hart-shaped trails

“CLIFFED OUT AGAIN, DAMN IT.”

Paul Hart stood before a massive rock outcropping on a ridgeline between Second and Third Divide trails above Downieville, California, cursing out loud. We were deep in the woods flagging one of the first new trails in Downieville in nearly a decade, dubbed Divide 2.5. As its name suggests, the trail will run between Second and Third Divide, offering riders a ridgeline singletrack with commanding views before dropping them to the start of First Divide, creating an all-singletrack descent of more than 15 miles and 5,500 vertical feet off Packer Saddle.

It sounds great on paper, but the terrain Divide 2.5 navigates is steep and treacherous, with a 40-degree cross slope requiring extensive bench cutting and some ‘boom-boom’ (dynamite) to establish the