The season

These last few weeks since our long fall set in have brought mixed feelings. I feel like:  

1. We were robbed; this season was odd and slightly rough because we had such weird weather later winter, wet long spring, short summer and now a long wet, cool fall.  

2. A sigh of relief the season is over, I can relax. This season was one hell of a ride. It was very taxing emotionally, physically and mentally.

3. Slightly bummed, wishing I could ride more enjoy what I helped create.

4. Excitement, a group of us has made the 1 hour trip south 3 times to Bluff Valley Camp Ground to ride Over the Top Skate Park and it has been awesome! It is arguably the best skate park for bikes within 2 hours of the metro that is open to the public and reasonably priced. It is only $10 buck to ride all day and the ramps are dialed and big enough to be enjoyed on a bike.

When I was younger we would dabble in the skate park when the BMX track or our secret jumps, tiny now that I look back on them, were too wet. I enjoyed it but didn't find that much interest in the park and street riding scene back then. I am going to put that on the lack of exposure and the lack of a mentor.

There wasn't a huge BMX scene where I grew up in SD and all of those that were involved were mostly BMX racers. Tons of talented riders but not really into the freeride scene, I will also put some of the lack of interest on the environment or lack there off. It was pretty flat where I grew up so there wasn't a lot of great street riding option and the skate park was small and pretty much designed for skateboards, with no consideration for bikes.

Mover forward 12 years I have all the interest in the world to ride all forms of freeride BMX and MTB and the opportunities are more but still limited. Most of the outdoor skate parks are small and antiquated and the indoor riding options are few and far between. If I had the money I would probably join the Fantasy Factory but I can’t afford $100 a month at this time, maybe someday before I’m too old to really enjoy it I will.

So as I mentioned earlier a group of us have been going to Over the Top (OTT) for that last few weeks. The place is great. It makes me feel like a kid again. I forget all my worries as soon as I enter the doors and all I’m focused on is riding, hanging with friends and enjoying myself. I have been there 4 times so far and each time I can see a huge improvement over the last. I become more confident and smoother after each session. The ramps appear less intimidating and I am slowly conquering all the features. I am currently working on airing out quarter pipes and riding the spines smoothly and consistently.

My goal this winter is to be able to flow around the entire park confidently and shred smoothly on all the ramps and features. After I have gotten to the point that I can really ride the park I will begin adding to my bag of tricks. There is a group of us that is planning on making a guys riding trip out to CO next summer to ride concrete parks and some of the dirt parks and I want to be confident when I’m out there so I can make the most of the trip and have fun. Plus I don’t want to look like that guy! You know the one crappy rider that is just hanging out, haha. Needless to say most the guys I will be going with will be on 20 inch bikes and are dead rippers! I will be on a 26 inch bike and I’m a quality rider working on getting my dead ripper status!

Keep it real! 

The Recap

Well hello everyone,

I know that I have been on one major hiatus this last few months but man my life has been busy! I had a lot on my plate with all the building and what not involved with Cottage Grove Bike Park but a lot of cool stuff has come of it. I have made some new friends and met more people. We have been able to do some pretty impressive stuff in a matter of a few months. It has now been about a year since the project began with a 30 minute conversation with Zac Docktor, followed by a series of meetings and then hours and hours of fund raising followed by hours and hours and hours of building, then a Party at the Park and then more building, then the IMBA Advanced Trail Building School and that is pretty much it!

We have completed 2 of the planned 6 sections, the 4 x course, a downhill BMX track built for 4 riders wide instead of 8, and the Pump Tracks. Next spring we will build the beginner skills track. This is a short track designed with the youngest riders in mind, strider bikes and the likes. After we complete this we will begin to build the dirt jump section of the park. That will be our large undertaking for the season… It should be a good time! We have a pretty solid crew that is passionate about riding and dedicated to build the most bad ass riding area in the state! I know we can do it!

