Trails Closed Sunday too. Get ready for Grand Opening Weekend!

I just walked the trails and there are still too many places where it's too soft to ride.  These brand new trails are just taking a little too long to dry up right now. We are are going to stay closed Sunday and get ready for next weekend. Before making this decision I consulted with Trail Source our trail builders and talked to Adam project manager.  He walked the trails too and recommended staying off the trails for the weekend based up the amount rain we received.  They also stressed that these trails are in their most fragile state right now.  A year from now, things should dry up faster.  These are brand new trails...and....we received 4+ inches of rain Wednesday night and another downpour just yesterday.  Even though some of you maybe be disappointing, we will error on the side of caution and protect the trails.  We will spend next week repairing certain spots on the trails from this week's heavy rain and storms and get things in great shape for next weekend.  Remember, next weekend (July 28-30) we are open on Friday too from 3-7pm.

Trail Construction Update:  Even though we are closed this weekend, the good news is that trail construction is still happening at Welch Village this weekend! Trail Source is working all weekend on the next intermediate trail.  They are making great progress and hopefully with good weather next week, that trail could be ready for next weekend.  There are a couple photos below taken during construction of this next gravity flow trail.  It looks incredible! Please note, these pictures were taken just before all the rain on Wednesday.

Important Info for MTB Opening Weekend

Welch Village becomes a chairlift-served mountain bike park tomorrow and a new era begins.  If you are planning on being one of the first to try our new MTB Park out this weekend or in the weeks following we have a few things we would like to tell you.

• First and foremost, this is the first time we have done this.  Therefore, we are going to try several new things this first year.  For example, this weekend we will offer a basic food menu. Don't be surprised if we change things quite often.  We are just getting to know the MTB crowd.
  
• Please read the MTB rules,safety information, and orientation guide on our website before visiting. 

• We only have 2 trails open right now.  Please know that the trails may be busy at times.  Hoping to have a third in about 2 weeks.  A fourth a few weeks after that. 

• Please read the signs around the trails and park.  Caution and Slow signs are there for your safety. 

• This is just year one.  We have a lot more planned in the future for the Welch MTB Park.  This is just the beginning.  

• Lastly...Have a blast!  

We are ready for you....see you tomorrow.  

MTB Park Family Test and Chairlift testing

I took by wife and 3 daughters on our green downhill trail "Joy Ride" on the 4th of July.  I was hoping to do this a couple weeks ago but the trail was too soft and not enough of the trail was completed in order to provide a good experience for them.  I learned a lot from this little family outing.  Bottom line is this, our new MTB Park comes with a new sense of reality.   This is really important to understand and we at Welch Village want to be completely honest and transparent.

A green downhill MTB trail is not a "beginner" MTB trail.  A green downhill MTB trail is not the mountain bike version of a ski area's bunny hill.  My two youngest daughters (age 7 and almost 9) were able to ride about the first 1/3 of the trail.  That part of the trail is mostly flat with several rollers, decent, and berms throughout. They loved the sections they were able to ride.  My 10 year old and my wife were able to ride the entire Joy Ride trail but had to walk their bikes in a couple of sections where the berms/corners were a little too steep and tight for their current ability and comfort level.

Now...my family just started mountain biking last summer so they are still considered beginners. They can all ride Lebanon's green loop and my wife has ridden the blue loop as well as Memorial in Red Wing and Carver in Woodbury.  All three of the girls are ski racers so hills and speed doesn't bother them too much.  However, this family testing session validated the fact to me that in order to ride our MTB trails this summer, some cross-country MTB experience is highly recommended/required.

We are adding more and more information to our website in order to explain this to our guests including adding some rules, age minimums, proper MTB bike requirements etc.  We will offer some limited lesson sessions this year and whole lot more next summer.  We are also starting work on a small beginner skills park right in front of our main chalet.  In the future, we will continue to add progressive type skills parks and trails for ALL ability levels so a lot more novice MTB amenities are on the way next year and beyond. This is just the first year of MTB operations at Welch Village so all of the beginners out there will have to be patient for a little while.  Thank you for your understanding.

Also, a couple of us were able to ride the chairlift (our bikes too) today as we have started chairlift testing.  We have two trails done now from top-to-bottom and work on the third trail will begin Monday of next week.  Work on the Black trail will begin soon after.

Stay tuned...a lot more MTB information will be coming your way as we approach opening day (TBD still).