Getting Rad in Southwest Washington

Dec 16, 2011 at 11:15
by Joseph Rager  
An eight year process in the making with countless hurdles, successes, and failures...come spring of 2012 a new legal DH trail is about to emerge in Southwest, WA!!!

This project is no ordinary trail build and in fact it is the first of its kind on Washington State land. This is a DNR sanctioned, legal, user specific, one way, trail on public land!.

A long time a go in a land far far away....well maybe not that far but defiantly a long time ago...a rouge group of Freeriders and DH Racers who live in the Portland and Vancouver area banded together to form the Cold Creek Mountain Bikers (CCMB). Many years ago they adopted the Cold Creek Trail which is an existing 7 miles of trail that starts at the top of Larch mountain and descends 3000’ to near the Rock Creek Campground. They adopted this trail to show that mountain bikers were committed to maintaining both the existing multi-use and the proposed DH trails.


One of the more well know spots on the Cold Creek Trail - Flint Stone
photo


At first the process was daunting as there have been a lot of hurdles and changes within the DNR. Infact there has been a major changing of the guard in the last 4 years. For the first years there was nothing but empty promises and major frustrations. I have to give a special shout out to Jason Ding who was on the original volunteer planning committee and sat through countless planning meetings with the DNR laying a lot of the foundations. The groups’ butted heads over the existing trail issues and no movement on the DH Trail. Larch Mountain was infamous for its trails. I t had everything from the legal multi-use super D like Cold Creek, Tarbell, and Chinook trails to the hundreds of undesignated (illegal) trails like the Cannibal and the Reaper which have long been decommissioned. Larch is located 35 minutes northeast of Portland so it is one of the closest state forests to the metro area which makes it prime for both recreation and illegal activities. The perfect landscape for a long term recreation plan to meet the needs of the public and solve practices that were harmful to the resources.

With the changing of the guard at the DNR we were lucky enough, in the Pacific Cascade Region, to get Brian Poehlien – District Manager and Jessica Kimmick - Recreation Manager. These folks immediately recognized, on several fronts, that we had a big problem in this region, and if we didn’t solve it would only get worse. The metro population will only continue to grow in this area. One very important realization was that there were several user groups that needed to be addressed and we were one of them! Out of their vision was born the Western Yacolt Burn Recreation Plan which you can read about here: DNR Plan

Jessica Kimmick our Recreation Manager out Helping us build trail!
Building new Trail

Basically this recreation plan addresses both motorized and non-motorized (4x4, Motorcycles and ATV, and Mountain Bike) use of the State forest. It provides close to 70 miles of top quality, new, and managed trail systems for all the user groups. It also closes down or adopts a lot of the undesignated trails and provides a sustainable path forward.

The excitement and support of the DNR staff has been nothing short of amazing and has made this very challenging process much more bearable and successful than in previous attempts. In addition to this improvement the CCMB formed the DHC (Down Hill Committee) about 2 years ago that has taken on this project and will see it through to completion. The DHC includes Mark Murphy, Aaron Lee, Max Miller, Eric Albers, and JR Rager. We also have expanded and most recently added Steve O to the committee. We are getting huge support from other local and long time shredders like Cole Pruitt, Dunk, and Joel Armstrong. Massive respect to all the user groups like the Cold Creek Mountain Bikers and NWTA who have been a huge help in this process! I also can’t say enough about good people Like Skip at Dan’s Tractor and Rentals and Terry Craig’s Employer Who have donated their machines and time.

The day we GPS'd the Line...its officially on....
Building new Trail

We started turning dirt almost 1 year ago and today almost have a finished product. We expect to have these trails open by May of 2012.

Jerry D at the First Blood chutes. We cut out over 100 logs like this during construction of this trail.
Building new Trail

The Friday Crew! These guys were out every Friday for 8 months!
Building new Trail

NWTA crew - These guys move dirt and in general have been a great support to us.
Building new trail

Lots of volunteer hours. well over 2000 hours in this trail.
Building new Trail

several portions of this trail ended up being machine built even after we hand build as we realized the size of the features and berms needed to maintain speed and flow were beyond building by hand in a reasonable time frame


About the trail: Phase 1 of the new trail is approximately 3 miles long and descends 2500 feet. The overall concept of the trail is to design and build a trail that the rider defines the difficulty of the trail not the trail. This is a tough way to design and build a trail that is fun for all levels of riders. However with the right planning and visionary builders you can build a trail that is rad for all levels of riders. A beginner can roll on through or an expert can send it down the trail. There are well over 50 Jumps 70+ berms roots, rocks, a flat sprint section. It has everything to challenge everyone. 75 % of the shuttle road is paved so ride to shuttle ratio is amazing. With a 20 minute shuttles to a 15 minute ride!

So without further lip service from me here is a quick edit we put together before the snow flies and a few clips from others…..We have additional edits and footage to add soon! Those who have been lucky enough to get to flow check the trail with us please feel free to post your POV vids in the Comments section!
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Author Info:
jrager avatar

Member since May 12, 2008
9 articles

4 Comments
  • 1 0
 It is one great trail, Thanks to all the people that made this happen !!!!!!!!! Nice piece JR.
  • 1 0
 Sick JR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love Thrillium, thank you for all the hard work!
  • 1 0
 Let's get our RAD on! Hit me up, Max.
  • 1 0
 Re-donk!!







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