On the Trail with IMBA

In Portland, I managed to get a fair bit of city riding under my legs. I practiced trackstands at stoplights, nodded at the seemingly endless stream of riders on the roads, and took a moment to fully appreciate the awesomeness of seeing a dad commuting with his young daughter on a tandem. It was raining. They were both smiling. When 5:30 hit, we found ourselves in a tire to tire traffic jam of cyclists, except no one seemed upset not to have the roads to themselves.

I even managed to ride a slick skinny for what seemed like forever AND capture it on video.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/KjjiZSwFVVg" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

I was the windshield.

Today, I’m in Santa Cruz, and it’s raining. With my head buried in my computer at the local coffee shop, I didn’t realize how much the weather had changed until I finally decided to ride home. Lucky for me, I’m fond of rainy rides through the city.

Smiling away, peering over my foggy sunglasses, I spot the ocean for the first time since starting this job two years ago. And then I noticed that the ground was rapidly getting closer to my face.

BAM!

Today, I’m the bug.

We had no idea what to expect as we crossed the border from Vermont to Quebec heading up to Val Morin, a small village about an hour north of Montreal in the Laurentian Mountains. Frantically referencing our French phrase book to decipher what the signs said we realized after a brief second of excitement that “maximum 100″ did not mean miles per hour.

As we rolled into the Val Morin Mountain Bike Resort (a nordic ski area in the winter) we were greeted by Mathieu Papineau, Rene Levac, and Daniel Sigouin who run the resort as well as Jerome Pelland, the President of ADVSMQ (Association pour le Développement des Sentiers de Vélo de Montagne), a major mountain bike advocacy association based in Quebec.

The Val Morin Mountain Bike Resort is a network of cross country ski trails that have been used by hikers, trail runners and mountain bikers for years. The resort is now open during the summer and has begun maintaining and building trails for mountain biking. They also run a small bike shop out of the ski lodge.

Throughout the summer Val Morin has hosted some great mountain bike events including a six hour race, a cyclocross race, and now an IMBA Trail Building School. The Trail Building School pulled in over 70 participants from all over Quebec and it’s a good thing because we needed all of them to get the new trail finished.

In only 6 hours the group was able to finish 500 meters of flowalicious single track complete with challenging alternate lines, ripping fast berms, and a rock wall ride. The trail is called the Mathis trail, named after Rene Levac and his lovely partner Marie-Claude’s soon to be new son. We were hoping Mathis would be born on the same day as his trail but Renee said he needed a night to rest after the weekends festivities. Hopefully Mathis gave him a break!

Here’s one happy guy…

Between trail building sessions in near freezing temperatures the crazy Quebecers worked hard to make sure Jason and I were never empty handed.

And they kept the festivities rolling with a frozen night ride, some good old fashioned buildering, mini bike jump competitions and much more!

WEEEEE!

The winner of the mini bike jump competition has mad style!

Daniel doing some heavy lifting.

Rene making sure this fiesty root wad doesn’t get in the way of anyone’s fun.

Jason and David getting ready to freeze their uh… elbows off.

Ahhh faaalllll.

AAAYYYY SIMON!!!!!

Oh yes, today has finally come. The IMBA Boulder staff has been anxiously anticipating Friday. Not because it’s the end of the week, mind you. As anyone will tell you, we have the stamina of a team of Clydesdales. We could work straight through the end of the year without weekends if federal law permitted it. In fact, the reason we’ve been waiting so impatiently is that today, Matt (aka “La Longue Carabine”) brought in Pickles, his amazing little dog. Pickles is so much fun. And, his fur is a little scratchy, so he is kind of like a small, friendly goat. Hopefully, if all goes well, Pickles Friday will become a tradition in the IMBA office.

I heart beginners.

I love beginner mountain bikers more than chocolate, more than punk rock, and even more than a juicy mid-rare steak served up by Ryan Leech while riding a string of tooth floss.

When I see their excited faces under the helmet that hangs to the side of their head, I see the face of every mountain biker.

I see myself, who borrowed a bike in high school and managed to turn my passion into my career.

I see my grandmother, who got her first “new” bike three Christmases ago and was working her way up to 5 mile outings. She saw me wheelie, and immediately tried it herself.

I see my biking buddies who I used to ride with every week and wouldn’t recognize without a helmet. I see soul riders and race geeks and everyone else who has ever smiled at the sound of knobbies purring.

We all started somewhere, and that somewhere managed to get us here.

When we rolled into Las Cruces and started talking with the locals, it became clear that they had plenty of awesome trails. Correction. Plenty of awesome intermediate and advanced trails. What was missing from this trail system was a beginning, a place for new riders to spin their legs and smile. While a lil’ pucker factor and a few lung burning climbs put a grin on my face, those same experiences can leave beginners deterred and disheartened.

So, we got to work laying out a fun and swoopy trail that would be fun for all, including beginners. The following day we unleashed the work crew and in a matter of a few hours the line of pin flags disappearing into the cactus turned into a real, live, swooptastic, beginner trail. Earl volunteered to be our first “flow checker.”

Earl is 15 with a sharp wit and a dusty bike. He liked riding, but at some point, pushing up hills just isn’t any fun. Excited by the idea of new trail, he booked out of his driver’s ed class early just to swing tools and work up a sweat with the rest of us.

Earl dusted off his bike and gave the new trail its first run. And then he rode it again. And again. And again just for good measure.

Between panting breaths, he gave us his impression of the trail.

“It’s…gasp…awe…gasp…some! It’s hard, but…gasp…I can do it! I’m going to…gasp…go ride.”

Man, I heart beginners.