Kicking Horse Bike Park - Trail Crew Update #3

The straight goods on Kicking Horse Bike Park, straight from the trail crew's fingertips.

Summer must really be here because all trails are open at Kicking Horse Bike Park. That includes Wild Rose, the newest addition to the network. Wild Rose was built specifically for the Inaugural Western Cup being held on July 11-12. This is going to be a seriously intense race. Times will be 4+ minutes on relentless, old-school, singletrack downhill (aren't those 4 wonderful words?). By my broad estimation, the linking of Pioneer, Claim Jumper and Wild Rose adds up to about 2,000 feet of vertical. There aren't many races like this around.Here are some photos of Wild Rose, which is a mix of handmade singletrack and machine-built berms. We intend to do more work to improve the bottom in the future, but suffice to say this weekend the bottom will be fast!


As for the rest of the mountain, we have had a busy early season. Showdown was opened a couple of weeks ago after an intensive and extensive rebuild of the entire trail. With moisture-laden dirt giving up its grip on sticks and stones, we pulled every nasty rock and root out of the pliant earth. We also replaced the sketchy tabletop skinny after its fortunate crushing under the treads of summer grooming equipment at the end of last season. And the Suckosaurus (not my name for it), just downhill, burned to the ground. Fire can be cleansing.


We have an excavator operator on the trail crew this year. Scott has been adapting well, getting lots of quality time in the machine. And not just because he broke his ribs, but because some changes were necessary. The last two long scary berms on Claim Jumper underwent a mechanical mitosis and became four shorter, fun berms. As well, the bottom of Superberm was improved with more well-defined berms and tabletop. As well, the taco TTF and a couple dirt jumps were added to the plaza area where Superberm exits. The wall rides on School Marm were raised again, and the dirt for the dirt jumps has been delivered. The location of the dirt jumps has been transferred to the Jump Park area (which makes some sense I suppose), where they will be permanent, rather than getting torn down each year. Work will soon commence on shaping those.

And the Bridge From Space on Kranky Pants was replaced. No longer a deafening roar as you cross over it.


We have a lot to do – especially on Superberm (Sec.II), but our crew is up to full strength with the return of A-Dog, so the improvements should continue to be churned out. We are still open for nearly 3 months, so the potential is huge!


Don't forget about the Western Cup Downhill this weekend. All details available at www.kickinghorseresort.com.

And get your FREE maps for all the great riding around Golden at www.tourismgolden.com.

Ride on.

Crowe
www.kickinghorseresort.com