trail building

Powers Creek Trail Day

Posted on by Smoke

Got busy with some maintenance today. Dave built up a new hit near the top of Builders Only, but it had a bit of a savage landing. So much so that a few well meaning but misguided individuals felt the urge to install this shonky ramp.

My plan was to remove said ramp and make a nice tranny instead.

I was going to put that tranny about where the bottom of the ramp was, but after 20 or 30 riders in a row came wailing off the jump and landed aout three feet further out, I changed my plan. Hey, is that a Knolly?

Once I got that done, Harley and I randown to check out Dave’s latest creation. It has no name, but in honour of a minor shitstorm I created over a comment about “sissy lines” it may be referenced as the “Sissy Smoker.”

I’ve always called the easy way around the “sissy line” a few folks didn’t get the joke over at PinkBike. Oh well, I actually did spend a reasonable amount of time making a decent way around for riders of the more earthbound persuasion.

Becasue not everyone is up to speed on gaps.

The last project was to lay a bunch of logs into this corner before the stepup combo.

To guinea pig it, some local punksters showed up to show us how.

It’s not really big enough for a no footer, but he went for it anyway.

Corn Stars – Day 2

Posted on by Smoke

How’s this for a surprise on your bike tour? Today we went up to Kamloops to help out with the KBRA trail day on Harper Mtn. A full day of building with a barbeque dinner and campout was in order.

We got there late morning and headed up to the Bridge to Nowhere to fix up some old woodwork that was getting wort of beat.

Most of the big projects were taken, but we recycled some old stuf into an improved a-frame over a stump.

It was quite the all ages gig, and I was surprised to see so many faces I didn’t know and almost none that I did.

Lots of quality work got done.

This place is so popular, the stunts were getting hit efore they were even finished (it was OK, we told them to hit it).

Proud builders watching the first rider over their work.

With a short time left before the end of the day, we built one more jump. It’s got a total crap landing, but hey…youcan take the guy outta the Shore, but you can’t—you know what I mean.

Time to hit the new and improved.

The fun part of this for me is that Barb and I built a lot of the original lines way back in ’99. They’ve been greatly improved since then, but we still feel sort of like parents on this stuff.

Here’s the spiral ramp. It was getting ready to collapse, so it got a full overhaul.

Good lookin’ out with the chainsaw. I think this was part of the KBC crew working on this one.

The flowers are going off at this time of year. I’ve never ridden here when it’s blooming.

..and blooming it was.

A slight damper was put on the BBQ as a light rain started to fall.

I have a hard time calling 5 minutes of mist “rain,” but it was enough to send lots of people home for the night. We kept warm by burning some old stunts.

By the end of the night the Kamloops locals were in the minority, with a couple of Swiss kids, a pair of ‘Mericans, and some joker from Westbank outnumbering the 3 hardy Kamloopsians that stayed put.

NSMBA Trail Day

Posted on by Smoke

Our last trail day for the NSMBA. It’s a little bit sad, really. Ahhh…..maybe we’ll throw down on another some time. They are really fun events.

They also wouldn’t be possible without sponsors. Kelly Smith is the owner of the new IGA down on Esplanade, and he’s a great guy. Look at all that food.

We also need lots of help on the trail, and although we didn’t get the HUGE turnout like last time, we still had 55 motivated diggers show up.

I think that with the Rat Race on the Sunshine Coast, the Vancouver Marathon wrecking traffic, and a bit of rain it was still a great turnout. That rain made it great to see how to cut the drainage.

Oh look….girls. Awwwww, they’re hikers. Oh well, they’re in some pretty short shorts.

Franco likes them like that.

OK Franco. Back to work.

You too, Dieter.

As always, Barb made a great lunch of drunken salmon burgers, and no trail day is complete without Karen’s delicious cookies or Brewhaha’s cold brewskis.

Thanks to everyone that came out, and if you didn’t make it, there’s still 5 more chances to give back to the Shore.