Will's Thrill is transforming into Eagle's Premier, downhill only, black progressive trail!

Will’s Thrill is one of the newest trails in Eagle that was formalized into the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) trail system in the fall of 2019.  In the past, it was known as “Dirt Surfer’s Love Child” but since it became an approved trail, the trail was renamed to celebrate the life of local rider Will Olson.  

The trail as it currently exists includes many unsustainable (eroding) grades, features, and needs some professional love to turn it into the black level, progressive trail it wants to be.  It saw a lot of use and speaks to the demand of our community for this style of trail for progressive mountain bikers.

HTC and VVMTA walked the trail with the BLM and has gained approval to designate it as downhill only and mountain bike specific.  Over the past few years there have been great additions to our trail system in Eagle.  However, these intermediate cross-country style trails that have been built such as Lov Connection and Hillbilly are not meeting the demand of a growing number of kid and adult riders.  We have heard loud and clear from many mountain bikers in our community that we need a black level, downhill specific mountain bike trail....and this will be the first.

If you’ve ridden the trail before you know its steep, fast, and raw.  Momentum Trail Concepts will keep the existing flavor and improve the trail with jump lines, alternate lines, drops, and progressive features.  It will be the first directional downhill mountain bike specific trail in Eagle! 

The 1 mile long trail coming off of the newly built Hillbilly trail will instantly be a favorite for Eagle residents as well as the many visitors that come to Eagle to experience its trail system and provide an economic impact to many local businesses.

It’s not just for adults, we start to giggle thinking about all of the kids and teens that are going to progress their riding skills on this trail.  While it will be a black level trail, there will be many alternate lines to choose in order to help your progression.

Will’s Thrill and the connecting Hillbilly trail are part of a much larger master plan for trails in East Eagle.  East Eagle, from Boneyard all the way to Salt Creek Rd and bordering the Southern/East ends of Brush Creek Valley Ranch & Open Space, is designated as a Special Recreation Management Area or SRMA.  Unless you’d like to read through the BLM’s Resource Management Plan, in short we can explain the SRMA designation as given to areas intended to be managed with an emphasis on recreational activities.

The HTC plans to build on Hillbilly and Will’s Thrill and improve our network of trails in East Eagle.  This vision includes an additional climbing trail (think Road Gulch as singletrack), a traversing rim trail from Hillbilly to Salt Creek Rd., and 1-2 trails extending from the rim trail into Brush Creek Valley Ranch & Open Space.  We are currently in the planning stages of this vision and master plan.  It takes community support and collaboration with many land managers and agencies such as Colorado Parks & Wildlife to ensure the trails are built sustainably and managed correctly to mitigate impacts on wildlife and our natural environment.

Trail construction begins the week of July 13th with an anticipated opening by the end of August 2020.