| GALBRAITH HAS always had a strong "secret trail" tradition, largely because in the early days all the trails were illegal, so there was no reason to make the trail ends obvious or easy to find.
When the great outlaw Galbraith trail builder Dan Waters built his ground breaking (pun intended) Dan's Trail in the late '90s, it was a secret trail with all sorts of brush and debris piled up where the trail intersected the Tower Rd. / 3000 Rd.
 It was big news on Galbraith in the summer of 2000 when Dan tore out the trail block and went public with his work, so you could ride from the Tower Rd. straight into Dan's Trail (pictured at RIGHT). Too cool!
Riding Galbraith in those days, you felt like you could encounter a secret trail at any time. It was like you could suddenly and unexpectedly pass through a hidden portal to another world, sort of like a place where Will's "subtle knife" cut a passage between parallel worlds in Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials.
TODAY MOST ESTABLISHED trails are "legal" on land owned by Trillium Corp. (which is to say most of the mountain) and the WHIMPs have gotten themselves appointed Trail Police, but -- oddly -- the number of "secret trails" on Galbraith has increased.
 How can this be? Well, the easy answer is that the mountain's volunteer trail builders have been exceptionally busy over the last couple years. "We're like beavers," said prolific Galbraith trail builder, Guano. "We have to keep building trails to wear down our teeth."
Guano should know. He and his odd-couple trail building partner, freeride flash Legendary David (pictured at LEFT), are responsible for four of the trails on the GalbraithMt.com Secret Trail List, namely Kaya, Mole Trap, Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, the later two combining to create a complex loop-within-a-loop of exceptionally sweet cross country ripping.
So without further ado, here are the Top 10 Secret Trails on Galbraith today. Only one -- Goldilocks & the 3 Bears -- is depicted on the map on the Trillium-era Kiosks, and the Trillium-era map has it mega-wrong...
Every one of these trails deserves to be better known. They're all excellent -- none is a "second" -- and the Banjoland, Art's Trail, Bunny Trails, Kaya combo offers the best beginner trails on the mountain. Happy trails...
-- Mongo
October 30, 2009
Updated August 5, 2010
Secret Trails Of Galbraith
Click links for GalbraithMt.com Trail Guides, Videos, etc. |
| Name |
Type of Trail |
Location |
Notes |
| Chainsaw Massacre |
Cross country |
East Side |
What a delight to discover/rediscover this hoary old timer again after nearly a decade! Chainsaw Massacre dates to another age, when many of the trails on Galbraith were built by dirt bikers, who cared very little about pitch and grade. Nearby and newer Papa Bear (of the 3 Bears) cuts off all of the awful parts of the old Chainsaw, and all that remains on the new one is sweetness. Just openned again this summer, Chainsaw Massacre is double sweet when ridden with Lost Sole (AKA Sole Patch, Oly Extension), which it meets at the 2700 Rd. |
| Unemployment Line |
Freeride |
South Side |
The most heralded and eagerly anticipated new trail on Galbraith in a long time, Unemployment Line is also the first mechanically-built trail on the mountain. It begins with a big elevated drop on the first catwalk off the road, and doesn't let up from there. And it feels like nothing else on Galbraith -- more controlled, more groomed, more safe in a wierd way because even though the moves are big on Unemployment Line, the fast line is almost always open, more like California than the Shore. In the process, Unemployment Line destroyed another beloved Galbraith trail, Flying Squirrel, known as The Luge to the freeride crowd. You can pick it up Unemployment Line off the 3000 Rd. (Tower Rd.) a little ways above the junction with the 4000 Rd. |
| Atomic Dog |
Advanced
Technical Trail |
South Side |
Atomic Dog is wonderful new trail (the name refers to trail builder Eric Brown's late dog, Radar) that is sure to delight a wide swath of the high end crowd from the Freeride through the Technical Trail categories. Atomic Dog has got rhythm and flow and The Rock too. Atomic Dog starts after Unemployment Line at the 2300 Rd. and parallels the lower of the 3 Pigs to the bottom at Galbraith Lane. |
| Banjoland |
Beginner
Cross Country |
South Side |
Banjoland, The Bunnies and Art's Trail are the best beginner trails on Galbraith. All were on GalbraithMt.com's original Galbraith Trail Map in 2000, but they were destroyed by logging shortly thereafter, and then resurrected by volunteer trail work beginning in 2006 |
| Art's Trail |
Beginner
Cross Country |
South Side |
Banjoland, The Bunnies and Art's Trail are the best beginner trails on Galbraith. All were on GalbraithMt.com's original Galbraith Trail Map in 2000, but they were destroyed by logging shortly thereafter, and then resurrected by volunteer trail work beginning in 2006 |
| Bunny Trails |
Beginner
Cross Country |
South Side |
Banjoland, The Bunnies and Art's Trail are the best beginner trails on Galbraith. All were on GalbraithMt.com's original Galbraith Trail Map in 2000, but they were destroyed by logging shortly thereafter, and then resurrected by volunteer trail work beginning in 2006 |
| Kaya |
Beginner
Cross Country |
South Side |
Excellent new singletrack route connecting The Bunnies and the 1100 Rd., replacing the old lost trail, Nick & Pete |
| Mole Trap |
Intermediate
Cross Country |
South Side |
Excellent (but still raw) new singletrack connecting Rock 'n Roll and Lost Giants, enabling an unbroken singletrack route all the way from the 1000 Rd. / Pipeline Rd. on the South Side to Cedar Dust on the North Side. Dude! |
| Kona Boys |
Beginner
Cross Country |
North Side |
Excellent new singletrack route connection the Intestine and Arsenio in between Lower Arsenio and The Cleavage. |
| Goldilocks |
Beginner
Cross Country |
North Side |
Together, Goldilocks & the 3 Bears are the best-kept singletrack secret on Galbraith |
| 3 Bears |
Intermediate
Cross Country |
North Side |
Together, Goldilocks & the 3 Bears are the best-kept singletrack secret on Galbraith |
| The Runway |
Intermediate
Freeride |
North Side |
Extends popular SST all the way down to Birch St. |
| Raymond Park |
Advanced
Jump |
North Side |
The jump action that used to be scattered along the lower Ridge Trail has coalesced here |
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| Confused about Galbraith trail names? Click here for GalbraithMt.com's Trail Name Glossary... |
Updated August 5, 2010 |
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You don't have to get lost. You don't have to ride the same couple trails over and over again. 
