Video & Photo Story: The Trail Builders Behind Sun Peaks Bike Parks' Major Expansion
Every trail is a challenge. The solution is Always Flow.
We had a dream of growing beyond our rugged roots. Of endless dirt waves cascading across three mountains, allowing riders of all levels to chase progression and push their riding experience to greater depths of flow. We hand-picked three trail crews, each a master of their craft with a track record of incredible builds, and presented them with a blank canvas to sculpt as they saw fit.
Building trails is always hard. Building them in 2022 was even harder, as an unusually wet, cold spring threw one challenge after another at the teams. Undaunted, Landmark Trail Works, Lifetime Outdoor, and Starr Trail Solutions rose to the challenge. Meet the crews that made the dream of riding on Sundance and Morrisey a reality.
Always Flow: Higher
If flow is in the eye of the beholder, Ron Penney of Landmark Trail Works holds that flow accountable to the highest standard. In a quest to remove our self-imposed limitations from our riding experience, Landmark serves up a simple solution in a trail that teaches us to let off our brakes and trust the shapes of the dirt.
Enter Super Nugget - created as a building block to prepare riders for Sun Peaks’ archetype of amplitude, Steam Shovel - holding its own weight as the flagship of Sundance and an instant classic in the community.
 | The gaps between the blue trails and Steam Shovel were so massive - this trail is super important to bring people from where they are now, to where they imagine themselves going. |
- Ron Penney, Landmark Trail Works
In the pursuit of consistency and amplitude with minimal consequence, the perfect building block of flow appears at Sun Peaks, allowing riders the chance to progress from blue squares to black diamonds with unshakable confidence in themselves and their ride.
Always Flow: Broader
Long before we can lose ourselves in a flow state, first, we must find it.
Enhancing accessibility to flow is paramount in Jeff Cook’s imagination as he leads the Lifetime Outdoor team to create dirt waves that invite mountain bikers of any dynamic to discover and define their flow.
| Everything you want in a flow trail and a mountain bike park, you have it here in Sun Peaks now. |
- Jeff Cook, Lifetime Outdoor
In the blink of an eye, mountain biking’s popularity exploded and new riders came flocking in droves for a particularly desirable ride… effortless blue flow. The kind of ride that delivers progressive challenge before pointed, chunky terrain. Trails long on sightline and short on surprise. Where the number of berms and rolling tables stack as quickly as your confidence to charge through them. And with the addition of lines like Might As Well, Stella Blue, and Bad Habit, that’s what Lifetime Outdoor has injected into Sun Peaks.
| To put our name on three full lines, on a fresh blank slate… it’s a huge opportunity. |
- Jeff Cook, Lifetime Outdoor
And where Lifetime Outdoor sees opportunity, we see an open invitation to flow.
Always Flow: Deeper
In the conversation of creating flow, we’re often occupied with pushing it to new heights. The elements of speed and amplitude shape the priority of progression as we carve our experiences.
Yet long before Brady Starr of Starr Trail Solutions and Sam Loxton of the Sun Peaks Recreational Trail Association began scratching at the blueprints for pedal-access trails on Mt. Morrisey, they had a flow of a different kind in mind - pushing the riding experience to greater depths.
Imagine a network that requires no ticket to ride. Where pushing on pedals becomes your pass to enjoy an active-rest day and access a deeper flow, outside of the Bike Park. Where you’ll find yourself winding upward beneath tall cedar trees and passing over alpine meadows with sweeping views of the resort, before turning the page to find fast paced, effortless rolling flow back toward the valley below. These charming conditions compose Starr Trails' contributions to Mt. Morrisey, Cedar Twist and Calypso Groove.
| The biggest opportunity with this particular trail is it's opening up mountain biking to so many people. Hit the early morning laps before work, hit the evening laps after the park is closed. You don’t have to wait for a chair - it’s mountain biking 24/7 now. |
- Brady Starr, Starr Trail Solutions
And no matter what time you ride, you’ll experience the depth of flow that marks Sun Peaks as a true mountain bike destination.
We invite you to join us this summer to enjoy the results of the hard work by Landmark Trail Works, Lifetime Outdoor, and Starr Trail Solutions. Click here to learn more about Sun Peaks.
Credits
Trail Builders
Higher: Ron Penney, Marcus Cant, Brad Stuart, Steve Scott
Broader: Jeff Cook, Luke Stewart, Connar Huddart, Megan Hawryluk
Deeper: Brady Starr, Chris Ritchie, Sam Loxton, SPRTA Volunteers
Riders
Higher: Ron Penney, Soren Farenholtz, Jesse Munden, Kyleigh Stewart, Matt Miles, Gus, Jared Gatzka, Marcus Cant
Broader: CJ Hauptman, Charlie Sissons, Noah Lara, Kiera Melnechuk, LeeAnne Ellis, Dylan Sherrard
Deeper: Mike Sleziak, Mark Fry, Kelly Kozevnikov, Jase Petersen, Leyla Johnson, Sam Loxton
Video: Lone Wolf Productions
Director/Photographer: Dylan Sherrard
Sound: Keith White Audio
Author Info:
Member since Jul 8, 2009
Must Read This Week
You can ride the gnarly, more natural stuff one day and the groomed trails the next which is rad.
The biggest issue that I find as a trail builder is in a more rural area the level of traffic on the more natural builds is getting less and less compared to the groomed blues (we have black jump lines that you can roll on a CX bike, so basically a progressive blue). The natural stuff is still popular and depending on the mood you can choose what to ride or ideally a group can all get to the top of a bunch of descents, decide what to ride then meet up at the bottom, chat back on the climb (we are not lucky enough to have chair lifts in many places).
The future of the sport is bright, still building natural stuff over 20 years since I started digging and love riding flat out bike park stuff too. Bikes are great eh!
Tears up the surface, sort of like a scarifier but instead of dragging the teeth though it, it like mulches it up. Like the screws on a snowcat. Leaves a semi-flat surface to be compacted or cut to final grade. Never thought about it for trail building but it would be slick, instead of raking the bajesus out of a surface, especially on a machine built trail. It is carbide tipped, so I image it would also clear out some level of roots as well.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cb1YIsyty4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk3bjJiIzus