Trail Design, Construction & Consulting
Ryan Rodriguez, founder. Based in the western to southwestern U.S.
Ryan Rodriguez, founder. Based in the western to southwestern U.S.
Elemental Trailworks designs and builds mountain bike trails: flow trails, technical lines, jump trails, and full trail systems, for public land agencies, bike parks, and private landowners.
The focus is on what actually makes a trail work: transitions that ride right, correct grade, clean sightlines, accurate flag lines, and drainage that holds up, in whatever order the site calls for. That comes from a decade of riding and racing professionally across Thailand, Costa Rica, Canada, Guatemala, and all over the U.S., six seasons on the Red Bull Rampage dig crew, and helping shape dirt at events like Tour de Gnar, Freeride Fiesta, and Loosefest.
That combination is what separates a trail that looks right on paper from one that actually rides right, built to hold up through a full season instead of blowing out by August.
Ryan Rodriguez, founder
What I Build
The lines between them blur more often than not.
Sustainable contour design · Grade reversals & outslope · Field layout & flag lines · Drainage & erosion control · Technical trail features · Mechanized & hand built construction
Site assessment, inventory of what's already there, and master planning for how a whole system fits together, phased so it can grow over time.
Turning a corridor concept into a flagged, construction ready line on the ground, with grade, sightlines, and drainage worked out before anyone breaks ground.
Mechanized and hand built tread, technical trail features, and drainage structures. Mini excavator for the heavy lifting, hand tools and a finish crew for everything that has to feel right underneath a wheel.
Sometimes what a town or park needs isn't a builder, it's a second opinion before they commit to one. I do that too.
Track Record
Riding fast tells you what a trail should feel like. Building one that holds up is a different skill: grade reversals and outslope that shed water instead of channeling it down the tread, rolling contour lines instead of fall line shortcuts, corners that carry speed without blowing out. That comes from getting it wrong, fixing it, and watching how a trail actually ages after a full season of real riders instead of a test lap. That's the standard applied to every project, whether it's a jump line at a public bike park or a pump track and flow trail in someone's backyard, green to double black, public land or private.
Case Study
Buzzard Butte started as an idea Josh Venti had years before a shovel ever touched the ground, planning and coordinating with the Forest Service and TORTA to get everything in place. Trail construction finally broke ground in 2025, and I came on right at the start of that build phase, working through his crew, Bros. and Hoes Landscaping, alongside guys like Christian Rigal and Carson Storch, who've each put their name on standout lines out there. Singletracks wrote us up as a group in September and called me "heavily involved," which is accurate, since I've been on it end to end: flagging line, digging, coordinating volunteer groups, making final revisions, and opening trails to the public.
The terrain doesn't make it easy. Coastal fog keeps the ground damp for months at a time, which changes how you shape a berm or a climbing turn if you want it to hold up. A lot of the early work was hand tool trenching and flagging line by feel, before machinery ever touched the hillside.
The digging itself is no joke. A lot of that hillside is rock wrapped in roots, and cutting a clean line through it takes real time. But the part I actually love is curating the finished experience: making sure a trail rides exactly the way it's supposed to for the rider it was built for.
A Few Of The Lines Out There
Mossy Hogs, Wavelength, Skidzafernia, Groundswell: different hands on each one, mostly the same crew behind them. Wavelength is Carson Storch's name on it, though plenty of us had a hand in it, me included. "It's pretty gnarly and kind of more natural," I told Singletracks when it opened, "and then it goes into a huge step up. It's a pretty intimidating step up for a lot of people." Skidzafernia doesn't have one name attached. I call it everyone's trail, since that's closer to the truth. Groundswell is the one I'm proudest the network has: an adaptive, blue rated jump trail built through a $125,000 Travel Oregon grant, so more people can actually get out and ride it, not just watch.
What's stuck with me most from getting written up isn't the attention, it's the reminder of why any of this matters: "That's definitely one of the hopes with this place: getting public lands to have trails that are what the people really want. But it still needs to be built well."
I didn't build this alone. A good chunk of Buzzard Butte came out of volunteer dig days I helped organize and lead for TORTA, turning crews of riders and locals into finished trail, one weekend at a time.
Where It Stands Now
What started as a rough sketch is now part of a long term vision for roughly 35 miles of singletrack near Pacific City, and it's picked up some attention along the way, if you want more than my word for it:
Where Some Of This Comes From
For six seasons I've been part of the dig crew at Red Bull Rampage, about as far from a quiet forest service trail as this work gets. I also spent 2020 on the dig crew at Red Bull Formation, building the terrain that put the first wave of women's big mountain freeride on the map. Both events taught me to read terrain fast, build things that hold up under real force, and stay level headed when a line isn't working and there's four hours of daylight left to fix it.
In 2025 the rest of the Rampage dig crew voted me a Digger's Award, which is about the only award in that world that actually means something. It comes from the people who'd know. Most of my work these days is nowhere near that extreme. The same care carries over regardless.
PMBIA-Certified Instructor · 6 Seasons at Red Bull Rampage · 2025 Rampage Digger's Award · 2020 Red Bull Formation Dig Crew · Trail Builder, Buzzard Butte Trail System
Also, I Teach
Trail building isn't the only hat I wear. I also run Rad MTB Skills, coaching riders on body position, cornering, and the kind of confidence that actually holds up on real terrain. It's an odd pairing on paper, but the two feed each other. Coaching keeps me honest about how a trail actually rides, and building keeps my coaching grounded in real terrain instead of theory.
Visit Rad MTB Skills →Get In Touch
Town, park, private landowner, anywhere in the country, I'd like to hear about it. I travel for the right project, and I answer these myself.