This park has truly been a testament to what a community both bike and residential can do when they see the potential in a park. I have personally invested about 1000 hours since last fall when the process started but this summer we had approximately 3000 volunteer hours, which is absolutely crazy because that equals what all of the rest of the MORC organization produced in the season at 10+ other trails. We also raise some where north of $20,000 to help fund the project and swept the MORC awards. Mike Mullany won trail builder of the year, Adam Buck won volunteer of the year, the City of Cottage Grove won land manager of the year, Rumpca Excavation won sponsor of the year and I won the president’s award!

It was truly an inspiring year on all fronts and we are looking forward to some more epicness in the future. The project is expected to be completed by Fall of 2015. We are currently in the process of writing some grants and if we are awarded the grant money, it will truly take the park the next level. We are hoping to hire a professional company to come in and build the mountain bike skills course and the Slope Style course, if everything goes as planned, those will be built in the spring/summer of 2015.

On top of building more stuff next spring/summer we will make the park look like a true park. The city will be adding a hang out area, signage and enclosing the park with split rail fencing. We will continue to educate the community and the users about proper etiquette as we had a lot of miss use this summer. We were constantly fixing ruts in the riding surface as riders were not listening to the closed signs and riding it wet. We hope that with fences and a designated entrance that will have signage and the ability to close when wet or under construction that people will get the drift a little better and stay out of the park when wet.

Now that the building season is over and the outdoor riding season has come and gone most think it would be time to hang the bike up and call it a year or get out a fat bike and hit the snow trails, well I’m doing neither. I have found this little gem of an indoor skate park in Zumbrota Falls, MN about 1 hour south of CG.  The name is Over the Top Skate Park located at the Bluff Valley Camp Ground and the only thing I could ask for would be for it to be closer to home but we have already made 3 trips and plan to make many more but more to come on those trips in future blogs!

Keep it real! 

Vandalism at the Cottage Grove Bike Park

One of the volunteer trail workers stopped by the park yesterday afternoon and noticed that some of the fencing that was put in place a few weeks ago to close the park for the season was taken down. Upon further inspection they noticed that approximately 85% of the fencing had been cut, tore down, knocked down or the post had been pulled out of the ground and thrown to the side.

There were plenty of foot prints and tire tracks all over the park. This act has caused multiple hundreds of dollars worth of damage to the materials that were already installed and multiple volunteer hours to install it. There will be additional fencing and signage installed, this however will cut into next year’s funding to continue the building of the park and will most likely delay the official opening of the park. It is important to understand that the park is closed to protect it during the freeze and thaw cycles. Riding when wet or soft causes severe damage and requires the volunteers to spend their time repairing other peoples VANDALISM! That is what it is, destruction of City property!

There has been a police report filed and both the city and the police force will be increasing patrols of the area. No one should be in the bike park area riding their bikes. It is 100% closed and if caught you could be subject to a Trespassing ticket.

Please be respectful, when the park is closed and you ride it you are causing damage and breaking the law!

We are asking all residents, especially those that live around the park to keep a closer eye on the park and if you see anyone out there please notify the police.

Thank you!

some more pictures here 

The build continues!

We had a great build weekend! 32 hours of manual labor later we are 90% complete with the 4x track! Mike, Buck and I put in some serious time this weekend along with some help from a hand full of others! 

We are about 5 loader buckets and 3 hours of work short of completing the park! We had a nice group of neighbor hood kids out helping us Sunday, it was great to see the future of our sport lending a hand and they loved it! They did probably love the reward of riding better but hey take what you can, right? haha. 

Once the rain gardens are in place and the extra dirt that is dug out added to the back side of the starting hill and side slope of some of the jumps and berms we should be dang near done with the 4x track and can start to focus on the jump lines!

We are moving along nicely with only minor set backs from the weather. Our next build day is Saturday August 24th! 

Hope to see you out there. Remember the park is still closed to the public as it is a construction site so if you want to ride it you have to come to a build day and work so you can "test" the track! 

Keep it real,

Chance 

Raising money!

Hey ya'll how is life treating you?

Well it is sure keeping me busy!  We have been hard at the bike park and will continue to keep on rocking it out.
Keep up to date with the parks happenings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cottage-Grove-Bike-Park/596908407004866

here is a glimpse of what we have done

We are also having a big fundraiser in the park on 9/14/2013. The local Cottage Grove Lion's Club is going to help us out by throwing a party in the park for us!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1375990429292993/

So come out and help us out!

