Words ~ Rhonna Gurevich Photos ~ Jenny Lee Silver
Sunday June 28, 2009 was a busy day for mountain biking in BC;
- The BC Cup Cardiac Classic XC race was held on Burnaby Mtn,
- The BC Cup Mad Trapper DH race was on in Panorama,
- The BC Bike Race kicked off Day 1 of the 7 day stage race on the North Shore Mountains,
- And last but not least, the NSMBA held its 5th trail day of the season!
This trail day was sponsored by the Muddbunnies Riding club and RaceFace. All efforts were put towards revitalizing Bobsled on Fromme Mountain.
If you’re sitting there wondering “Where is this Bobsled trail?”, don’t worry, you’re not alone! The entrance to Bobsled is about 300m past Floppy Bunny, just before the second switchback. There is no trailhead sign so this trail has probably been overlooked by many riders. As the popularity of Floppy Bunny exploded after it was worked on at a trail day last year, the need arose for an additonal trail on lower Fromme geared towards intermediate riders.
During the week leading up to the trail day preparations were in full swing. The dedicated trail crew of Deiter Bahr, Chris Barker, and Sean Gerke hiked the trail and marked out all the areas in need of work.
~ Needless to say Sean's crew worked hard all day.
Also during the week Muddbunnie Maya toiled in her kitchen making pulled pork for the lunch; the Baking Bunnies (Veronica, Susan, and Laura) were busy whipping up tasty desserts, and Dorothy well, what can we say, she was as usual making sure everyting else was taken care of.
Sunday loomed sunny and bright and 42 volunteers showed up to earn karma points.
Unbeknownst to many, the new sign-up girl (Broken Bunny #2) slightly altered the sign-in sheet to suit her needs!
After signing in, volunteers made their way up the trail from the exit. Bobsled spits you onto Mountain Highway just above the Baden Powell, and below the water towers.
A solid effort was put in to define an exit for the trail. What was once just a mess of tangled roots with no visible line, is now a smooth, swooping section of trail. Still on the to-do list is to install a large culvert in the ditch to complete the exit.
A bit further up the trail the Chris Barker and the Race Face crew did a tremendous job of fixing the rock drop. A wooden ladder bridge was built to fill in the gap. The rock can still be jumped, but now a wheels-to-the-ground roll option exists for intermediate riders.
Several braided lines were blocked off in the section leading to this rock and we ask riders to respect these closures. Riding the one of the two optional lines will allow the forest to reclaim the old routes and minimize our impact.
Elsewhere on the trail Adam, Ian, Alan, and Paul spent a good portion of the day building a fantastic new berm.
~This was the 1 foot wide, baby-head infested section of trail I was asked to ride at the pre-hike to see what line the bike wants to take!
And when Alan tired of berm building, there was plenty of holly for him to remove.
During the morning, several Bunnies made their way up and down the trail handing out brownies and Rice Krispies squares to the vollies.
~Clearly some people were more excited about these treats than say, winning a Knolly last year!
Besides taking care of all the food for the day, the MuddBunnies were hard at work on the trail digging dirt, blocking braids, and rock-armouring.
~ Not all of ‘em are gold-diggers!
The almost all-Andrew bridge was built by Andrew, Andrew, and not Andrew by recycling wood from the old ramp and using it to refurbish the new ladder bridge.
Finishing touches were added late in the day to build up the entrance corner and smooth out the exit.
Just below this bridge, the steep but short ladder bridge was removed and replaced by a Bunnie-friendly drop! (defined as the perfect size to practice on if you are just learning drops!) Dirt was dug out from below the existing log and it was lowered down a few feet. In keeping with the blue trail rating, rocks were placed below the log to ensure the line can be rolled.
Quite far up the trail Sean had his crew hard at work extending the tranny of an out-of-place optional gap jump. The plan was to bring the tranny all the way up to the drop and fill it in creating a Bunny-friendly drop. At press time, this was still a work in progress. But for those heading out, the main line was reworked with a new berm.
After most of the BC Bike Racers had made their way up Fromme, it was time for lunch. Veronica and Laura served up pulled pork sandwiches.
RaceFace generously donated a ton of prizes including handlebars, stems, bash-guards and even another set of cranks. Almost all volunteers that showed up walked away with a prize of some sort thanks to RaceFace and Ryders Eyewear.
After lunch volunteers heading back up the trail to complete their projects.
~ Sorry Chris. Your Bunnie friends #1 and #2 both agreed that Rob's wood was bigger on the last trail day.
Berm.
What? Did someone say berm? Well, let's see what projects were completed in the afternoon.
If you are thinking “wow, a lot of berms were built on that trail”, yep, that’s why it’s called Bobsled. Think gravity-fed, twisting, turning, banked trail! We hope you enjoy it.
If you are thinking “wow, a lot of berms were built on that trail”, yep, that’s why it’s called Bobsled. Think gravity-fed, twisting, turning, banked trail! We hope you enjoy it.
Thanks to everyone that came out to give back to the trails!
And special thanks once again to Jenny Lee (and Lyra) for taking the trail day photos. You can view all of Jenny Lee’s pictures here.http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennyleesilver/sets/72157621075029996/