(one of the first riders to enjoy the fruits of our trail crew labor on Industry Day)
Almost one month to the day we had ourselves a little test ride what we have ready Industry Day at Mt. Bachelor. Essentially this meant the bike shop employees, professional riders/racers. industry reps, trails advocates, and mountain bike internet types and photographers we invited to come and see what we have been up to, all totaled about 40 riders showed up on everything from 29er XC race bikes, to full on downhill bikes, as well as everything in between (enduro/trail/all-mountain’who even knows anymore bikes). Everyone showed up at the bottom of Pine Marten lift and Tom Lomax gave a brief introduction to the trails, what was to be expected, and what has gone on since we broke ground on July 1st. From there, the group go on the lift and headed up to the top of the lift to make our way down to Lava Flow for the first “real” group of riders to see the work we had done.
(The group of riders gathered to ride for our Industry Day/soft opening)
In preparation for this, the trail crew was busy putting final touches on a number of projects throughout the “finished” trails. Paver stones were installed in a few areas to reinforce things we assumed would see a lot of abuse once more than just trail crew tires were touching the trails.
(Dustin, on the day of Industry Day placing the last of the pavers into the roll in of the half-pipe)
We all split up in small groups the last few days before our first riders were to arrive,and worked down the list of things we wanted to see improved before they showed up. Since more than a few of the berms on Lava Flow were almost sand boxes, a number of palettes of pavers went up the mountain to their strategic placement for moving into the trails and turning them into a more ride-able surface.
My Mountain Bike Life... 