Right now we are in the process of obtaining silent auction items to be auctioned off. If you own a business, work at a business or know someone that owns/works at a business that would be willing to donate a product or service to the silent auction please let us know by August 30th. You can send me an email at cglasford(at)gmail.com! 

Thank you so much for all your support!

Keep it real! 

4X

Well I must be a terrible blogger. It has been a long time since I've been on here... but dang I have been busy! My crew and I were giving a blank slate, a budget and some big ass equipment and man we have been in sandbox mode this last couple weeks. Most of the change coming from 7/11/2013- 7/17/2013.

This is what we started with:

This is what we have as of last night: 

As you can see we have been busy. We have sculpted the hill and moved about 4000 cubic yards of material around and are not quite done with the 4x course. We also have the main line of the slope style course roughed in. We wil continue to work on the project through out the summer. This will be a down weekend but we will pick back up next weekend and will have a tracked skid steer to add to our tools. That will make short work of the features. Rumpca Excavating will continue to bring material and the city will continue to place piles for us and we will continue to make magic! 

Huge thanks to Rumpca Excavating, the crew from the City; Joe, Noah and Josh, and a really, really big thanks to my awesome crew! Aaron (my dad), Mike, Nick and Buck! We really made some great progress this last week! As well a big thanks to MORC for all the support! 

Come check it out! 

Keep it real! 

Still Spots Available!

Weather looks like it is going to play nice for Thursday's ride clinic. Hopefully the trails won't be closed but either way there will be lots of valuable information to absorb and skills to learn. There are still spots available so please check it out. If you have questions post up and we will try to answer.

Hope to see you out there!

http://morcmtb.org/wp/morc-mountain-bike-skills-development-clinic/

Register now: MORC Mountain Bike Skills Development Clinics

There will be two opportunities to get yourself on the fast track to becoming a better rider this summer. Come on out to Carver Lake for an affordable evening clinic on June 27th or July 25th. You'll leave with new skills, confidence and drills to keep you improving all season.

Full details and registration can be found here:
http://morcmtb.org/wp/morc-mountain-bike-skills-development-clinic/

Be There or Be Square!

Hello Everyone,

This coming Saturday will be the first major build day at the Eagan Bike Park, the newest addition to the MORC riding facilities. The park is currently about 80% complete after all the hard work from the volunteers last year. The original group of volunteers approached MORC and asked if MORC would like to partner with the City and help take this Bike Park to the next level and fulfill its true potential.

The answer was “Yes” and now is the time to act! There will be a Mini-Excavator, Skid Steer and gas plate compactor on site to speed up the building, but a majority of the work will still need to be done by hand. Please come help make the first bike park in the Metro area a success! Dress for trail work, wear closed toed shoes and bring gloves.

We are not sure if the water will be turned on, on site by this Saturday. The weather has pushed the City to their limit in trying to get things together, so please bring 5 gallon buckets, watering cans and pump sprayers if you have them. Hopefully we won’t need to use them. If you have any hand tools, please bring them along. We need additional tools like steel rakes, flat and spade shovels, hand tampers and rouge hoes. Oh and don’t forget your bike! This weekend is the big Eagan city soccer tournament so get there early if you want to park in the parking lots. There is a parking lot right by the skate park off of Diffley Road and another on the other side off of Lexington Avenue. If the lots are full there is street parking but you will have to park a few blocks off and ride your bike in. So if you brought things just drop them off, go park and ride up!

Make sure to check in with one of the guys in the bright orange shirts to sign the volunteer waiver. We will be providing lunch, pizza from Little Caesar’s and will have water on site but it would probably be best to bring a jug of water for yourself, hydration is important!

The address is 4201 Lexington Avenue South, Eagan, MN, look for a large white water tower follow the road back to a parking lot by the skate park and then follow the bike path towards the trees and look for the blue MORC tent and feather flags.

Please post up if you are going to be able to attend and help out so that we can get an idea of the amount of hand tools, water, food, etc. to have on hand.

Thank you! Hope to see you all there!

Long time coming.....

