The Ride NoCo Board often talks about the “endless potential” of the Hurricane Mountain Zone. That potential fills our dreams and keeps us energized, and it’s why we are stoked to announce a capital campaign for $100,000 that will fund projects to expand the Hurricane Mountain Zone and maintain and revitalize existing trails.
We hope you are excited as we are about the following projects, some of which will occur in 2024. Ride NoCo will undertake the projects with a price tag as soon as funding allows, and be on the lookout for a GoFundMe to raise money for the first phase of this capital campaign.
You can buy a membership and donate now at ridenoco.org. You can also donate via Venmo – Name: White Mountain Bike Coalition. Handle: @Ride_NoCo
Fine-tuning Half Day
IdeRide will return in 2024 to do one or two days of trail work to fine-tune the Half Day reroute. The professional trail crew will address any issues that arose from breaking in the new trail this fall and any problem areas that the spring snowmelt uncovers.
In addition, with volunteers, Ride NoCo will complete a small reroute at the top of Half Day that diverts rider traffic from the rock climber’s trail and post the final signage to clearly mark the trail entrance.
Charlie’s Maintenance
Tulip Trails, a professional mountain bike trail builder, generously plans to donate a week of machine-powered trail work on Charlie’s. As our flagship trail, Charlie’s sees a lot of wear and tear. To get it in tip top shape, Tulip Trails will primarily focus on rebuilding the berms we all love and improving drainage. This work is scheduled for May of 2024. However, Tulip Trails will not be able to address all of Charlie’s problem areas in just a week, so Ride NoCo plans to fund another week of professional maintenance as soon as funding allows.
Upper Red Tail Rebuild
At 2.75 miles and with nearly 1300’ of elevation change, Red Tail is the sleeping giant of the Hurricane Mountain Zone. Ride NoCo aims to rebuild Red Tail into a modern, sustainable trail that is enjoyable for riders of varying ability to ascend and descend while staying true to the original nature of the trail.
Originally built in 2001, the trail reflects an older style of building and riding, and, due to its age, many sections of the trail have heavily eroded, are poorly defined, and have drainage issues. Repairs throughout the trail will include benching off camber sections of trail, building berms, defining the trail where multiple lines exist, rock armoring erosion prone areas, raising the trail tread to prevent water damage, and smoothing heavily rooted and degraded areas.
Very few choose to descend Red Tail because of its purpose-built downhill neighbors, so this rebuild will virtually add a new descent. In addition, the rebuild combined with the New Connector project below will create the easiest top-to-bottom ascent and descent in the network.
New Connector
The new connector trail from Red Tail (just above the exit of Hurricane) to Kettle Ridge will create the easiest top-to-bottom descent and ascent in the HMZ and enable Red Tail and Hurricane trail users to more easily reach other trails and the primary lower parking area at Cranmore Mountain Resort, further increasing the variety of riding options in the network. Importantly, the new connector will also reduce traffic on Charlie’s and more evenly distribute trail utilization.
The new connector will be approximately half a mile long and built for two-way rider traffic. The trail will have 100' of elevation change and will be primarily smooth and rolling to allow riders to carry speed in both directions. The trail grade will be less than 5% and incorporate many natural grade reversals to minimize erosion, and the trail layout avoids seasonally wet areas. This construction will be fully mechanized with a 4’ tread and 8’ corridor.
Two-part Tech Trail
For many, this is what we’ve all been waiting for. This new two-part hand-built trail will use the same entrance as Kandagnar but will parallel Surf’s Up and then make multiple turns across the fall line to achieve a moderate gradient, ending on the Kandagnar flats. The terrain includes a plethora of small-sized features and large dirt mounds leftover from when the nearby ski trails were built, both of which will make for an incredible intermediate tech trail.
A few hundred yards down the Kandagnar flats, the second part of this trail will diverge right, across from the entrance of Pinball. The trail will follow a beautiful natural ridgeline with deciduous and coniferous forest and end where upper and lower Tornado meet Hurricane Highway.
Lower Red Tail Rebuild
Rebuilding lower Red Tail will likely occur in a second phase after rebuilding upper Red Tail, and it will address many of the same problems, including widening abrupt corners and smoothing degraded areas. This part of Red Tail is the least used trail in the network, with some riders even choosing to use Hurricane Mountain Road to skip this section of trail. Once complete, Red Tail will once again be a trail that riders love to ride from top to bottom.
14 Weeks of Paid Trail Crew
It is time for Ride NoCo to invest in a paid trail crew. As the Hurricane Mountain Zone expands and the number of riders who use it increases, so does the wear and tear on our trails. Ride NoCo relies on over 700 hours of volunteer work annually, the majority of which is dedicated during the month of May to open the network.
A paid trail crew will work primarily during the summer months when we all just want to put the shovels down and ride! In addition to general maintenance, such as smoothing tread and addressing drainage issues, a trail crew will be able to focus on longstanding problem areas, rock armor erosion prone sections, and assist and potentially reduce the cost of future projects.
Ride NoCo funded a trail crew in the summer of 2021, and the resulting work is still present throughout the network.