.  But with the great new trails built in the last couple years and the connection to Blackhawk has come a lot more traffic.  Multiple riders on the jump-line have had close encounters with folks riding up the hill.  And the jump-line has it's own issues, primarily an appeal to riders with a very narrow range of abilities.  So the time has come for change.  We have worked with Landowski Trailworx to come up with a solution, and are currently raising money to have them build all or part of it.

The plan is to have distinct entrance and exit trails and a totally separate and re-built jump line.  There will be no at-grade crossings, but one cool spot where the jump-line will cross the exit trail on an elevated roller.  The line will be designed with features that increase in difficulty as the rider progresses down the line.  Above the wooden roller, everything will be easily rollable, accessible to an intermediate rider, and safe even for beginners, though advanced riders will be able to combine features to add challenge.  Immediately above the wooden roller, there will be a ‘bail’ option, allowing riders to merge onto the new egress trail and return to the top.  Below the wooden roller, the features are larger, and designed for more advanced riders, though they will be roll-able and safe for intermediates, and will allow such riders to progress in their skills.  There will be no gap jumps; all large jumps will be tabletops.  There will be easily identifiable options of varying difficulty, so that riders can work up to the biggest features.

Currently, we are waiting to hear back about a grant that will help pay for this, and CORP has some money in our coffers to contribute.  But that isn't enough for the whole project. How much of this gets built and how soon it happens depends on how much money we can raise.  Stay tuned for specific fundraising details, but you can always donate and specify a project.  And if you have ideas for other grants or sources of funding, please let us know here or contact a board member.  Thanks!

A note on the map:  Green is existing trail, Purple is new entrance trail, Red is new exit trail, and Blue is the new jump-line.

This looks great and I'm excited for the continual improvements at Pleasant View. But the city's proposed parking lot would conflict with the rebuild of the trail entrance. The city's proposal has the one and only entrance near the current single track exit. Have we confirmed the city will not force a different entrance and potentially cause conflicts with this proposal?

I would also like to propose that we create a bypass to avoid 2 way traffic by the large brush pile after the trail first enters the woods after the prairie section. That is a higher speed section with a blind corner going both ways and I usually get nervous in that section. We already saw some of that brush fall down onto the trail after a very heavy rain so a bypass would also build in a bypass in case that occurs again.

John O

Good questions.

We discussed the parking lot issue.  From what we can tell, that drawing is a very preliminary idea, with not a lot of support and no funding.  It doesn't seem worth it to accommodate something that may not happen for years or at all.  Additionally, it would be relatively easy to make some small changes to that plan to make it work with our plans.

As far as two-way trail, the long-term plan is to get rid of as much of it as we can.  There are some spots where we probably don't have space, but quite a bit where we do.  It would be worth it to sit down with a map and come up with a plan and some priorities.  We are limited by budget as far as professional builds, but less so if there are sections that we can hand-build.  If we get a few folks excited about it, there is a decent chance some could happen this year.  And I agree, the section you mention would be high on the list.  Something to talk about at this mornings work-day, anyway.

I'm curious if any plans are continuing for that high-speed blind corner.  If I'm thinking of the same spot (see drawing), it appears that the work of most of a reroute (at least a temporary fix) is done if it is ok to use the mowed section (green arrows).  The trail to be cut would then only be the blue arrow.

Just a thought.  I know a lot of you have put time in this, and there are rules to follow with the land use, but I wanted to share what I was thinking, especially with trail use picking up.

And of course I'd be happy to lend a hand if a trail work day is planned to address this issue.

Thanks! 

Patrick D

I'll let Dave, the trail steward, respond on the likelihood of there being re-routes other than the ingress/egress being discussed here.  To continue that discussion, go here: http://www.madcitydirt.com/index.php?topic=3740.0

As far as the ingress/egress, the city has asked us to move the entrance to the north side of the pump-track where the current exit is, and where John noted that the parking lot plans show it.  We've decided that the best way to do this and maximize the site's potential is to build single track along the fence to connect to the existing shared entrance, which will become two entrances, which will shrink the pump-track.  Given its current neglected state, the hope is that in the course of re-building it we can make it more fun, therefore more popular, therefore easier to maintain.  A bit of a bummer, and I resisted shrinking the pump-track initially, but it really isn't much fun now, and smaller and fun is better than bigger and a mess.  Also hoping that by agreeing to this we increase our odds of some funding help from the city.

In the good-news department, REI has awarded us a $4500 grant to help with this project, so we will definitely have the ingress/egress work done this spring.  How much we get done on the jump-line depends on how much more we can raise, and how much value-engineering we can do.