Trail Descriptions
I tend to look at the Cove in three sections. What my friends and I refer to as the "upper trails", the "lower trails" and a few in an area we don't call anything, I'll call them the "other" trails.
LOWER TRAILS
These are in the north part of the system, No big climbs, mostly rolling or flat with a couple of exceptions.
"Lower" Comet - (west of the intersection with Tuck-A-Way):
Technical: beginner/intermediate.
Strenuousness: beginner
This is rolling with very small elevation changes. Overall it is a beginner trail, but there are a few sections a beginner will walk. I would bring a beginner on this.
Enchanted Forest,
Little Bell (AKA Skillet/Frying Pan),
Schoolhouse (AKA Kit And Kibootle)
Technical: Beginner (with advanced options)
Strenuousness: Beginner
Flat or gently rolling and non-tech, but with some great log pile features as side-options. A few beautiful views of the Cove. Some sections are Pine forest, which have a very different feel than the rest of the cove. Some sections are newly re-routed, with great flow, others are older, with a more primitive feel and trickier flow. Good in either direction. One note about Enchanted forest, the middle of it has been re-routed from what is shown on the map. In the middle of the trail it dumps out onto Happy Valley (a dirt road) and follows it a few hundred feet, and passes the north east end of Songbird. These are great in both directions.
Arrowhead (AKA Funhouse)
Technical: Intermediate
Strenuousness: Intermediate
This trail is good in both directions, but very different. Coming from the end near Songbird, there is a long, gradual climb. After that, it is somewhat steeply rolling, (more down than up) and is technical in places. I personally like it in this direction, but others like it the other way, so you have more technical climbs, leading to a long, very gradual, wide-open downhill at the end.
Songbird
Technical: Beginner
Strenuousness: beginner.
This trail is one of the new additions, and it is a blast. Smooth, swoopy, and twisty. It is a great beginner trail to get someone hooked on riding, and is just as much fun for an expert rider. It has some climbing, but it is broken up so that beginners can handle it. This is a rigid single-speeders dream. If you are thinking of going ss, this is one trail that will convince you to do it. Great in both directions.
Happy Valley
Technical: Beginner
Strenuousness: Beginner.
Gently rolling dirt/gravel road that makes up the backbone of the lower trails.
UPPER TRAILS
If you look southwest of the parking lot on the map, there is a ~1,000' high ridge running northeast to southwest that Brushy Mountain Trail follows. All of the longest downhills (or climbs) are off of this (Buck, Trough, Hi-Dee-Ho, Gauntlet) I also include Horse Pen and Hotel here, because they will likely be part of most loops involving the upper trails, and Four Gorges, just because I don't know where else to.
Brushy Mountain Trail (AKA Thousand Foot Climb)
Technical: Beginner
Strenuousness: Intermediate
This is a long fire road climb. It climbs more than 1,000 over about 3 miles (anyone have an exact elevation?). It passes Jacob's Drop and Hemlock tunnel and continues climbing until shortly before it reaches Gauntlet. It descends a tiny bit before it passes Gauntlet and Hi-Dee-Ho, and is then gently rolling all the way to Buck. It loses a little bit of elevation on the way to Buck, just enough to make it a fun, fast ride. The climb is pretty gradual. I would call it a beginner trail in terms of strenuousness if it were shorter, and a strong beginner could probably do it if they throw it in a low enough gear and take their time. The view on the way up is very nice in a few places, and the forest along the top is quite beautiful as it recovers from the fire.
Hi-Dee-Ho
Technical: intermediate
Strenuousness: advanced (climbing)
This trail climbs from the parking lot all the way to the ridgeline where it hits Brushy Mt Tr. It is a tough climb, but not too technical. Coming down, the top half traverses the mountain slope with a series of switchbacks. Like many older trails, the stretches between switchbacks are pretty straight lines with uniform grades. I don't find it terribly interesting, but about half way down it straightens out and follows a side ridge down, and is a high-speed bomb-fest, with lots of small lips to leave you in the air. This second half is, IMO, the single most fun piece of DH at the cove, but it is not very long.
