Misty Golden Ears

I decided to go for a bit of a pedal today.  With my bike loaded on my car I headed to Golden Ears park and Alouette Mtn.

My route took me up the Eric Dunning Trail and then along the Alouette Mountain Fire Access Trail to the second shortcut trail.  Along the way I spotted a few not so well known off the map trails that I one day hope to explore.

On the fire access road between the two shortcut trails is this lookout.  Over the years the view is getting smaller and smaller due to the trees growing and blocking the view.  My guess is in 5 years some trees will need to be removed.

Once at the top, I started my descent which is about 20 minutes or so with next to no pedaling.  It's not a bad ride when a nice easy pedal is desired with a fun descent on a smaller bike.

Morning of Repairs

This morning I met Mitch at The Woodlot to go for a ride and to give him an introduction to trail building.  Mitch wants to help out on the trails, but he hasn't ever done any trail work.

While I pedaled my Rune and he pushed his bike up, we were able to talk about some trail basics and other things bike related.

At the top of Cabin Trail we geared up and I began riding down to one of the last bomb hole sections that I plan on repairing on Cabin.  I had Mitch collect most of the rock while I pieced everything together.

Within 20 minutes the hole was fixed and we began riding down. Once the trail leveled out and the pedaling began, Mitch's chain snapped and needed repairing. Then when we rode down Snakes and Ladders, I had a flat. By this time Mitch had to leave so I rode Shotgun solo hoping that nothing else was going to break on me.  I didn't have a good feeling seeing a couple Turkey Vultures circle me in the clearing.

I've had many days without a mechanical, but all it felt like I did today was repair things.

Wrong Turn

My plan today was to go for a spin for a few hours and see if I could find an easier way into the UBC Research Forest. I seem to have found a decent route. It needs a few trees cleared off it and there is a significant creek crossing that requires your feet to get wet but it is a lot faster to get into the area than my previous route.

The picture below shows where a bridge used to be located. Several years ago the road in the area had some huge washouts so the road was shut down and the bridge was removed.

If you look really carefully you can see and imprint across the cement that reads "UBC FRST 78"

My plan was to ride to Jabobs lake and then turn around to come home. I made on wrong turn and decided to continue on a logging road that went up to a clearcut that isn't really shown on many maps. The climb was easy and gradual and ended with an okay view of the Fraser Valley, but is wasn't what I was looking for.

The Fraser Valley with through the haze.

Looking west to Gloomy Peak and Gabbro Mountain in Coquitlam.

Once I snapped a photos I headed back to my car and home. Not a bad exploratory ride considering a wrong turn.

View Clearcut East of Jacobs Lake in a larger map

Rock!!

I hit the Woodlot today on my Rune. I had a few tools in my pack to do a little trail work on Cabin Trail. I must say that I picked a pretty nice day to go for a ride and do some trail work.

Off to one side of the climb, somebody has been stacking rock for the past several months. This formerly small pile of rocks is getting rather impressive.

On Cabin Trail / Goldmine Trail I have been making an effort to fix the bomb holes that have appeared over the past few years. Most of rocks used in the picture below were collected by a small group of us (five riders) a few weeks ago. Today I pieced them all together to make this section flow again. The rocks are all locked together by gravity (weight of the rocks), wedging of small rocks in cracks and a few pinned pieces of cedar that I staked into the ground. Before this rock was put in place there was a 3 foot deep bomb hole that you nearly came to a stop on when riding the trail. Now it is nothing but rocked in flow.

The rest of my ride consisted of the end of Cabin Trail, Snakes and Ladders and finally Shotgun. A sweet ride, a good build and lots of rock!!

Google Earth Epic #7: UBC Research Forest

I have wanted to get up to the Malcolm Knapp UBC Research forest for years. There are three different lookout points that I'd like to explore and today I did one of the three.

My ride started at Mike Lake and using the research I did ahead of time I navigated my way on up into the hills. While climbing the fire road just before Loon Lake, I ran into this bear. At one point it seemed as if he wanted to walk over towards me, but I made a lot of noise that sent him packing into the bush.


The forest in this area is as lush as they come so I paused to take a picture of one of the creeks.

At the top of the logging road that runs North East of Loon Lake you are greeted with this pretty sweet view. For anyone that knows the area they know that not many people get to see this area from this viewpoint. This spot is 15km up a logging road and to say that the logging spurs are like a labyrinth would be an understatement.

I was running out of time when I took this last picture and I needed to turn my bike around and head home. It was pretty cool navigating to these view points and I can't wait to make my way to some of the other higher viewpoints in the area.

My total ride time was 3 hours and a little over 32km round trip. I think some of the view points further into the area might turn out to be a whole day affair. Next time I'll invite a few friends to enjoy the view with me. The super cool thing is that I can start this ride from my house if I want to add a couple hours of XC singletrack to the ride.

View Route to UBC Views - Malcolm Knapp Research Forest in a larger map

First official ride of the summer 2011

Today was my first official ride of the summer. In usual fashion it was raining.

I decided I'd push my big bike up the hill for a rip and hit a few drops and gaps. The first trails I rode were Giant Killer and then Bloggy Style. At the bottom of Bloggy I met up with Ryan and Curtis where we started back up the mountain to hit some more trails. It turns out that Curtis hadn't ridden Blood Donor in a few years so that was the first trail on the list. On Donor there are a few wooden features that are broken right now that really break up the flow. Hopefully they are able to be repaired soon.

At the bottom of Blood Donor I hit the little jump and then pressured Curtis to hit it for the first time. After a few deep breaths he had this simple little jump under his belt.

