buellski
New member
Since starting DH mountain biking, my son and I have been wanting to get up to Burke to try out their bike park. We finally made the trip up this past Saturday. The weather was perfect and we had a great day of riding. We started out with a warm up lap of Roly Grail. This is the beginner trail built with the "Bell Built" grant. It is a fun trail and a great option for beginners. It's a lot more fun than Sunapee's "Dirt Serpent", but not as technical as Highland's "Easy Rider". My only complaints are there are too many road sections, and the pedal up and around mid-Burke lodge puts a damper on the fun factor. The mid-Burke section routing may be due to construction of the hotel.
After that, we pretty much stuck to the trails in the middle of the park. The lift line was pretty much non-existent the entire time we were there. There were never more than a dozen or so people waiting to get on the lift. My son's favorite trail was Jester for all the flow and features. His favorite feature being the wall ride down near the bottom. My favorite way down was Enchanted Forest to Merlin back to Enchanted Forest to lower Knightslayer. It provided a fun mix of more technical riding with some flow and features thrown in. Overall, the trails are in great condition. Braking bumps, where they exist, are a lot shallower and much less noticeable than at Highland which has some absolute craters in some turns.
Overall, it's a solid park and we'll be going back at some point. I really enjoyed the layout of the trails and felt they offered a good mix of tech and flow. I would highly recommend it for anyone that's never been there. I did see a couple of people on hard tails, but I would definitely recommend bringing or renting a full suspension bike. If you do go, plan on bringing your own food and drinks as they don't have a cafe like Highland. The only food option is to go to the full service restaurant upstairs in the lodge.
My son on Jester:
After that, we pretty much stuck to the trails in the middle of the park. The lift line was pretty much non-existent the entire time we were there. There were never more than a dozen or so people waiting to get on the lift. My son's favorite trail was Jester for all the flow and features. His favorite feature being the wall ride down near the bottom. My favorite way down was Enchanted Forest to Merlin back to Enchanted Forest to lower Knightslayer. It provided a fun mix of more technical riding with some flow and features thrown in. Overall, the trails are in great condition. Braking bumps, where they exist, are a lot shallower and much less noticeable than at Highland which has some absolute craters in some turns.
Overall, it's a solid park and we'll be going back at some point. I really enjoyed the layout of the trails and felt they offered a good mix of tech and flow. I would highly recommend it for anyone that's never been there. I did see a couple of people on hard tails, but I would definitely recommend bringing or renting a full suspension bike. If you do go, plan on bringing your own food and drinks as they don't have a cafe like Highland. The only food option is to go to the full service restaurant upstairs in the lodge.
My son on Jester:
