The Surly Mountain Biking Thread

[KuЯdt 248]

I got it last year sometime, I'd guess it has maybe 800 miles on it.  Gonna go ahead and submit a claim and see what they say.  

I had just topped off my tires with Stan's the day before, so maybe that tire material had broken down some and adding more sealant pushed it over the edge?  Dunno.

Speaking of shredding knobs, I used to ride Kenda Nevegals back in the day and those tires shredded knobs like a mofo.

[wd40 1976]

yup.  besides losing knobs, they were famous for the "Nevagoiter", like you got there on your Maxxis.  although, I think the consensus was it was a combination of Stans (which voided the warranty, iirc) and leaving your bike in the sun for too long (like leaving it on a hitch rack all day before an afterwork ride).

but they sure do hook up, around here.

I switched to Minions on my squishy, a few years ago.  if I'm gonna take a trip to AF or Bentonville, I'll get the DoubleDown version.  once you get used to the weight, they're nice to have around here, for all the sidewall cut risk we enjoy.

I run Igintors on my hardtail.  still love them as an XC tire, and it annoys me that they seem to have quit making it for 29ers.  can still find them on Amazon.

[MaclovioBrown 100]

SAIP, has anyone considered building a manual machine? $40 wood and basic skills is leading me towards giving it a try this weekend.

I took up MTB in December and I'm all in. Only hitch is I'm 50 and my body cant take many over-rotates onto my back in the front yard.

https://youtu.be/reRuZ8mkibU

Edited February 18, 2020 by MaclovioBrown

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

Any other San Antonio bikers here?  Did a shade over 13 miles at Leon Creek.  Could have done more but had to get home.  I normally just sort of ride around, get lost and find my way back, but I'd like to plot out a good 18-20 mile route.  

[Braff Zacklin 13553]

If you're real nice, @wd40 might drive down to SA and meet up with you. Just be sure to show up on time and buy beer in advance.

Edited February 18, 2020 by Braff Zacklin
callout fail

[KuЯdt 248]

SAIP, has anyone considered building a manual machine? $40 wood and basic skills is leading me towards giving it a try this weekend.
I took up MTB in December and I'm all in. Only hitch is I'm 50 and my body cant take many over-rotates onto my back in the front yard.

Interesting. It would be kinda fun just to build and try out. Good project for those rainy days.

[KuЯdt 248]

Maxxis already got back to me and approved my warranty claim.  They said I should receive the replacement tire within 2 weeks.  I'm pleased.

 

[TwiceHorn 31438]

Sunny days before the trails dry now infuriate me. 🤬🤬

[MaclovioBrown 100]

Took about an hour to build and $30. My manual training has begun.

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[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

So THATS where the wreath fund went to. 

[wd40 1976]

camped at RPR, this weekend.  hadn't been in a while.  they got a bunch of big Enduro stuff out there now.  what wasn't changed is getting lost and turned around a bunch of times.

anyway, there's a new jump on the flow track that has some serious consequences.  first guy cleared it.  second guy cased the fuckout of it, bending his big ring so bad we just broke it off with some pliers to make the bike rideable.  but before we could work on that, he had to unpack a 1/2" of his face from between the lense and the frame of his glasses from bouncing high side into the landing zone.  pic below was after he'd been working on it a while.

Spoiler

this is how I ended up.  

I was a little ways behind Two, trying to get enough speed to hit it proper, judging only by the size of the ramp, not having seen it before, but figuring it to be reasonably safe, regardless.  I was about two bike lengths from the lip when I saw Two laid out in the LZ,  slammed on the brakes, and endoed hard into the boulders in the gap.  somehow, all I did was jam my thumb, probably at about the same spot Two hit on the lip of the landing ramp.  only time in my life I wished I had gripshift.

below is what you're supposed to do.  stills from a phone video of One going back up and hitting it again while Two worked on his bike (he also flatted in the crash).

then we went back up to the top, puttered around taking in the view from Decision Point, then hit Super D and got lost a few times trying to ride as much single-track as possible back towards camp.

good times.

[Braff Zacklin 13553]

Not ashamed to admit I bypass every gapper I see. Just not mentally ready for them. Am comfortable with modest rollers and tabletops, but a gapper--even if it has the same contour as the tabletop, just without the middle flat--fux with my mind too much.

