Walking Purchase Park/”Sals”

Photo: MTB Project

Overview

Walking Purchase, or Sals as the locals call it, has it’s own trail category. It’s not a cross country trail with it’s fast nature, but not quite enduro with all the climbs. On a sunny Saturday morning, my friend in Pennsylvania gave me a tour around these trails. I was pretty shocked at how many jumps were mixed in for a city park, and couldn’t complain. There were also some skinnies too. There are a few different downhill routes you can take and they all have some climbs. However, as long as you learn to let off the brakes and crank the downhill, you’ll have plenty momentum to keep the flow.

Pros

As I said before, there were a lot more jumps than I expected. There were also a few technical sections to offer challenges but most of the trail wasn’t too bad. This place also offers a fun workout mixed in with sending jumps. One of my favorite trails had a yellow double black sign at the start, and contained a sideways rock roll into two super fast chutes, followed by a punchy climb.

Cons

Be prepared to earn your turns! There is lots of punchy climbs here that downhillers, like myself, will suffer on. Also, as someone who typically rides one big climb into a downhill only trail, I found this place disappointing as there was no way to get all your climbing over with.

Rating: 5/10

Walking Purchase Park will satisfy most riders, and is pretty much an average East Coast trail system. However, if you’re searching for a fun way to build lots of muscle, look no further!