3 Toothed Cog: Lowest Common Denominator

Over the last few weeks there has been a lot of chatter on the interweb about significant changes being made to the local trail systems. Two notable trails being Kitzuma and Squirrel Gap. Money had been appropriated to the Forestry Service to improve upon these particular trails. The part that has the local mountain bike community up in arms is that the company contracted to do the work has and will be changing the character of these trail systems, essentially dumbing down the trails while also making them more invasive to the surrounding forest that they pass through. Many petitions have been sent to the forestry department asking them to reconsider the work, or at least do the work while keeping the original spirit of the trail. Squirrel Gap is known as the epitome of Pisgah, rocky, rooty, and technical. Kitzuma has similar features with quick downward elevation changes and higher speed thrown in for good measure. After reading the latest reports of the recent Kitzuma trail work, one could be led to believe that it was now a paved greenway path top to bottom with needless water bar rollers, and unnecessary tree clearing. Not one to trust the interweb, I decided to take a look for myself and bring along a camera to document the most significant changes. I'm not really trying to weigh in one way or another with this piece, rather voice my experience on the new trail after 5 years of previous experience. Please ride the trail yourself and draw your own conclusion.

Just for reference I take the normal route to ride Kitzuma, leaving the parking lot past Ridge Crest, up the 4 million switchbacks, down the backside, and up the old Parkway. No fancy riding from Asheville out and back super epic for me. Also I was riding my singlespeed Giant Trance instead of the usual Rigid ss 29er. Coming up on the switchbacks, it is immediately apparent that work has been done to the trail. Many of the large rocks have been removed, holes have been filled, and the turns for the switchbacks have been widened and flattened (no root bed staircases in the turns anymore). The climb is still pretty stout, but the switchbacks are way more manageable since you have a wider berth to work with. No more rear wheel pivots needed to make the turn. Coming to the top the direct route to the fire ring sorta campground thing has been blocked off. Only the trail to the left remains, directing you to the first descent of the trail.

It is at this point that the grooming and paving of the trail is very evident. The roll in on the first descent used to be rutted, rocky, and had short drop offs. The steepness of the trail remains, but the ruts, and drops have been filled in. The small launch that you had to bank hard left to avoid hitting the tree is now a small roller. The tree in question has now been cut down. After this first "technical" section, you will now encounter several water bars every 15-20 feet. Now these are not the standard water bars made up of 2x4 and old conveyor belt rubber, but are steep dips into the trail, kind of like a rhythm section on a bmx track, or pump track. The problem is that the rollers (water bars) are kind of tight and just long/deep enough to perfectly cradle a 26" wheel. At speed I could see it becoming very easy to loose your rhythm of pumping through the rollers, getting too far forward, and stuffing your front wheel, causing an over the bar ejection. I also found that I was only able to maintain about half the speed that I normally do down the trail, so the spacing of the water bars may also have been designed to slow down the pace of riders. Trying to manual them was difficult due to the depth of the rollers, usually causing the font end to slam down, or tried to throw you off towards the edge of the trail. This continued for about the first quarter of the trail. I also noticed, as mentioned earlier on the MTBR forum, that many trees seemed to be randomly cut down. All the trees appeared to be live, and looking at the felled trunks, did not appear to have grown out toward the trail. Hmm.

The second and third quarter of the trail, are a little more reminiscent of the old version of Kitzuma. There were actually long stretches that you could let off the brakes and not be bothered by the rollers. It was during this section that you could see how much wider the trail had become and how much more level. The trail had been cut further into the uphill side, as well as rocks and logs used on the downslope that were covered with dirt . On average the trail is now about 4 feet wide. Once again, random cutting of trees was encountered. This is also the section of trail that used to have a dirt kicker built up over a tree trunk that lay across the trail. With enough speed you could launch yourself a pretty good distance down the trail. This area now has had several trees felled across the old section and reroutes the trail through a couple of berms. Past this section is a nice wide open, no brakes section that seems to not have been touched.

The last quarter of the trail is were the machine work is most apparent. Again, the trail has been widened and leveled. This is also where the trail has been bench cut the furthest into the uphill side. Large sections of the hill have been removed, in some sections exposing large boulders in the walls. This section used to be narrow and off camber with soft shoulders that made it very easy to drop your front wheel off the side of the trails. Aside from the water bars trying to buck you off the trail, it is a lot more forgiving to steering mistakes. Banked walls have also been sculpted into the trail, where the turns used to be the narrowest. All of the jumps on the lower section have been leveled, although there are some sections of dirt that could be launched but are a little soft. The side trails that you could use to launch back onto or across the main trail have also been blocked off.

Soooo, that concludes my ride report. It is hard to say how I feel about this trail. I am biased by the past five years of riding it, so it keeps telling me how the trail should feel. I do wonder, if I was an out of towner that had never ridden the trail, if I would be as affected. The only legitimate complaint that I have against the new work that has been done, would be the water bars. They definitely do bring down the speed that can be obtained on the upper section. I can also see someone getting seriously hurt if they get out of rhythm on the water bars. I also feel that several of the trees that were removed did not really need to be. As far as evidence of roots being cut, most of the evidence has been buried under layers of dirt, so it is hard to tell where this was done. In regards to Squirrel Gap, I hope it does not suffer similar treatment. I love that trail because it is technical, frustrates me, and forces me to get better. Although, Kitzuma was not a super buffed featureless trail that I thought it would be, it has definitely been dumbed down. I love Pisgah because it's hard. I like trails that break my helmet, and make me want to vomit climbing them in the sticky summer months. I think the trails can be maintained without changing the spirit of them.

Here is the entrance to the first descent from the top.

It's hard to tell the slope, and all ruts, rocks, and

drops have been removed. The offending tree after

the kicker has been cut down.