Winter?

Woke up this morning, its in the teens and there is a light flurry out side... nice... Oh hello winter are you going to take off your jacket and stay awhile or just passing through? well either way I hope you stay.

For me the cycling season is about over. I probably have a couple rides left in me but I'm not one of these hard core guys with fat bikes, lights and winter riding gear.. why? you ask... well it is too GD expensive that is why... So I fill my winter with hobbies that I already have the gear for like sledding, xc skiing, dh skiing (Kelly's family is big on this so I get hand me downs), pond hockey and ice climbing.

This last Saturday I went to Red Wing for one of the last DH sessions of the year and it was a blast. It was great to ride with Jed, Trevor and Reed one last time before the snow and cold comes. The trail was in great condition! Hero dirt, all we did was move some leaves and sessioned for like 2 hours or so! Everyone that wasn't there missed out! no rain, sunny skies and 10 degrees warmer then the metro! Over all just a great day to ride!

Saturday night we went to the Zac Brown Band concert. That was awesome! One of the best concerts I've been to in a long long time. Even the opening acts were sweet! I loved Blackberry Smoke, some good old Georgia boys playing some bad ass southern rock! The rest of the weekend was spent hanging with Kelly and Jerry and just relaxing. It was great. Sunday, no plans. I haven't had that in a long time. Sleeping till I just woke up was awesome!

MORC board meeting tomorrow night, othe then that will play it by ear to see what the weather brings us!

I'm sure you are familiar with Valmont in Boulder CO, if not click here: http://bouldermountainbike.org/valmontbikepark and the history of it here: http://bouldermountainbike.org/content/historyvision
Now WI is going to take a crack at it and are building the Rock Sports Complex , it will be a multi sport complex, however it will include an extensive bike park including chairlift-served gravity course, a BMX track and cross-country trails. This will be located in Franklin WI which is near Milwaukee.
Here are a couple articles about it :
http://bfw.org/2012/11/08/epic-mtb-p...g-to-franklin/
http://bfw.org/2012/07/12/wisconsins...b-ride-center/

I truly believe that bike parks and this bike specific sports complex are the it thing in riding these days and the way of the future. It started in CO and has spread to the West Coast and is beginning to get steam on the East Coast and now in the Midwest. WI is really stepping up, they now have the largest MTB race series in the nation, Ray's indoor MTB and now the rock. This on top of Nordic Mountain and Mont du Lac that offer shuttle or lift access DH on a semi-regular basis. I was also told by Grant at Alpine bike parks designs that they are working with Cascade Mountain Ski Area near Madison about adding a lift access bike park.

In my opinion this is very exciting opportunities and I hope that we here in MN can take this momentum of the bike park/ ride complex and support whats happening in Dululth and maybe make some of these things happen here in the Metro and other locations in MN!

Keep it real!