Pretty much every trail we deal with on trail days is a Shore classic but you can't argue the iconic status of Boogieman. From the opening drop, through the swamp log, the skybridge, the futon drop, the rock faces, and the pile driver, no trail on the the Shore has quite the collection of infamous features.

When we picked Boogieman to get some trail day loving there was no shortage of hand wringing. Even though the November windstorms took a massive toll on Boogieman and it needed tons of work, many people were concerned over a perception that trail days dumb down trails. The challenge became fixing the windfall and erosion damage preserving the technical gnar fest that it is Boogieman.

We knew that it was going to be a well attended trail day; the first ones of the year always are. But when 105 people showed up, we were all astounded. This was the biggest trail day ever and now the challenge now became organizing so many people into the various work stations.

Almost everything we identified as needing work got fixed. A few things that didn't need any work at all got fixed as well.

The Boogieman skybridge is among the most recognizable features on the shore and everyone who has ridden it... or walked it... has a story to tell about it. In the November windstorms, a half dozen trees fell down onto the bridge, and destroyed this both beloved and reviled icon.

In the photo Smoke is standing on the last remaining bit of unbroken bridge. On the right side of the photo you can see more of the ladder on the ground. Whole pieces of ladder were salvaged from the wreckage and reused where possible. Where the stringers were too skinny or too rotten, we were sometimes able to reuse rungs.

photo: Dan Barham

Here is the new bridge in all it's awesomeness. It's got all the "wow" factor of the original but it's as sturdy as sturdy can be and will last way longer than the old one. With its ladders leading to slabs leading to ladders and it's graceful turns and pitch changes, the bridge is, once again, one of the most striking features on the Shore

My personal opinion is that Boogyman is just a misspelling. I suspect that the builder had intended to call it "Boggyman" because of the terrain it crosses, and just messed up on the sign. In all fairness, when the trail was built, it was quite likely that this creek didn't actually flow down the trail. Years of traffic may have caused the ground to be compacted to the point where the creek diverted to flow dowh the trail.

All winter this creek flows and continues well into late spring. We talked briefly about re-lining the trail before deciding that bridging the whole mess was a better idea.

photo: Dan Barham

Chris Barker led a group of guys in disassembling a well built, but unused, and somewhat contrived structure just up the trail. This structure provided the raw materials for the bridging. After a cedar was milled for skinnies, there was enough wood to bridge the wet section.

This was a particularly nasty section to work on as these guys spent the entire day walking around in the mud and creek.

photo: Dan Barham

Another 6 or 7 trees fell down over this section of trail a few of which were cedar. With that amount of resources within reaching distance, this mess had "stunt" written all over it.

Jeremy Power put his years of building expience to work and together with Bob and Jake, came up with a gorgeous new up and over feature.

I loved this drop. It had a great amount of gnar and you had to hit the line just right or it was a rough ride down. However, you couldn't argue with the fact that every year it got gnarlier and gnarlier.

Back in the day it was a nice huck, but to do that right before it got fixed meant a 5 foot dorp to falt. Ouch!

These guys started with some big rocks and built a solid anchor for the rest of the ramp. They got Lester to cut a cedar in half to make a crib for the steep bit. On such a steep slope, something is needed at the sides to hold the rockwork in place.

Once that was done, Greg, one of the amazing Pipeline builders and rock star extraordinaire showed up to finish the upper part. These 4 guys with Greg and Stephan were able to finish the rest of the project in 2 hours .

The drop is now rollable or there's also a great air option with a smooth, grippy tranny, rockwork to provide breaking power and even a mini-berm at the bottom to help you around the corner.

This was a massive chunder fest. When we went on the pre-hike, I was unsure that we could do much with this section.

It was a massive effort to accomplish the amount of paving that happened on this section. Gwynn and his crew completely pulled it off and also made a liar out of Sven who promised that no berms would be built.

Who could blame them though, when there was such a perfect natural berm already there and begging to be armoured.

Silly soft spoken Sven! He should know that EVERY trail day sees at least 1 new berm!

photo: Doug Chinnery

photo: Dan Barham

The Piledriver! I get weak knees just looking at the damn thing. It's another undisputed Shore monument and as a result any changes aren't entered into lightly. In fact we initially decided to not make any changes at all to it.

Trail day volunteers, however, often have a differing set of priorities. I guess you can only watch such a signature stunt rot away for so long before jumping into action.

Two cedar stringers, a new log peeler, a master rung splitter, and a love for keeping things gnarly AND beautiful produced this amazing result.

Check out these rungs. They could only have been made by your trail day goodie godess Karen.

Jay Hoots and his crew of reprobates buffed the Piledriver tranny, berm, and gap jump restoring them to as good a shape as they've ever been... maybe better!

If you've ever wanted to hit the Piledriver, now is the time. The approach is rock solid and the runout buff as buff can be. Take pics and let us know how it goes.

Short and simple... The bottom of this canoe feature was pretty swampy.

In keeping with the woodwork theme of the day, we added a skinny across the swamp, built a gorgeous approach to the skinny, and reinforced the bottom of the canoe where it had gotten very thin from braking.

I have no idea who did this job, but that was some sweet work.

I had a score to settle here. The last time I rode Boogieman I rode down the ladders before this turn and hit this rotten ladder. The next thing I knew my front wheel dropped between the last rung and the rocks, the bike stopped in its tracks and I hit the dirt.

Everyone was diligently working on their projects and didn't need any additional help so I dumped the remains of this deathtrap into the bush and rocked in a path.

Lots more great work happened that I can't document in this write up. Dan Barham came out and took some amazing pictures which he has graciously given us permission to use. I've put them up on a web album and you can see them here. Also, check out Dan's website which is chalk full of some of the best mountain biking photos you'll see.

I have no idea how she keeps it coming, but Karen Gillich, showed up again with the fabulous box of banana bread, cookies, brownies, tarts, and the best lemon squares I've ever had. Aimee Dunn baked a mountain of delicious cupcakes to add to the mix as well.

All 105 of the people that came out need a huge round of applause. This was the biggest trail day we've ever had and the work that was accomplished is stunning! Everyone who rides the shore owes you big time.

These other companies also had a hand in sponsoring the day by donating food, coffee, drinks, or advertising.  Keep these logos in mind when it comes time to spend your money. They are a factor in keeping the North Shore trails open.