Be careful out there.

[Your Mom 4805]

I’m too old to be recovering from the inevitable wipeout on big jumps like that.  Looks fun as hell though. 

[TwiceHorn 31438]

[TwiceHorn 31438]

Three trails open finally.  The two Grapevine trails and Boulder Park.  I love Boulder Park, but I dread the long climbout in my current condition.  I may trek out to Grapevine.  Maybe OCNP opens tomorrow.

Funny thing, OCNP actually has a jump area in the SE corner of the park.  I don't spend much/any time there because see above.

The loop that leads to the jump area is the red loop and it has a sign that says WARNING GAP JUMP.  Took me about a year to figure out that that was in the jump area and not just in the middle of the trail, which was unfortunate, because it's another nearly 2 miles of OCNP goodness.

Edited February 25, 2020 by TwiceHorn

[wd40 1976]

21 hours ago, Braff Zacklin said:

Not ashamed to admit I bypass every gapper I see. Just not mentally ready for them. Am comfortable with modest rollers and tabletops, but a gapper--even if it has the same contour as the tabletop, just without the middle flat--fux with my mind too much.

Be careful out there.

yeah, that's kinda the point.  I did two other lines from the top in preride mode:  Jaws and Sweet Skull, marked black diamond and blue, respectively.  after seeing those, Flow Track would be a 'green'; and it was for most of it's length.  I could just relax and hammer it, floating the table tops and small gappers.

then it crossed a jeep road.  iirc, this was the first ttf after that.  maybe the second.  after the crash, I walked back uphill.  at about the base of the launch ramp, off to the side in the shade, was a little laminated paper sign that had some down arrows and 'caution' on it, stapled to a stick and spun around backward so that if you even saw it, you couldn't read it.  a big rocky death gap was the last thing I expected to find.  if I hadn't hit the brakes, I'm pretty sure I had enough speed to clear it, assuming I could avoid a mid-air freak-out.

and I'm older than your mom.

[jet black 203]

Those jumps scare the hell out of me. As a newb coming from road I just want to push hard on the pedals for the most part but having a hard time doing that due to lack of skill. Just need to get more time on the trails I guess.

[Loco 3752]

can't get hurt in the air!

[TwiceHorn 31438]

Welp, decided to trek out to Horseshoe in Grapevine.  Pretty fun trail, but short.  Dries out pretty fast, but the bottom of most of the gullies (usually dry, not even talking dry creek crossings) was soup.  Didn't want to hit that shit fast in most cases and I just don't go up there often enough to "put together" any of the sections.  So it was this strange amalgamation of going kind of slow, riding the descents, walking the bottoms unless they were rocky, and low-gear slow climbing.  I only chickened out on one of the biggish technical climbs.

First ride in two weeks and I felt it bad. Five miles only.  Yuck.

Also kind of a strange deal.  After walking a lot of those soupy sections at the bottom of gullies, my front brake (I think) was real "graunchy" for a little while, like some mud up between the disk and pads.  Applying the brake didnt seem to make much difference, but ride a few dozen yards and no more noise.  I didn't notice anything riding the actual creek crossings, just walking through muddy, opaque soup.  I thought it odd that it happened almost every time and the soup was nowhere near the brake disk or caliper or the bearing, for that matter.  Maybe shit ran down a spoke or something.

Edited February 25, 2020 by TwiceHorn

[KuЯdt 248]

yeah I also have a mental block when it comes to gap jumps.  I've been working a bit lately to get better at jumping since I've always sucked at it and didn't do it much.  But more and more I see jumps popping up on trails everywhere.  That didn't use to be the case.  I suppose the rise of enduro and big travel bikes is what's driving that.

I'm not surprised about the poor signage out at RPR.  Last time I was there it was a mess and hard to navigate.  I've heard it's only gotten worse, although it sounds like maybe it is getting better than about 2 years ago.  It is owned by aggies, so what can you expect I guess.

[Braff Zacklin 13553]

10 hours ago, Loco said:

can't get hurt in the air!

Username checks out.