Hey everyone, 

Sorry it has been such a long time coming I have been a busy man trying to balance work, home and play can get pretty hectic and this awful spring isn’t lessening my stress levels any. I have 3 major bike park projects to complete this summer and I was hoping to start working on them this coming weekend but there is no way that is going to happen. The snow isn’t 100% gone yet, the frost isn’t out of the ground and nothing is near dry enough to put bike tires on it.

I’m guessing the single track won’t open till the first weekend of June, maybe memorial Day weekend if we are lucky but we will need Mother Nature to wake the F up and realize it is actually spring and our average highs should be near 60 not 40 and we should have lows near 40 and not 20! That would help a lot. We will see what the next few weeks bring. I know that there is some rain in the forecast, that will help bring the frost out and close to 60 predicted for next weekend so thing might be looking up.

Eagan Bike Park is close to finished, this year we will finish out the jump lines and tune up the pump tracks and that will be good for that park. Maple Plain is getting a complete rebuilt. I am excited to do that park. It will be kind of small. Smaller then Eagan but it will be nice for that community. I am most excited about Cottage Grove, one it is in my home town and two it is going to be huge! Big jumps, probably the biggest set in MN, at least legal, non-private jumps. It will have the only 4cross(4x) track in the Upper Mid-West that I know of.

The Task Force and myself our now hitting the streets hard to obtain sponsors, we spoke with Rumpca Excavations out of CG last night. It sounds like they are on board. We are just sorting out what they will be helping us with.

Should be an exciting summer! I can’t wait! Stay tuned!

Keep it real! 

Over The Top Skate Park

It should really be called a bike park since there wasn't a single skate boarder there and to be honest the ramps were built for BMX and pretty dang large. I met up with my buddies, Jed, Thor and Griff for a little evening session about 2 weeks ago. The Over the Top Bike Park is in Zumbro Falls, MN located at the Bluff Valley Camp Ground, about 1.5 hours south of the cities. It isn't the easiest place to find but totally worth the trip if you have the itch to ride your bike in the winter or on one of those rainy weekends this summer. It is not for beginners. The park is tight and has pretty large ramps. The over all size of the park is pretty small but still a great time.

I took these pictures from Griff's blog:
http://mountainbikegeezer.com/posts/my-first-trip-to-over-the-tops-indoor-bmx-park-humbling-rewarding/

We rode for about 3 hours and then headed home right before the big winter storm blew in. I had a great time, met some great people there and learned a few things like a foot jam whip. I couldn't land it on the wedge ramp but I will keep working on it!
Check out Over the Top Skate Park here on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/overthetopskateparkmn?fref=ts

Keep it real!

A little more press

Here is another great article from Emily Buss from the South Washington County Bulletin

http://www.swcbulletin.com/event/article/id/22496/

I rode my bike over the future bike park yesterday. The goal was to establish the best rout. No need for that because about 2 blocks from my house I can get on a bike path and it takes me right to the park on a nice rolly trail that winds through prairie. Yesterday I was really wet and kind of out of breath when I arrived. Those hills are tough on a single speed 24 inch BMX bike. The ride was 10-15 minutes. I know right, I am out of shape but I'm hoping that if I ride my bike there and back every time I go to do work or ride I will be in killer shape! I guess I need to step up the cardio or bike time. I like bike time... I will need to start riding more and this weather is totally helping me with the motivation to do so!

Keep it real!

It's official!

Alright! Cheers, time to celebrate! The City Council and Mayor approved the park in its entirety last night. We will now begin the fundraising aspect of the project. We will need to raise money for rental equipment as well as materials so that we can build the skills area!

If you can’t tell I’m really excited and thankful for the help and support of Zac Dockter, the task force and Reed Smidt from MORC. All of our hard work finally paid off! This project is going to be huge and is going to be a great attraction for the City of Cottage Grove.

Besides raising money we will be raising awareness, creating a Facebook page and hopefully a buzz throughout the riding community. This park will be the second of its kind in the metro and the state of MN. I know there are other projects in the works right now so there may be potentially 4 total bike parks in the metro and a few others around the state by the end of the summer but from the plans I’ve seen none of them will be on the same level as this park.

