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Awesome video!
Here is a perfect case of braiding in Flipside. There are now THREE lines to get through that section!
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That whole first section until you get to the intersection that takes you to the powerline is braided in a few spots. Moto is bad for straight lining.
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That had to have been done with tools.
Sad
I’m gonna have to cut my bars if I even wanna think about taking that blue line haha… guessing the red is the original?
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Since you guys brought it up… yes motos suck but not all braiding is done by motos. The nice s-curve we had on Daminion comes to mind. Intentionally straightened to make it faster.
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Yeah, I think the red is the original, it’s the most worn. The blue is less of a turn and I think the photo is a bad angle which makes it look narrow.
I think the issue here is that the trail is getting a lot of traffic. It's being used by bikers, motos, hikers, runners and dog walkers. ALL of those groups contribute to braiding.
It just takes one person to cut a corner for others to take notice and follow. Unfortunately there's nothing you can do, once it starts it can't be undone. Someone could drag some trees and deadfall over the newest line and someone else would come along and remove it. Or worse make another line around that.
I guess we all just need to decide what we want from our outdoor activities. If you want to shave precious 10ths of a second off your time, take the shortest line. If you want to take a hike without twisting your ankle on roots, walk through the bushes.
Me personally, I want to challenge myself and continue building my skills so I’m going to take the line that looks most difficult- which is usually the original and most worn line. Not a victory, but at least I can hope to not be part of the problem.
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There’s enough jenk at Whooper to test your skills. It was the first trail I found and rode when I moved here. It was a wake up call. No esker, Jack Pine fields around Halifax.
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I hear that. When I moved back here from Alberta my first ride was at Wrandees. Honestly, I was almost in tears after that ride (I thought I was a skilled rider) and was considering selling my mountain bike and buying a road bike.
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I debated my future as a MTB’er as well. Those were long dark days of eating shit.
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Well its a year later and we are still talking about a 15 foot section of illegal trail.
Whopper, is a lawless, multi use classic NS trail system.
Rogue builders and maintainers take advantage and get it done.
Notice how dry whopper is this spring? Theres a reason for that. Its because people put alot of time in last year trying to stay sane. They were being productive and adding to the community.
Its funny, I spent about 100 hours in there last spring and only recall running into one other guy with tools. I guess everyone else was on the night shift.
Theres a million ways to be productive within this community, and whining about a corner isnt one of them. You call it “braiding” Some call it “Evolution”
That section totally rips, one of the fastest flowiest parts in whopper.
Haters gonna hate.
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I didn’t mean to come off as a hater. I think the purpose of @goose’s post was to bring awareness to some of these kinds changes being made to trails. That was the intention of me posting the photo too.
You’re right in this instance it’s an illegal trail and there is no organized and community agreed upon maintenance. As I said we’re all going to use the trail the way we want to.
I’ve made peace with that. If I really had an issue with it I’d go in and block that line. But I won’t because who am I to say what is best for the trail and its users? In the end I’m going to ride the line I want to ride, and everyone else can ride the line they want to.
If people are aware of things like “braiding” or “evolution” happening to a trail they can make their own choice about whether they feel it makes the trail better or worse or if they even care and they can decide how they want to use it.
Live and let live.
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So where does this “evolution” stop? Sure, it’s an unsanctioned trail but if every builder is in there with a different idea of what a trail should look like or feel the need to adapt it to their own personal riding style it will look like Wrandees in no time.
I’m no “hater”, and appreciate the efforts of the riders who do work on these trails, and though you may not personally run into them, there are more of us than you give credit for. Even if that only means moving a fallen branch off the trail so it doesn’t end up in someone else’s derailleur.
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Thats a really solid point.
I don’t see that being the case at all in whopper though. Nothing new is really being cut or built, just maint and some flow being added.
Evolution was basically a random term I came up with to describe the flow thats being added into the system.
2 years ago whopper was in brutal shape from motos and lack of maintenance.
Maybe “make over” would have been better.
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My first ride in NS was Mac Run on a hard tail.
I came from a country with hills and dirt.
I’ve been less broken on a full day ride
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Missing cheaterline drama of ecmtb 1.0
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There’s a turn at Quick Exit (wrandees/long lake) that I consistently covered up a cheaterline on for about five years or more and it would consistently be uncovered, usually the next day. I ended up covering it as a joke of sorts, using more and more deadfall and it always got uncovered.
I should stop by some time and cover it for old times sake but even if whoever it was moved on, users of the trails now probably think the line is intentional, not knowing the original layout.
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Thanks for all of your hard work everyone. I’m sure trail builders must feel like this sometimes:
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