Hello America | Part #13 – Washington D.C.s Urban Trails

They say that you should handle a diva with velvet gloves, tending to their beck and call but backing off when they need space. Coming across a true diva is an experience; they’re one-of-a-kind, revered with something akin to holiness. But it’s something they’re all too aware of, demanding to be celebrated in this manner and boy, do they have a tendency to kick off if things aren’t as they should be. Interestingly, this is exactly the case with Washington D.C’s Fountainhead Trails, which the locals have lovingly and rather aptly dubbed the ‘Diva trails.’

The „Head“

I’d already heard about the Fountainhead Project before moving to America, but hadn’t got much further than knowing its location. The trails had to be somewhere within D.C’s greater metropolitan area, more precisely on the banks of the Occoquan reservoir in Northern Virginia I understood. But in terms of information on the riding, all I could garner from my limited googling was a bureaucratic-looking website that detailed the long-running development and construction of the project, its sponsors, the state’s park authorities as well as the professional and volunteer trail builders involved.

But the spot still sounded vaguely tempting, luring me in with the promise of flow trails, wooden man-made features and even a jumpline – could this be a mini bike park on the edge of the big city? Although in my eyes, it was missing the vital vertical metres, and the contour lines on the map revealed a pretty cross-country looking scene. In around two square miles a cluster of singletrack trails had been made, strewing the reservoir’s valley rivers with anaconda-like trails and poisonous climbs, bullet-fast like brief descents and plenty of tight bends. This would be high intense interval riding; just how I’d always imagined the American riding scene – primed for quick 29ers and XC hardtails, those who love groomed but not particularly challenging trails with kindergarten-standard gradients. I was skeptical.

XC and gravity on one trail

Clearly Fountainhead had succeeded in offering the best of both worlds, uniting lung-burning endurance training and playful trail features dishing up flow and airtime. But how could these two factors seriously have been united, I kept asking myself. Europe and its bike parks, to my knowledge, didn’t have an ounce of these mass-appeal trails. The professional man-made bike parks I’d visited tended to be orientated towards one sort of rider in particular. And even the trails in Finale Ligure and the forest I knew best in Germany (the Pfälzer Wald) had a far more wild and unkempt nature on display.

My fears of never finding any decent trails in D.C weren’t quite over yet, but the thought of ‘the Head’ alleviated them with a bit of a hope. Just two days after touching down in America, I persuaded my wife and her mother to join me for a short stroll around the ‘park on the lake,’ selling them the idea of Fountainhead and its facilities, which include picnic areas, BBQ spots and boats for rent, so it’s ideal for keen hikers and those who like to fish. But was there really supposed to be a genuine riding spot within such a family-focused paradise? I tried not to get my hopes up… or at least, not until the moment I found myself in front of the initial signs for the Fountainhead MTB trailhead.

“Bike Trail Entrance”, “No Helmet, No Riding, No Excuses” – yeah, sounds good! With green, blue and black graded loops built by M.O.R.E, the Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts’, there’s a tidy 22 km of singletrack with man-made features, countless berms and so much flow that your legs will burst. “You can never relax, you’ve always got to go full gas,” were the words of Evan, my American colleague at ENDURO, when I asked about his former home spot. This got my hopes up. Ignoring the no hikers sign, I quickly checked out the first few metres of the trail on foot and this brief recon was enough to clarify one thing even without a bike beneath me: this was the work of some super experienced trail builders.

Riding the Diva

A few weeks later and the time had finally come for my first ever ride on American soil. Despite not having ridden for months, I was still stoked to get going and properly check out the Fountainhead project. I went in full gas, brakes open, for the first few kilometres, but struggled to keep the pace. The Super-Enduro I was riding, with 26″ Mavic Deemax wheels, 180 mm forks and a 15.5 kg fighting weight, felt completely out of place and not so ‘super’ after all. I couldn’t find my rhythm for the rollers and the many climbs. My Reverb dropper post couldn’t rest for a minute and the Pro Pedal setting on the FOX suspension was at maximum. But the trail was just too sick, the flow just too good and I was putty in its hands.

