[ebxtreme]

Hi all,

The WMBC FR crew and Transition Bikes will be hosting our 4th trail day of the season this Sunday, January 10th. On our first 3 trail days, we've focused on maintenance on Scorpion, Evolution, and Mullet. Those trails are running really well right now - thanks to all the volunteers' hard work.

This Sunday, we’re starting on a project that will give riders a new directional trail below the Luge, Whoopsie Woodle, and The Sh!t and out to the gate. Currently, the lone trail option in this zone is the 3 Pigs which is a bi-directional trail or the old 2310 Road which has serious drainage issues and, quite honestly, is an uninteresting route for bikers. This new trail will tie into the theme of better connectivity on the mountain and will help avoid potential rider conflict on 3 pigs - which will become more important in the near future, as the Luge will see a dramatic makeover and undoubtedly more riders.

• Where: Meet at parking lot off of Samish Way across from Galbraith Lane
• Time: 9:45 AM meet in the parking lot. We'll be departing up the hill at 10 AM.
• Goal for day: Clearing organic material off the trail and getting the tread down to mineral soil and drained properly.

We'll have hot coffee to help keep ya warm in the AM and lunch will be provided courtesy of Transition. Tools will be provided, so don't worry about bringing one unless you have a favorite you prefer to use.

Cheers,
EB

 

[ebxtreme]

Got out with Brad and Kevin y'day afternoon to finish clearing the corridor. The line is dialed. We made subtle tweaks to a couple of corners and decided to go through a ravine near the end that Hawk and I had discussed going through, but I skirted around it thinking riders wouldn't have enough speed to get up the far side. Both Kevin and Brad felt the speed wouldn’t be an issue once the line is firm and running fast. It also might give the opportunity for an E.T. type of jump or maybe a nice sized drop down the road (either would be optional).

Forecast for Sunday looks good, so far.

Word.
EB

 

[ebxtreme]

Got more clearing done today and then hiked the line and made tweaks with Hawk, MP and Darren.

FYI, if folks come up later, it's an easy climb. Just head up towards the blue rock/artwork from Galby Lane and go right on the 2300 Road. Follow that until you see the cars. The trail will be on the right after the 3 Pigs, but before the Luge exit.

Cheers,
EB

P.S. For reference, the orange line on the map is where we'll be working tomorrow.

 

[ebxtreme]

Wow, did we time yesterday’s build day perfect or what? Ma Nature’s opened up the skies on us!

I just wanted to give a HUGE thanks to all of the folks that came out to build on the new line. We had 60+ people turnout and Transition Bikes had a big crew from their shop. We “barely” had enough tools for everyone and ran out of food and bevies at lunch. Jeesh, I guess we gotta start preparing for a lot more folks on these big days! Thanks to David and Cam for bbq’ing at lunch.

It was really inspiring to see all of the quality work and the stoke coming from people all day. Beyond the usual hardcores, we had a lot of groms bustin’ their butts (the next gen of builders – yeah!), a handful of Seattle-ites who made the trip up and I counted 10 ladies makin’ it happen. Yeah ladies! Last, I need to give my fellow 3-6-0 builders a big shout out for leading several of the more difficult zones. I know many of you have projects of your own, so thanks for taking the day to lend a hand.

Trail Status:
Amazingly, we got 3/4 of the trail buffed and the last 1/4 is roughed in and got all the way down to the 2100 Road. It’s officially “rideable”, but the last section still needs a fair bit of love. Also, there are a few jumps that’ll need more work, so I’ll be walking up this afternoon to put pin flags on them to alert riders of them. As is always the case, please take a look at everything before you hit them. We’ll be buffing the lower zone, making a small reroute in the middle and doing additional buffing on features, drainage, etc. in the coming weeks.

Cheers,
EB

A few pre-work, scouting pics: As is typical, I didn't get nearly enough of these.

Future Stepdown:

Future Step up after the Stepdown (pic is taken from the stepdown zone):

Another future Stepdown into a ravine.

