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Seattle, Washington
Words and Photos by Zeb Tingey
At some point, you’ve likely read about some magical local trail system where the riding “has something for everyone.” You chuckle to yourself and think, yeah right, heard that before. Whoever wrote that doesn’t quite realize that his favorite trails aren’t really all that beginner friendly, or the “advanced” trails turn out to be kind of janky; not every local riding spot is Whistler, after all. But if you get the opportunity to build your local riding spot from the ground up—if you design it with a true full range of riders and riding styles in mind—this magical place can actually exist. And now it does, just a few minutes east of Seattle, Washington.
Duthie Hill Park is a 120-acre park perched above suburban Issaquah, on the Sammamish Plateau. It is the second skills park designed and built by the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance (EMBA)—the first was the Colonnade Park under I-5 next to downtown Seattle—and EMBA has made this new playground possible by leveraging a unique approach with a wide-ranging posse of local builders and volunteers. Once the overall goals for the park were reviewed and approved by the county that owns the land, EMBA gave a number of local build teams complete oversight for their own individual lines. Many of these groups have been building in a number of local spots, most of which are “grey” areas—a euphemistic way of saying they weren’t legit. Duthie has proven that if you give rogue builders an authorized place to build, they will come in full force, and they will work even harder. As a reflection of all their hard work, many of the lines are named after the groups themselves.
The Dirt Corps—a local grassroots racing team that had some previously built trails in the area shut down—has built a beautifully constructed short freeride trail called Semper Dirticus that boasts several different stunts along the way including drops, stepdowns, doubles, ladder bridges, and even a wall ride. It’s built perfectly for progression—most of the gaps are also rollable, and the initial stepdown-stepup combo comes equipped with case pads if your speed isn’t quite dialed yet.
Another local group with a zesty name, The Dirty White Boys, have put together a mostly dirt line with some larger hits including two stepdowns and three 15ft+ doubles aptly named Boss Hog, The Monolith, and The Legend. If you get the Dirt Corps line figured out and feel super smooth on it, the DWB line is right next door and ready to test your comfort level with airtime.
The High Life Crew—another group that came together semi-organically over time by building in a variety of local grey areas—has crafted an old school freeride trail with several doubles sporting classic wood rung take-off ramps, and all the jumps have nice smooth run-ins so getting the proper speed isn’t a problem. The trail ends with a serious booter stepup preceded by a straight shot 50-foot run-in down a ravine! One member of the HLC also put in an intermediate DH trail called “2 Hi” that has a few small jumps and some great corners; I recommend this one for anyone just getting into riding who wants to get a feel for cornering and an intro to jumping.
The Big Tree boys and I have been hard at work trying to finish our contribution to the park: a minute-plus mini race course with a few big jumps and lots of small jumps and pumpable hits that will require time and practice to get through in a fast, smooth fashion. We don’t have the biggest jumps on the hill but I think most people will find our trail quite a challenge to ride or race on. At the moment there are 14 jumps that can be linked together without a single pedal stroke or use of the brakes, and we hope to have the trail completed and ready for racing by the end of March.
There is a several hundred foot long log ride on a super fun and flowy trail called Boot Camp, and there are two lines of basic jumps for people to get started on, built by the former Luna Chix team (now known as the Sturdy Bitches!). The park also has an extensive network of cross-country trails that wind around in a cloverleaf pattern, all starting and ending in the main clearing in the center of the park. The center gathering spot is another stroke of design genius. It’s the social hub where all the lines feed back into—perfectly placed for exchanging crash stories and high fives—and it will also serve as a pit/support area for a host of events and races that EMBA has planned starting later this year. Parking is a bit limited at the moment, but they are working on making another lot to deal with the ever-increasing popularity of the park.
On a recent sunny Sunday in January, Duthie was packed. There were DH and freeride hucksters on big bikes, a huge horde of gals out for a women’s jump jam, families and kids on XC bikes, and groups of friends poking around the trails on hard tails, full suspension rigs, and even a few cross bikes—essentially, every possible type of rider was out there finding something they could smile about.
For directions and more info about Duthie Hill Park, visit www.evergreenmtb.org.
