1speed
Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
Last night, I got out for a loop at Wiss. As I was riding, I was thinking about how many miles I've put in there over the years (a lot) and how the place has changed over that period (also a lot.) When I started riding Wiss, the "full loop" was about 14 miles and many of the sections that have made it a destination spot over the years simply did not exist - North Fox Den, Poop Chute, the Blue Bell Park loop, or the entire Creisheim section just to name a few. Today, if you include all the mini-loops (up in Houston meadow, the Boy Scott Camp/Wise Mill, Gorgas) and throw in the Spaghetti Bowl across Lincoln and Fishermans (aka "Rock Vegas"), and Creisheim, you can get about 35 miles without leaving the Valley Green area. There have for sure been some "misses" through the years (the absolute shit show that is the steps through Houston Meadow, the inexplicably crappy redesign of the Monster at what was apparently an exhorbitant cost) but, net of net, Wiss has by and large improved through the years I've been riding there.
But lately I've started to notice something happening that I hope isn't a canary in the coal mine for what the future holds. Wiss has forever been a really nice mix of east coast tech and flow but lately it seems like a lot of sections have just become more (for want of a better term) "sketchy". And the changes seem to coincide with, first and foremost, the more severe storms we seem to get on a regular basis and, to a lesser extent, the increased use of the park by people who largely ignored it before the pandemic came along. There are just whole sections now where trails seem to be under threat of complete collapse and techy features carry with them a risk/reward ratio that exceeds what my internal governor will allow. Last night, I found myself less willing to hop a downed tree here or drop off a rocky ledge there. Could it be that I'm just reaching the age where my risk tolerance is retreating from what it once was? Sure, that's almost certainly true to an extent, but I don't think that's all there is to it. I find that I'm genuinely having to make those decisions more often now than I used to - not because what once was routine is now too much for eroded skills, but because there are just objectively more sections where the decisions need to be made. And moreover, I've noticed that I still have no issue riding the techier sections that have always been there (case in point, I still don't give going for it on Tightrope a second thought and that has arguably been the most sketchy quarter mile section of the entire park for years.)
So I don't know if it's a foreshadowing of what's to come out there or not, and for sure there are some new areas of trail in just the last year or so that balance the ledger (the new spot near the stables, for example.) And of course, anytime you're dealing with something as dynamic as a local ecosystem, changes are inevitable. And I wouldn't have it any other way - I just think perhaps for the first time in the many years I've been riding there, I'm seeing some of the changes now as less a progression of the trail system itself and more an erosion of ride quality. I don't know - maybe if I were to think about this in another year or so if some of these changes slow down, it'll all just be the same old Wiss as far as I see it, but right now, I just can't shake that little itch in the back of my brain that is telling me some of these changes are signs of problems ahead for one of the best places to ride in the east (and, yes, that statement is loaded with all kinds of homerism!) Anybody else seeing anything similar in your "home field"?
But lately I've started to notice something happening that I hope isn't a canary in the coal mine for what the future holds. Wiss has forever been a really nice mix of east coast tech and flow but lately it seems like a lot of sections have just become more (for want of a better term) "sketchy". And the changes seem to coincide with, first and foremost, the more severe storms we seem to get on a regular basis and, to a lesser extent, the increased use of the park by people who largely ignored it before the pandemic came along. There are just whole sections now where trails seem to be under threat of complete collapse and techy features carry with them a risk/reward ratio that exceeds what my internal governor will allow. Last night, I found myself less willing to hop a downed tree here or drop off a rocky ledge there. Could it be that I'm just reaching the age where my risk tolerance is retreating from what it once was? Sure, that's almost certainly true to an extent, but I don't think that's all there is to it. I find that I'm genuinely having to make those decisions more often now than I used to - not because what once was routine is now too much for eroded skills, but because there are just objectively more sections where the decisions need to be made. And moreover, I've noticed that I still have no issue riding the techier sections that have always been there (case in point, I still don't give going for it on Tightrope a second thought and that has arguably been the most sketchy quarter mile section of the entire park for years.)
So I don't know if it's a foreshadowing of what's to come out there or not, and for sure there are some new areas of trail in just the last year or so that balance the ledger (the new spot near the stables, for example.) And of course, anytime you're dealing with something as dynamic as a local ecosystem, changes are inevitable. And I wouldn't have it any other way - I just think perhaps for the first time in the many years I've been riding there, I'm seeing some of the changes now as less a progression of the trail system itself and more an erosion of ride quality. I don't know - maybe if I were to think about this in another year or so if some of these changes slow down, it'll all just be the same old Wiss as far as I see it, but right now, I just can't shake that little itch in the back of my brain that is telling me some of these changes are signs of problems ahead for one of the best places to ride in the east (and, yes, that statement is loaded with all kinds of homerism!) Anybody else seeing anything similar in your "home field"?