Last week saw the North American IMBA Trail Solutions’ staffs converge on the small town of Sandy, Oregon. Situated just over an hour east of Portland, Sandy is home to a new Trail Solutions construction project. The US TS staff have been busy building some beautiful bench cut trails which run the gamut from sinewy singletrack to big and bermy road to “flow” trail conversion. The purpose of this gathering was to allow all the trail specialists, including IMBA Canada’s own Daniel Scott, to share ideas, discuss the state of mountain bike trail design and brainstorm concepts for the future. They were also given the opportunity to experiment with some new trail construction machinery courtesy of Virmeer and Canycom.
Special guests, such as Woody Keen (President of the PTBA / President of Trail Dynamics), were in attendance to lend their extensive knowledge on discussions ranging from IMBA’s involvement in the development of a new, mountain bike specific trail classification system to what the “next big thing” is going to be in terms of trail types. The group was also privileged to have individuals from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in attendance to both bear witness what IMBA TS is up to and try their hand at building some sweet “flow” trail on one of the old road beds.
After four days of building, serious lunchtime debates, and dinner time discussions, the crew headed out for an epic ride on some of Sandy’s classic sustainable single track (CSST). Some went for the more gravity fed route while others opted for the 4000 ft. of climbing option… epic either way!
All in all, it was a stellar week of idea swapping, trail building, gear testing and “flow checking” which has helped create a great atmosphere amongst the US & Canadian Trail Solutions staff. Stay tuned to hear how some of those ideas make their way into IMBA’s projects in the near future!