Saturday Chandler and I headed out to Blue Springs to work on the downhill(ish) trail. The plan was to build what we could with a couple shovels and pulaskis. I was hoping for a couple step downs and a jump to be built in a few hours. Little did I realize how large of a goal that was.
With zero machinery and just a handsaw, building anything that needed to be framed in would have to wait. In the beginning of this trails existence we had started building a small table top jump on the lower section. I had hoped to get there and throw a little dirt on it, give it a nice curve and move on to the step downs. When I saw how much the jump had been beaten down from the weather I soon realized that the jump needed a major renovation and not just touch-ups.
The lip and transition were almost completely washed away and the run in wasn't looking so hot either. We ended up spending the entire day working on just building up the lip of the jump(minus 15 minutes throwing some dirt on the stepdown). There is still a lot of work to do to build the lip to a point that it will get you vertical and not just launch you out. The transition will need some major work to build it back up but it will be worth every ounce of energy to have a public dirt jump in KC....and more to come.
With a little love and some machine work it will definitely be the start to a relationship between the more progressive riders in KC and the land managers.
Bone Bender April 18th @ Smithville Lake This will be my first mountain bike race. Some might laugh since it's not something hard core like downhill racing or 4x but you gotta work with what you have. Hopefully it won't turn into a road race and we actually get to hit the dirt. Smithville has some pretty nice trails and they are great on a SS bike. 3 hours on a rigid SS ought to shake things up a bit. Eh?
In October, Dave, Patrick, and I took a end of season trip to the Pacific Northwest. Patrick and I were on the same flight and landed in Seattle, WA around 10:30AM. We decided to go check out the I-5 Colonnade Bike Park while we waited for Dave's flight to come in. We sessioned the park for around three hours and had a complete blast eventually pinning every line in the park.
Once Dave arrived it was off to the border. At the Canadian border we were lucky enough to be invited for a grand tour of the border patrol's interrogation building. Apparently the Canadian govt doesn't take kindly to strangers.... Especially those with misdemeanor assault charges. But I pulled the Marine card and the fella at the desk was nice enough to let me through. It's amazing what you can get out of by mentioning your time in service (not that I have ever abused this blessing).
Once in Canada (pheww!) we headed to Vancouver to meet our wonderful hosts Ken and Natalie. They are both very genuine and down to earth people and very solid riders. They lent us there floor, bed, and couch for the night and even cooked up a killer breakfast with homemade bread to fill up on carbs. After breakfast we headed up to Mt. Seymour. The anticipation to ride real freeride and DH trails was killing me during the long ride up the mountain. It was a very cloudy day and the fog was thick. At the top we geared up and headed down to the trailhead of CBC and into a whole other world than what I am used to.Ken forgot his full face but luckily he had a skid lid in the trunk.
The forests in B.C. are temperate rain forest so from what I hear it stays moist most of the year and it is absolutely beautiful even with the heavy fog. I think it made the experience even better and more technically challenging. CBC is a very fun and well armored freeride trail that has countless hours of volunteers blood, sweat, and tears put into it. About half the way down CBC Ken flatted and we took a few minutes (very few as Ken is quick to change a tire) to play around on the steep rock garden up ahead. Not long after that Ken decided to become a problem child and broke his derailleur hanger.
You are half way down a mountain, in the middle of nowhere, with some of the worlds gnarliest trails in front of you and you have no way to pedal...what do you do? Well you could climb back up and take the car down. Not Ken (or most other mountain bikers for that matter). Ken opted to ride down the rest of the mountain chainless. Even chainless Ken is skilled and even pretty fast in the flowy sections. Unfortunately this meant taking the sally lines (if present) or walking around the wooden stunts. Big bummer for Ken but we still had a lot of fun.
The rest of the ride was a super steep, rocky, rooted, and slippery mess of bliss. The feeling I got from riding these trails is the exact reason that I call this site Big Grin. Just like a stoner gets perma-grin when he's had some super sticky icky, the amount of adrenaline you have pumping through your veins after clearing a super tech section or a sketchy drop or skinny is unreal and euphoric. I am an adrenaline junkie in it's truest sense.
We ended up riding CBC-Corkscrew-Salvation-Pingu-Pangor. Here's the link to a clip I found of the trails:
The trails empty you right out on to the road and right behind the shopping center where we stashed the retrieval vehicle. The LBS didn't have the hanger that Ken needed and it wasn't repairable so he made a few calls and found one on the other side of town. Dave and I stayed with the bikes while McQ, Ken, and Natalie went for the other cars. Just about the time they got back with the cars the sky opened up and wreaked havoc on us. I didn't think it rained anywhere else on earth like it does during a Midwestern thunderstorm but I was WRONG! It reigned down upon us like it was the end of the world and I think it even hailed!
Ken drives like a S.Korean taxi cab driver so we where at the other shop lickedy split. Once Ken had his rig all fixed up we decided not to go back to Seymour but to head up to Mount Cypress. On the way up the mtn the fog/clouds/wall of white/whatever you call it, got so thick that we were having a hard time seeing 30ft in front of us and it made for a slow drive up to the trailhead. Ken decided on Mystery Downhill to start.
Mystery DH was amazing! Steep, rooted, and super fast the whole way down with almost no stops. I could smell my brakes smoking! I had never before experienced this and I wondered if my clothes were on fire. In one section my bike slid out from under me and it was so steep that i had a hard time regaining my balance and composure. At just that point Natalie comes down the trail to "encourage" me. "Come on Shannon, let's go." "What's wrong with you?" That's all it took to get me going and determined to chalk up a win against this mountain. Once we go to the road we booked it down the hill and across a very unpleasant eyesore that our "friends" at BP/Guinness were lovely enough to place on the mountain.
At the trailhead to Family Guy, Ken and Natalie told us that the trail would no longer be there in a couple months. BP/Guinness's land developing company is currently destroying that part of the mountain to build condo's. So sad. It makes me a little sick to know that this beautiful trail that gives so many people such enjoyment, has been destroyed so some black suit corporate prick can have a pad with a view of Vancouver that he will probably never have time to bother with enjoying. Nor will he ever truely ever respect the forest for the magnificent emotions that it produces and the beauty that is within the treeline. Thanks! [rant over]
Mystery DH to Family Guy was the most fun I have ever had on my bike and it also challenged me more than I had even been since I began riding. BIG GRIN!
Recently Dave, Jared, Patrick, and I made a trip out to the little town of Wamego, Kansas to visit our friend and Manhattan, Kansas' most influential freeride advocate, Jason Lind. We call Jason's place Lindland just for fun although it has recently been dubbed "Door Prizes" for reasons known only to the KGB (Kansas Good ol' Boys). Jason has been building and riding freeride stunts and trails for going on 10 years and is the most die hard builder I know. Thanks again Jason! Check out the video that Jared put together.
