Last Saturday, the Fraser Valley Mountain Bikers Association (FVMBA) held a trail maintenance and cleanup day at Woodlot 0007. We had between 25 and 30 people show up and it was nice to see people coming from out of town — there were a good number of folks from North Van.
The weather was awesome, and after breaking the large group into smaller groups in the parking area, we moved up Shotgun in procession, cleaning out water drains and dirting up a couple of the jumps and berms that haven’t seen any attention for a few years.
Hoots was next, and we spent a bit of time raking a loose section of rocks and dirting up the lips and transitions of the jumps after the rock face. Gary and his group were working a little higher up, adding soil to a couple of spots on the trail and working a couple corners in the clearcut.
We called it at about 12:00pm, with the intention of giving all the volunteers a chance to get out for a ride in the afternoon.
End-of-day refreshments were provided by Experience Cycling. Thanks guys, and thanks again to everybody who came out and gave up part of their day.
For all of you who have been riding the Woodlot this winter, 26 April is the day for you to come out and do some work on the trails. Initially, we planned to do another trail day on Giant Killer to continue the work we started last year but, after thinking about it a bit, we thought it might be better to do a cleanup and some much-needed routine maintenance on the lower trails at the Woodlot.
So next Saturday at 9:30am, bring your shovel or a rake and some work gloves and help us do the routine maintenance that keeps the trails running nicely. This is a great opportunity for people to learn about the easy maintenance they can do on the trails (on their own time).
Trails to see work include:
Shotgun
Hoots
Giant Killer
Others, if time allows
Starting time: 9:30am, parking area at the north end of 287th Location: BCIT Woodlot, park at the north end of 287th in Maple Ridge
Goldmine / Cabin Trail - the trail head is under at least 3 feet of snow. Access to the trail can only be gained by pushing up the trail. The lower 3/4 is clear of snow but the top 1/4 is under heavy snow. (photo below shows the depth of the snow on the road at the trail head of Goldmine / Cabin Trail)
The snow has receded at The Woodlot. There is no snow on the road up all the way to the top of Karpenter. At the top under the power-lines there is some snow that can easily be walked on to get to the trail.
From Karpenter down, the trails are all clear of snow. Winter riding conditions are expected.
The logging road to Cabin Trail is still under some snow so access to it is not as easy.
I’m sure many of you have seen Brock’s work. Several of his films are available on Broadband Sports; he was kind enough to put together a short film focusing on FVMBA-oriented trails that was shown at our last movie premier. And more recently, he’s released his latest effort: Peatspeed & Marshmellows.
Well, this latest production has been noticed far and wide, and recently, he was contacted by the good people over at Huckmonkey. Way to go Brock!!
All trails at the Woodlot are under snow as of 1 January 2008.
The lower exposed areas (ie. clearcuts) have between 3 and 6 inches of icy snow and there’s more as you move higher up Blue Mountain. Snow riding is a real possibility but it’s slow going on the way up AND the way down.
Come on out to the AGM, for our yearly update of Club activities, election of officers, and general discussion. Now is the time to speak up on any issues you have on your mind, and to ask us about the trails, and give us direction.
You don’t need to be a member to attend.
Also – this is the preferred time to signup for another year of membership. If you’ve signed up in the last three months, just show up and fill in a new form and we’ll extend your membership to the end of 2008.
Thanks to everybody came out! We all know that the people who worked on Giant Killer this past weekend gave up an amazing riding day, weather wise, to help the trail keep running.
Collin says: We may have to get more aggressive with the signage on Backstad and Batt Rd to alert the retards that drive too quickly in the ...
Tom says: Unfortunately, only a minority of mountain bikers out there are members of FVMBA. Those who are, I'm sure would be much more respectful than that. ...
Sumas Resident says: I would like say how nice it is to see so many people using the trails on the mountain, but I would like to know ...
Doug says: Look for new signage within the Sumas Mountain Bike Recreation Site! Looks good! ...
Gary Harder says: Here's a link from Matthew of the Bear Mtn DH race video.
http://www.cyclecomponentnetwork.com/news/bear-mountain-challenge-2010
Big thank you to all racers and volunteers of Bear and the district ...
