Kicking Horse Bike Park - Trail Crew Update #4 - 2011

Jul 28, 2011 at 4:32
by Steve Crowe  
The straight goods on Kicking Horse Bike Park, straight from the trail crew's fingertips.


new wall ride.
New wall ride on Superberm to replace the holey, duffy, pseudo-dirt berm cut into a manufactured ski run.


Showdown
The big news at the end of July at Kicking Horse is the start of the much-anticipated reworking of Showdown. There were some unfortunate mistakes made in the original construction, but it is so difficult to get a machine back into that zone that we only recently dared try it. Machine time is very limited, so not all the magic will be done this year, but the worst offending section is being completely rerouted to reduce the angle so it is more of a flowazilla and less of a brakealooza.


Working high above Golden rerouting a section of Showdown.
Lars Kuhle showing Showdown he's down with what's what.
The beginning of the reroute on Showdown.
The start of the new reroute on Showdown. Hard to believe I know, but there is dirt in the area.
Building the reroute on Showdown above the existing trail lotsa debris.
Here's where the rocks ended up after shaking them out of the dirt.


Training Wheels
The old Training Wheels was a rutted out old animal trail with the personality of an overripe cucumber. So Aaron Enns spearheaded a complete rerouting to create a meandering trail in the sub-alpine. The old trail took about 10 seconds to ride. Now it is about 6 times that.


Reroute of the old straight trail which now is under that bridge.
The old, straight trail is under that bridge.


The connector to Training Wheels and Dirt Devil had become a bit of a swiss cheese sponge. If it was an old teddy bear, our dirt would be the new stuffing.


Patching holes.


Northern Lights
This high-speed alpine zinger opened a couple of weeks ago after a strenuous effort to recreate half the trail after it washed down the hill at the end of winter.


recovering Northern Lights after a winter of abuse.
Recovering Northern Lights after a spring of abuse.


Rock Garden opened last week to light the entire run board green (if we had an electronic run board). While traipsing through the nearby alpine on an exploratory mission, we stumbled upon the Great Drink Container Dying Grounds. Their remains were scattered throughout the trees. It was sobering.


Found these remains of weak winter brains while scouting for a possible future alpine trail.
Remains of weak winter brains.


Easy Rider
After a year of talking about it, we got on with rerouting another section of Easy Rider as part of the greenification of our green runs. It is rough at the moment, but we want to see how it rides in then we'll go back to it.


bridge on the new reroute of Easy Rider.


School Marm
The section on the left of this image is Nasty School Mistress. Punishing and ugly. So now there is a detour with an optional short practice rock slab at the end.


The route on the left just plain sucks. The new one on the right doesn t.
The route on the left just plain sucks. The new one on the right doesn't.
part of the new reroute on School Marm.


Western Open is running next week. If you are the racing kind and like to race on very demanding singletrack, you should come to this. Other than that, summer is here (hope that's not just wishful thinking), come for a ride. Crank Card gets you a deal on ticket prices.

Here's a video to summarize all those words above for people who prefer not to read:

Views: 7,571    Faves: 39    Comments: 3



Nick how s the biking coming along You owe us a new ski run sign.
Some may decry this photo as staged. But I ask you this, what is 'staged'? Does it mean using art to visually create a situation that doesn't exist in its own right, on a stage? Well, I don't see any stages in this photo.


Ride on.

Crowe
Kicking Horse Bike Park


If I was a pirate these would be parrots.
If I was a pirate, these would be parrots.


Author Info:
BlackCrowe avatar

Member since Jun 24, 2008
54 articles

23 Comments
  • 2 0
 HoooRRaYYY for a Showdown re-route. Always felt it had potential but needed a little something something. Also awesome to see new segments of trail added, makes linking up different trails more fun. The Horse Grows! Furthermore all the trails are open, ALL OF THEM HAHAHAHAHA. Sorry got a little excited there.
  • 2 1
 Loving the fact that you guys are building "highway trails" (or non-single track trails) with an excavator, way to go guys, doing it MX Style. An idea would be to make'em so you just gotta do one run down with the same machine or a Bobcat to flatten them up for maintenance instead of shovels, sweat & beer...
KHMR, still a personal favorite for me.
  • 1 0
 I was there last week and the trails were in excellent shape. The new Showdown section will take some time to pack in and tweak but as the first person to hit it in super soft conditions, I'd say it's going to be a winner. Good work crew...
  • 2 0
 That river crossing looks pretty sketchy, sketchy good not sketchy bad Big Grin
And that new trail cut into the mountain looked pretty dope, (pic #3)
  • 3 0
 I'd love to see more trails through the trees. Everything is so exposed at kicking horse.
  • 2 0
 If I could have one wish ( Other than Peace on Earth ) I would wish to ,beable to work and live there with my wife and kids.
That would be a great life to live and have..
  • 1 0
 I was the first to ride the new easy rider! Lol, its good they fixed up Showdown i was there last weekend and it was in really bad condition. Thanks kicking horse trail crew!
  • 1 0
 Rode there this week. Very good trails indeed!! Favourites have got to be Northern lights, top section of Rock'n'Roll and superberm. top work trail crew.
  • 2 0
 the last pic is just nuts!!!! swag!
  • 2 0
 pretty funny video.. me like..
  • 1 0
 of all the bike blogs i read that compare things to "overripe cucumbers," this is my favourite.
  • 1 0
 2 weeks and I'll be there. making the long treck from the East coast. Can't wait!
  • 1 0
 This park looks like a lot of fun.. great work to the trail crew!
  • 1 0
 I dont think that picture of Nick is staged at all
  • 1 0
 Great work again fellas!! Once again i look forward to getting there!
  • 1 0
 looks awesome. those singletracks look epic!
  • 1 0
 I wanna go up that way SO BAD...
  • 1 0
 nice
  • 1 0
 Sweet Crow!!
  • 2 2
 where is that?? i wanna go there!
  • 1 0
 Golden, British Columbia Canada
  • 1 0
 nice work!
  • 1 0
 Nice work.







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