Milk Ranch Trails See Rehab & Reconstruction

It's a great time to build trail in Gallup, NM where we're currently working with the County of McKinley and the United States Forest Service to rehabilitate and reconstruct 25 miles of trail.

The project is focused on improving and increasing the sustainability of existing trails through the following processes:

1. Closure / Rehabilitation

2. New Trail Construction

3. Berm Removal & Rebenching

4. Corridor Clearing

Utilizing a combination of hand-building techniques and machinery, our crews are working carefully to bring every foot of trail we touch up to a sustainable standard that will last for generations.

Glade Run Recreation Area Gets New Bike Skills Park

Our bike park ninjas are stoked to be at the Glade Run Recreation Area in New Mexico laying down the foundation for a new bike skills park.

Every great bike park and pump track should be designed to include a range of features that are intended to provide experiences in each ability level, allowing for ideal learning progression and skills building. This often means starting younger kids within a strider-bike environment, then advancing feature difficulty suitable for any ability level, which ensures the terrain is fun and exciting for all ability levels.

The new skills park at Glade Run Recreation Area will feature two distinct riding zones. The first is a beginner skills area featuring low to the ground riding features along with a pump track. The second zone will feature three progressive skills lines with options for beginner, intermediate and advanced riders. Each line will consist of jumps, rollers, berms, and wooden riding features. Each line is designed to allow safe progression to bigger features and allows riders of all abilities to hone their skills.

Brevard, NC: Black Mountain Re-Route

Work is quickly coming to an end on the Black Mountain reroute near Brevard, NC and we can’t for the public to get a chance to experience it once it’s finished.

A collaborative effort between the USFS, Pisgah Area SORBA, and the State of North Carolina, the re-route consists of 3.6 miles of new trail at a total cost of $125,000. 2.2 miles of trail will be decommissioned between Turkey Pen Gap and Lower Black.

After a 2013 Trails Strategy Process the conclusion was reached that portions of the Black Mountain trail contained unsustainable grades. Coupled with heavy trail use and precipitation, the section of trail in question had become severely eroded. Faced with the difficult decision of closing the trail if it could not be repaired in its current alignment or rerouted along with a more sustainable grade, the Pisgah Ranger District and local stakeholders held public input sessions and site visits to determine the best course of action to save the trail.

The professional consensus was that certain portions of the trail needed to be relocated off the ridgeline and to the sidehill where it could drain properly. The new trail is being constructed as a single lane, USFS Trail Class 2 hiking/biking trail under the USFS Trail Specifications for Construction of Trails on Forest Service Projects. Within those specifications, the desired character is for a relatively narrow, rocky trail, with several challenging rock and log features, able to sustain heavy use and weather.

Stay tuned for more updates on the trail and an official announcement about when it will open to the public!