I agree about removing obstacles, making the trail easier for the people who want something harder - that sucks.

I don't really agree about creating trails around obstacles, though. If I'm going biking with my friends who are worse than me, it's a lot more fun to go on a medium trail and tell them to just take the shortcut around the obstacles. If I'm biking with people who are better than me, I prefer to not have to just go home if they want to do a tough trail.

Fact is I can't keep everyone I know who mountain bikes skill level at exactly the same level, and it's a lot more fun to be able to ride the trail with them, even if I know I'm wimping out on the really technical stuff. I mean I'm doing this for fun, we're not saving lives here - if the little routes around the big obstacles are to tempting, I would suggest perhaps the problem is a lack of self control, not that there's easier routes around the hard stuff.