Hays Woods Skills Course

Dogs Leashed

E-Bikes Allowed

Features Downhill · Drops/Jumps · Technical

The skills course is a very old trail of 40 acres, likely created by motocross riders. Some of the drops are steep and require a good amount of speed to keep a rolling flow. Bring your "A" game.

port a john near the parking area.

Follow Agnew through three stop signs till it dead ends into the Hays parking lot. Go through the yellow swing gate on the right. This is a gravel road and is still Agnew Road. Follow Agnew past the radio tower and all the way till it crests. You'll see a rusty pole. That is Shoenberger Road. You are at the top of the course now.

Continue on Agnew going downhill. And then makes a right turn on a trail. Drop your seat post here. Turn right and fly downhill on Agnew. Then turn right onto Skills Course. Skills Course begins with a fast downhill and then a hard right back uphill. Go through the wide S turn. Now fly down the creek bed and punch it up the next hill. Around the hill and then fly down a gnarly path, then punch it up the next hill. Crest then fly down the next big drop into an open area. Head right and climb the hill. The hill is a 70 foot straight climb.

Put your seat post in middle position. The bottom and the top will both challenge the limits of your biking skills. Now you're at the top. Look at the next drop, then go over with your tire on the edge of the buried log. Drop down the steep hill turning right then left and right. As soon as you level out, raise your seat and begin slowly, climbing, a very windy and bumpy trail. When you're at the very top, you are ready to hit a big double drop. You'll pop over a 4-inch root. Hard left and back right. Over the roots down into the bowl and punch out over the hump.

Now, a hard left and right, and then fly down the next big drop and bank right. On that drop, just stay to the left of the big exposed rock at the top. From here, you wind through the forest and then head right and then back left onto the other trail. Take that trail down to the next creek bed for a huge drop and then punch it back out. Now you finhave ished the downhill section. Time to raise your seat.

When you get to the top, there's a large downed tree so head left. This is a short connector to Schoenberger Trail. Turn left on Schoenberger and follow up. You cross the skills course at the double drop, and then you'll bank right, climb steeper, then bank left and crest the top. Blast through the rolling flats until you reach Agnew Road, where the metal post is.

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Hays encompasses the area known as Hays Woods, a 635-acre (257 ha)+ woodland, the largest undeveloped tract of land in the city of Pittsburgh (even larger than Frick Park).[4] Hays Woods is the best example of the city's natural environment and has six streams, including a waterfall. The area is home to nesting bald eagles.[5] The 613-acre (2.48 km2) parcel of land including Hays Woods was identified as a possible site for a thoroughbred racetrack and housing development after developer Charles Betters' application to strip mine the area was declined. In 2016, the parcel was signed over to the city of Pittsburgh and is slated to become the largest park in Pittsburgh.