[Al_4_ISU 12451]

On 2/24/2020 at 9:33 AM, Braff Zacklin said:

Not ashamed to admit I bypass every gapper I see. Just not mentally ready for them. Am comfortable with modest rollers and tabletops, but a gapper--even if it has the same contour as the tabletop, just without the middle flat--fux with my mind too much.

Be careful out there.

I don't fuck with it at all.  We don't really have any features where I ride, but there are places where you can do drops and shit, and I go right on past.

I was into launching myself into the air on a snowboard back in the day and was never very good at it.  Same with dirtbikes.  Now that I'm in my 30's, there's no way I wouldn't break shit on my bike, my body, and lose valuable riding time.

 

Snow should be gone in a few days.  The problem for riding now will be freeze/thaw.  While our highs will all be in the 40's, overnight lows will be in the 20's.  There will be an opportunity to start riding on frozen surface dirt just after sun up, but until overnight lows are north of freezing (will be a few weeks), mid day riding will be out of the question.

Edited February 27, 2020 by Al_4_ISU

[TwiceHorn 31438]

We've had nearly a week of sunshine or at least dry weather and a relatively small number of trails remains open.  I eeked out a pretty decent ride at Oak Cliff Nature Preserve and thought about going down to the jump area in light of this thread.

However, it's sufficiently climby to have beat on me pretty good and I don't want to try any kind of tricky stuff when I am the slightest bit fatigued.

It was very windy yesterday, with gusts to 20.  Didn't affect my ride any, but there were a lot of surprise limbs down on the trail.  Also, when you'd stop, listening to the tree tops creak and click and groan was kind of freaky.  Felt like something might come down at any moment.

[wd40 1976]

pretty breezy day down here, too.  I found myself simultaneously aroused and horrified by this

 

Spoiler

the trail continues on under the  leg/trunk on the right, where it goes over a small huck, followed by an immediate duck under a down cedar, followed by a get off and walk under a down powerline.  the powerline has been there since I last rode here, a couple months ago, atleast.  I know the utility dudes have been in there, having seen fresh truck tire tracks in the sendero, as well as the addition of orange tape tied to the wire where you duck under.

 

weather looks to be perfect for this weekend.

[TwiceHorn 31438]

That's crazy.

Because so many trails here are in river/creek bottoms and flood plains, I've noticed this mode of weather destruction that's really common:  the ground gets wet and soft and the wind kicks up and pretty damn big, old trees just keel over with the root ball just sticking up and a big hole in the ground where it was.  And those trees take out a bunch of other stuff on the way down.

The trail stewards around here really earn their keep.

A related freaky deal.  Last year, I was riding concrete trails north of White Rock Lake, some of which skirt around Royal Oaks Country Club (this is the area where former Texas WR recruit Thomas Johnson murdered a jogger with a machete).

Well at one point the "wrought iron" fence around the Royal Oaks golf course is leaning way out over the trail.  Turns out brush and crap had caught on it and the floodwaters pushed on the "clogged" fence, pushing it over while also washing dirt out around the fencepost pilings.

But the wildest part was where the fence and debris were hanging over the concrete path, a bunch of shiner minnows and a couple of bluegill had fallen out of the debris and died on the sidewalk.  Mind you, there's not any standing or running water normally for probably a quarter mile in any direction.

[Al_4_ISU 12451]

My buddy who owns our local bike shop got permission from the county to start building some single track and riding on several hundred acres of county land, just a mile or two outside of the town we live in.  It won't be the steep, relatively huge elevation gains of the Decorah trails I've posted here, but it will have some decent climbs and be much closer to home.  There are already trails cut through the woods and prairie that are groomed for cross country skiing or snowshoeing in the winter.  I've gotten into that this winter, and gotten to know the trails that are already there pretty well.  They'll be decent riding in and of themselves.

There seems to be some local interest in developing this more, so maybe we'll have a decent squad of volunteers.  He and I are both already extremely busy with work, and other community activities, but I think with a few Sundays, and some random weeknights, we'll be able to shore up these existing paths and have a fun little spot.

If the forecast keeps going the way it is, I think next Sunday will be a great opportunity to flag off the new trails and start clearing the under brush.

