"Basic Training"...

The area at Falls City (about 45 minutes from Salem) where friends and I always go freeriding is called "Blackrock trails". And at Blackrock, we started building an area called "Basic Training". It's not far up the hill - just 15 minutes or so... 'bout a mile from the trailhead. Perfect for newcomers to freeride mountain biking, and it makes a good spot for advanced riders to stop in and warm up for the bigger stuff further up...

We've got features of varying difficulty. Easy stuff for beginners. Lots of Intermediate stuff. Advanced stuff to challenge skills of more progressed freeriders (like Chris "Montana" shown above doing a 360 from the 4' drop). We've built drops, jumps, burms, skinny sections, see-saws, step-ups... with different challenges thrown in just for skill building twists (like a skinny section that goes uphill). The idea was that we'd have lots of things consolidated into one place where people could "session" (push back up and try it again) - and that's just what we've got done! I've also talked to local shop owner about having a regularly scheduled "skills clinic" that they sponsor - where more advanced riders demo certain skills and talk thru the techniques necessary for group of riders. The area is a great spot to just hang out and ride with family and friends. One of the trail volunteers has even constructed a picnic table out of logs, and we've installed it at Basic Training - actually incorporated it into a line we call the "Lunch Line" (the picnic table makes a nice table top for a large dirt jump - people can either jump the whole table and land on the tranny or short it and land on the table and roll off).

It's been really cool to see Basic Training become a very important feature of the Blackrock trails. And we made it happen...!

The whole "Basic Training" thing came about because for months I kept hearing people say "wouldn't it be nice if there were easier stunts to learn on" (at Blackrock there was a lot of advanced features, and if you didn't have the skills you had to just ride around it... looking up at these monstrosities built in the woods that cast their shadow over you...).

One day I just said, ok, let's build an area for practicing! We scouted for a good area - one that wasn't too far from trailhead which had decent terrain (not too steep to push back up but just steep enough and varying enough to build fun/challenging stuff on). Had areas in mind, but hadn't really looked with an eye to actually build stunts. Looked at a few places, but one in particular seemed perfect - there were even half a dozen snags (blown down trees) nearby which could be used for building material (thanks to an ice storm back in January '04). Here's a picture of the area as it looked before we started building:
We submitted our proposal to the Blackrock Freeride Association and the area was approved by Oregon Department of Forestry in October 2004.

As of today (just under 6 months later), according to the work log, there's been 199 hours of work poured into building Basic Training by dozens of volunteers, and we're probably about 75% done with what was originally planned - and have expanded to accommodate for a whole new line of dirt jumps (we're going to start building them next weekend - they'll tie in nicely). Mostly there's been a core group of builders - myself, Wade Waddell (who works at same office as me), and Rich Bontrager (someone we met on the trails) - along with regular volunteers - Ben Hayes, Chris "Mongo", Joe A, Christian (and sometimes his dad Lee).

We're about to build a bridge for one of the skinny lines also (where the advanced line crosses over the easier line). And plan to use an ancient Chinese bridge technique that doesn't use central supports. It's called a "rainbow bridge" and creates a nice arch (where the easy trail will cross under). Not sure how it'll turn out, but it will be fun trying to build! (It's a bridge building technique that's over 900 years old - will be cool to incorporate it into our trail). Here's what a rainbow bridge looks like:


Will let ya know how it turns out!