![]() ![]() For the newcomer, these bikes can be humbling, as my wife discovered. These burly steeds are typically heavier, with additional “squish” to soak up big hits. And if you rent an enduro or downhill mountain bike, you’ll need to adapt. You can ride a hardtail or a short-travel full-suspension bike on bike park trails, but they aren’t optimal. Have the right bike and gear, and learn how to use it Here’s what you should know before riding a bike park, along with advice from Chris Chmielewski, training director at Highland Mountain Bike Park. And we learned a few valuable lessons about riding bike park trails, which I’m sharing now. Happily, she escaped serious injury, though it would be a month before all her aches and pains subsided. Unfortunately, Lauri’s weekend adventure was over. The patroller arrived, and we gingerly walked Lauri to a trail intersection, where the Cranmore crew picked her up and brought her to first aid. After a few terrifying minutes (which seemed like an eternity), she began moving her extremities. Lauri, an occupational therapist well-versed in spinal injuries, slowly did a self-assessment. I flagged a passing rider and asked him to send a patroller. My heart stopped.Īn example of berms on a trail. She hit the ground face first and scorpioned, her feet flying over her arched back in a grotesque, inverted somersault. The front wheel jammed hard left, the bike locked up, and Lauri sailed over the bars. Instead of pushing the bike away, she tried to correct. Fueled by a mix of overconfidence and inexperience, Lauri high-sided one turn, got hung up on the soft dirt, and panicked. The bermed turns were smooth and fast-maybe too fast. Next up was the intermediate “Day at the Beech” run. Our first run along the loopy beginner “Learning Curve” trail was uneventful. After crisscrossing the base of the ski resort a couple of times to get a feel for our bikes, we hit the chairlift. My wife, Lauri, and I were jazzed to check out the resort’s new machine-built flow trails and the double-sprung enduro rigs that we were renting to replace our old-school hardtails. My wife and I set off on a three-day adventure to visit four lift-serviced mountain bike parks, starting with Mount Abram in Maine, and then looping through New Hampshire, with stops at Cranmore Mountain, Loon Mountain, and Highland Mountain Bike Park.ĭisaster struck on day two at Cranmore in North Conway. ![]()
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