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| I stole this(with permission) from Tom Bithell's site, USBiker, because I thought it was good and I needed a better way of ranking trails on my site. I'm not familiar with his examples, but the discriptions are helpful. Classifying Terrain By Tom Bithell
So how does one rate terrain? To do this, I solicited the input of a couple of my favorite riding buddies, Dave Gomez and Dan Wilkins. Dan came up with a scale, 1- 10, for rating terrain difficulty, with 10 being the extreme hardest. Anything over 10 would be impossible to ride over. I have taken their scale and written in examples to help clarify each level. Here it is:
10 Expert Advanced- Some examples would be: long, steep, rutted climbs or descents over terrain, covered with rocks and roots; narrow sidehill trails traversing steep, mountain sides; or tight switchbacks that turn steeply over embedded roots and rocks. The kind of obstacles that only the most outstanding riders can ride over without paddling or pushing. The kind of obstacles where if you make a mistake riding them, it will mean serious injury or worse. A trail that fits as an example here would be riding up the Lodgepole Creek Trail in the Boise National Forest. A trail Dave said was the “hardest trail I have been on to date.”
9 Advanced - You’re still dealing with rocks, roots, creeks, trees, brush, ruts, and every other obstacle on steep terrain. It’s just not quite as life threatening, and a little easier to push or pull over if you can’t ride it. Going up the Venice Creek Trail in the Sawtooth National Forest is an example that comes to mind. It has some 2 - 3-foot root steps to get up, some steep switchbacks and plenty of rocks. But you would be able to push up it easier than a trail like Lodgepole.
8 Advanced Intermediate - Just a shade of gray down from Advanced, but a little less extreme on the danger scale. A little less steep and long, and the rocks, roots and creeks are more navigable. Still, you need to be a good rider to handle this kind of stuff. The Grassy Mountain Lakes Trail in the Payette National forest is a good example for this level. It’s about five miles of non-stop climbing up a mountain, followed by a descent down a steep shale sidehill. (I would classify Robber's Roost, on the Boundary Trail at this level, sorry no data on this one yet. --Rod)
7 Upper Intermediate - A notch down the difficulty dial again, but still all the common obstacles are likely encountered. The Charlie Kouba trail near Idaho City is a good example of this level.
6 Middle Intermediate - You still got your single-track with some rocks, roots, ruts, and trees as possible obstacles. But the trails are better groomed and traveled, with less treacherous obstacles and hills. A trail that fits this mold is the Yellowjacket trail in the Boise National Forest.
5 Lower Intermediate - Trail 500 at Black’s Creek is a good example trail for this level. There aren’t any trees or roots, just some sage brush. The rocks are fewer as well. What you do have are some decent hill climbs and descents on rutted, whooped, ATV trails. A good trail to start developing hill climbing skills.
4 Advanced Beginner - Riding to Silver City from Rabbit’s Creek comes to mind here.This is all four-wheel drive roads, with some minor hill climbing and ruts and rocks to deal with.
3 - 2 Middle Beginner - This is the first kind of cross-country trail new riders can handle once they have learned to shift, throttle, and brake a bike. Trail 100 from Hemingway Butte to Rabbit’s Creek is a good example. It is an ATV trail with very mile ups and downs and no real obstacles along the way.
1 True Beginner - This is a flat area like a the parking area at Hemingway where someone just learning to ride won’t have to worry about running into anything, or over anything. This is where you learn to use the clutch, shift, and use the brakes.
Classifying Riders
A scale of 1 - 10 works for terrain, but it is too granular for classifying riders. Riders can be categorized into four main levels, with each level having ranges of lower to upper within. Here they are:
Expert Advanced- These are professionals and very experienced, talented riders. They can climb and descent the steepest hills, forge the deep, rocky streams, and make things that scare most riders look easy. These kind of guys have no problems riding over 100 miles on single-track through the forest.
Advanced - Advanced level is the best most of us can aspire to be. Advanced riders have good skills, experience, and savvy. They are just a few notches down from the Experts in speed, skill, and probably craziness.
Intermediate - You have to have a little time in the saddle to get here, but talented people who ride frequently can get to the Intermediate level quickly. An Intermediate rider is fairly proficient at hill climbing and navigating your standard obstacles. Solid Intermediate riders can handle rides ranging from 20 to 70 miles on single track. If you’re riding single-track forest trails that are longer than 10 miles, you’re probably at least lower-Intermediate.
Beginner - As the word itself implies, this is the starting point. From just learning to balance, shift, throttle and brake, to getting out on the first short trail rides, and learning to climb hills.
There you have it. The manual for classifying both terrain and riders. One word of advice: have an honest friend classify you. I have noticed a human tendency for us to think we are better riders than we are, only to get in over our head on a trail, fighting for our lives to make it back to the truck. Hey, but that’s half the fun!
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