2005 ish
Poplar Tent while down visiting my sister. Before we moved to NC years later
Old Gary Fisher Montare

1989...Sam Wilson (parked on Heavy Equipment Road and the trail started where the Jump Line is today...Auto Doctor.....Poplar Tent...Cane Creek.....Renni was not official as i remember in 89 but I swear I rode a few times behind the produce market?  That was my rotation.  UNCC had a small trail and Crown Point had an out and back.  Drive to Tsali for the week end or get frigging lost in Pisgah.   I can't remember the first time I rode Beatty but I think it was 1993?    Now look at all the trails we have!!

2010 rode Poplar Tent once on a '98 Stumpjumper with a Judy T2, tires pumped up to 60 psi, seat jacked all the way up, longest stem on the market, and clips. Ate it 30 seconds in, then again every 5 minutes for the next hour.  Swore it off for 6 months until I signed up for ORAMM, how bad could it be? My buddies, who knew better, had an intervention.

My first mountain bike ride was probably around 1987.  I was on a Giant AT740 I think.  No such thing as suspension on mountain bikes yet.  Me and a couple of buddies rode a trail at Reedy Creek Park.  It was all single track that went through the park over to Plaza Rd. Ext.  We would ride it out and back.  After some time the rangers shut it down and told us we could only ride on the gravel greenway.

We also rode in Concord and Kannapolis in the area that is now Copperfield Blvd.  We started off of Mid Lake Rd and rode tons of trails that crossed under 85 and came out right where Branchview meets Copperfield now.

Probably in the early 90's I took a couple of spins around cane creek park with some friends.  Upgraded to another rigid bike in the early to mid 90's Diamond Back Apex (I believe).  Continued to ride here and there on mostly private land.  In 2000 I bought my first full suspension bike (Gary Fisher) and hated it.  Quit riding almost immediately because I hated it so much.

In 2013 got the bug again and started back. After a few rides I got rid of that Gary Fisher and bought a TREK hard tail.  A year or so later was able to ride a friends full squish TREK and fell in love with it.  And that was all she wrote.  Don't get to ride as much as I'd like too, but as soon as the parks open back up I'll be at it again.

Hey firecap. I did make trails over there at one time. I made the trail that went by the rest area to Copperfield before it was Copperfield. I had a friend from work that lived off of Concord Lake Road and we rode dirt bikes from his house down to the end of the road he lived on and crossed the creek and ended up over at the end of the road at I-85. We rode the trail that went under I-85 and we hit the hump in the field where the fence was at one time at 55mph and catch air for a long ways. Those were the days!!

BBM

Catawba River around '99 on a DBR Ti hardtail.  I came up from Columbia, SC to pre-ride the race course but it rained hard that night so I did not return for the sloppy race.  Back in Columbia I rode Harbison SF often but preferred Lynch's Woods up in Newberry.  I moved to Charlotte in '01 and starting riding UNCC and Poplar, our trails have come a LONG ways since then.

My wife and I moved here in November. I drove out solo and she was already out here for work. We had a rental for a couple months and most of our stuff was in storage, but I'd thrown my MTB on the rack when I drove out from CO. So first or second weekend here in November 2019 I rode at the whitewater center. 

She's from out this way though, I we had done a bit of trail running before. We did the smoky mountain relay in like 2017 and whenever we visit her folks in greensboro, we do some trail running. I was pretty excited to get out here and ride. I didn't realize how much it rains and how much rain shuts things down. We don't ride we trails in CO, but that's rarely an issue.

1996, beach springs at Poplar tent on a Giant Yukon. Man, I loved that trail! Devils Drop! That twisty singletrack just across the creek! RoundRock! The Jungle 1 & 2! Gravity Cavity - especially the hyperV drop in as you first approached it - nearly got whiplash on that or so it felt! The Swamp! That last tricky gully climb out! What a great ride that was! I can see how it has continue to influence trail building choices for years to come. Of course that can just as easily be that many of the same hands that made it have kept on building our amazing trail system of today. We have a lot of great variety in the Charlotte metro region for sure.

I was on a Bridgestone CB-0 with lovely slick 1.25" Specialized FatBoy tires.  Best friend Tony was on a rebuilt Nishiki Saga which he custom painted in our apartment laundry room.

1993. BYT before it was Back Yard Trail with some guy named Clay Hubbs we worked with as carpenters during the CPCC summer theater season.

Good times!