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
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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!