What aspects of mountain biking do you enjoy the most?

[4ster]

Is that THE campsite on Gooseberry? Overlooking the old horse corral? If not, it appears to be its equal.

This was at a place called the Wedge North of I-70 near Castledale, UT but another one of my favorite campsites was at Gooseberry.

 

[Daniel]

Is that THE campsite on Gooseberry? Overlooking the old horse corral? If not, it appears to be its equal.

Here's the view 4ster had only a few dozen feet from his campsite at the Wedge Overlook BLM campground in the northern region of the San Rafael Swell:
https://www.skitalk.com/threads/photo-of-the-day.2083/page-82 Scroll down.

The Swell encompasses a vast area both north and south of I-70 but has a significant network of mostly (old) uranium mining roads and is an excellent place to ride. Like everywhere else in UT, it's become a far more popular destination the past couple of decades than it once was. There's more quad-runners now using the area than I care for but I used to ride motorcycles there (and lots of other primo locations in UT) so I can't complain too much. If you go, definitely bring water!

 

[Tom K.]

Here's the view 4ster had only a few dozen feet from his campsite at the Wedge Overlook BLM campground in the northern region of the San Rafael Swell:
https://www.SkiTalk.com/threads/photo-of-the-day.2083/page-82 Scroll down.

The Swell encompasses a vast area both north and south of I-70 but has a significant network of mostly (old) uranium mining roads and is an excellent place to ride. Like everywhere else in UT, it's become a far more popular destination the past couple of decades than it once was. There's more quad-runners now using the area than I care for but I used to ride motorcycles there (and lots of other primo locations in UT) so I can't complain too much. If you go, definitely bring water!

Been there, once, maybe 10 years ago, to ride 5 Miles of Hell.

There was pushing involved!

 

[Jim Kenney]

Or maybe the flowers:

 

[Nancy Hummel]

Happy hour afterwards!

 

[wooglin]

Stringing enough stuff together for long enough that you disappear.

 

[Philpug]

Happy hour afterwards!

Margaritas and Nachoes go amazingly with mountain biking.

 

[Slim]

All of them!
Smooth flowy machine built trails, or barely touched old hiking trails. Hard climbing and easy cruising. Bikepark laps or long backcountry rides. Jumps or rock crawling.

The only one that I never like is solo rides, so I guess I should just check the ‘ride with friends’ box and skip the rest.

 

[firebanex]

I like riding bikes.

There isn't one particular aspect that really draws me in except that I enjoy the combination of everything. Somedays I like riding technical roots, somedays I want to ride my road bike, and some days my morning commute is the best thing ever.

The thing that is getting me excited to ride this week is the return of darkness, going to do a legit night ride on Friday. 10pm ish and going for some adventures with my bike, snacks, lights, and no one else.

 

[AmyPJ]

Laps in "flow trail" areas that are designed to be lapped bore me to tears. Rode one two weeks ago that people rave about and the blue trail had some seriously scary sandy corners that sent me back to the green trail, that had jumps that were either immediately followed by a turn or switchback (sorry, I need a straightaway after a jump) or were just not set up how I like jumps. Just not my thing.

Cross country riding is definitely my jam. I like to feel like I'm going somewhere. I like climbing to areas with sweeping views. I like riding through various zones of trees at different elevations. I like bursts of climbing through chunky rocks. I like having to choose lines.

 

[Tom K.]

Good thread revival!

I'm no longer looking for jumps like @Slim, but like @firebanex, I love keeping the stoke fresh just by changing bikes and/or types of riding.

Fast xc, rugged xc, road, gravel, fat. I kind of ignore my road bike when the dirt is good, but pulled it down last week, aired it up (from 20 psi?!) and had a stellar time on it.

 

[Slim]

I should mention that my jumps tend to be quite small,

 

[Slim]

@AmyPJ , it is in contradiction to your stated dislike of flow trails, , but if you want to give them another shot,
Tidal Wave at Deer Valley has to be (one of) the best (low) intermediate jump/flow trails in the world.

The best thing about it is the prefect build:
like you were talking about, every jump is followed by a straight, the trail is wide, the berms are very wide radius and very tall (they are the only berms I never brake for) and the whole trail is built with great flow.
Faster sections have longer jumps, slower bits have shorter ones, so the result is every jump feels predictable.
There are good sections of straight away before each jump to, to get ready for the jump.
All the jumps are tables, with nice smooth drops to long transitions, so you can come up short, or go long, it all lands smooth.

This is one of the only trails I ride nearly brakeless.

(on the other hand, the green flow trail at Deer Valley is no good. As soon as you start to ride with a little bit of speed and flow, you get hit with fairly flat, loose corners. If you are good enough to ride those at speed, you are not a ‘green trail’ rider.)

 

[Tom K.]

I should mention that my jumps tend to be quite small,

"Old Man Air" FTW -- long and low!

But today's advanced flow trails seem to mostly be the opposite: to make it to the landing transition, you really have to send it high.