Trail talk:Duthie Hill

From Evergreen Trail Guide

If you have comments or ideas, write them down on this page. I've started with a couple to get the ball rolling.

Feedback

• Warning Take all valuables out of car if parking at Duthie Hill Park on Friday 9/13/09 someone broke out my passenger window and took stuff from my XTERRA
• I'm stoked for this park! - Justin
• This is nice, but when do we get to build a full-on downhill race course? - Justin
• Can somebody explain what "flowlines" are?- Tim B

Answer: An example of flowlines are the downhill, jumpy, smooth, bermy trails at South SeaTac.

• The XC course should also be highly considered for sponsoring events like the currently defunct Multiple Sclerosis Mt. Bike Challenge -Tim B
• Bob Bornique should not be allowed to show up to work parties with a leaf blower.- Tim B
• Dave Shuldt should not be allowed to spam for WTA work parties unless he crosses the road over to Grand Ridge Trail and yells across.- Tim B
• I'd love to see a connector trail off of Grand Ridge linking to the backside of Tiger Mountain. Thre is HUGE potential here to create a 30+ mile epic right in our back yards. I'd strongly suggest that folks start advocating for this now. Jon K.

Ideas

• Include a dual slalom track in the flowline area. - Justin
• Make the xc race course so you need both strong technical riding skills and great fitness to win a race. - Justin
• Parking is going to be an issue for large events.- Tim B
• I would like to see the "River Runs Through It" trail be separate from both the XC course, and repeating jump lines, by simply creating a perimeter trail, that would also provide easier lines that promote riders coming in from Grand Ridge. Much like RatPac, just stay left for backcountry, and stay to the right for double diamond...
• The jumplines will likely be planted in a spot with some gravity, and turn into a maze, with big wide trail, and XC race courses tend to get heavy use and get widened that's why i would recommend keeping them as separate as possible with the "RRTI" Trail. Tim B
• The Perimeter Trail i propose i feel is important to bring in more people to the park.

a. We make the "easier" lines multi-user to encourage the general public into the park b. We make the "harder" line offshoots mountain bike only to provide safety, and the trails should be made relatively close(not like we have much of a choice) so we can make little open staging areas just off the easier trail to promote people to gather and watch riders do some of the cooler features c. This is the best of both worlds, providing a trail that will be used by most of us, an option to ride the park, and a true extension from the Grand Ridge Trail. Just like a jump or drop needs a nice smooth transition, these 2 parks should have a trail that meshes seamlessly between each other representing mt. bikers desire to have more "true" backcountry opportunity which is fast dwindling. d. This gives us more opportunity to share the joy of technical riding, but it also gives the club the opportunity to establish ourselves in having the experience and knowhow to provide multi-user trail with mountain bike features that shows it's very possible for us to coexist. Tim B

• i like the cloverleaf trail design where trails loop back to a hub for the XC course and dirt jump lines to loop out and return to the core, it's spot on, the XC course can be an extension to ride for the Backcountry rider looking for more miles, and the jump lines will be added to the rider doing the harder lines, and of course the rider who wants to do everything.... Tim B
• I really want to advocate for a nice long as possible XC loop trail. Not that there's anything wrong w/ a race track or flowline (yeah ... what the heck is that?), or freeride trails but not at the expense of more XC trails, LEGAL, XC trails. Race track sounds wide (ie lots of passing areas) and built to be fast ... not exactly something that's interesting to ride. I think XC is being shoved to the back burner just because stunts are popular right now. I wouldn't want to see just another skills park set in the woods. I agree w/ a bunch of what Tim has to say about making this an possible extension of Grand Ridge trail. Nothing against "RRTI" style trails but its not really what I'd like to see in an XC trail. -KevinA
• XC trail tread width should be 1ft wide, not 3ft wide. Sure, the foliage gets cleared back about 1ft either side of the trail tread. Keep the trail corridor at 3ft or less, not the trail tread. -KevinA
• There should be an open meeting to discuss and describe what people would like to see, it provides trail planners invaluable insight, and gives new ideas or expands current ones making the park better. This was true for me at the Learning Trail, since i don't tutor, my ideas were good, but i was able to draw on tangents i could not have thought of since i was not experienced in teaching. Tim B
• There has been little talk about incorporating cyclocross into the park... it is an exceptioanly fast growing segment of the sport and should seriously be considered as a way to unite more riders and provide a good winter off road riding opportunity. - Jon K.
• definitely a XC connector trail that connects Grand Ridge over to Trossachs and Soaring Eagle and that Tiger connector would be even better; however we also need another section with cool trail features such as river runs through and some jumps and drops for all levels, I don't think we have enough of this available in this area and those of us on the Eastside don't always want to burn fumes and sit in traffic to go to Seatac/Colonnade; additionally the flowpark at Seatac is also pretty small in size. Offering features on actual trails may make things more interesting to help practice some actual obstacles one may encounter on a real trail. Colonnade may be too urban for some and rocky landings may be intimidating for beginners. I think a planning session to go over some of the design ideas would be great. - Corinna B.

Questions - Concerns

• I hear the current thinking is to make the XC cloverleaf trails one-way trails because that will allow a greater number of users at any time. Is it really likely that it'll be so busy out there to create a problem? Is there any realistic chance that people will actually honor the one-way rule in the long run? Wouldn't it make more sense to have twice as many race route options by being able to use trails in both directions? Maarten 12:36, 11 February 2008 (PST)
  • How about this: design the trails to flow best in one particular direction, but have it open to two-way use. Then you could have right-of-way for folks going in the preferred directions (little yield signs viewable from the non-preferred way). This would decrease user-conflicts, but also provide more options for those using the park in non-peak hours. I really do think that the trails will have high use and one-way design will be necessary to keep folks moving. - Justin

• Where's the beer garden gonna go? - Jon K.

• When do the work parties start? 8-) R1de 20:03, 14 September 2008 (PDT)