Riding high

Mountain biking’s world summit comes to Arkansas

Clayton Woodruff plays on the Coler Creek Trail, which is under construction in Bentonville. A section of the trail will be featured at the International Mountain Bicycling Association World Summit this week.
Clayton Woodruff plays on the Coler Creek Trail, which is under construction in Bentonville. A section of the trail will be featured at the International Mountain Bicycling Association World Summit this week.

Mountain bikers will converge on Bentonville this week for the International Mountain Bicycling Association World Summit.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Map showing the location of the “Back 40 Trail” in Bella Vista

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Special to the Democrat-Gazette

Michael Lejong of Greenwood (front) and Ignacio Guerra of Fort Smith ride on “The Ledges” section of the new Back 40 Trail at Bella Vista.

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Special to the Democrat-Gazette/PTD

Intended for skilled mountain bikers, the Coler Creek Trail in Bentonville will be 15 miles long and include sections with directional single-track path with rocky descents and 12-foot drops.

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Special to the Democrat-Gazette/PTD

An employee of Progressive Trail Design works on the Coler Creek Trail in Bentonville.

An international group of 525 attendees and 60 vendors will gather Wednesday through Saturday -- the largest attendance since the association began its biennial global meetings in 2004 and the first that has sold out in advance (leaving 60 would-be attendees on a wait list).

These people will attend bicycle-oriented educational sessions, listen to keynote presentations from leaders in the industry, view the latest innovations in gear at an expo, network with others in the business and sample the area's trails -- including two that have been newly built with this gathering in mind.

The summit usually meets in well-known cycling meccas such as Whistler, British Columbia, and Steamboat Springs, Colo. How did Bentonville rise to that level?

The city began its journey toward hosting the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) almost two decades ago, when a group of participants in Leadership Benton County decided to develop a trail around Lake Bella Vista, one of the first pedestrian-and-bicycle trails paved in Northwest Arkansas.

The team of leaders that came together during that project also established the NWA Trailblazers, says Erin Rushing, the group's executive director. With the mission statement "Developing cycling and pedestrian infrastructure that connects community and moves people," the Trailblazers began working in spring 2007 to create the area's first professionally built mountain bike facility, the Slaughter Pen cross-country trail and free ride park.

Using skills learned from Leadership Benton County, the Trailblazers proved effective at negotiating easements, establishing rights-of-way, securing funding and doing other administrative tasks involved in trail development. The actual construction was contracted out to Nathan "Woody" Woodruff and his then young company, Progressive Trail Design (PTD).

NWA Trailblazers and Progressive Trail Design proved to be a dynamic combination, collaborating in the construction of the majority of off-road bicycling trails in the Bentonville and Bella Vista area. Still based in Bentonville, Woodruff's company has grown into a powerhouse in trail construction, building award-winning trails in other states including Colorado, Utah and Alabama, as well as many around Arkansas.

The region would not have its current plethora of trails without the advocacy and labor of other groups, including the Arkansas State Parks, Friends of Arkansas SingleTrack (FAST), Ozark Off Road Cyclists (OORC), the recreation departments of area cities, community leaders, countless volunteers and the Walton Family Foundation. But the road to the summit began with that original 1.75 miles of paved trail around Lake Bella Vista.

Eleanor Blick, IMBA's communications manager, says the Natural State has been on the radar as a possible summit site for several years, thanks to the state's growing stockpile of national trail awards.

"There is a lot of buzz about the mountain bike riding in Arkansas," Blick said, "a state that has five IMBA Epic trails, is home to three IMBA Ride Centers and IMBA's only Regional Ride Center. Our Arkansas chapters have been hard at work growing the trail system in Northwest Arkansas, and they have huge support locally."

"Epic Trail" status is the highest praise the association awards to trails. To earn it, a trail has to

offer a true backcountry riding experience -- one that is technically and physically challenging, more than 80 percent single-track and at least 20 miles long.

Arkansas Epics that meet the association's current criteria are the Womble Trail in Montgomery County, the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail near Mount Ida, the Upper Buffalo Mountain Bike Trail in the Ozark National Forest and the 108.3-mile Ouachita National Recreation Trail across western central Arkansas.

The Syllamo Trail system in the Ozark-St. Francis National Forest near Mountain View in the past was an Epic but doesn't meet the most recent assessment standards and so, technically, is in the "Epic Hall of Fame."

