The New & Improved Switchyard Is Open
Alain, the man! MMBTS Trail Build Lead
After months of work, the Switchyard rebuild is done, and it's huge. If you have been out riding the past few weeks you have likely seen it or even hit it. If not, here's the full story on what changed and why.
Why We Rebuilt It
Before the rebuild, rotting decking and a wobbly strucure.
The previous version of the switchyard was a fixture of the Moose Mountain Trail System. Challenging riders since 2011, it attracted skilled mountain bikers as well as a shocking number of youtube influencers. As is the case with most things though, age had taken its toll. The decking was rotten, the structure was wobbly. It was time for a refresh!
Safety and accessibility are key elements of MMBTS mandate, the idea is to keep the uniqueness and "spirit" of the original while broadening the spectrum of skill levels able to utilize the features. The MMBTS Trail Crew saw room to tweak the feature to add flow and (hopefully) ride safer, without "dumbing it down".
Early feedback from riders has been positive!
What's Different
The squirrel catcher looks gnarlier, rides smoother. More visibly daunting from the top, but it's more solid and way less likely to bounce you around.
The lower drop got lower. There's now a noticeable height difference between the two drop options instead of them feeling only slightly different in height and technicality .
A new blue-level drop. Not into the squirrel catcher? Now there's a line that skips it entirely and gives those who love the blues a place to play.
Landings got longer, and further out. The old landings were quite short some would say sniper. Now you can roll in at trail speed or take it slower if you're not sure and either way the landing has some nice square footage.
New dirt hip jumps in the run-out, right after the main feature.
A tech skinny-drop line is on the far riders right side and will add some spicy goodness to your life!
How We Got Here
This one took a season's worth of grinding. In July, lumber got moved from the Seacan to 727 by our Trails Director and Geoff Gay. Getting it the rest of the way to the Switchyard site turned into a proper community moment: Joey Reinhart and Ty Paksi put together a lumber-moving party and hauled it in by hand, a stick at a time.
By August, the quad and trailer took over hauling duties and got the bulk of the remaining wood to the build site (the quad earned its keep on this one).
From there, trail lead Alain and the crew got to work on the main structure, the landing, and the run-out, all while the rest of the season's trail work kept moving too.
“Tyler and I severely underestimated the massive amount of wood to be moved. It felt like a scavenger hunt where you had to fight 3 blind alpacas and look to the shred gods to find the way at first, but after a couple laps back and forth, we navigated the traverse on autopilot. Thankfully, some local beauties passing by on bikes stopped to carry some wood with us or we probably would have had to come back for a second shift, and been a LOT more sore. As a guy that works at a desk, when your shoulders are sore for 3 days after it really makes you appreciate the blood, sweat and tears that go into building and maintaining our trails. Long live the trail crew!!”
– Joey Reinhart
Huge Props to the Trail Crew
This was a serious undertaking and the crew should be proud of it. Huge thanks to everyone who put time in on the Switchyard this season, from the lumber-moving crew to the trail builders who shaped it into what it is now.
Big Thanks to The Inside Line
None of this happens without funding, and a huge chunk of it came from The Inside Line. Earlier this year they teamed up with Transition Bikes to raffle off a custom Badlands-inspired Transition PBJ, hand-painted by Dylan Forbes, with every dollar going straight toward rebuilding the Switchyard. Net proceeds came in at $2,764.51. We’re grateful for the support and donation as it made an impact in getting this build done. Thank you, TIL crew.
Get out and ride it, and let us know what you think.
–MMBTS