Now Mother Nature needs to speed up the spring season to get rid of this snow. Before we can get in and start working the city will need to come in a clear the area in preparation for their prairie restoration project, which will give us a clean slate to start working.

Stay tuned for more information on when this project will begin. If you have any leads for potential sponsors please let me know.

Keep it real! 

Approval Meeting

Hey everyone. If you have time tonight around 730pm and would like to show your support for the potential bike park in Cottage Grove, please come to the City Council Meeting tonight at the Cottage Grove city hall. I will be presenting and the City Council will be making a decision on the project. I hope we have reason to celebrate!

Here are a couple news articles about the up coming project:

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_22807595/cottage-grove-gets-rolling-bicycling-projects

and

http://mobile.swcbulletin.com/page/article/id/22471/#.UUn1AH1NSKk.facebook

Keep it real!

One more to go

Hey ya'll we got the news that myself and the Task Force will need to do one more presentation! This time is the big show, we will be in front of the City Council on 3/20/2013. I'm not going to lie I'm a little nervous at this time because this is kind of the make or break point in this plan. I really really hope that they have been following along and have seen all the great energy that surrounds this idea. Not only from myself and the task force but from the MORC member, all of the people that attended the meeting on 3/11/2013 and the media attention we are getting. Griff featured the park in a blog post , Bob Shaw called last week to do an interview for the Pioneer Press that will be in this Sunday's paper so keep your eye's out for that, also Emily Buss from the South Washington County Bulletin called on Wednesday and stated that she will be putting an article out about the project in the Bulletin on 3/20/2013 so please check that out too! Also there has been a lot of buzz on Facebook about it on multiple pages! If you have some time, come show your support at the City Council meeting on 3/20/2013 at 7pm at the Cottage Grove City Hall.

Keep it real!

Ok next step please

The meeting went great! I am honestly not sure it could have gone any better without someone stepping up to sponsor the bike park.

All the people that attended were a little hesitant at first but after we explained the project and were the funding was coming from and who would be taking care of the property after it was built they were all excited and on board! A couple actually decided to speak in front of the Park Board and put in a good word. The park board was unanimous in voting yes for it and making a recommendation to pass it through to the City Council and they also had nice things to say about the Task Force and MORC about how passionate and dedicated we are!

I want to thank all the people that attended; it was a decent crowd about 10 people not related to the task force or MORC board. It went better than expected, to be honest.

Thank you to the task force for all your hard work, nice speech Chris Braaten, Tara Steele and Griff Wiggle. You could see the excitement in the Park Boards faces when the people were talking about how excited they were for this project. Thanks to Tara Steele for putting together our short video and Trevor Crawford for all the Auto Cad and google earth image work! Thanks to the MORC board and especially Reed for all their support! As well as my wonderful wife Kelly for supporting me and putting up with me having meetings and doing work for things like this all the time. 

I'm really excited about this. I think this will be a great park offering all sorts of different things for all type of riders and all skill levels.

I spoke with one of the council members and she was all about this so I hope it is all smooth sailing at the next city council meeting. I am not sure if they can sneak it in the 3/20 meeting or if it will have to wait till the 4/3 meeting but we should get the final word soon!

With that please let me know if you know of any one or business that might be interested in being a donor. That is our next step is to put together our donor/sponsor packet and hit the streets to find some funding for the parts of the park the city cannot fund at this time.

Thanks again!

From the top to the bottom:

Return line

4x (aka mountain cross) track

Advanced jump line (AKA slope style course)

Beginner/int jump line

MTB skills area

To the right are the pump tracks and tot track

Let's try this again!

It is go time! The voting is up and working. If you have previously voted it was reset about 10 minutes ago so please go revote! Every vote counts and we only get 1 vote per person!

Spread the word and support the mid-west, Elm Creek Bike Park in Champlin MN, Over Flow DH trail in Copper Harbor and Flow Trail in Brown County IN 

https://www.facebook.com/BellBikeHelmets

Your Help is Needed!

Today is the day! Voting begins for the Bell Built Grant finalists

at:www.facebook.com/BellBikeHelmets

Vote for the Elm Creek Bike Park project and make it happen!!

