Bear vs. Unicorn

I did a little modification to my latest camera mount creation.

After asking people online about my first run with the Unicorn-Cam, I gained some feedback on what needed to be improved. I tweaked my set-up by adding a fish-eye lens to my camera and tested my newly modified Unicorn-Cam by doing a top to bottom run of the Bear Mountain DH course in Mission.

My opinion is that it turned out pretty damn good. It's a little difficult to keep your head up and focused on the trail at times, but I can see myself doing a few runs every now and again with this camera angle.

Peak views

It had been quite some time since I went on a long ride to grab an epic view, so today I revisited a ride I did 18 months ago. With my GPS in my pocket I headed up to see what the views were like today and see exactly what it looks like at the peak.

It hot and sunny today and while starting my ride I crossed paths with a bear near the bottom of The Woodlot. Fortunately for me I scared it away when I rolled up on it, but for the remaineder of the ride I had my head up and ears open looking for any more wildlife.

When I negotiated my way to my destination I was met with some pretty sweet panoramic views.

The view looking east.

The view looking south.

Nothing like a turkey vulture circling you at the top of a climb.

Stave Lake from the top looking south east.

The ride back to The Woodlot is a super fast blast down the mountain and then a logging road climb back up to to The Woodlot and then a sweet ride down the trails I have come to intimately know for the past 8 years.

This ride is a nice long pedal with a rewarding view and then a sweet return ride on singletrack.

Unicorn at The Woodlot

I went for a build/ride/test-run on my Rune today and brought my pruning loppers to trim back some of the spring growth on the trails edge.

I pedalled up Stovetop and then up the logging road to the skidder road that leads to Blood Donor. An excavator has been up the road recently that cleared the trees that line the road to Blood Donor. Looks like the logging is going to start soon.

I then rode up to Cabin Trail. On the way I met up with a group of older riders. Some were friendly, some were not, and one was quite simply grumpy.

I stopped in a few spots to repair some bomb holes on the trail by doing some rock work. If quads avoid the trail, the rock work should hold up to the traffic the trail sees.

Further down the trail I hiked some rung to a rather dangerous bench section of the trail. If things go to plan, the ladder will make a formerly dangerous section a total blast.

I then made my way to Blue Ribbon and cleared a few fallen trees as well as trimmed a few bushes near the exit. Today I brought with me my newest camera mount. It is a 'Unicorn' cam that puts the camera in front of the riders face looking back. I rode the whole ride with my camera filming to test this new angle.

This is the view down Shotgun with my new camera mount. With a few tweaks I should be able to get a dialed setup.

Unicorn-Cam - Test Run

Friends Help Friends

A few weeks ago Tom from the FVMBA put a call out to people to help relpace a bridge on Red Mountain. The bridge in question is a 35 footer on Red Rider that is a little over 4 feet wide that sees a fair amount of traffic during the year and the Red Mountain XC race. It is super sketchy due to flexing and slipperiness.

At 8am the group (Tom, Steve, Kim, Gary and I) was assembled and shuttled to the top of Red Rider. I was the only on that brought a bike so it was a quick little zip for me down the trail to the bridge we were replacing.

Before

Before

Tom gave us all the rundown on the situation and we split off in crews to get the job done. I worked on splitting rung, Steve hauled the rung, Tom, Gary and Kim gathered new stringers and demolished the existing structure.

Kim starting the demo

Due to the length and width of the bridge, a lot of log rung needed to be split using a froe, wedges and a couple axes. Most of the rung I split were 4-5 feet in length and an inch or so thick.

Tom 'supervising' Kim's Demo

Dragging the stingers out of the woods took six people and a lot of effort.

The stingers getting put in place.

I was able to stay until the framing began but then had to leave due to prior commitments. The guys were able to finish off the structure a few hours after I left.

The bridge completed and only needing a trim and little rock work.

I finished off the day by riding the rest of Red Rider, Momentum and Black Tie.

It was a really productive day and a welcome change to build with a group of people equally passionate about building great trails.

