Ten meters is the magic number when it comes to building trails in the Gränichen AG region. "We are allowed to build a maximum of ten meters away from forest roads," explains Beat Stirnemann. And adds: "Most of the time, we don't build at all, we just clear tracks that are then ridden in."

The forest in the hilly area between Aarau and Lake Hallwil has a fairytale-like quality. The relief is perfect for exciting single trails. However, the leeway granted to mountain bikers by the canton, municipalities, nature conservation, owners and hunting associations is tight.

Despite this, Gränichen has had an international race since 1990, with Beat the former Swiss national coach and his daughter Kathrin the current women's coach. His son Mathias rode for Scott Sram and won Cape Epic with Nino Schurter. Beat was also the driving force behind Swiss Cycling's regional training base in Gränichen. World-class young riders and elite athletes are regularly out and about in the forests around the Aargau village.

For almost 20 years, talents have been able to use the "Mountain Bike Trail", which becomes the race track for the Swiss Bike Cup in Gränichen once a year. "It took eight years for approval, planning and construction," says Beat. The Gränichen Racing Club has had to put in 100 hours of work for the forest every year since 2007. "They mow the football clubs' grass. We not only have to pay for and run our facility ourselves, but also maintain the forest around it," says Beat, drawing a comparison with a sport that only slightly more than half as many people do regularly as mountain biking.

Trail concept or trail corset?

Beat Stirnemann has been a formative figure in Swiss mountain biking for decades. At the end of the 2010s, he took on the next battle. It was clear that the young mountain bikers needed more than just the nature trail, which is not a continuous single trail, but a series of short, technically demanding sections connected by forest roads. This is not enough for trail bikers in particular. In the lower Suhren and Wynental, as the area is called, there was the usual game of cat and mouse between trail bikers and forestry workers. There was a bit of shovelling, riding in, the forestry workers closed a trail while the bikers were already having fun on the next trails.

Beat, who is well connected thanks to his years of work as an organizer, junior and elite trainer, thought something had to change. Once again, he consulted with everyone who had a say in the forest, with the Canton of Aargau's forest conservation department taking the lead. This resulted in a trail concept that they were able to say yes to after a few years.

Because the local mountain bike club, Racing Club Gränichen, was once again bearing all the costs and all the workload, Stirnemann came up with the idea of putting together a trail builder crew that would be willing to work in the forest for free on weekdays: They are retired people from the region who spend hours in the forest raking, shovelling, setting up signposts and clearing wood for lunch.

The principle: short, more or less technical single trail sections are created along defined forest roads, which have previously undergone a public tendering process. Sometimes several hundred meters, often only twenty to thirty. The ten meters mentioned at the beginning are the benchmark that is consistently demanded by some hunters in particular. Occasionally, those involved have managed to officialize existing single trails. These then sometimes ride on their own line through the terrain.

Prefer one more trail in the forest floor than too much leeway

However, where the ten-meter line applies, it is enforced. For example, the trail builders will soon have to rebuild a single trail that runs along an old but abandoned path because it is too far away from the forest road below in a few places. It's maybe fifteen meters, but that's five too many. If the trail builders had created another track in the forest between this and the road instead of using the gravel-paved historic path, it would have been okay.

The trail builders shrug their shoulders and take note. Then they'll just build somewhere else. It's impressive how many trail sections they've built since 2023 and refined with the odd jump/wave or berm. The route from a place called Böhler leads to the edge of the forest in Suhr, 200 meters below, and is around nine kilometers long. "You now ride almost seven kilometers of this on single trails," Stirnemann calculates.

Countless mountain bike signposts show where the next single trail leads, sometimes it's just a marker sprayed on a tree. Some sections even have a name carved into a wooden sign, such as "Houzi", "Chänu", "Snake" or "Spetzchehri". Sponsors pay a low three-figure sum for them to also appear on the sign.

On this morning, Beat and trail builder Thomas hammer "Irina Kalentyeva" into the forest floor. The former Russian world champion is now the namesake of a new trail section and has long been the wife of Roger Märki, who has been promoting cycling for decades with his company Möbel Märki. Beat was manager of his mountain bike team. The company logo is emblazoned above the name of the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist.

This is how the trails ride

Ride tested the route from Böhler to Suhr following the meeting with the trail builders. The single trails are fun, and in places where the signposts are not yet in place, the search for the next entry point is reminiscent of bike orienteering. Above all, however, these are cross-country trails that can be ridden in both directions almost without exception. You rarely need the brakes and there are jumps where the approach rides uphill. Those who are constantly riding with maximum pedal pressure in CC mode will fly, while downhill-oriented trail bikers will roll over the waves.

At the end, there is a section called Canyon, where the downhill is quite spectacular and the Beats trail builders have added so many lines and sidehits that you have to ride it several times to try out all the features.

According to Beat Stirnemann, the next project is descents into the villages at the southern foot of the Jura in Aargau. At the same time, the existing trails need to be maintained. The pensioners are not running out of work, on the contrary. And certainly not Beat Stirnemann, who as Co-President of Mountainbike Aargau is also working on improving the conditions for the MTB community throughout the canton.