And while you're at it keep our Midwest neighbors in mind and vote for Copper Harbor, MI (DH

category) and Brown County, IN (flow trail category) as well!

Thank you & good luck to all!

DH has arrived

Hey everyone, the long time anticipation for DH is over! I'm proud to announce the first true lift access riding area in Minnesota! Spirit Mountain in Duluth, MN has officially claimed the prize! They will be officially opening for business on Thursday May 23 at 4 pm. I hope that there are huge crowds up there to show them that the hype is for real hear and that investing in the mountain is a great idea and hopefully they will expand. I have heard rumors that they are planning on it and have committed a decent amount of money for a budget to add additional trails to the mountain this summer but only time will tell at this point. They do however have two trails they will be opening with. A green level trail called "Candy Land" and a blue level trail called "Smorgasboard." 

Candyland is a 1.5 mile beginner/ intermediate level downhill flow trail featuring large berms, medium and small sized table tops, and hip jumps. All features on Candyland are roll-able, making it an ideal trail to learn on, and perfect for gravity-based mountain biking skills.

Smorgasbord is a 1 mile intermediate level freeride/ downhill mountain bike trail featuring large berms, medium size jumps, a drop, and rock gardens. Several features on Smorgasbord are mandatory, including small 3-4 foot gaps, and a 5-foot drop.

If you would like more information please check out Spirit Mountains website:

http://spiritmt.com/adventure-park/mountain-biking/index.html

I also highly recommend that you go to their facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Spirit-Mountain/169923041393?fref=ts

and like the page and post up how amp'd you are to have lift access riding in MN!

Looks like a great season of Mid-West riding to come!

Keep it real!

Cottage Grove Bike Park Informational Meeting

For Immediate Release

Informational Meeting To Discuss and Review the Proposed Cottage Grove Bike Park
Cottage Grove, Minnesota- February 25, 2013 - On March 11, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. at the Cottage Grove City Hall  (12800 Ravine Parkway South) there will be an informational meeting about the proposed bike park at West Draw Park (7050 Meadow Grass Ave). This information meeting is open to all Cottage Grove residents and anyone interested in learning more about the bike park project.
At the meeting we will reveal the proposed design, discuss the chosen park location and address any questions and concerns about  the design, park location and project details.
Immediately following this informational meeting  will be a Park Commission Board meeting at the Cottage Grove City Hall Council Chambers at 7:00 p.m. The Park Commission meeting will also be open to anyone that would like to attend. The Park Commission will be voting to approve or reject the proposed bike park project. Your support is welcomed and encouraged at both the information and Park Commission meetings.
We hope to see you there showing  your support for this new and exciting park amenity that will add to the community and overall parks system of the City of Cottage Grove.
This project is supported by the Minnesota Off-Road Cyclists (MORC). MORC began as the North Central Mountain Bike Group (NCMBG) under the umbrella of the Minnesota Coalition of Bicyclists in 1994. March 1998 marked the official name change to MORC as its known today. The membership has grown to over 800 members today. In 2012, The Board of Directors made a decision to advocate for other riding opportunities beyond cross country off-road cycling trails in the Twin Cities. MORC Gravity was established in November 2012 to help advocate and bring more gravity based riding, including bike parks, to the Twin Cities Metro area.
Contact:
Chance Glasford - Cottage Grove Bike Park Task Force Lead, MORC Board Member
cglasford@gmail.com
Ph: 605-216-5676
###

Attention all Mid-West rippers!

The Elm Creek Bike Park, located in Champlin MN,  is a Bell Built Grant Finalist in the Bike Park category and Copper Harbor, MI is a finalist in the Gravity Trail category. This is super awesome and a great oportunity for the Mid-West to not only get some bad ass trails but get some major national exposure to our incredible trails we have.

The super cool thing about this is that there are only 12 finalists total in the nation. The 3 categories are Flow Trail, Gravity Trail and Pump Track/Bike Park...online voting starting March 5. Bell and IMBA will be selecting one winner from each category and be sending out one of their Trail Solutions crews to design and build the winner a trail/bike park.