[Ths71 472]

That's crazy.
Because so many trails here are in river/creek bottoms and flood plains, I've noticed this mode of weather destruction that's really common:  the ground gets wet and soft and the wind kicks up and pretty damn big, old trees just keel over with the root ball just sticking up and a big hole in the ground where it was.  And those trees take out a bunch of other stuff on the way down.
The trail stewards around here really earn their keep.
A related freaky deal.  Last year, I was riding concrete trails north of White Rock Lake, some of which skirt around Royal Oaks Country Club (this is the area where former Texas WR recruit Thomas Johnson murdered a jogger with a machete).
Well at one point the "wrought iron" fence around the Royal Oaks golf course is leaning way out over the trail.  Turns out brush and crap had caught on it and the floodwaters pushed on the "clogged" fence, pushing it over while also washing dirt out around the fencepost pilings.
But the wildest part was where the fence and debris were hanging over the concrete path, a bunch of shiner minnows and a couple of bluegill had fallen out of the debris and died on the sidewalk.  Mind you, there's not any standing or running water normally for probably a quarter mile in any direction.

When we started building trails the only place to ride was the original section of Northshore and an “illegal” area on Hwy 360 south of the airport.

It was a real challenge finding suitable public land in D/FW, a large urban area in a state with very limited public land. Not only that, most of the land managers knew next to nothing about Mountain Bikes. They were also used to dealing with “user groups” like equestrians who pretty much whined and made demands about the trails.

We told them all we wanted was access and we would build and maintain the trails. Win/ Win for them. We started the official trail steward program in the early 90s.




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[TwiceHorn 31438]

15 minutes ago, Ths71 said:

When we started building trails the only place to ride was the original section of Northshore and an “illegal” area on Hwy 360 south of the airport.

It was a real challenge finding suitable public land in D/FW, a large urban area in a state with very limited public land. Not only that, most of the land managers knew next to nothing about Mountain Bikes. They were also used to dealing with “user groups” like equestrians who pretty much whined and made demands about the trails.

We told them all we wanted was access and we would build and maintain the trails. Win/ Win for them. We started the official trail steward program in the early 90s.




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I think DORBA does a great job.  

I find it kind of fascinating how many pretty good sized patches of woods there are in Dallas. I'm always looking around and thinking "hey, looks like you might could build a trail in there."

[Ths71 472]

I spent hours and hours with Mapsco and USGS locating areas, surveying them and trying to find out who owned them.

It was challenging because there were so many different entities to deal with. City, county, TP&W, Corps of Engineers etc.


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[TwiceHorn 31438]

Speaking of trail stewards, went up to Katie Jackson/Collarbone park.  Lots of trees down and some considerable re-routing and building of features over swamp.  This is another North Texas black dirt trail where big trees just fall over every time it rains.  Bigtime chainsaw work involved.

Aaaand half the trail has been fenced off by an adjacent apartment complex.  Was kind of funny, I go along the closer-in loops, finish them and head up to where normally you get up on a sidewalk/walkway next to an apartment complex and ride a couple hundred yards to drop in to the rest of the trail.  Well, I go along the usual route and there's a wrought iron fence between me and the walkway.  Wut?  I look left and right, no gaps in the fence, nowhere to go,  I ride around looking for a gap in the fence.  No dice.

So i rode around the inner loops 3-4 times until I got bored.  Finally ran into a family heading to the jump/pump track area (which is on the fenced-off loop) and am told the only way is to hike-a-bike down along the creek.  I watched the guy go down some limestone, some of which was wet, and he verified that there was actually "shoreline" that would permit you to go down to the other loop/jump area.  I decided that was too much trouble.

Weather was great.  Trail an odd mix of hero dirt, mud, and kitty litter, and some flat-out swamps that they should have taped off.  Decent ride for the fourth this week.

[G650 14243]

So I have another gravel type event. Wish we had gravel thread but I don't believe there is enough of us to sustain it.

 

Any rate, 144 miles, with 40% off road. The Belgian Waffle Ride has started an event in Asheville NC this year. Will go over a lot of the great MTB trails in Pisgah National Forest, so somewhat applicable here.

 

Pretty pumped for it.

[TwiceHorn 31438]

50 minutes ago, G650 said:

So I have another gravel type event. Wish we had gravel thread but I don't believe there is enough of us to sustain it.

 

Any rate, 144 miles, with 40% off road. The Belgian Waffle Ride has started an event in Asheville NC this year. Will go over a lot of the great MTB trails in Pisgah National Forest, so somewhat applicable here.

