Mountain biking is very popular in the surrounding national forest. Enthusiasts have built many challenging bike trails, which I like to hike – not bike. I’ve never broken a bone and don’t intend to start now.
Hog Heaven is one of the toughest of the local trails, with a double black diamond rating. Yesterday morning I started on the Broken Arrow trail, turned off on to Twin Buttes, and then on to Hog Heaven. It was a nice, not-too-long loop of about 4 miles, with only about 300 feet of vertical. Here’s an iPhone shot from near the eastern end of the trail, looking north:
Click to enlarge.
Once over the saddle – to the left of the picture – Hog Heaven gets challenging even on foot, with some steep and technical drops. Once you begin some sections I can’t imagine how you could stop without serious injury. I’d like to see an expert mountain biker take it on.
The StorageMojo take
Trails – whether human or animal – are a form of storage, collecting the output of a calculus of effort, reach, and desire. I admire the mountain bike community for creating some of the best trails in the region – and for surviving them.
If you come to town and want to try some of these trails, I recommend the Fat Tire bike shop. They rent Ibis bikes, that Dave, the owner, sets up for each rider. Dave is very smart, passionate about bikes, and brings deep knowledge of bike design and physics to his work. Yeah, he takes care of my bike, but this recommendation is unsolicited.
Courteous comments welcome, of course.
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