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NEMBA & Trail Crew Build Model Freeride Trail
May, 2002
The New England Mountain Bike Association has developed an innovative partnership between the Lynn Woods Reservation land management team and a hardcore group of Boston-area freeriders who call the popular Lynn trails home. The partnership has led to new trail constructed this May during a NEMBA/IMBA trail clinic. The new route is highly technical and incorporates slickrock, chutes, drop-offs, and plenty of gnarly granite all linked with handbuilt rock-armored trail.
"This is the most technically challenging trail we've helped build to date," said the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew's Rich Edwards. The trail will serve as an access route to a new riding area that NEMBA is designing in conjunction with hardcore riders from Boston bike-builder Sinister Bikes and others in the freeride community. The next phase will include the construction of a three-mile technical trail envisioned as the most challenging ride in the park. The IMBA Crew will add their design expertise to the trail's layout. The long-term goal is to tie together about 30 granite outcroppings with sections of rock-armored trail. Each granite dome will offer both expert lines and slightly easier go-arounds.
"Working with the freeriders is key," said NEMBA's executive director Philip Keyes. "They know what they want to ride and what they can ride, and NEMBA and IMBA have the expertise to help build it in a sustainable fashion."
Lynn Woods has seen a proliferation of unauthorized trails built to satisfy freeriders' need for highly challenging rides. Some of these trails have caused significant resource damage. The freeride community has agreed to remove unauthorized man-made stunts and help shut down illegal trails as part of the new expert trail system's development. It's a partnership that will dramatically improve technical riding opportunities in the park, answer the concerns of Lynn Woods managers, and allow freeriders to legitimize their trailbuilding creativity with NEMBA's and IMBA's help.
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