 

Pretty pumped for it.

Interesting.  I was of the impression that a lot of Pisgah was way beyond gravel bikes.

Gravel bikes totally fly on about 75% of the trails around here.

How long will that take/what kind of speeds are we talkin?

Edited February 29, 2020 by TwiceHorn

[Ths71 472]

Speaking of trail stewards, went up to Katie Jackson/Collarbone park.  Lots of trees down and some considerable re-routing and building of features over swamp.  This is another North Texas black dirt trail where big trees just fall over every time it rains.  Bigtime chainsaw work involved.
Aaaand half the trail has been fenced off by an adjacent apartment complex.  Was kind of funny, I go along the closer-in loops, finish them and head up to where normally you get up on a sidewalk/walkway next to an apartment complex and ride a couple hundred yards to drop in to the rest of the trail.  Well, I go along the usual route and there's a wrought iron fence between me and the walkway.  Wut?  I look left and right, no gaps in the fence, nowhere to go,  I ride around looking for a gap in the fence.  No dice.
So i rode around the inner loops 3-4 times until I got bored.  Finally ran into a family heading to the jump/pump track area (which is on the fenced-off loop) and am told the only way is to hike-a-bike down along the creek.  I watched the guy go down some limestone, some of which was wet, and he verified that there was actually "shoreline" that would permit you to go down to the other loop/jump area.  I decided that was too much trouble.
Weather was great.  Trail an odd mix of hero dirt, mud, and kitty litter, and some flat-out swamps that they should have taped off.  Decent ride for the fourth this week.

Haven’t been there since it became “official”. Talked to the guy who was the original Trail Steward there but he doesn’t know what’s going on out there now.


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[elguapo 4586]

I have a noob question. I want to get back into mountain biking after not riding in many years. I live very close to Crystal Falls/Ronald Reagan in Leander. Does anyone know if it's practical to ride down to the Brushy Creek trails or will I need to load up my bike and drive?

[Braff Zacklin 13553]

7 hours ago, elguapo said:

I have a noob question. I want to get back into mountain biking after not riding in many years. I live very close to Crystal Falls/Ronald Reagan in Leander. Does anyone know if it's practical to ride down to the Brushy Creek trails or will I need to load up my bike and drive?

Just take that shortcut, Lupe's Escape, and you'll be there in no time.

(Different movie, I know, but same Alfonso Arau.)

[TwiceHorn 31438]

10 hours ago, Ths71 said:

Haven’t been there since it became “official”. Talked to the guy who was the original Trail Steward there but he doesn’t know what’s going on out there now.


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I eschew the facing book.  Unfortunately, most trails use it for trail news and updates.  Worse, I assume because of spam, most trail pages are now "closed" so you actually have to be a member to even view it.

Meaning since KJ became an official trail?  Or since the complex closed off the yellow loop?

[Ths71 472]

I eschew the facing book.  Unfortunately, most trails use it for trail news and updates.  Worse, I assume because of spam, most trail pages are now "closed" so you actually have to be a member to even view it.
Meaning since KJ became an official trail?  Or since the complex closed off the yellow loop?

Before it became an official trail. You don’t have to be a member to view the trail conditions updates on the website. Last update on KJ Feb. 28. Open/closed denotes if the trail is open or closed. Probably more info on the FB page but I’m not on that.
Not a bad idea to give DORBA a few bucks for a membership if you enjoy mountain biking. The do/have done a tremendous amount of work.


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[TwiceHorn 31438]

3 hours ago, Ths71 said:

Before it became an official trail. You don’t have to be a member to view the trail conditions updates on the website. Last update on KJ Feb. 28. Open/closed denotes if the trail is open or closed. Probably more info on the FB page but I’m not on that.
Not a bad idea to give DORBA a few bucks for a membership if you enjoy mountain biking. The do/have done a tremendous amount of work.


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I kind of assume it was a jump area with a bit of trail at first?  The jump people seem to be less DORBA-ish than the rest of the trail workers.

Yeah I am just complaining about detailed information on the trails goes on private FB and DORBA just gets to hang.  The KJP issue is one, the Frisco NW re-do is another.

