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Just been musing on this for a while, and I reckon one of the finest I know is up above Portman, near La Manga. The rather brilliantly named Cat Fight.
Lovely, fast, twisty singletrack, at close quarters with some monstrously sharp thorns. Hence, when you've done it, you look like you've been fighting cats.
So, your suggestions for great trail names, and the history thereof, if you please!
Dels Stump.
I don't know who del was or where the stump was either.
stripes, describes the pattern left in your pants after getting down it the first time
Nail Trail.
A wee bit of woodland that was once booby-trapped with a bit of wood with nails in it.
"dogshit alley" - all over the country - origin obvious. 😥
There is a 'blair witch' trail near us: fairly flat (for devon!), close spaced smallish conifers that have all been trimmed right back to even let a bike or walker through, narrow trail that twists and turns back on iself several times over. Ride it in the dark on your own and the name makes sense.
I also named a trail on strava as "weasels ripped my flesh" cos I love zappa and that's what my flesh looked like at the end. 😀
Locally "Bono" a twisty down hill thin ribbon of singletrack above a sunken road, why Bono? Cause it's close to The Edge 🙂
And "cottaging" as the trail starts on the concrete pad where a dubious public toilet stood in the 70's
there's a PG in laguna hills - apparently it's "parental guidance", not "please god !" but I think the latter is more apt
(and no, I bloody haven't)
somebody on here has a local one called teenage blowjob - not sure why
Theres a small Strava segment at Woburn called the Camels Gully. To start it you have to drop into a steep downhill pedal striking gulley, which bottoms out and goes up into an enormous upwards hump. Quite fitting.
Upper Quarry trail
Lower Quarry trail
Picnic Bench
Pretty imaginative round here... 🙂
Actually, Knicker Trail is ok - good, steep, tricky trail what used to have some knickers hanging up on it.
One self named - in fact other than people I told about it, i don't think anyone else would even know it as this, let alone refer to it in this way.
Voyeurs.
It's round the back of the army houses on porridge pot hill. A few years back, on an early evening / dusk ride i went along it, only to see at the upstairs window of one of the houses, an army wife closing the curtains in only her skimpies. She must have seen me, with 1200 lumens lit up on the front, yet she made no attempt to hide, or pull them closed to shield her, she just stood there. I often ride that trail but I've never seen it again, yet the name stuck.
The other is on Tunnel Hill - P45; built by a guy who'd just been made redundant and had time on his hands to do trail building. It's still a great trail, 5+ years on (thanks, if you're on here)
There's also Belgian Bun on Tunnel Hill; not sure of the etymology there but I *think* it was built for a race, and the trail builders fuelled their work with a lunchtime bun. From Belgium. What I'm even less sure of is why it's called Belgian Bun when ridden as a downhill, but when in reverse i believe it's known as 'Big T1ts'
[which thinking about it, could have been a name for Voyeurs as well]
gobbler's gulch ,a layby north of bolton frequented by sensitive gentlemen .
the rib breaker..... for obvious reasons!
Scalextric
The trail to Jesus's house.
Singletrack descent off Box Hill called "The Wife" because it goes on and on...
Track from top of Winey Hill is called "Vampire Ride" because you can here the screams from Chessigton World of Adventures on the other side of the fence.
Baghdad, Ho Chi Minh and Berlin Wall.
Apparently Berlin Wall was created around the time the wall fell, but I've no idea about the other two.
I named a trail in Croatia RockBushRock after a guy I guided down it described his feelings on reaching the bottom.
Just been musing on this for a while, and I reckon one of the finest I know is up above Portman, near La Manga. The rather brilliantly named Cat Fight.
Which one was this KotB? Where did it start?
Dead Mans Track in the Dyfi. So named after discovering.....yup!
There is a section of trail in South Africa where you ride along the escarpment looking down over a massive drop.
They call it "Great Wall My Chyna".
"Chyna" is the South African slang for mate.
Woot! – The sound you make when you ride down it.
Hill of A Thousand Deaths – Self explanatory.
Hill of No Deaths Yet – Like Hill of A Thousand Deaths but steeper and with a cheeky low branch so you are concentrating a bit more.
G-String Bridge – Named after a teenage girl who was sunbathing down there wearing what appeared to be pink dental floss.
Dog Sprint Farm – Self explanatory.
...and from HTN
The Field of Despair – Self explanatory.
The Chin – So named because a member of this forum came to a halt after a chin / tree interface where most other people used their brakes.
Preparation H – Get it wrong and your seat will be driven 6” up your ‘arris.
Bum Squeak Bridge – Named after a person known to us as Mr Bum Squeak.