If you want to see a kickass Bike Park and a world class gravity trail built right here in the Mid-West then we need your support, the support of your friends and the support of all the mountain bikers in Minnesota & the Midwest!! Watch for more information over the next couple weeks and we'll let you know what you can do to help. Spread the word & let's get a bike park built at Elm Creek and a gravity trail in Copper Harbor, MI!

Ray's

Hey ya’ll, sorry for the delay on the shred report but man life is hectic! I am still trying to sort out all the details of this crash so I can be done with it both mentally and financially, not to mention all the other bike related things I’m trying to sort out prior to the spring thaw! This summer is looking to be pretty busy as well. I’m hoping to bang out the Lexington build/rebuild in 1 long weekend and then just have maintenance to deal with at that park. I will also be working with Tim Wegner to rebuild the jump line and build a pump track in Maple Plain, so there will be a small bike park on the west side of the cities. Last but not least, still working out the details on the Cottage Grove bike park and if that one goes through it will be the largest and most all inclusive riding area in the metro! More details to come when we get thing finalized. Oh and I forgot, as I’m not directly involved in this one other than being on the MORC board, Elm Creek is applying for the Bell Helmet/IMBA grant to get a bike park built at the trail head. Oh and Cuyuna has also secured a good amount of funding and a Lee McCormick design fort there bike park! Oh and I heard a rumor that Duluth is looking to add a bike park this summer as well! Ha, so crazy MN went from the land of no bike parks! I get one built and bam this phenomenon explodes across the state! Who’s next? Mankato? St. Cloud? Grand Rapids? Who knows?!?

Anyways on to the shred report, so Trevor and I left my hours about 645am on Friday headed east to Milwaukee and Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park. The drive went super smooth and we got there bout 1215pm. We made a quick stop at Wendy’s for some value menu lunch and off to Ray’s. When we go there we were met with a surprise. The day we chose to go ride was the Wisconsin Bike Federation Winter Carnival! Yeah we got worried we drove all that way and weren’t going to get to ride and then they told us we could ride but we had to join the Federation and that was $35 bucks. We weren’t so excited about that but if they would have just explained the whole thing instead of just lighting the fuse and dropping the bomb on us we would have jumped all over it without having to speak to the manager. The manager came out told us by joining today we would get 10 drink/food tickets, get to ride today till 5pm and a free pass for another day. It actually turned out to be a great deal! We got to meet a bunch of cool people, ride, watch a stunt demo show and drink 3 glasses of premium Wisconsin brew, all for $35! Oh and now Trevor and I are official WI bikers, haha! It’s all good!

When we finally got to riding it was a bit confusing and overwhelming at first but we soon go the hang of it and got right to shredding. We started with a quick lap around the XC loop, followed by a stint at the pump track and then the Sports skills section. I couldn’t believe how fast that pump track was! It was fun putting on a show for some of the people that didn’t have a clue how to ride one, gave a few pointers out and then we continued on our way. After a few runs on the sport section Trevor figured out how to get to the big jump line and we spent much of the afternoon sessioning the jumps! They were a blast but you really had to be on to flow the whole thing. I would say it took me almost 2 hours to finally cleaning run through the 3 main jump lines. The 4^th jump line had an awkward blind hip in and after two pretty good crashes trying to air that hip out I said screw it and went into the Park area. Trevor had that line pretty dialed by the end of the day.

The park was a great time. I realized what I had been missing out on since I stopped riding skate parks at 17.  Met one of the workers that was off duty, his name slips my mind right now but he was fun to ride with. He was a ripper and had some good pointers. After a handful of tries I landed my first 360 to deck! It felt so great; I did it 2 more times! Then I had to make a trip to the truing stand where Trevor had to true my rear wheel! We rode for another hour or so but by 5pm we were absolutely shot! Maybe we could have rode more had we taken a couple hour break went and got food and came back but it was great ride! We finished off the day at Ray’s drinking good beer watching some rippers tear up the park!

The extra bonus of the location of Ray’s is that my uncle only lives 10 miles away in this sweet little town of Cedarburg. I called him up a couple weeks prior and asked if we could stay there and of course we could! We headed to Cedarburg to meet up and he took us out to this killer pizza joint. It was this little dive bar that made kill deep dish! It was so good! After dinner it was some hanging out and chatting and then passing out as fast as my head hit the pillow! I was wiped out!

