I'm no stranger to man made trails. I've ridden the ones in Wales countless times and the ones in Scotland a fair bit too (for research purposes you understand). The ones I've been riding for the last three days are totally different though.
I'm out in Las Vegas for the Interbike trade show, which has meant two days of test riding new bikes and another day shooting covers at Bootleg Canyon in Boulder City. While UK trails are designed to shrug off storms and drain instantly in regular deluges, the trails here are designed for totally opposite conditions. With pretty much no rain at all, the mountains here are all sand and rock. Deep sand and savagely point. flesh ripping rock at that.
Every shot has a long dust cloud ripping out from behind, every corner is sideways somehow and you have to learn the weird snatchy habits of soft sand corners really fast if you're not going to come off.
The various contouring trails from the top of the mountain are super fun though, with excellent flow and sweet sweeping corners for the most part. Whereas the UK trails are very cleverly and imperceptibly speed managed though, there are more than a few surprises out here, and with zero tolerance terrain waiting just inches off the trail, the ambulances have had a busy week. Unlike out trails two days of hard use had really started to break up and break off the outer edges, making them even more dangerous and unforgiving than before. Oh and I can barely talk from sand and dust in my pipes and my throat is bone dry, despite the fact we drank 8 litres of water between us in 3 hours this afternoon. With 100 degree sun beating down all day we've been feeling like toads in a tanning shop.
In fact coughing our guts up with miners lung after sprinting the last few shots before sundown we aren't half keen on getting back to a bit of damp and some nice cooling puddles.
Yes really!
Guy