Awesome man, sounds like you've been getting a good amount of saddle time in. What's the bike park like? Are the trails better there, or in the foothills? It's good to have options like that
. May was rainy here as well, messed up a lot of my riding plans.
Are you travelling in July/August? Anywhere that you can rent a bike an go explore and discover some new trail?
I'll give you a detailed rundown to your first questions.
The Beskidy foothills are enjoyable for their scenery but the trails have lots of shifting rockfall. Of course, the local hiking/biking trails can get a bit easier or difficult but if they could be averaged out into one picture, this would be it imo:
For me, that kind of stuff is really tricky, especially with hikers who, sensibly, move to the side where footing is best for them when bikes are coming at them downhill. Climbing on it requires the open setting.
I've mostly avoided those trails this season and been going to the bike park/single track trail system. The adventure aspect of exploration isn't there but the ride quality improves.
Here are 2 of the 4 tracks I've done at one of the bike parks (as far as bike parks go, it's the only one I've ever been to). It's usually a 6-8 km climb to the top depending on where you park or a $9 ticket on the gondola. I've never taken the gondola because I figure I should be able to use the bike in both directions, but, I'll tell ya, it feels like the descents would be different if I did.
Anyhow, (I have no idea why I'm giving this so much time) I have nothing to do with the video but having ridden that trail a few times, I can say a person only has to watch a minute or so from the first 5, 7, and 9 min segments to get what it's all about. The first few seconds are typical of the area.
It's a blue.
The next one is not me either but that's about how I manage it overall.
Honestly though, after just the first minute on it, the trail becomes so jarring that it appears as a a series of shaky suggestions...that probably means I got to work on something
The areas between 4:00-6:00 are the hardest for me (especially 5:18), and I have crashed there at least twice when trying anything except plowing through it.
It's a red: