Ledgeview

Tonight I hooked up with Mike from Abbotsford for a night ride at Ledgeview.

Mike has an extensive knowledge of the Ledgeview trails. Having him to guide me in the dark made the ride a seem like a breeze. The climb up to the top is deceiving. It is mellow at first but gets rather steep at spots. My up hill effort was rewarded with a fun smooth flowing rip down.

We climbed to the tower, and rode down Little Butt, Flintstones, Boulderdash and Autobahn.

Little Butt is smooth, flowy and rooty at spots, but over all a very mellow trail. Flintstones was rather cool with HUGE pieces of granite all over the place. Riding the trail for the first time ever in the dark is BIG eye-opener. Near the beginning of the trail all you see off your right shoulder is a VERY steep embankment and pitch black darkness. I'd really hate to go over the edge on that trail.

Then we hit Boulderdash, at a junction in the trail that was very clearly marked with some great signs. Boulderdash is just that, dashing between truck sized boulders of granite. Autobahn has a old VW bug wedged up in a tree, how it got there....nobody really knows. Also on Autobahn there was an undercut berm that was such a cool feature I had to go back and ride it again and capture it on film.

The clip is nothing special, but it shows the overhang and natural berm created by mother nature.

The rest of the ride was a mellow traverse across the hill to our vehicles.

I must say Ledgeview is a fun place to ride. The trails I have ridden have a very different flavor than what I am used to, but I really like the change of venues every now and then.

Splendid Footage

The sun was out and I had all morning to ride.

7am I left the house to hit The Woodlot. The weather was fabulous today and I had a feeling that a lot of snow had melted since last week so I was really anticipating my ride today.

The climb was completely clear of snow and the trails were in great condition all the way up. I decided today that I would give a try at filming myself riding. So I set up the camera, ran up the trail, rode down and repeated until the trail was done. The video below is the result of my efforts today.

Snakes and Ladders on my Banshee Rune.....self filmed

I had fun filming and editing the footage and look forward to giving this a go on some more trails in the future.

I did a little building today as well. I added even more rock to what I did last week.


After riding Snakes and Ladders I rode Shotgun, packed up at my truck and drove home.

The riding conditions were absolutely spectacular today and I had a wicked ride plus a great workout running up the trail and down the trail setting up the camera to capture myself on film.

Rockin' Snow Ride

Thank the heavens for the warmer/wetter weather we had over the past week. A great deal of the snow in the hills has melted making riding on the lower trails possible.

I headed to The Woodlot today with the sun high in the sky and warm breeze coming the open window of my truck. Once at the parking are there were already 6 or so vehicles from riders already on the hill. I loaded up and decided to ride/push up Shotgun as the regular route up still had far too much snow. In the trees Shotgun was all clear of snow, in the open clear cut the snow had melted to 5 inches of compact slush.

In the upper section of Shotgun 2 riders passed by me coming down at race pace. Big bikes on Shotgun = big fun.

Once I hit the road, most of the snow was gone or was well on its way to melting away. There were still areas on the road that needed to be pushed, but for the most part the climb wasn't too bad. One thing the heavy snow does on the edge of the road is snap and bend trees over onto the road. There was one tree so badly bent that it blocked the path so it needed to be cut out. I grabbed my folding saw and cut away; leaving the trail clear to ride on past. I then made my way to the trailhead of Snakes and Ladders in about 8 inches of slushy heavy snow. Any higher on the hill and the riding would be impossible. I stopped to take a picture of my Banshee Rune at the trail and then continued down from there.

2008 Banshee Rune

The top of the trail had just a little too much snow to actually ride in but a few hundred meters in and it was clear sailing. I hit a few jumps and for one I even stopped, swept the snow off the run-in with my foot and gave her hell riding down. At the bottom of the big rock faces there has always been an issue with drainage and mud accumulation. My goal today was to either get in a good long ride, or have a short ride and build for a few hours; I chose the latter. Once I parked my bike and got the necessary tools I snapped some pictures of the mud before.....and then after I had finished working.

Rocking away the mud.

Extreme Makeover - Snakes and Ladders Style

The rock I used was the rock that I spent hours and hours stacking in the summer of 2006. I knew this section was going to need a lot of rock and I used a good amount of it today. A few years ago you came to a complete stop in the mud, but now it is a super fast right hand turn over a highway of granite. This work only took me an hour and a half with no assistance needed. While building I did have 2 groups of 3 riders cruise on past thanking me for the trail work which was quite nice. One rider in particular who reads my blog (Daryl) rolled up and said..."So you must be the infamous Dean!", and my reply, "Ummm yeah?????". Daryl was with 2 other good guys out having a great old time in the snow. We chatted for a bit, I pointed them in the direction of the 'new ending' of the trail and they were on their way. It's always cool to meet people that appreciate the work that others do on the trails.

I then rode out the rest of the trail, rode down shotgun where I met up with Ewan, Dave and a different Darryl from earlier, we chatted for a bit and then ripped the remainder of the trail. At the parking area there must have been 30 cars all up the roads. The sun was shining and the riding whored were out in full effect.

I am really happy with the work I was able to get done today and I am especially looking forward to getting more work done on the trails this winter and spring.

Determination

Determination

That one single word summed up what I needed today to get a ride in. I knew that there would be snow today but I really expected there to be less and the conditions to be much better than what they were.

The photo below shows my lonely tracks in the snow on my way to Snakes and Ladders to do some trail work. You can't see my bike tires because I had to carry my bike on my shoulders. The snow was wet, slushy and 18 inches deep.

My foot steps

Deep, deep snow.

I did manage to hike to the bottom of Snakes and Ladders and remove a tree that had fallen across the trail. After that I was bagged, so I picked up my bike and carried it back down the hill.

Shotgun was barely rideable at all. In all the time I have ridden at The Woodlot, today I saw the worst riding conditions ever.

It will be a few weeks before I can really get a good ride in on my favorite trails.

My Backyard

I managed to squeeze in a ride this afternoon, that started at the end of my driveway. I'll be the first to admit that I am spoiled. At the end of my cul de sac there is a greenbelt. Within the green belt there is a walking trail that winds towards the mountains. At the end of the green belt I did a bit of road riding which lead me to another path and this is the view five minutes from my house.

The Golden Ears

I continued my ride along horse trails and walking paths until the real climb began and the snow got a little deeper. Todays ride started later in the day around the time the sun was setting and I was glad I had brought my camera with me.

My Banshee Rune with sun setting over Vancouver and the North Shore mountains on the right.

I didn't have any lights with me so when the sun had set I turned around and rode home. Lucky for me it was down hill all the way home - I even managed to catch the last quarter of the Super Bowl.

I could not ask for a better place to live and ride.

A few carbon bits for the cockpit.