Bobsled
The stairs are gone! Well, sort of – they’ve only been temporarily obliterated by dirt for your smooth riding pleasure. Complete with a freshly dug out ditch, ready to handle more January weather and keep the dirt on the trail.
Floppy Bunny
Dirt, dirt and more dirt, dirt flying in the noonday sun, gold dirt, fresh dirt – now covers the entire lower third of the trail. All the bridge ramps, berms, jumps and grade reversals on the lower third got a serious top-up. Unlike with last summer’s drought when dirt turned to dust as soon as you thought about digging it, this year the rain has made for some awesome dirt work. At least, while it’s not so wet that it’s closer to mud work…and when that was the case it resulted in us creating and clearing drainage on the whole trail, and naturalising – win-win.
Ladies Only
Thanks to the Legacy fund, Ladies Only has seen a lot of work, chiefly from Digger. The ‘Egg’ got a new down ramp, so you no longer have to do a 7ft wheelie drop to go off it, and the landing is golden smooth below. Keeping in mind that Ladies Only is older than me, a lot of the older, unsafe wood needs to be replaced and with the help of everyone who donated to the fund, we’ve been able to tackle that. There are a few more shiny wood structures around than there was scattered around the trail – fun new bridges and skinnies. The ravine area got a new down ramp to bypass some dangerous wheel catchers, and a lot of rocks got cleared off the trail below. Everywhere, Ladies got a whole lot of new dirt and freshly-cleared drains.
Espresso
Look, more dirt! Shovels really were the tool of the month. Being so popular, Espresso sees extensive traffic and can always use fresh gold. MEC is largely to thank with the many hands they brought on trail days, topping up anything and everything on Espresso, and helping clear ditches.
Ol’ Man Pete has been at it on Crinkum Crankum throwing dirt, and that whole side is running great as per usual. As always, many many thanks to all the volunteers, the NSMBA trail crew, the NSMBA Board of Directors and employees that have all helped make the North Shore trails as good as they are right now.