Friday, October 3, 2014

2014 come and gone

Well well well, here we are! Where the hell have I been? Haha good question! I have been all over the place; it has been another crazy year.  Building, working, and traveling. I went to Germany for a wedding and spent a good amount of my free time out at the park for the second year in a row!
As you would already know, we won the Bell Built Grant but that was only a fraction of the craziness this year.
The year started out on a positive note. Everyone was super jacked, ready to get building because we won the bell grant and we were finally going to get our dirt jumps! That was the main reason we started the park to begin with! However we had to do some good faith building to ease the city into it a little bit. Now they seem to be fully on board !
Spring came about right on time, we started to build out there in May and then the monsoon season began! Totally messed us up and put us about a month behind where we wanted to be. We were constantly battling erosion because the vegetation had not yet grown in. We had to constantly cleanup silt from the bike path at the bottom of the hill. We had hoped to officially open the season on June 1st.  However the grand opening wasn’t until June 26th. With a solid push from al the volunteer help and a couple large build days, one sponsored by Freewheel bike shop, we made the grand opening day.
We got pretty lucky because we decided to spend a good chunk of our budget and purchase this awesome new product this year called Dust Shield by Soil Loc. It is a soil additive that hardens the soil through binding the particles. It was a great addition. It not only controlled erosion, it hardened the surface which made the track faster but it also sped up the drying process so that we could get the park open quicker after rainfalls.
Once July came most of the rain had quit and we were able to get the park pretty much dialed in and all treated with Dust Shield and sat back and watched the park grow with popularity. It was super impressive to see how many people of all walks of life started to come out and enjoy the park and we only had 2 of the 6 sections of the park open! It was just so cool!
During this time we were in the process of working with IMBA to organize the build out of the Bell Built Grant. We were going to use the money to build a world class dirt jump area and man did we ever. We had a meeting with Alex Harrington and Randy Spangler to discuss our desires and come up with a general lay out but the real magic started to happen when we found out we were working with Flow Ride Concepts.
I started talking with Shea about 2 weeks before they showed up on site and from the minute they showed up on site I knew that it was going to be a great build! Just super nice, genuinely awesome people! I told them don’t be shy and build what you would want to ride. The crew told them we wanted awesome jumps that other areas would envious of and that we like the trail feel! Boom that is what they gave us!
In less than 2 weeks, with a solid volunteer effort, they knocked out 3 bad ass lines. The intent was to provide beginner, intermediate and advanced but we got more of a beginner, advanced and expert but it’s all good because we still have room to build a 4th line between the beginner and advanced line. It will make for some super sick transfer lines. I think that Flow Ride would have been all about building that but we just ran out of time, money and dirt this year. However for the people looking for progression we definitely have that. We have beginner level pump tracks to get you flowing, then beginner level dj’s to get you off the ground, followed by an intermediate level 4x course that will really get you use to speed and get you airborne ! Then when you feel up to it you can start to learn to fly on our advanced dirt jump line and send it to the moon on the expert line! This jump line is the largest set of public dirt jumps in the state that I’m aware of!

It was a killer season over all, it was filled with ups and downs but over all I’m super stoked to have been part of it! The bike park is now in a better place thanks to all of our amazing volunteers, Flow Ride Concepts and the killer support we get from the community, the City of Cottage Grove and the Minnesota Off-Road Cyclists!


Vimeo video HERE

Please consider supporting this grassroots effort by coming out and lending a hand, if you don’t have time you can make a tax deductible donation by clicking the link: http://www.razoo.com/story/Cottagegrovebikepark

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Please Vote

If you haven't heard Cottage Grove Bike Park is a finalist for a $33,000 grant from Bell Bike Helmets. This grant would be used to build a world class dirt jump plaza at the park and help bring it 1 step closer to completion. 

If you haven’t already voted and shared please take a moment to place your vote for Cottage Grove Bike Park! Anyone can vote and it doesn't matter if you ride a bike or not or where you are from. If you support safe recreational opportunities for the youth, please vote for our project!
http://www.bellhelmets.com/bellbuilt/
We are currently in second place! We need your help! Spread the word! Do this for Minnesota!

Voting is now LIVE at Bell Built and we need your support to win ⅓ of this $100,000 grant!
  • Go to Bell Built
  • Select Cottage Grove Bike Park
  • Enter the info required to make your vote official
  • Remember to confirm your vote! You will receive an email from Bell that will contain a confirmation link. You must click this link to make your vote count!

Send this email to friends, family members and co-workers
Share the attached image on Facebook (#BellBuilt, #CottageGroveBikePark)
Tweet about your vote (@BellBikeHelmets, @MORCmtb, #VoteCGBP)

To learn more about this opportunity, please see our Press Release

Cheers!

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

voting site

Well the voting site is up and running. The video should be up and going this week. Our voting window isn't until April 21st through May 4th but it's time to get the stoke up!

Check out the site, share it and all that good stuff!

http://www.bellhelmets.com/bellbuilt/cottage-grove-bike-park


Monday, March 10, 2014

Cottage Grove Bike Park is a Bell Grant Finalist!

I'm super stoked that CGBP has been selected as a finalist for the IMBA-Bell Built Grant, but this isn’t a sure thing, they haven't won anything yet and it will most definitely be a very difficult win! 

We will need everyone’s support when the time comes! Voting for our project will begin April 21st!

The other finalists will be announced soon. We know Andres Bike Park just outside of Chicago has also been selected. The region is large as you can see. 

The voting will be handled a little different this year.... there are 3 regions, West, Central and East. We are obviously in the central region.

There are 4 finalists for each region, so a total of 12 finalists.

There will be a winner from each region this year. It doesn't matter the category that your project is in, as long as it falls into either DH/Gravity, Flow or Bike Park, we are in the Bike Park category. Our grant would be used to build a world class dirt jump section in the Cottage Grove Bike Park.

Because of the new voting format there could potentially be 3 bike parks winning or any combination of the categories. The only thing that matters this time around is that your project receives the most votes in your region during your voting period!

This is where we will need your help, your friends, families, acquaintances and colleagues help! We want to be the project with the most votes at the end of our voting period!

There are 3 separate voting times, one for each region:
• April 7 through April 20, 2014: West Coast Regional Finalists
• April 21 through May 4, 2014: Central Regional Finalists
• May 5 through May 18, 2014: East Coast Regional Finalists

We will keep you posted as we progress through the process.

Thanks!