Do you ever wonder where your local trail builders go on vacation? Well, I’ve got a story to tell you. Some of us are bitten by mountain biking and the trail building passion. So it should come to no surprise that when we go on vacation it’s to ride and build with others like us. This year, I was able convince John Wheaton one of the other SWIMBA board members to make the pilgrimage with me to Kettle Crest. Kettle Crest is just outside Kettle Falls Washington on the Columbia River near the border of B.C and Idaho. It’s an annual event put on by Evergreen Mountain Biking Alliance (excellent organization we use as an example of how we would like to grow). Trail builders from Yakima, Leavenworth, Wenatchee, Spokane, Coeur d’ Alene, Sandpoint, British Columbia (Northshore builders) and yes even Boise. It’s a chance for all of us to ride together on some fabulous monster rides, learn from each other during a day of trail building and talk trail politics over a beverage. Over the last few years, the evenings have been made that much better from the beer donated by New Belgium (thank you!). Here is a link to rides and includes pics and videos of the 2010 Kettle Fest. Sorry my camera was on the fritz this year. leelau.net/2010/kettlecrest2010_07/ The last video showing Jungle hill toward the end is pretty good. Jungle Hill is still in my top ten list of best rides. Well it doesn’t end there. After Kettle Fest we beat feet to Rossland B.C. just over the Canadian border. And this year we lucked out and Seven Summits was opened and almost snow free. Seven Summits was IMBA’s trail of the year in 2007. It’s about 3,500’- 4,200 of climbing depending on which article you believe and is about 30 kilometers. For fun, we threw Dewdney trail in for another 6 kilometers and 2,300’ of fast flowy descent back to the car. The next day we tried not to move too much because it hurt! The following day we headed out for another epic adventure in hopes of finding a new trail - Super Megadeth (SMD). When the young kid at the shop heard we were trail builders he penciled in some local favorites that included SMD. The day started out with the typical B.C. granny gear slugfest up Drakes for a short distance then it was rolly polly with some fun little kickers along Doukhbor trail. Then it was a test to see how slow you can climb to avoid hike-a-bike up Tamarack. The trail workmanship on Tamarack is beautiful. Finally you dump out on a road and head toward Flume trail. We missed the intersection to SMD and rode to the top of the Mtn and looked down the double black diamond Flume trail – OMG! So back down the trail looking for Super Megadeth. Rode around for a while and found a faint trail with a sign that read the Best of Bob Marley – could this be the start? Well it turns out Bob turns into SMD once it crosses the road again. After we did the first few rock drops, kickers and bermed corners I was so at easy with the builders I just let it go. Sometimes you come across a trail you know was done by someone with a passion for trail building it’s not the money. They take the extra time to protect the trail and the riders. I pointed out to Deb my wife how the builders placed the rocks at the bottom of a really steep roller to kick your wheel out so you didn’t take a nose digger. Next thing I know she gets it and is flying around bermed corners, lightly feathering her brakes around loose fall away drops that snake through the trees and even hits a kicker here and there. It was almost as much fun watching my wife rail a Canadian black diamond flowy tech trail as it was riding it. While I’m sitting here writing this I’m getting giddy with the hair standing up on the back of my neck. I loved the trail so much I dropped off a case of Sockeye Dagger Falls at the local bike shop to give the trial builders. Here’s a video – keep in mind some of the rock drops the rider is flying off are 3’-5’ and the section that snakes through the trees toward the end is so steep your butts almost on the back tire. vimeo/45180141
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 22:53:46 +0000
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