Did the full East Main loop on Sunday afternoon with my wife. (She's was on her new TREK  Fuel EX 8, 3rd or 4th ride, loves it BTW)  Her first time on the East Main sections beyond the bridges. We had a great time.   Just thought I would throw this out there, but East Main, as a whole, could be the best all around more difficult trail at WWC.  It has some flow, some rocks, a jump or 4,  a few tight tough climbs, some skinny downhill sections, and more...basically some of everything.   And to quote my wife (who BTW was exhausted after doing Thread plus the full East Main loop and somewhat annoyed at me)  after the ride she said:  "if that's a blue, then Carpet should be a blue... otherwise that's a Black past the bridge...why didn't you warn me?"     I was impressed in general though, she only had to walk it up 2 sections of up hill, and the one short, but quite steep drop after you turn for home way out towards the WWC main entrance. We took a breather here and there.  Parts of that section further out are much more difficult now that they are washed out and even more off camber in sections.    I lost momentum once and fell over trying to get unclipped.  Thank good ness for knee pads...gnarly fun.

Kudos - that is one of the more challenging trails around here imo.  At least from a cardiovascular standpoint.

While there are a few steep sections on the east trail extension it is otherwise mind-numbingly boring.  Its total distance drives down the average grade and it doesn't have any memorable technical elements so probably deserves a blue square.  Goat Hill probably has the highest average grade because of the total elevation gain on the initial climb plus fire road over such a short trail.  Carpet is still fun as there are interesting terrain changes with drop offs, table jumps, and actual carpet on about a mile of trail.  The pound for pound champ at USNWC is still the South Main loop with Carpet, Goat Hill, Weigh Station, and Toilet Bowl.   Academy and east trails were washed-out with nearly full exposed roots crossing the trail the last time I rode around Christmas.  They just don't make them like they used to.

StevenA wrote on 04/03/17 at 11:53pm:


mind-numbingly boring?  you can't be serious....

While I don't think its worthy of a black diamond, I do think it is the hardest trail out there from both a technical and fitness standpoint.   

If you ride east main and are bored you either missed something or aren't pedaling hard enough.

It's bad form to attack somebody's opinion so I'll show appropriate restraint.  East Main is like RRT....If you can ride it...you probably love it....if you can't ride it you find fault in it.  I park at the entrance to the lake loop then ride East Main and stop back at my truck before I enter the short section behind the adventure pavilion...then FIG 8....Thread..Acadamy...Thread...South...Carpet...93....Wedge...goat...Wiegh Station..TB.  Problem is East Main is now 6 tough miles (from my truck and back).  Somehow I talk myself into skipping Fig 8 and taking the shortcut to Carpet.  East Main takes a lot out of me and I agree the flow of Carpet/Tower/Wedge is more fun...but It's my personal opinion the challenge of East Main is fun....and I think the trail is beautiful.  I used to be able to ride 100% of the WWC trails in a normal sigle ride until they added the Extensions to East Main......now I wimp out and take shortcuts because of the "Mind Numbingly Boring" East Main.

Academy is also great added miles....I do think you lose some momentum because of tight switchbacks at the "bottom" of hills just before climbs...I'd prefer the chance to keep some momentum to help with the flow/climbs...but I suspect I need to get better in the switchbacks!!!  It's me not the trail!

He forgot a comma, he means:

Carpet is still fun as there are interesting terrain changes with drop offs, table jumps, and actual carpet, on about a mile of trail

punctuation saves lives:

Let's eat Grandma!
Let's eat, Grandma!

To the OP: Kudos to your wife! That's a pretty strenuous trail if you don't ride a lot and she did well finishing it with minimal negativity. You're blessed to have a wife like that. And you did your part by getting her a decent bike.

Should B Faster wrote on 04/04/17 at 2:39pm:



^^ This too.  The clearing at the top of one of the switchback climbs is very nice.  If I wasn't breathing so hard last time I rode it I would have had a Kodak Moment. Then you hit that narrow slice of singletrack and drop back into the woods.  Bro Stuff.

Rode East Main for the first time in full yesterday.  Totally kicked my ass.....in a good way.  Did some of South Main and was going to hit up Lake b4 heading over to East Main but decided to skip Lake and just head over knowing the unknown.  Glad I did.  As an intermediate rider I would def say it more advanced then the rest of WWC.  Even had to walk a few sections that caught me off guard.....but that's part of the sport.  I may not make it a regular part of my route but when I feel the need to burn those extra calories and punish myself a bit more than hell yeah.  All in all great fun, challenging addition!!!