Lots of Surrey Hills stuff was/is named after albums or tracks. In the early and mid 90s, if you were the first Nirvana Cycles rider to clear something, you got to name it. So, lots of Captain Beefheart and Zappa stuff (one alternative to Barry Knows Best, back in the day, was Golden Birdies).
Regurgitator, one of the three trails ona teeny bit of FS leased lands below Deliverance on Leith Hill, was named by Joe Marshall of this forum. He rode up it on his muni after a build day and almost lost his lunch at the top. The two other trails: Crooked Furrow (Bit of a ditch when first built, ends close to the pub at Coldharbour, which brews its own beer, including a fine pint called Crooked Furrow). Third: Waggle Dance, because we had to move the trail bed to take account of a colony of ground nesting bees.
Ewok Village on Pitch hill - looked like an Ewok Village until it was chainsawed in about 2003. Graveyard shift - ends by the German graveyard above Holmbury.
Bastard climb - self explanatory.
China Pig (possibly also the Wife on previous post above) on Box Hill - again, another track name trail.
Scooby Do's last porn flick - no particular reason for that name. narrow singletrack behind Druid's Grove on Ranmore.
I could go on, but it's getting boring. 🙂
Plenty of self-explanatory ones in and around Verbier like Vertigo and The Ultimate. Can't remember how Spanish Inquisition got its name, but it's ridiculously good, as are Brazilian, Jackass and Vortex to name a couple more. You'll need www.bikeverbier.com to find and reach most of them though.
"Chyna" is the South African slang for mate.
Bit like the cockney rhyming slang then? 😉
(China plate - mate)
"No Dabs" in some woods near us, flat, mega rooty and you have to ride from one end to the other with, well you guessed it!
There is a trail named "Kona Drop Off" over in La Plagne. Rather exposed, the story goes that someone crashed and lost his bike to the mountain....
The North Shore has one called C**tbuster.
Singletrack descent off Box Hill called "The Wife" because it goes on and on...
Approach from the road oppo S&W then turn right? Thought that was China Pig like Bent Udder says. More appropriate name though as it really does go on and on.
The once-upon-a-time mecca that was Deliverance on Leith Hill.
Have probably seen more people crash there than anywhere else 😀 Me included1
"Surrender of Suarez" near me.
No idea why it's called that so if someone can explain I'd be grateful.
I guess 'Broken Elbow' is self explanatory 🙁
other ones I've remembered:
Follow me - an inoquious flat looking bit of singletrack, that goes over a rocky outcrop (it looks like the person in front just dissapears) and drops about 10-12ft with a tigh right corner at the bottom!
Seagull - dead bird on the original trail
babymaker - apparently the builders mate was trying for a kid so the trail was some kind of shrine to the trail gods of fertility (rather than the usual shrines god of dicarded innertubes, dog poo bags or chain links i suppose). To my knowlage no 'offerings' have ever been left.
From Switchbacks Spain:
47 (later renamed 52) stiches: worst injury sustained
punctured lung: see above
hysterectomiser: see above
prodigal son: it's on the way home
moody german b*******: self explanatory
mikes vagina: originaly mikes gash as he had a cut on his arm that looked a bit like a you-know-what.
somebody on here has a local one called teenage blowjob - not sure why
brilliant at the time, but probably ot as good as you remember it?
"Princess Diana's Seatbelt"
That's just off the edge of Leith Hill near the tower. Certain death.
The Porn Trail.
Sadly no longer. Bloody internet...
The local BMX track used to have a berm called 'ballbag berm' after a mate of mine got it all wrong, went out the back of the berm, landed on the back wheel which proceeded to pull his ballbag through the brace on the seat stays 😯
wrecker - Member
The North Shore has one called C**tbuster.
And another called "Severed Dick" I believe.......
[url= http://www.singletracks.com/bike-trails/severed-dick.html ] Here it is [/url]
Nelson BC has one called "legalize it". Kinda fitted with my experience of the town 🙂
There's one near us called "post." I was told it was because it has a concrete post in the middle of it. I could never quite understand it as I never actually saw the post (only ever rode there at night) Until the day I hit the bastard thing.
'Nailing ruts, nailing sluts' is one in Mid Wales. Brilliant name.
Few in Grizedale but probably the best one is Grandad, Dad and the Dentist as the name for Moor Lane into Satterthwaite. The name came from last section ripping teeth off chainrings, hence the Dentist. The 2 sections above it were known as the dentists Dad and the dentists Grandad, shortened to Grandad, Dad and the dentist
Handjob ... because a few years ago on it I went OTB and broke a wrist.
"mouthful of sausage" was one where I used to live. no idea why.
Trumpetweed, up by the reservoir- root it oot.
Not so much trail names as feature names...