Oregon has five bona fide Epics that meet the most recent assessment standards; but Arkansas boasts more than better-known biking states such as Utah and Colorado, which have two and three, respectively.

IMBA awards another designation, "Ride Center," to large mountain-bike facilities that offer a full gamut of biking opportunities, such as gravity-fed screaming downhills suitable for expert riders and also family-friendly trail systems safe for children and novices. Arkansas has three Ride Centers: Bentonville, Fayetteville and Hot Springs.

Northwest Arkansas, Blick adds, is also "the only IMBA Regional Ride Center: With the Bentonville and Fayetteville Ride Centers located less than 30 miles apart, the two towns have formed the first and only regionwide Ride Center designation."

But wait -- there's more.

Arkansas is the only state where a full-time, professional trail-care crew ensures the Epics remain in good riding condition. The IMBA Arkansas Trails Crew, funded by the Walton Family Foundation, supplements work done by volunteers in taking care of the state's Epic Trails. On Oct. 11, the crew posted on its Facebook page that it had cleared debris from more than 191 miles and removed 496 downed trees in the past 11 months.

At the start of 2016, the Natural State had more than 1,000 miles of mountain-biking trails, judging from online lists like the one at singletracks.com. There are 23 mountain bike trails in 12 state parks.

More trails have been added this year, including two that will be highlighted at the world summit: the Back 40 Trail in Bella Vista and part of the Coler Creek Trail in Bentonville.

BACK 40 TRAIL

Bella Vista's Back 40 opened with a small ceremony Oct. 15. After the ribbon-cutting, attendees hopped on their bikes to experience 17.64 miles of primo, professionally designed and constructed single-track, with a great mix of rolling flowy, fast straightaways; high-banked berm turns; and challenging, ledgey, technical bluffs.

"At one point there were five independent trail-construction companies working to complete the Back 40 in time for the world summit," Rushing said during the Back 40 opening. He added that other states had called to complain they couldn't find trail construction companies available to build their trails.

The Back 40 Trail ribbon-cutting included Bella Vista Mayor Peter Christie, NWA Trailblazers' Rushing, workers from the city's parks and recreation department, the Walton Family Foundation, Progressive Trail Design, Visit Bentonville, bicycle club members and members of the Bella Vista Property Owners Association.

The Back 40 is phase one of a 150-mile, natural-surface trail system planned for the Bella Vista area.

"EXTREME" NEW PATH

About seven miles of the new Coler Creek Trail are ready for summit attendees to preview Wednesday.

Upon completion, this trail will comprise only 15 miles, but Clayton Woodruff, director of operations for Progressive Trail Design, said Coler will be on the top tier of "progressive style trails," as in progressively challenging.

Unlike most trails in Northwest Arkansas, Coler will include sections designed to be ridden in one direction. The trail includes deliberately technical, high-flying features like 12-foot drops, "monster" table-top jumps and downhill, gravity-fed speed zones.

When Bike Magazine decided on Northwest Arkansas as the place to test out 2017 model mountain bikes for its annual "Bible of Bike Tests" article, Coler trail was the editors' first choice.

NOT JUST THE TRAILS

In its early years, the sport of mountain biking consisted of climbing on a bicycle, pedaling into the woods and powering through, or over, whatever obstacle was encountered -- on public or private land, whatever.

By 1988, when IMBA was founded, this outlaw mentality had resulted in the closure of a growing number of trails to bicycles. The association began mountain biker education programs and advocated for multiuse trail management; and it collaborated with land managers and conservationists. Thirty-eight years later, IMBA continues its campaign to promote responsible cycling and preservation of natural resources.

The theme for the summit at Bentonville is "Building Tomorrow's Mountain Biking Today," with talks and clinics intended to draw children and women into mountain biking. The area exemplifies that forward-looking attitude, Blick says.

"Bentonville is a great example of a community that's investing in its trails because it sees how trails can foster the community," she says.

Summit attendees will see evidence that Northwest Arkansas is investing in youth cycling. The Railyard Bike Park in Rogers includes skill-building courses for all ages, including the youngest riders. And advocates in Fayetteville and Bentonville are adding bicycle parks to school grounds and bicycling to physical education programs, with sponsors lining up to buy bikes for the children.

"We hope that when others visit the Bentonville area it will give them something to aspire to," Blick says. "It is a great organization for them to see firsthand, a community who is doing it right."

While the conference has sold out, at press time there were openings in skills clinics. More information is at imba.com/world-summit.

ActiveStyle on 11/07/2016

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