Copeland

Last long weekend of the summer.  Got 3 days of epic rides in the Horseshoe area.  Despite somehow losing 3 of 6 rotor bolts during 1 ride ( thanks to Hardwood Hills for the save ) everything was mint, including the weather. 

Ramble on.....

Trail 100 Options

It's hard pressed to load up the car and venture out to ride when this is literally 2 min away.  Over the past 3 rides tried to cover off some new options.  The spin off trails are abundant and the climbs up and around the buttes are tough.  The more you ride the chunks the more you get some flow happening.  This is so drastically different that any trail back home it certainly keeps you focused.

Summer Solstice 2013

First Day of Summer = First Palgrave Point to Point

What a killer day to kick of the official start of Summer.  Kris and I went out to Palgrave to do the first portion of the Hockley Epic.  The route is a long time coming and has taken several re-con rides to link it all together but you could not have gotten a better day for this. Stay tuned for the video...

Taking in the rolling vista from atop Glenn Haffey

Copeland Forest

Love this place.  Been riding different loops at different events for years and still manage to get lost and find new trail each outing.  2 Niners and a Silk ti had a good outing on Sunday and this is a short video with a really nice downhill that Thorben sorted out towards the end of the video.

Ravenshoe

Headed out for a late afternoon rip around Ravenshoe to clear my head up a bit. Trailbuilders have been busy. Kris and I met up and had a good rip

Ravenshoe from Philip Hudson on Vimeo.

3 Days at 3 Stages

Vacation Withdrawal Syndrome

One of the downsides when you get back from a good riding road trip is you ( at least I do  ) suffer from mountain epic exploration withdrawal syndrome.  Being from Ontario our terrain is not even close to the grand mountain & mesa destination trails but we do have our share of classic Canadian single track and you might not have to climb 2 or 3 thousand feet to the trailhead but you can certainly hit that number spread out over the ride.

Last week it was the Gatineau Hydro Cut trail from Scarborough to the Rouge and then Seaton return.  Today was a completely new spot in the Hockley area and it was perfect.  Something to be said about getting away from the traditional loop rides.  More of these to come faux sho....

Monarch Crest Trail

14'ers Abound

The Upper Arkansas Valley has the most 14 k peaks in the State and the ride today was the highest I have been at on a bike.  Topping out at 12 k on the Garmin started out to do the Monarch Crest trail from Monarch Mountain with no shuttle.  The plan was a out back on this world famous trail to see what all the hype was about.  First point to note is the trail itself boasts some of the smoothest, flowing dirt ribbons I have ridden.  The climbing with the exception of the start was not as taxing as I would have imagined given the altitude.  Views for days and we only saw 4 other riders.

Monarch itself is a 38 mile point to point with over 4000' of descending and several options and shuttles to chose from.  Classic above tree line route.  Had to put the camera away......

401 on a Friday Afternoon....

It rained a lot last night and a few people said the ride up to 401 would be brutal given the dry conditions and in some spots several inches of dirt dust but it packed it down enough to not be a issue to us at least.  The general store in Gothic served up some cold bevvies and the day was done....

Doctor's Park

Well they got a bit of rain today.  16 km climb to the start of the trail proper on dirt road with a nice middle ring gradient.  This is the second time here that lightning shortened the ride.  That's ok though try to hit it again before splitsville rolls around.

The plan for Friday is Upper, Snodgrass, Lupine, Lower in the morning then going up to Mt CB to rent a Specialized Demo 8 after 4 pm since the chair lifts are free. $40 gets you 2 hours on this world cup DH rig and full face helmet and all the armor you need to get down in 1 piece :) Can't pass that up.

Lupine Trail

Trying out the K-Edge GoPro Big Mounts.  This is another killer from town ride day that Chris suggested we ride and the views and trail  delivered nuff grins. This trail was built in 2011 I believe so did not do this the last time but we had a blast on it yesterday.

K-Edge GoPro Mounts

I want to thank Joe at K-Edge for hooking me up with these 2 mounts so I could demo them in Crested Butte and see what a few other camera mount options look like.  These are machined out of aluminum so they are light, they have torque settings and the best part is you don't have to build these mini k-nex mounts from the GoPro grab bag.  The video above was shot with the bar mount and the stability is a huge improvement over the stock set up.  Only thing you will need to remember to have with you if you want to move them around on a ride is a 3 mm allan key OR grab a second camera with the wifi bac-pac and your set.