Only Jack, the Rowlett Creek steward, ever puts any info on the forum about RCP.

[Al_4_ISU 12451]

The snow is melting hard.  Highs around 60 this weekend.  I'm starting to get antsy.

[Ths71 472]

I kind of assume it was a jump area with a bit of trail at first?  The jump people seem to be less DORBA-ish than the rest of the trail workers.
Yeah I am just complaining about detailed information on the trails goes on private FB and DORBA just gets to hang.  The KJP issue is one, the Frisco NW re-do is another.
Only Jack, the Rowlett Creek steward, ever puts any info on the forum about RCP.

From the current KJP trail steward concerning the fence:
“Sit tight for a few weeks on access issues. Solutions are being explored.”


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[TwiceHorn 31438]

If I had to guess, the apartment complex had a lot of bobcat or coyote sightings and erected the fence, which is, of course, no solution.

Will be interesting to see what they come up with.  One might think some trail could be cut out next to and parallel to the walkway, but if that could be done, I imagine it would have been.

[Dbeasy 15042]

I have a noob question. I want to get back into mountain biking after not riding in many years. I live very close to Crystal Falls/Ronald Reagan in Leander. Does anyone know if it's practical to ride down to the Brushy Creek trails or will I need to load up my bike and drive?

I live in crystal falls and have done it.

[Buck Strickland 380]

On 3/2/2020 at 11:52 AM, elguapo said:

I have a noob question. I want to get back into mountain biking after not riding in many years. I live very close to Crystal Falls/Ronald Reagan in Leander. Does anyone know if it's practical to ride down to the Brushy Creek trails or will I need to load up my bike and drive?

You can if you don't mind adding about 10 miles round trip to your ride.  There is something for every skill level at Brushy Creek, I've been riding there for about a year and half and am still amazed at how awesome it is.  I've just worked my way up to doing the big drop at the end of Mulligan and it's such an adrenaline rush.  Don't think I'll ever work my way up to Gnargasm, youtube it....holy shit. 

[Braff Zacklin 13553]

On 3/3/2020 at 1:42 PM, Al_4_ISU said:

 I'm starting to get antsy.

Have you tried showering? Or at least sevin dust or some other form of bug repellent?

[Al_4_ISU 12451]

1 minute ago, Braff Zacklin said:

Have you tried showering? Or at least sevin dust or some other form of bug repellent?

[G650 14243]

On 2/29/2020 at 5:07 PM, TwiceHorn said:

Interesting.  I was of the impression that a lot of Pisgah was way beyond gravel bikes.

Gravel bikes totally fly on about 75% of the trails around here.

How long will that take/what kind of speeds are we talkin?

Hell, a lot of Pisgah is beyond MTB. I'm assuming it's gonna be a lot of fire road with some short MTB trails interspersed.

 

I am shooting for 9 hours, but my training has totally gone off the rails with this bronchitis I've developed after a sinus/chest infection

[Braff Zacklin 13553]

"Bronchitis," you say?

Aren't you a pilot? Have you been to China recently, G65(patient)0?

Edited March 7, 2020 by Braff Zacklin

[Al_4_ISU 12451]

Hell, a lot of Pisgah is beyond MTB. I'm assuming it's gonna be a lot of fire road with some short MTB trails interspersed.
 
I am shooting for 9 hours, but my training has totally gone off the rails with this bronchitis I've developed after a sinus/chest infection

Lay off the Mexican beers bruh

[Al_4_ISU 12451]

Went running on the usual trails. Massive contrast between north-facing slopes and south-facing slopes.

If the forecast holds, I think I could be riding next Sunday

[wd40 1976]

did my usual Brushy bit this morning.  kinda moist up there, so cut it a little short.   

I did see a new drop they're building.  holy shit.  made my hands sweat, just looking at it.  big gap huck.  I guestimate it being about an 8' drop, at least at the moment, but I think they're not done building up the LZ which is still pretty flat.  they had some twigs laid across the launch pad, sort of suggesting it's not yet open.

Buck, Gnargasm's really not that bad.  fairly high penalty for failure, sure.  but like I said above, if you focus on where you want to go, and not where you are and what could go wrong, you'll be just fine.  it's just the same 8-10" width you keep your tires between on flat ground.  just keep rolling.