28 Inches. So named because there used to be a gap between 2 trees that was only 28 inches wide, troublesome for widebarists. Boring name, but became a good name when one of the trees was cut down so now it's measuring a gap that doesn't exist
The Wedding *er. Because it *ed Brian's wedding after he broke both his wrists on it.
One I used to like , a ciclomontana one ,
"esther ransen" - "'coz it was a bit toothy!" 😀
Biscuit Powered - Member"mouthful of sausage" was one where I used to live. no idea why.
scaredypants - Membersomebody on here has a local one called teenage blowjob - not sure why
Live anywhere near scaredypants, Biscuit? 😉
I was quite pleased that Evil Root One and Evil Root Two (later 'Evil Slab') ended up being commonly used on Cannock Chase. All down to my chronic inability to ride over slight uphill obstacles...
There was a bit on FtD (section 14, now closed) that we called "Ill Phil's Hill", because the first time I went up it somebody had made a little sign, saying, "Phil was sick here".
there's part of Lee Quarry called Haygarth's Leap. Due to a certain gent smashing his collar bone there after getting a bit too airborne during the first Brownbacks race we ever held there.
There was a bit on FtD (section 14, now closed) that we called "Ill Phil's Hill", because the first time I went up it somebody had made a little sign, saying, "Phil was sick here".
Yeah we have a hill called "Chucky Hill" as I rode it one time with a lad who had a very severe hangover. For obvious reasons he quickly became known as Chucky, and that's where he chucked ...
Poop chute.
Pancake's Envy.
Sudden Dog.
Oranges Are the Only Fruit.
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Trail.
MBR's Ruin.
Young Offenders....Goes past a young offenders Institute.
Roots of certain doom, er because they're not really
Middlewood Cheek (nice footpath in Middlewood)
Cheeky Woods (likewise nice footpath through Collier's woods)
Cherry Trees (downhill from the Cherry Tree Estate)
Bone Mill (goes past an old Bone Mill)
The Corner Of Certain Doom, and on the other side of the tree, the Slightly Less Acute Corner of almost Certain Peril - a very nice trail down a steep footpath through woods and brambles with several very tight turns where the trail more or less doubles back on itself, finishing with what feels like a vertical drop alongside a tree after which the path takes a 90 degree turn to the left - although I've got as far as the tree on many occasions, I've bottled the actual corner more times than I care to remember, cleaned it once, then the next time I tried it went over the bars and cracked my ribs. We rearranged (bent not broke) some branches on the other side of the tree at the bottom to make a very slightly less difficult end to the path, still needs some bottle and skill to ride it though
All the other trails are named on the OS map or named after places they pass - Shielan, The Banks, Linnet's Clough, Fox Inn and so on
the sacred v - short twisty bit of trail that ends in a v shaped gully that look like a lady garden 😀
then joins on to grassy hill of doom 🙁
Donny woods - donyland is a small village near by
drop off trail - has the worlds smallest drop off on it
rhoddies revenge new bit of trail cut this year through big plantation of rhoddengrium bushes
the Slightly Less Acute Corner of almost Certain Peril
We may have a winner.
The Boner (at Inners) does exactly what it says on the tin; puts Pfizer Pharmaceuticals out of a job!
The Wibbly Wobbly Trail of Almost Certain Doom. on Dartmoor.
other than that most stuff on the local hill gets named after stuff that was found during construction. one notable exception is The Kim Jong Il Memorial Trail. I have no idea. ask Texas of this parish.
My personal favourite is a trail near me called "Prince Albert" because is cuts down through the end of a trail that starts just behind the (long shut) John Thomas pub.
Swaledale has....
The Moon. Cos it looks like, er, the moon
Broken Thumb Ford, cos my mate slid off & broke his, er, thumb.
Angry Man, cos it goes past a house who's occupant is, er, angry about MTB's going past.
But the best one wev'e named is Wobblycock Gate. A cockerall was sat on a gate onto a bridleway, & my mate (of broken thumb fame) tried shaking the gate to move it but it kept it's balance & just wobbled around.
I named Double Shocker in Thetford after riding down it on an £89 full sus bike for a joke. The previous day I'd been asked if the shop I worked in sold those "double shockers" to which I replied "yes, we've got some shockers right over here...". Sale - tick.
That bike was awarded as a prize at D2D - the face on the lady who'd just won a "state of the art full suspension bike" when she saw her prize was priceless.
The (less that) secret cheeky one in the Peak that you used to enter though and old front door set in a deer fence - "Narnia".
I think I jusr found a trail best called [url= http://www.dunblane.info/dcc/item/238-sheriffmuir ]'The Jacobite[/url]'...