Rocking on Cabin

This morning I arrived around 7am at The Woodlot and was met with two piles of garden waste dumped in one of my usual parking spots. The Woodlot is a somewhat remote area and has seen it's fair share of waste dumped here. Most of the time it get discarded on the side of the road but this time the ass hat decided to dump in the middle of the road. Luckily today I had a shovel and bucket with me in my car that I was going to use on the trails. The clean-up didn't take all that long, but it's things like this that just make me shake my head at people's stupidity.

With the clean-up complete, I boarded my bike (Rune) and pedaled up the mountain. It was raining today but not so heavy that I was getting soaked, just a little wet.

When I made it to the powerlines I was literally in the clouds and hardly see in front of me. I'm normally met with a view of Mission to the east, but all I could see was white mist. Seeing as I had a shovel with me and my goal today was to get some trail work done, whenever I rode up to a big puddle on the road to Cabin Trail, I went work draining it. I was able to drain three large puddles that should remain dry until the snows come in December.

Last week I decided during my ride that I would begin doing some much needed rock work on Cabin Trail / Goldmine trail. A couple years ago a pair of quads went down this trail, got stuck and had to winch their way out of the trail. (Here is a link to some mountain bikers meeting the quads - WARNING- Explicit Language used) In doing so, several sections of trail that had previously been armored with rock were left in very bad shape and have since significantly eroded. I have made it a goal of mine to 1.)repair the vandalized cabin just off the trail and 2.)fix up eroded sections on Cabin Trail to make it safer and more sustainable by the end of the summer. Below are pictures of 3 sections that I repaired this morning.

When I finished the rock work, I stashed the tools I brought up to the trail and then began my ride down. I made a pit-stop at the cabin to see what kind of condition it was in. Structurally it is in okay condition but the roof needs a brace replaced and a few roof slats need to be installed. Also a few walls have been kicked out so they need fixing and the door needs to be re-installed. It may turn out to be a lot of work and I might need some help from friends, but I feel it is worth the effort to fix this old mining cabin rather than watching it disintegrate and rot in the forest.

After passing a couple younger riders on their way down Cabin Trail, I zipped down Snakes and Ladders, the over to and down Bloggy and then down Shotgun. It was a very productive day of building and a great ride even in the May spring rain.

Change and Renewal

Two weeks off the bike really made me want to go for a spin. This morning I took my Trance to the Woodlot and began pedaling. The weather was rather nice for a change and I was even met with a few rays of sunshine when I passed by one of the clearings. I had to pause and take the picture above because I couldn't believe I was actually witnessing sunshine.

I made my way up the skidder road and then up Stovetop. I have been in touch with the managers of the Woodlot recently and it looks like there are going to be some changes to some trails in the near future with new skidder access roads and logging to take place soon. Unfortunately Mandatory Caution and Upper Toadstool are going to have skidder spur roads cut across them. I walked the flagged spurs with my GPS to see where the skidder roads are going and put the data onto a map. Hopefully the impact will be minimal on the trails, but things can always be rebuilt once the logging is complete.

Proposed spur roads shown in purple

After walking the proposed spurs with my GPS in hand I jumped back on my bike and pedaled up to Cabin Trail. By this time the weather had gone from sunny with clouds to just plain old rain. At Cabin Trail I began my descent and then stopped to have a look at the trail in one of the particularly nasty spots. I decided right then and there that I was going to make this trail my summer trail improvement project. I am going to fix the nasty spots of Cabin Trail /Goldmine without dumbing it down and while keeping the trail all natural.

I then put on my work gloves and went to work stacking rock in a big bomb hole section of trail. I didn't have a shovel around to move any dirt, but I was able to get the rocks in place that I'll cover in dirt when I bring up a shovel.

When I finished stacking rock, I boarded my bike and rode the trail down to the powerlines, then Snakes and Ladders and finished my ride off with Shotgun.

It seems I may have unintentionally started a hefty project but one that is much overdue and in need of some TLC.

Big Bikes Rock!!

Last week I rode my Rune. It's a solid 6x6 bike that climbs well and rips on the downhill. Today I rode basically the same trails I did last week, but this time I was on my Legend MkII and what a difference the bike made on the downhill.

The ride started around 8 am where I met up with Curtis and Mark where we started the push up tot he top. Pedaling the Legend just isn't in the cards and Curtis doesn't really like to pedal, so we chatted during the push to Cabin Trail. There was a little less snow on the road this week compared to last week which means I can soon start doing some epically long rides into the wilderness.