Baker Bake with me on a crazy WET day in the woods….one of the best scouting partners ever. He’s helped me build 7 trails and a lot of buddies on their projects. I’m really gonna miss you buddy.

Build Day!

Parking Lot shots:

Overflow on the road:

Allie, Stacie and Megan building a berm….part of the lady train!

Michael, Steve and LB came up from Seattle to throw dirt. Very cool to see you fellas.

Brad was videotaping some of the action and he and Spence got one of the gnarlier flat and mulchy sections to work in. Thanks for the work in that zone, fellas!

The jedi of berms? Russ B throw’s down with the dirt.

Brandon (fellow builder and head of freehubmag.com) and Matt clearing organic.

Kyle Young was building jumps and berms all day.

Two of the hardest working guys (not to mention shredders) in the 3-6-0. Colin and Thad are stoked to be pumped.

Metzger. Great seeing the dude and for the help keeping the crews entertained!

Kevin, Lars and Bobby working in a really mulchy zone (lots of deciduous trees). This is a zone that'll see more work as the organic was just crazy deep in here.

Talkin’ about the usual hardcores…..Odin, Durand, TJ and Matt K. tackled this benched zone and got it dialed. This will flow down into the stepdown/step up combo.

Tyler moving some big rocks for a tranny.

Luke working in the 1st jump zone.

Lunch. Yeah, we’ve got a LOT of peeps. Thanks to David and Cam for bbq'ing. Next time we'll have more supplies!

A few finish shots (all of them are early in the trail):

Shasta checking out the section after ther first berm. Fin, Josh and Britney worked in this zone. J. Miller working on berm #2 in the background.

Sam and Jeff working on the 2nd Berm. Kira is assisting.

Which feeds into this benched section that Spencer, Jake and one of their buddies got dialed.

Berm #3 courtesy of Lorin and David.

That berm goes into this jump. The jump saw a bunch more love and will see more in the future.

Some benching after the jump.

 

[DBR X6 RIDER]

Can we borrow that crew in a couple of weeks??? Wow...amazing job!!!

 

[ebxtreme]

Can we borrow that crew in a couple of weeks??? Wow...amazing job!!!

Ha.....nice try, Andy! Besides, we got other projects in the works, ya know?

You guys have more folks building in the 2-0-6 these days than ever! Duthie, Paradise, Colonnade, Black Diamond, and the other usual spots. It's just a really good thing that the riding community sees the value in doing some trailwork these days and creating killer riding spots.

Good trails don't build themselves!

Cheers,
EB

 

[DBR X6 RIDER]

One can try, Eric!

Indeed, there's been a serious amount of people that just suddenly start helping you when you are out there grunting it out...so awesome to see! And, yes, having more and more places to ride in various areas makes for a promising future.

It seems with all the recent "groundbreakings" going on that there's only one place to go from here - lift access!!!

 

[ebxtreme]

A few updated pics I took the other day. These are all at the bottom.

At this point, we're still focused on getting the singletrack buffed....additional features will come later. The features that were started on Sunday will continue to get tweaked as well.

Benched section Before (kind of):

Benched Section After:

Stepdown / stepup zone(looking up) before:

Stepdown / step up zone after (still a lot of work to do):

Stedpdown zone (looking down) before:

Stepdown zone after:

Stepup:

2nd future stepdown (before):

Roughed in singletrack (currently):

 

[nuclear 674]

Nice work EB. Your a machine.

 

[ebxtreme]

Nice work EB. Your a machine.

Ha...thanks K! Got a lot of help up here (as you know).

Few updates:

Folks have been getting after it on the new trail. Speedwa, has been working below the two stepdown ravines and it's looking killer. We had 6 of us finish a small re-route zone y'day that should flow MUCH better.

Adam working on getting organic off.

Alex and Tyler getting it to gold and draining properly.

First stepdown is dialed. Waiting on the ground to firm up before deciding what the step up's final shape will be as everything is super soft still.

Roughed in singletrack looking down (last week):

Looking UP the buffed tranny (current) that's uber wide and long. We probably will have two options for this one.