In the morning we loaded up the car, thanked my uncle for his hospitality and headed to Rays. We could tell right away that we rode hard the day before. The muscles a little sore and the hands slightly raw! We shredded for about 4 hours with my buddy Brian from St. Cloud. It was great seeing him and his wife up there. It’s always fun to ride with Brian he is such a good technical rider! I learned a few things that I will have to work on this summer that will definitely take my riding to the next level!

After absolutely blowing out my leg muscles with 4 hours of straight killing it, it was time to call it a day for me. Trevor rode for another 20 minutes while I chatted with Brian’s wife Jenna. When we left we went to this little Irish Pub near the freeway and had some killer burgers and some good Irish brews and hit the road!

Over all it was a rad weekend and I can’t wait to get back there. Hopefully 1 more time before spring comes but either way Trevor and I both agreed that we will be hitting the street and park riding hard when spring comes, especially during that time when the roads are clear but the trails are still closed!

Good times! If you haven’t been there you need to get to Ray’s, even better we need one here in the metro!

Keep it real! 

Good ride cowboy, good ride!

As I keep trying to keep my goal of diversifying my ride portfolio to help me meet my end goal of being the best, most versed rider I can possible be I went to Rehbeins Indoor BMX track in Lino Lakes. It is kind of a long drive. It took me just about 55 minutes to get there but it was totally worth it! I had a great time. I had to go by myself since things fell through with a couple of my buddies. Even though I was going at it alone it was fine. I had fun and met some great people. I met a Cottage Grove native and dead ripper. He only lives about 10 mins from me and was super stoked when I told him I was the one that was behind the building of the bike park in Eagan, Lexington Street Bike Park, and that I was planning on building a bigger and better bike park in Cottage Grove. He said he wanted to help in anyway possible and I'm going to hold him to that. It was also great to hear there is about 3 or 4 other rippers that he hangs with that live in Cottage Grove! I hope that we can all get together and be form a great scene here in CG!

Anyways back to the riding. Well it was a lot more serious then I remember BMX practice being 10 years ago. It was gate practice all night, which I thought was odd and meant that you couldn't session any jumps or anything. I guess it has to do with 1. how serious all those racers are 2. the size of the facility 3. the size/length of the track. I would have loved to get to just screw around more but that's not racing. I did do about 25 to 30 laps which is a great work out. It was a slow start for me but it didn't take too long for me to get the hang of it again. I loved manualing the rhythm sections. Nothing fells that good to me. I still want to learn how to manual the whole thing with out putting the front wheel down! I think that would just be super sick!

I will say this it took some time getting use to trying to jump the jumps with those super mellow BMX lips when for the last two summers I have been primarily dirt jumping. I did case the jumps a couple times and tweaked my rear rim, so I will have to try and true that as much as  I can by next weekend! Off to Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park in Milwaukee for Friday and Saturday with Trevor. It will be a good time to get a feel for my new 2010 Chevy Malibu.

I didn't mention this before but last Sunday my car was totaled when a high school kid lost control and slide into me on the highway and spun me into the ditch. So I don't have the Sentra anymore. The saddest part is loosing all my dope stickers on the back window! Oh well I will just have to start over! Have to rep the rider street cred!

Keep it real!

Busy Busy Busy

Hey all,

I know it has been a long time and man have I been busy! Well I promise there will be more to come. I have some cool stuff in the works. Elm Creek, 3RPD and MORC are applying for the Bell/IMBA Grant. We are contining to move forward on the Cottage Grove bike park, it also looks like Maple Plain will be referbishing their jump park. So big things happening in the Metro for bike parks.

As for me, I am going to try and hit up Rebiehn's Indoor BMX track tonight in Lino Lakes and then next weekend Trevor and I are heading to Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park for a guys weekend! More to come on this. Hopefully a little interview action! Also found out about a sweet indoor skate park in Zumbro Falls, MN about 1 hour from my house! So plans on hitting that up in the near future as well!

Stay tuned! and keep it real!