The three of us (along with Mark's dog) rode Cabin Trail down to Snakes and Ladders. We then stopped for a few minutes to fix a section of trail that was in need of a little repair. Once we were done, we finished riding the trail and pedaled over to Bloggy Style. However on our way to Bloggy, we made a little pit-stop to check out a new line that someone has started working on. This trail is unsanctioned and work needs to be stopped. Fortunately for me when I walked down the trail there were two guys working on the line. I basically told them the reasons why they needed to stop building and about the options they had if they want to work on trails in The Woodlot. Hopefully they will stop building and remove their tools. If they follow my advice, I'll be able to get them working on another trail and show them some better trail building techniques.

Curtis, Mark and I then headed up to Bloggy Style where I put my helmet camera on and chased them down the trails.

The good times were topped off with a beer at the cars.

Spring has Sprung

Spring seems to have finally sprung around here. We've had the coldest and wettest spring on record this year so when the sun was shining today I was ecstatic that I was able to get out and ride wearing only a t-shirt and not my typical thermal layers plus a jacket and a toque.

Several weeks ago I had fixed a bridge on Snakes and Ladders that sustained some damage from a fallen tree. Until today I had not had time to clean up some of the mess in the area or trim the edges of the bridge to give it the finished look. So with my pack loaded with building supplies, I made my way to the bridge and went straight to work finishing it off. Once the bridge was trimmed, I started dragging the old broken pieces away into the forest. Luck for me, three guys rolled up the offered to help me move the heavy stuff. Without their help this work would have taken much longer so their help was really appreciated.

Before and after.

After things were cleaned up, I pushed my bike up the trail and back up to the skidder road. I then pedaled up the road where I met up with a big group of riders that I have known for several years now. We were all headed to the same trail, so I joined their crew for the remainder of the climb.

Once we hit the powerlines there was little snow here and there in the shade, but nothing that stopped us from enjoying the ride.

I rode with the group down Cabin Trail but then split off at the powerlines to ride Snakes and Ladders and then Shotgun.

The weather today was amazing and it was great to do some trail work and get in a nice ride with some fellow riders.

Caution is Mandatory

I hit the Woodlot for a quick ride today on my Rune. I pedaled up to Karpenter which is running really well especially considering the wet weather we've had lately.

I then hit Mandatory Caution. It's been a few months since I last rode Mandatory with Brody and was I ever in for a pleasant surprise. Brody and Craig have been busy on the trail building lots of fun hits scattered along the trail. I wasn't feeling 100% on my game so I skipped a few of the bigger hits, but the trail oozes with flow and fun.

It was then a quick ride over to Snakes and Ladders and finally Shotgun.

Great ride today and a bast to hit some new stuff on Mandatory Caution.

FVMBA Sumas Super-D Toonie Race

Today I took part Fraser Valley Mountain Bikers Association Sumas Toonie Race.

The race consisted of a quick climb up a logging road, and then a descent down some sweet single-track and then another climb and another fun descent.

When I arrive I was greeted by the race organizers and volunteers that make the race happen. There were a lot of familiar faces and I talked with a bunch of people I've met over the years while involved in biking and trail building. Dave showed up and he shuttled a few of us lazy ones to the start line where we did a quick pre-run of the upper course. My knee has been feeling like crap lately so my took it easy and cruised on the pre-run.

Once all the racers were in place, the race officials released racers in packs of 15 in 5 minute intervals to keep the trail congestion at a minimum. I was in the first pack and headed out up the course. My results were somewhat what I expected…….near the back of the pack. I’m out of shape, haven’t been riding very hard and I have a badly torn meniscus, posterior cruciate ligament and anterior cruciate ligament. Needless to say I am happy I’m still able to ride but my ability to haul ass on the climbs is lacking in a BIG way.

Dave attended the race to take photos of the racers and once again he didn’t let us down. He picked a nice spot in the downhill section of the race where people are a little tired but still generally pinning it a rocky section. The photo below was taken by Dave http://www.davemackie.ca/

After the race Dave snapped a shot of me sporting the FVMBA colors.

My trusty steed all muddy after the race.