I felt like I’d already been through the wars before I made it up to the black loop, which boasted the title of black diamond trail, IMBA approved and ‘advanced riders only.’ It sounded perfect, I thought, as I stood looking at the trailhead: a 20 m uphill rock garden, a so-called ‘selector’, or ‘weeder’, intended to act as a deterrent to weaker riders. Obviously I wasn’t intended, I laughed smugly, before proceeding to push my bike up the technical section while my own words of encouragement (‘Come on mate, just dig deep!’) failed me miserably. Nimbly, 29er hardtail riders overtook me, glancing back with sympathy and checking I was okay. “Thanks mate, I’m just… struggling with the heat today,” I muttered as my excuse, a good reason for the bright red face of shame. Even today my pride is still a little dented as I still haven’t made it through those rocks.

After the initial dent to my pride, the trail got progressively harder – and not just because of my fitness (or lack of). First you encounter a succession of small drops and jumps, then rock gardens and unkempt root sections. My enduro bike got up to speed, and I was working hard but the trail just kept drawing me in with one fun section after another. To me, it was a pumptrack on steroids, but with the addition of rocks, roots and so many climbs. You have to give it your all to maintain momentum.

What, I was still only halfway round? You’re kidding me? The rough sections were pretty aptly named, with ‘Collar bone crusher’ and ‘Old shock-a-billy’ definitely living up to their titles. I rode the final few kilometres in a daze – overheated, thirsty, and with legs like jelly. As my friends saw me on my photos later, the words ‘dehydrated,’ ‘180 BPM’ and ‘exhausted’ may have been used, and pretty correctly. The Fountainhead rollercoaster had definitely taken it out of me. And you know what, I’ll even admit that I pushed up the final climb to the car park – a dirty secret that I’ve been keeping to myself. What a ride, I thought, as I treated myself to a juicy bacon cheeseburger at Five Guys.

US trail protectionism

Now as much as Fountainhead had wowed me, the whole concept comes with a massive downside: with a population of millions including thousands of riders and just not enough alternatives to go round in D.C, such a well-built trail network like Fountainhead needs to be looked after properly. And that’s exactly what happens to the Diva – albeit radically.

Even forecasted rain is enough to close the trail park, and once the ground is sodden then you’ve got no chance of setting foot or wheel on this sacred spot. Unsure if it’s open, you can, however, call the hotline and be greeted by the nauseating messaging machine: “Welcome to Fountainhead Regional Park – where everyday is a great one!” Not quite. Just months into my sojourn in America, I’ve already had enough of the overfriendly voice and her repeated declarations that “the trails are currently closed due to weather conditions.” Let’s be honest, Northern Virginia’s rainfall can be more akin to a jungle, and sometimes rarely a day passes without a drop. For this reason the park often remains closed for days on end, even when the weather has taken a turn for the better.

This tough-as-nails trail protectionism does mean that there are super flow trails on our front door, but thanks to the immense rainfall they’re frequently out of bounds. And given the lack of natural trails in the metro area, you’re basically destined to become a fair weather rider. Another option is to ride them illegally, but beware that each muddy puddle will throw you into a moral abyss, which is a real dilemma for riders who’d prefer to stick to the trail etiquette. It’s also a serious 21st century problem: you can’t have one without the other. Decent, well-built trails and thousands of hours of hard work by volunteers are two incompatible features with huge crowds and riders in all weather conditions. And there’s not much anyone can do about Northern Virginia’s penchant for rain. It’s just another reason to enjoy the sacred Diva while she’s looking her best.

For more information check out: fountainheadproject.org |
Fountainhead Project on Facebook | nvrpa.org | www.mtbproject.com | www.a1cycling.com

Words & Photos: Steffen Gronegger