We then rode Giant Killer that is running better than it ever has. Ryan has done a bang up job in making this trail ride dry with a ton of flow.

Hoots was next. Ryan took a brush saw down the trail a few weeks ago and now you can actually see the trail in the clear-cut as you ride along. Curtis and I managed to convince Ryan to ride the rock for the first time. It's cool watch people get excited about riding difficult features for the first time.

We then rode Shotgun and had a beer or two at our cars. It was a great summer weekend ride.

Today's ride.

Bear Mtn. DH 2011 - Day 2 (Race Day)

I arrived bright and early to do some more volunteering at the DH race. I ended up carrying and setting up the tent at the start line, helped to get the power set up for the start line, carried and set up the umbrella for the rock drop and did the sound check for the the announcer. A sound check is something I've ALWAYS wanted to do....check!, check!, one, two.......Thank You Vancouver!!.......

After my moment of glory I then went back to bike loading and unloading for the practice shuttles and the racers. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to do a practice run today before the race, but I was so damn tired that I think it would have killed me do do more than my race run today.

When my shuttle time was announced I once again loaded bikes and rode up to the top. At the start line things weren't really what they were suppose to be. There wasn't anyone wrangling the riders getting them in their race start order. Basically the start line was calling names out two at a time with a buffer of 2 minutes. Anyone that has raced before knows this is a recipe for disaster and it was stressing the race commissaries to the brink.

Once it was my turn at the start line I felt okay; not good, not great, but okay. My left knee has been swelling on a regular basis and all the stand up pedaling required for this race makes me wince in pain. For this reason, I love the top of the course where there is limited pedaling and it's all about bike handling in the steeper sections. The rain doesn't really affect the top of the course, so it remained in great shape. However once you hit the first gap on the course, things get soupy and the pedaling begins.

In the race I think I hit 50% of the jumps. I just simply couldn't get the speed needed to make the rest. Most corners were super moto rutted and the run ins were slick as snot.

I was able to pass the rider in front of me which made me feel good for a bit, but when I did a 180° powerslide to a complete stop, I knew I wasn't going to make it to the podium.

At the finish line I felt okay. I'd negotiated the course in one piece, though muddy and out of breath. I finished in 12th place.

I then made my way to the concession area where I spoke with a few of the race organizers letting them know that there wasn't a wrangler at the top of the course getting the riders in order. After some discussion I volunteered to do the job. I changed and boarded a shuttle truck to get things in order at the top. When I arrived I grabbed the start list and proceeded to get people in order. With a few minutes I had things in control and the racers were lined up ready to race.

Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me my mom and daughter had, come to see me at the race . They saw me ride past in the mud, but I didn't get to see them at the bottom because I took off to volunteer before they could find me.

Once the race was over I helped pack up a few things at the top and then caught a ride to the bottom with Steve in his pick-up. At the bottom I caught up with a few of the B-Team (Darryl and Stan), watched the awards and drove home.

Maybe next year.

Bear Mtn. DH 2011 - Day 1 (practice)

I arrived bright and early to attend the XC course marshal meeting, but it turned out that there were far too many race marshals for the race so instead I worked as a bike loader for the DH shuttle trucks.

The weather today was rather miserable. Raining and cold. By the time I was able to grab a shuttle to the top and do a mandatory run, the course was ripped up and a sloppy, muddy mess.

Dave Mackie (photographer extraordinaire) and fellow rider snapped the sweet picture of me below at the the rock drop double gap section of the race course. Dave never fails to impress me with the photos he takes especially today given the wet conditions.

Photo by Dave Mackie

After loading some more bikes, I did my second run of the course and then called it a day. The course up top is in great shape, but further down it is wet, muddy, rutted and ripped up.

The weather tomorrow should certainly make for an interesting race.

A Golden Hour

I had a very limited amount of time to ride today. I grabbed my little bike and headed to Golden Ears Park. The single track climb into the park is a sweet escape and a good workout when you pedal at a decent. I pushed as hard on the climb and turned around well into the park near Mike Lake when I reached the 40 minute mark.

The ride back is mainly downhill so what took 40 minutes to climb only took 18 minutes on the return.

It was a sweet ride given the short amount of time I had.

Helmet.....what helmet!!!

Today I was riding my Rune at The Woodlot with Brody, Craig, Jen, Ryan. The weather was actually rather nice which made for a pleasant group ride.

When I ride I have a normal routine I follow when I unload my bike and pack my gear into my backpack. Today when I arrived Brody and Ryan both chatted with me as I was getting ready. I must have been a little distracted because I forgot my damn helmet. When I realized I forgot my helmet I was past the point of no return on the climb and decided to just ride without it.

While climbing, Craig, Brody, Ryan and I talked about the changes that will likely happen with the trails in the area with the upcoming logging and what will be needed to fix the damage from logging.

At Cabin Trail we all got ready and headed down the trail. The few spots that I have stacked a rock seem to be working out. I'm not buffing the trail, just filling the bomb holes. At one particularly nasty corner we all stopped and I showed everyone a spot that needs a big pile of rock. We all spent about 10 minutes stacking rock and filling the nasty spot to make it much more rideable. The next time I am up on the trail I will bring a couple tools with me to dial in this section but for now just placing the rock will suffice.

At the junction of Snakes and Cabin Trail, Ryan I split off and headed down Snakes and Ladders while Craig, Brody and Jen headed up to Mandatory Caution.

Ryan and I casually rode Snakes and then made our way over to and down Shotgun. A good ride nonetheless, but I found riding without a helmet really hard to get used to.