April 2005 - New-Mexico/Nevada/Utah/Arizona tripRiders: TJ, Ward, Charles, Steve, James, Marcel Pics by: Steve Ancik/James Perry/Marcel Slootheer © OEF 2005 Ride 3 - Bootleg Canyon, Boulder City, NevadaThank you Brent Thomson...
Over the last couple of years I’ve become quite active in trail building and also have done some limited trail design work. Even though I have only helped ‘create’ some short sections of trail in the OKC area I have been looking at all trails in a more ‘why did they do this, this section flows really well, this turn was awesome, this won’t hold up’ kind of way and have been amazed at the design of trails like the Womble and Syllamo in Arkansas and Moore Fun in Fruita, just to name a few. Now I can add Bootleg Canyon in Boulder City to that list. Mostly known for its downhill trails Bootleg Canyon also offers miles and miles of Cross Country trails. Brent Thomson started building trails in this area a decade ago and the result is a 36-mile trail system that offers something for everyone. Charles, Steve and I checked out the Cross Country trails called Mothers, Ernie’s, Caldera and Girl Scout and we were rewarded with bench-cut after bench-cut, climbing turns & switch-backs, major exposure, scenic overlooks with views of Las Vegas, blooming flowers and very abrasive lava rock. I cannot imagine the amount of (manual) labor that went into these trails but to me they serve as the most impressive example of sustainable trail building, no wonder IMBA designated these trails as one of their Epics. The trails that we rode are fairly easy, with a few difficult spots, but the exposure and the amount of climbing can be pretty significant. The loop we did was 13 miles and that took us several hours - I was slowing us down because I kept stopping for photo ops. Ward, James and TJ checked out some of the other trails but none of us rode the real hardcore downhill trails since we don’t have the skills and bikes to enjoy that :-) Marcel. Charles, Steve and Marcel check out the long XC loop... 
on the Mother trail... (MS) 
Start of Ernie's Trail?... (MS) 
Golf courses everywhere... (MS) 
Amazing trail building... (MS) 
... (MS) 
Boulder City in the background... (SA) 
Steve on Caldera's... (MS) Meanwhile James, Ward and TJ are doing their thing... 
Singletrack... (JP) 
TJ and Ward ride through lava... (JP) 
On the Caldera Loop... (JP) We spent a few hours checking out downtown Vegas... 
CLICK HERE for a large panorama shot of the Strip from the Stratosphere... (SA) 
Locals... (SA) |