Slaughter Pen “Phase 3″ Interactive Forum
Slaughter Pen Phase 3 is a 15ac plot of land which will include approx. 2mi of DH oriented trails designed by IMBA and PTD. The project is currently under construction by PTD and should be completed by the end of September. The addition of Phase 3 will make the entire Slaughter Pen Trail System 12miles of purpose built singletrack!
The purpose of this interactive forum is to provide a platform for the public, specifically the citizens of Bentonville and the surrounding area, to interact directly with PTD in order to share ideas, desires, needs, concerns, questions, opinions, etc… The #1 goal of all our parks is to meet the desires of the local riding contingent. It is ultimately the locals who will be the stewards of this park once we are gone, so it is important that we design/build something that they will have a vested interest in. This post will be under the “Pages” column on right hand side of Blog for future reference. Thanks for your participation. We look forward to it!
Where exactly is the new section going to be located and is the 3 miles the downhill or are you adding 3 miles and a seperate downhill section?
Some banked wall rides that are taller and steeper than in phase 1 would be cool. Also, some north shore stuff would be pretty sweet along with some obstacles in the trails like logs and large rocks.
The 3mi trail is south of phase 2 on the other side of Tiger and west of Ast. Majority of the trail will be agressive XC/AM trail with little rock drops, rollers, berms, rock gardens etc… In addition, there will be a DH Flow trail that will basically look and feel like a slalom course.
We would love to build some wooden features as well. We have some good ideas for some, but not part of the build at this point. Thanks a lot for the comments. We will take them to heart and express them on the trail!
~Woody
So will this section be accessible from the other trails or will it be totally separate. Any plans to tie phase 1 into the figure 8 trail. That would be great.
Unfortunatly this trail will not connect to phase 2 by way of singletrack. However, it will only be a short jaunt down the new paved trail that is under construction on Ast. No plans to connect phase1 to the figure 8 loop directly (I’m assuming you are referring to free time and rock ridge trails). It does connect by way of the urban trail though. Thanks for your input.
~Woody
Woody, the pictuers look awesome. Is the new DH stuff going to be shuttle-able or earn your way? It would be awesome to have another big bike trail closeby when coming in from out of town (dallas in my case) to ride DD or Eureka.
We’ll be up in Sept. for DD race. Would we be able to check it out if time allows?
-rick
Rick..hey man. I dont want you to get too excited, this isnt exactly Devils Den, we don’t have 700′ of elevation drop to work with; more like 200-300′ of drop on 15ac. So we can only do so much with what we got; no shuttles, must earn your way. But It will be fun DH-oriented trails. In fact one of them, if we get approval, will be 1500′ of flowy DH pumptrack/slalom style trail. It will have approx 20+ berms rollers, step-ups, step-downs,etc… So that could be big bike worthy, but most of the trail will cater to all-mountain bikes. Thanks for your input….~Woody
Guys,
I went out about 9pm doing some night riding and checked out the new trail section, very cool! I know it is just started but love the switchbacks and really like the small loop right next to the gate. This has the makings of the best section in Slaughter Pen in my opinion.
I took off on it counterclockwise the first time, fun to have to hop up ledges, but when you ride it clockwise it really flows….table top…drop….table top… rail the berm then repeat…reminds me of the BMX days.
Not sure what the plan is for the trail next to the 10 foot ledge but as Dale had suggested, some sort of rail would be a good idea to keep from pulling a Hans Rey off the side.
Gary
Gary,
Thanks for the feedback man! I’m glad u dig it. It sounds like you are getting the experience we are aiming for; Dh/BMX pumptrack style with some technical MTB features interspersed.
As for the handcut Rim Trail that u are talking about. We do plan on having some kind of rail there for safety. That trail is going to be tight and tech!
It looks great according to the pictures. I would love to see a couple of wooden kickers with large dirt landings. Not anything super huge and not super steep where you need a dirt jumper to accomplish. Maybe something where the landing slopes out and away so if someone wanted to launch it bigger they could but still be ridable by most. Just an idea, keep up the great work!!!