Just back from a weekend of riding and shuttling with a bunch of monkeys down in Windrock, TN, and all I can say is that if you live anywhere east of the Mississippi, you HAVE to visit this place.
I'm not sure if the locals who get to ride this place regularly will be psyched or pissed that I'm spreading the word about their amazing trails, but it's too good of a riding place to keep under wraps. I can't even begin to describe the amount of work that has obviously gone into cutting the miles and miles of easily shuttle-able DH trails there, but imagine some of your favorite trails at Whistler transplanted to a location where the riding season is 10-12 months a year and the intensity of the jumps/drops/rock gardens/berms is cranked up considerably.
From what I gather a group of just 5-7 guys has done the vast majority of the work on these trails, and honestly, it's staggering to try and comprehend the number of man-hours they must have sunk in to make these trails so ridiculously flowy, well-drained, and sh!t-eating-grin fun. Having ridden all over North America and Hawaii, I'm hard pressed to think of another riding spot that's as challenging and superbly laid out - Whistler obviously stands in a league of it's own due to the sheer amount of terrain and infrastructure, but I can't think of another bike park I'd rather ride (Bromont is up there due to the high number of trails, but Windrock beats it due to how much more challenging it is).
Anyway, enough gushing. Let me just wrap up by saying I can't imagine a better place for early or late season riding than Windrock. Hell, mid-season is probably awesome, too.
A gigantic thanks goes out to Cecil, Greg, Doug, all the Clemson maniacs, and the rest of the crew for showing me around and waiting for my sorry ass to get the nut up to hit all the jumps and drops. Can't wait to ride with you fellas again.
--JP
I'm not sure if the locals who get to ride this place regularly will be psyched or pissed that I'm spreading the word about their amazing trails, but it's too good of a riding place to keep under wraps. I can't even begin to describe the amount of work that has obviously gone into cutting the miles and miles of easily shuttle-able DH trails there, but imagine some of your favorite trails at Whistler transplanted to a location where the riding season is 10-12 months a year and the intensity of the jumps/drops/rock gardens/berms is cranked up considerably.
From what I gather a group of just 5-7 guys has done the vast majority of the work on these trails, and honestly, it's staggering to try and comprehend the number of man-hours they must have sunk in to make these trails so ridiculously flowy, well-drained, and sh!t-eating-grin fun. Having ridden all over North America and Hawaii, I'm hard pressed to think of another riding spot that's as challenging and superbly laid out - Whistler obviously stands in a league of it's own due to the sheer amount of terrain and infrastructure, but I can't think of another bike park I'd rather ride (Bromont is up there due to the high number of trails, but Windrock beats it due to how much more challenging it is).
Anyway, enough gushing. Let me just wrap up by saying I can't imagine a better place for early or late season riding than Windrock. Hell, mid-season is probably awesome, too.
A gigantic thanks goes out to Cecil, Greg, Doug, all the Clemson maniacs, and the rest of the crew for showing me around and waiting for my sorry ass to get the nut up to hit all the jumps and drops. Can't wait to ride with you fellas again.
--JP