Trail naming is one of my favourite aspects of MTB culture, but Strava has ruined it a bit with a) millions of pointless segments b) lots are just named for where they are rather than the proper names.
I went away from the Surrey Hills for a few years - when I went, that famous trail on Holmbury was Golden Birdies, now it's Barry's (except to the old guard). How did that happen? (And Park Life morphed to 'Yoghurt Pots' yawn).
Del - you forget "Lady's Night"....
Starts promisingly but if anyone was to get to the end of it they'd be disappointed.
Thinking about it, you all need to get some inspiration from the climbing world...
Take 'The Tower of Babel' at Stoney Middleton, with the climbs of Glory Road, Sin, Greed, Sloth, Envy, Lust....and right next to it Lucy Simmons... 😆
For inspiration:
http://www.rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?t=4822
Brown Love. Ever mucky and root filled. There are pockets of the trail where you can find used man-on-mandoms strewn about.
Trail i'm working on at the minute has been named Death by Berm. Get the corner wrong and...
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My old local club had two trails one called Barbie cos it had nice curvy bits and another called Sindy cos it's like Barbie, but a bit different...
Naming is extremely important to communicate findings, routes, maintenance activity etc.
To avoid unnecessary colour, we first lift names off the OS map, but some of them are fairly colourful:
Rhino's Rift
Dolbury Bottom
Crook's Peak
East Twin Swallet
Then the merely prosaic:
The Old DH
Axbridge Swoopy
Ham Goat track (actually made by goats)
Only then do we get imaginative:
Magic (no idea)
Christmas Trees (lots of them)
Badger's Run (they run and run)
Pye (found a rusty old radio)
Heart Bypass (avoids a horrid climb)
Slot Cars (you're in the groove until the end)
Rocky Horror (it's not a drag)
Asstwitcher (was nearly called Heath-cliff or Three Mins of Terror)
Got one in my old hunting ground that was named 'New Mech Req.".
The middle section was very fast until we had a massive thunderstorm one evening. The wash-off had made it into a gully with roots sticking out at just below axle height. You entered it flat out after a blind bermed right-hander (private land before you call us reckless!!)so had no chance of avoiding it. A large group of us hit it the morning after the storm and all but one of us totalled the rear mech. The one that didn't clipped a pedal and bent his crank arm!!
It's been made into an access road for a barn now, so is very boring but the name has stuck. My mate went nuclear on his dad when he found out what he'd done to it 😀
Ah NickC - the roots of doom eh? And I believe we had the 'trail of bitey logs'. I also remember our superb acronym which was something like the Campaign for Unification of Named Trails. I believe I was chairman and you president 🙂
Strava names round here include 'Hitchcock' (from film Vertigo, it's a bit on the edge) and 'balls on back wheel' which I hope is self explanatory.
For us a good ride is Rolling Rambler, Full Antler, Missed Apex, Jason's Folly, Martin's Finger, Nemesis, the Woo-Woos, death valley and sniper. It just feels a bit more windswept and interesting that 'went for a ride in the Malverns'.
FoD is even worse. No idea what the Dirt boys are smoking but yet to get even a clue to why one trail is called 'Two Headed Sex Breast' 😉
Bee line- A play on A-line because we also had a problem with ground nesting bees
Spooky wood-its a bit err spooky, tight pine wood, dark at the best of times, doesn't take much to get lost on a night ride
Got introduced to dueling banjos the other night- singletrack that splits in two allowing riders to race each other to the point where it merges again.
All the others are a bit descriptive and dull 🙁
LBS named a route Heartbreak Ridge, locals 're-named it Brokeback Mountain 8)
Another bit of trail is called Charlie's back passage as it runs round the back of the Duke of Rothesay's holiday home.
I sometimes get confused between Secret Squirrel and Secret Santa, which is silly because they're very different.
as well as Windy Willows and Wild Wood.
'Gravity Cavity'
I heard of a trail called The Kiddy Fiddler, coz it takes you gently into the woods and then f***s you
The Faux Chi Minh.
Bastard hill... mastiles lane from kilnsey, say no more !
Not really great, but mildly interesting: "Local Shop" cos its where the local shop in League Of Gentlemen was built, no really. I had the KoM up there for a bit...
The Mangler, due to the amount of times the air ambulance has been out on it. The Mangler II starts/finishes in the same places as the Mangler but is half the distance so is a lot lot steeper, it's one reserved for the weeded out.
Some pretty unimaginative trail names where I am - "Slippery When Wet", "Rabbit Run". The best trail in the area is Monkey Breath, but I haven't a clue why it's called that.
Chronicles of Gnarnia
Was impressed on XR3i on Winterfold to actually find a car down there rotting at the bottom. Although with my geek head on its actually a XR3 rather than XR3i !