Month: June 2009

Evening Shuttle (Around the Lake-ish)

Posted on by Smoke

This is sort of part of the Around the Lake route.  An evening shuttle up McDougall.  Nice having this sort of thing available for after work.

We also did a bit of exploring in the truck on the way up.  It’s a pretty long shuttle, so it’s debateable on whether or not to ride up.  If you’re in good shape (we’re not, check the pics), then it’s about 2 and a hlaf hours round trip. 

You get the fresh legs for the descent if you shuttle though.  We’re talking about 40 minutes of sustained downhill riding here, except when you do a little walking up for the camera.

Nothing really radical about the descent, but you do get some nice views of the valley and the lake.

Oh, and the occasional sweaty downhiller.

Bellvue Fire

Posted on by Smoke

While we were working on the trails at Gillard, we heard some thunder.  After I crossed the lake, I noticed this:

Only a few miles above the main riding area in Gillard.  This fire blew up to 7 hectares in only an hour or so.  It is seriously dry out there this year.

The crews got on it right away, and we got a bit of cooler and wetter weather, so it’s contained and almost out now, but it’s a good reminder to play it extra smart out there.  For a few minutes we were worried that we’d wasted a day of effort fixing up our trails.

Gillard Trail Day

Posted on by Smoke

The last Trail Day of the spring is here.  It’s just too hot and dry from here on out to get any quality work done. Honestly, with events almost every week, it’s just too much work anyway.  Luckily, Gillard is in really good shape this year.  Just a few notable spots, like this stunt on Wobbly Pops, to fix up.

There was also this problem root ball on Boss Hog.  We had a serious lack of saws today, so we took turns with an axe and cleared it by hand.  It’s a double stump, too.

May hands make short work, though.  Ryan also went crazy on a bunch of older stunts on BH that were falling down, and there’s a couple of sweet additions and some general buffage all around.  The Hog hasn’t looked this good since before the fire.

A bunch of guys also went and buffed out Kerplop, so that one is prime now too.  Big thanks to Kelly at Fresh Air for putting this together.