gillard

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.

Nick Is No Whiner..

Posted on by Smoke

…he’s a wine MAKER.

He looks pretty stoked to be riding in Canada too.  Just a random call from a guy up in the valley on business.  I had to do some background on Nick to find out just what kind of wine he makes.  Apparently, it’s pretty damn good wine.

It’s a good career path for someone totally amped on riding bikes.  Wine country tends to be good bike country, and if you make good wine you might just be able to afford a good bike.

We ran a lap of Smith Creek for starters.  Then, since Nick hasn’t really seen the freeride side of the sport, we went for a couple of laps on Gillard.

I wouldn’t say that he stomped the trails.  Even with the primo demo bike courtesy of Trek and Fresh Air Experience, he got spanked a couple of times early, leading to a few shy moments like this one, but at least he got a day in with only minor “souvenirs”.

Pretty tough to have a bad day on the trails when it’s this nice out, and the locals came out of the woodwork to make him feel at home. 

Great day.

Girls Got Skills – Day 1

Posted on by Smoke

The day has finally arrived….are you ready to fly?

Nothing like 30 mountain bike women doing yoga in the morning to convince a guy that he’s losing his mind.

Exceeding all expectations, the Girls Got Skills Clinic sold out with 25 women showing up to take part.

The first part of the session was spent going over fundamentals on the grass at Mission Park.  I’ve never seen a camp run this way before, but the coaches are old hands at this and ran the program ultra smooth.

All the drills were fun, and totally relevant to riding hard trails.

This of course, is totally irrelevant, but the shuttle driver had difficulty controlling himself around all those amazing ladies on the bikes.

Luckily, no one was totally sickened by my vulgar display, so we went up to the trails to put the new skills to the test.

A brief safety discussion at the top and we were on our way.

First up was a teeter session.  It’s a little bit harder than riding on the grass, but since everyone I saw nailed it, something must have gone right.

Well, almost everyone……

Then, just when things were going so well, a mild disaster.  Ever notice that you always go where you look?   Check out Tatty Cat’s line of sight here (and her rear wheel).

Despite a picture perfect mid air dismount, an unlucky bounce led to a bit of a wrist injury, and Calah is out for a month or so.  That’s mountain biking for you.  At least the rest of the girls weren’t put off by this unhappy turn of events, and our pal Calah is in great spirits.  She should be ready for the road bike in a week or so.

What amazes me about this group is that every single girl had some kind of breakthrough in their riding.  Some of these women have never ridden off road before and here we are SHREDDING Gillard, an area widely regarded as one of the most progressive zones in all of mountain biking.

Dale was even finding ways of rolling down places that have only been aired before.

Well, Day One is finished and even with the casualty I would have to call it a success.  You can see some more pics over in the Girls Got Skills Gallery.