As fall starts rolling in the South Central Mexican Mountains, the soil gets moist, mornings get colder and the forests get ready for a yearly celebration of life on two wheels. If you roam about in Oaxaca City around these times, you will find the scent of orange and purple flowers, skulls made out of sugar, and “papel picado,” a colorful paper decoration. This is when riders from all over the world travel, to subliminally celebrate life on two wheels, slicing through soft, deep, organic, high-altitude Oaxacan soil. But how did this riding area get so popular?

Under the umbrella of trail building, there are a wide variety of trails that get built. Most often, when we hear or think of the words “trail building,” our minds are flooded with images ranging from a UCI DH course to the recent Redbull Hardline in Tasmania or even the Redbull Rampage in Utah. We think of massive berms, tabletops, enough jumps, and lots of flow. But have you ever thought about what it takes to build and maintain an XC race course?