Fogelsode #13: Step-Down Photo Mission

Fogelsode #12: Making the Best of a Stormy Week

As the title suggests, we got hit by a big storm this week!  We spent most of the week over at Cob’s house, digging on the jumps.  The storm kept messing up the surfaces of everything, so we mostly piled dirt for a new line.  We put in a new underground drain and Cob worked his magic on the sixth hip landing.  I’m getting super stoked on that place, and can see some crazy seshes going down in the spring!  It’s a cool set up out there, with a dialed barn that you can chill in when the rain gets too gnarly.  After a few days of straight digging everyone started to come up with new things to do.  One was to drive around on the forest roads to check out the damage.  There were quite a few fallen trees, with some downed power-lines to go with them!  We found a muddy pull-off and Clay blasted through it in his truck!  Still raining, we found some old snow saucers and took them to the abandoned quarry to do some sledding (which ultimately ended up as a sore next day)!  Definitely some good times having fun in the rain though!

Towards the end of the week, the rain let up and Iggy and I set out to rip some muddy trails!  We rode some sick all-mountain trails, with rad high speed sections and fast jumps!  It was sick plowing through puddles and drifting wet corners!  It felt great getting out for a ride after not doing so for a few days as well!

 

Enjoy!

 

 

-Jack

Fogelsode #7: XC Trails, Downhill Trails, and Building Trails

The rain let up this week, making for some dialed trails!  Everyone was busy on Tuesday, so I decided to go out for a little cross-country solo ride.  I rode this cool trail that I hadn’t ridden in ages.  It was the first trail that I ever went mountain biking on and I used to ride it as much as I could, so it was cool going back and riding it now.  I was anxious to make a self-filmed video too, so it was fun to try that!  It really makes you think about choosing angles carefully, but it ended up working out well and I’m stoked on how it came together.

A few days later, the crew met up and ran some shuttles on some sick downhill trails.  With the dirt nice and wet, it made for some fast berms and slick lines.  It was cool to have a big group to sesh trails with too.

We got a little rain as well, so we hiked up in the woods and made some progress on a new line.  It’s shaping up to be pretty sweet, but it’s still got a ways to go.  Overall just been having lots of good times riding tons of trails this week!

Enjoy!

Fogelsode #7: XC Trails, Downhill Trails, and Building Trails from Jack Fogelquist on Vimeo.

-Jack

What I have been doing for this last month

So I got the chance to bring my tractor to my buddys place with good dirt and I have been building the jumps for about a month every single day. Its gotta be hard just to look at the photos and understand what going on but their is about five different lines in their somewhere with anything from transfers to pump tracks, normal jumps and big berms, The big set was just started in thease photos but they are about 20ft gaps and 7ft tall lips and landing that stand about 12ft tall and go deep into the ground.




Anyways theirs a bunch of photos of the new jumps and shot of me riding my small set
hope you enjoy
COMMENT i wanna hear what you think

The Koots, Hoots and Muddy Boots

Words by Ryan Kuhn
Images by Vince Boothe

I’m a first time Banshee blogger, long time biking addict. I’m living large racing/riding a new Scythe (see the Pinkbike preview here:http://www.pinkbike.com/news/banshee-scythe-preview-2008.html#top) and thought I’d chime in on the “insider’s blog” to give you a glimpse of what’s happening with the trails and tribulations in the Kootenays of BC. As I’m in the process of working on a story focusing on the trail builders in this region, I’ll update this blog with the exciting bits of what’s goin’ down, or up, with the riding scene in these parts…and how the Scythe’s handling it all.

Ryan on a twisted little Stu-stunt on the Flume...nice

Seeing how I’m from Rossland, that’s a good place to start. A little known fact is Rossland is dubbed “Mountain Biking Capital of Canada.” How does a community earn such a dubious title? Well, it’s kinda like turning pro – you just say it and it’s so. Voila! However, while Rossland may not be dolled up in Troy Lee, there’s definitely something supporting the ambitions claim (I know, I know...call your community the “Mountain Bike Ruler of the Universe” for all it’s worth!).

While Rossland is home to 170k of buffed, technical, steep and rapidly rolling single track, it’s now world-renowned for the Seven Summits Trail (http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Rossland-seven-summits-adventure-2007.html) – an IMBA “Epic” and Bike Mag’s “Trail of the Year” for 2007. Yeah, it’s all that…but that’s not all.

Rossland was once an epicentre for DH and freeriding, with some of the gnarliest sections featured in the original Kranked movies and host to numerous races – including highlights on the BC Cup/Canadian Cup series. Those downhill glory days appear to have moved on...or have they?

Presley and Ryan driving the golden spike (ok, galvanized) on a new 17-foot-hip/step-up-over-a-log-ride thing. More on this later...

Last fall, a group of local grassroots trail builders calling themselves the RFA (Rossland Freeride Alliance) approached the local Kootenay Columbia Trail Society to help maintain and build on the black-diamond trails in the area. This was largely in response to the direction the society was taking with a cross-country focus and the destruction of some of the more popular stunts without discussion. Since then, an informal agreement has been reached and there’s been a flurry of freeride trail building activity by the RFA and friends, both on sanctioned trails and some less legit but very popular gems.

In this instalment, I’ll show you a bit of what’s happened on “The Flume” – a steep, stunt-infested classic. The RFA has mostly worked with wood on this trail in the past year. Here are some images of what we’ve been up to:

Valet Parking – a new edition on the Rossland classic The Flume. Built over an older, decommissioned line, it takes a gnar steep rock face into this massive catch berm, followed by a long rolling skinny. Rory gets hammered.

This is the underside of the Valet Parking berm – we knew there would be some serious momentum carrying into this thing so it needed to be bomber. Tied into the huge stump with braces sitting on bedrock, I’d drive my truck on this beauty.

It's a long one...long live the Alaskan Mill!

Isaac, mill master.

Ryan eyeing the end of the long Valet Parking (pre-Scythe).

This is the early stage of "The Moustache" (aptly named, Matty!) stunt on the Flume. Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the finished product, but will post soon. It is actually two log rides with a small gap/drop linking them and a small gapper at the end of this long, downhill skinny.

Yet another new creation - this was a rebuild of a sketchy old section just after the "Johnny Rocks" drop on the Flume. Cedar=solid. These stunts were built with available deadfall and snags. We avoided spiking live trees.

Parting shot: Chris McLean...the man, the legend. Chris is the most dedicated trail builder I've ever met. Pictured here on another late, post-build session. Beer and darkness always make it bit more challenging!

Until next time...keep diggin'.