Buck (AKA Buck's Rut)
Technical: intermediate/advanced
Strenuousness: Intermediate (climbing)
This may be my favorite trail, overall. It has less elevation than Hi-Dee-Ho, but it is not as steep, so it is a bit longer, and just the right slope so that you are not on your brakes much on the way down. It is very old-school, meaning it was not made for bikes. This trail takes skill to ride at high speed, as some of the turns have an awkward flow that take a few rides to get dialed in, and some sections are very rooty, though not so rooty as to spoil the fun. Some sections are pretty washed out, but still ridable, with very little loose rock, except at the very top. Also, the trail has a different feel to it in different sections. Coming down there is a little climbing at the end, but not much. In all my years at the cove, I've only climbed Buck's Rut once and it was not too hard, except at the very top.
Hotel (AKA The Ho, Ho Trail, etc)
Technical: intermediate
Strenuousness: Beginner
If you like riding your bike over trails clearly not made for them, you will like this trail. To me it is the perfect follow-up after coming down Buck's Rut. It is not particularly hard, but it keeps you on your toes the whole time, sometimes just to keep track of the trail. It is rolling (mostly downhill) from Buck to the parking lot
Gauntlet
Technical: intermediate
Strenuousness: see below
Gauntlet is getting re-routed at the top, but here is what I can say: It is the longest downhill at Carvins Cove both in vertical (I've heard 1,200 - 1,400 feet) and distance. For the most part it is not very steep. It is very rooty, and gives your forearms a good workout/beating unless you huffed your 7" freeride bike to the top (no shuttling here). Those on hardtails will be treated to a full body beating. The trail is not particularly technical, just rough, long, and fairly narrow in many places with the shrubs crowding the trail. The re-route at the top should eliminate the most steep, loose, and rutted out part of the trail, and replace it with more swooping, twisty, and therefore longer trail in the style of Songbird and Connector. The top of the new Gauntlet will be right across from Hi-Dee-Ho. I'm not sure what to say about the climb. I've only climbed it twice (too good of a DH) It was really brutal before (advanced), but mostly because of the top section, which I imagine will be much easier (intermediate, or advanced due to the length) after the new trail work.
Trough
Technical: intermediate
Strenuousness: Advanced
I usually climb this. It is not too long, but the second half is pretty hard. You hit one long, straight, steep section that has me wondering how people survive without granny. After that, the trail splits, and then re-joins. To the left, the trail weaves back and forth up the hill at a humane pitch. Straight up is very steep, washed out, rutted, steep, rooty, loose, steep, etc. It goes straight up the fall line. I think this is why this trail is called "The Trough". Going up this, I would call the trail expert in terms of strenuousness and advanced in technical difficulty, though it only a few hundred feet, so if you try and fail you are not walking the bike far.
Horse Pen (AKA Timberview Trail)
Technical: Beginner
Strenuousness: Beginner
Very slight grade, straight, easy. Nice way to warm up for Trough Trail.
Four Gorges (AKA Connector)
Technical: Beginner/intermediate
Strenuousness: Intermediate
This trail is not on the linked map for some reason. To access it, you begin to climb Hi-Dee-Ho, and after a short climb (a few minutes) Four Gorges breaks off to the left. It roughly parallels the paved road and ends up near the bottom of Brushy Mt Trail. This trail is another new addition, and in the IMBA style of Songbird, but the climbs and descents are longer and significantly steeper. It is good both ways, but since it gains a little elevation going away from the parking lot towards Brushy Mt Trail, going towards the parking lot is more fun, IMO. Like Songbird, it is a ss dream. In fact, riding a rigid ss in this direction is one of the closest things I have experienced to mountain biking Nirvana. This trail is longer than you may be expecting when you look at the map. It is very tight and twisty, but has a great flow to it, and not a technically challenging trail if you take it slowly, but is quite an adrenaline rush when you start hauling.
