SE Michigan vs NE Ohio SSS #8: Modern Trails

East Rim in the Cuyahoga Valley and the DTE trails in the Waterloo Area were both designed by the same trail building company, Spectral Designs, and both the product of a lot of work by a lot of people over a long period of time – the standard story for any contemporary new trail construction these days. People bitch about how long these things take, but if you think about it, these trails are supposed to last forever, and so it makes sense to ensure they’re done right. I’ve spent a few trail building days on each, and if I ever settle down, I’d like to do more.

Let’s start with DTE. Most people from Ohio have heard of the DTE trails and many have made the pilgrimage, so there’s no reason to try to describe them. I’m gonna go right out on a limb, though, and say that DTE is pretty much a “green” trail, with the exception of some jumps and grade reversals. I’m also gonna say that after being told that the advanced sections of DTE would rival Copper Harbor, I’m sadly underwhelmed. I know a lot of passion went into to developing the system, but for me, a few rides there was plenty. Especially when Poto is so close by. The recently opened Waterloo Connector gives you the possibility of a truly epic ride, and we’ve had some fun on the Triple Trail Challenge days, but I think the engineered design of the system sanitized the mountain biking experience that most of us seek. And I think with the exception of a couple of segments, Spectrum Designs has done better work elsewhere, most recently The Dragon (dumb name) near Newaygo.

East Rim is elsewhere. Granted, there’s no comparison in terms of the mileage that the two short loops ER offers. Unfortunately, most riders end up doing two or three laps of Phase 2 just to get an after work fix. It’s no destination in itself, but ER is central to Bedford, Hampton Hills, and some cool “backcountry trails” plus the whole Cuyahoga Valley, and it also opened the door to mountain biking in National Parks. I still maintain that the “turnpike descent” at the beginning of Phase 2 CW is one of the best short descents I’ve ever done. And what DTE has in mileage, ER has in elevation and fun rock moves you just won’t find in the LP. And once again, I’ll probably never clean the CW Expert Line.

This one will surely piss off the Michigan people, but if I have time to ride on weekday evening, I’ll head to ER just about every time. I can’t say that about DTE:

DTE 13
ER 16

Two more rounds to go!