LOCALadk Magazine

32 Spring 2018 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk www.adirondackexperience.com Due West Photo Olivia Dwyer Cappabianca bets that increased mountain biking opportunities means more business. "As tourism in the Adirondack Park evolves sedentar y to active vacations, and from baby boomers to millenials, we're competing with other areas," he says. " We need to evolve to stay relevant." Watch for more new trails in summer 2018: BETA starts work on a new beginner trail at Dewey Mountain. Lovering says there are plans for a skills trail at Gurney Lane, with boulders and trees in- corporated to test riders. And Cappabianca expects the Brant Lake Bike Park to open in June. There's no final count on trail miles yet, but he anticipates enough complete singletrack for a two-hour ride. And the Department of Conser vation could approve a management plan for the Saranac Lake Wild Forest that includes plans for more mountain bike trails. All this progress? A direct result of volunteer effort. " We've created a mountain biking community, and that's why we have 30 people showing up to do trail work on a Sunday," says Wil- son. "They're coming because they're invested in the trails." Back in the forest off Hardy Road, volunteers pull folding saws from backpacks to cut saplings that could snag handlebars. Their hand-held loppers clip tree roots that threaten to grab ankles. Just beyond the trail corridor, volunteers open up a soil pit, and high notes ring out when shovel blades hit buried stone. We uncover clay-like dirt, fill painter's buckets, and ferr y the soil to the turn- pike, where it's spread over rock fill and tamped down with a Mc- Leod's flat head. By lunch, we're done. The group splinters to build berms on ragged corners and raised treads over damp hollows. I help buttress a crumbling slope with beach ball-sized rocks. We bench the uphill side, use soil to set the supporting stones, and create an even trail surface. Raindrops break through the maple leaves as we fill soil pits with decomposing logs, sticks, and leaf litter to restore the landscape. Days later, I return to the Hardy Road trailhead with my mountain bike. The trail loops are stacked such that the easiest are closest to the road; the farther you venture, the more difficult the trail. I roll over sandy dirt on Coniferous, a mellow flow trail that bends through pine trees. Then I climb All In, navigating switchback climbs and rock ledges to reach open views of Whiteface's ski trails. On the descent, I dart onto the trail I helped build, chasing the loamy track beneath a bright green canopy. I whoop on the cur ves of Lost Farm Loop, and stop to mar vel at a new bridge that spans Beaver Brook. When I pedal back to the trailhead, I'm charged with gravity-fueled euphoria. And ready to build and ride again.

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