THE "OTHER" TRAILS
This is the area between the upper and lower trails. It is accessed by either climbing up Tuck-A-Way (or Upper Comet is you want a real challenge) or by going up Brushy Mt Trail about 2/3 of the way and coming down Jacobs Drop or Hemlock tunnel. Besides these two downhill sections, this area is rolling, but challenging and steep in places.
"Upper" Comet - (AKA Tricky) (East of the intersection with Tuck-A-Way, connects to Kerncliff)
Technical: Intermediate.
Strenuousness: intermediate
Coming from Kerncliff (the direction I would recommend), the initial descent is intermediate/advanced due to the loose/rutted trail with a loose, steep hairpin at the end that will leave you in the trees if you hit it too fast. After that it is rolling, and intermediate tech with one short but utterly brutal climb we call the Hill of Despair. This climb I would rate advanced, but since it is fairly short, I call the trail as a whole intermediate. Climbing the trail towards Kerncliff would be pretty brutal in a few places in terms of pitch and looseness.
"Upper" Jacob's Drop (AKA The Drop, Pikes Peak) (between Brushy Mt Trail and Kerncliff)
Technical: Intermediate
Strenuousness: (climbing) Expert/Barf!
This is a very steep, rutted, loose fire road. Coming down is a little sketchy for a beginner. I don't think it is all that much fun, just steep and loose, and at the bottom (the steepest part) you have to keep your speed under check because it ends in a collection of ruts that could seriously mess you up if you don't hit them just right. You can see them a few hundred feet before you hit them, and it will take you most of that distance to slow down, even if you are not going that fast.
Going up is doable in the sense that anything is doable with enough effort, just be prepared for pain, and stopping a few times if you are not a top-level climber (at the top of my game I have to stop once or twice on a 30 lb FS, usually more like 3-4 times).
"Lower" Jacobs Drop (between Kerncliff and Tuc-A-Way)
Technical: Beginner
Strenuousness: Intermediate
Rolling fire road.
Tuck-A-Way (AKA Girl Scout).
Technical: Beginner (mostly).
Strenuousness: Beginner (mostly)
Good in both directions. It is a gradual climb from the intersection of Comet to Jacob's Drop. There is one slightly technical section at the very top that a Beginner should be aware of on the way down.
Hemlock Tunnel (AKA Clownhead)
Technical: Intermediate
Strenuousness: beginner/intermediate (descending)
At the very top, the trail is winding and a little steep. When it has been recently cleaned up, it is a lot of fun, but it gets washed out and loose easily, so after about a year it is very loose again. Then you get to the hairy part: A very steep, long, straight, consistent grade that traverses the hillside and is often packed with loose rocks and debris. If you don't already know how to descent steep grades, you will learn here. Maybe some people enjoy this section, but I think it is just a boring chore and a waist of a lot of the elevation you earned on the way up. You can't really bomb it (at least I can't), because there is not a good run out at the end. However, once you get past that, the trail is tight, twisty, a little rough, and challenging in an old-school kind of way. The flow is unpredictable, and it keeps you on your toes. I really like this part of it. It is still more down than up except at the end when you climb a little bit to meet Kerncliff.
"West" Kerncliff (between Hemlock Tunnel and Jacob's Drop)
Technical: Beginner
Strenuousness: beginner/intermediate
Rolling fire road.
"East" Kerncliff (AKA Three Sisters) (between Hemlock Tunnel and Araminta)
Technical: Beginner
Strenuousness: advanced
Fire road. A respectably hard climb going towards Araminta, and ridiculously hard climb coming away from Araminta.
Araminta (AKA Stickman)
Have not ridden this in years. As I recall there are no particularly hard climbs in either direction.