Anchorage Daily News

GIRDWOOD -- At first, it looked as if Warren Rowe and his crew of downhill mountain bike trail builders had accomplished very little.

Pedaling up the newly built Bear Cub Trail, it looked like nothing more than a foot-wide dirt path.

We paralleled Chair 7 and zigzagged across a gravel maintenance road, maneuvering tight switchbacks that were slippery and not quite finished.

But halfway up, there was Rowe at a spur trail to the left, knee-deep in mud and hand-building a bridge made of locally harvested trees and stone.

Dressed in fishermen's rain gear and splattered with raindrops, Rowe, the mastermind behind Alyeska's newest endeavor -- a downhill mountain biking course designed for all abilities -- greeted us with a broad smile and muddy hands.

"Right now, we've got a whole new engineering challenge," he said, pointing to this key section of trail, which veers into the woods and will be known as "Blueberry Pancake." The two trails -- Bear Cub and Blueberry Pancake -- will form a loop on which riders can climb in one direction and descend in another.

"This is all clay, and it's not permeable. So we're bringing in all this Portage gravel to help with drainage."

Several days of rain saturated the ground, and the weather showed no sign of improving. Everywhere there were puddles, and the mud was thick as quicksand.

These are not ideal mountain biking conditions, and Rowe knows it.

As hiking and biking trails director at Alyeska, Rowe has spent the past five years trying to help grow the sport of downhill mountain biking in his home town.

In 2004, he worked out a tentative agreement with Alyeska managers to build downhill trails on the east side of the resort, at Chair 5. But that effort stalled because the trails were so advanced, they were unrideable except for the most skilled of downhill mountain bikers.

This time, Rowe said, he is working with the resort rather than as an independent contractor, aiming to attract a larger group of riders.

"It's designed to be a flowing free ride trail for easy ability," he said. "There are no drops, no tabletops, no ramps. For right now, simplicity is key."

SMOOTH, ARTISTIC TRAILS

At the bridge, we peered into the rainforest to see the trail continue into the woods and disappear in the dimness. Crew members laid rock like cobblestone, plopping heavy slabs into the mud as if piecing together a puzzle.

We walked across the bridge and walked along the half-finished trail, which meandered around giant spruce and hemlock, widening at some places and becoming narrower at others.

This will be the lower end of Blueberry Pancake, Rowe said, and it has to be just right. Anything less, he said, is unacceptable.

"We don't want the look of a bulldozed trail," Rowe said. "We want smooth, artistic trails."

Brad Howell is on Rowe's design and construction team. As a veteran downhill rider, he has done it all -- the huge ramps and jumps available at such popular places as Whistler, B.C., are his type of riding.

But even these trails -- designed for those with basic riding abilities -- are going to be fun, he said.

"The design and idea was to decrease the grade of the hill so that the beginning rider can ride this," he said.

Design standards from such organizations as the International Mountain Bicycling Association call for downhill courses to have grades no greater than 10 percent to 15 percent. But the Alyeska trails will be even lower, just under 10 percent is some places, to assure that riders feel comfortable, he said.

7,000 WORK HOURS

Other design factors include drainage, which in rainy Girdwood is particularly challenging, and flow, which describes how the trail feels when riding.

Howell said these factors have been considered, which is why building the trail has taken so many man-hours. As of late July, Rowe said his seven-man crew had put in at least 7,000 total hours.

From the lower end of Blueberry Pancake, Rowe led us back to the Bear Cub trail and told us to continue upward, to the top of the trail. When complete, riders can follow Bear Cub almost to the top, then take a left into the woods to connect with the upper end of Blueberry Pancake.

Or they can opt to keep riding to the top of the ridge, where Chairs 3 and 7 meet, and take a downhill route that follows what in the winter is the Christmas Run.

"You can ride back down to the Sitzmark and then ride the roads or bike path to the hotel and do that loop as many times as you want," Howell said.

While the Bear Cub trail and its Chair 3 connection makes a nice ride, it is the Blueberry Pancake trail that has people talking. Already, locals have heard about it and some have tried riding it, even though it's not nearly completed. Rowe has been urging curious riders to stay off until all the work is done.

He hopes to have everything up and running by Saturday , the weekend of Alyeska's popular summertime Blueberry Festival.

"We want it to be just right," Rowe said. "We've got a crew of some of the best trail builders, and they have a passion for trail-building."

BANKED TURNS

We left Rowe at the bridge and continued riding up Bear Cub. Howell and Rowe jumped in their truck and passed us on the gravel road. Just before cresting the hill toward Chair 3, however, Rowe was there waiting, and stopped us at an nondescript place on the trail. Behind him, the hillside climbed steeply up a 10-foot embankment.

"I want to show you something here," he said, turning and climbing the embankment.

And that is where the fun began. Bushwhacking into the woods, it was hard to envision the plans that Rowe has already formed in his mind. But after 100 yards of dodging devil's club and cow parsnip, the view changed.

Fresh-cut planks of locally harvested evergreens had been laid, boardwalk-style, and meandered at a slight downhill through the forest. Rather than descending steeply, though, it twisted and turned as if molded when soft and left to harden into its current state. At each turn in the boardwalk, the wood also angled in soft, banked edges.

This is to keep riders on the trail, Howell explained. As they make each turn, the upturned boardwalk keeps them hugged on course. Gravity then works with them, rather than shooting them down the trail out of control.

Wire mesh will be added over the boards to improve traction.

"We build this trail with one thing in mind," Rowe stressed. "That's flow. We adamantly chose every corner to be faster and more fluid."

When done, Blueberry Pancake will be less than a mile long. But the ride will meander, giving mountain bikers a chance to keep speeds under control and enjoy the rainforest scenery.

Rowe and his crew are excited about the trail opening. As ski resorts nationwide work to attract year-round visitors -- Whistler reported more summer than winter visitors for the first time last year -- he said the timing is perfect.

The trail system his crew is building is "a gift to the community," he added. Alyeska does not plan to charge riders, although that could change in the future if it expands the biking options to include chair lift access.

"Our trail crew designed these trails with terrific flow," Rowe said. "You're going to feel the turns, and really feel the flow of the corners. It is a trail that will last forever."

Reach Melissa DeVaughn at mdevaughn@ adn.com or 257-4482.

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