Bike The Beav Back in Action

Hey all

Spring has sprung and Bike the Beav is back in action – This is a shout out to all followers looking for those who may already have a good relationship with the owners of Beaver Mountain or the management.  I believe that this could happen but it may be a long road. Please post if you have an “in” that you think might be useful.

 

 

Movin’ On

I’ve been hesitant to make this official announcement, but it looks like I won’t be spearheading the bikethebeav movement as my graduate thesis in landscape architecture.

I was truly hoping to make a difference in this community and work with the Seerholtzers to develop some incredible summer recreation opportunities up on the Beav.  And that still might happen.

But I’m not the one to do it.  My work as a graduate student is drawing me elsewhere, and I won’t have the time to dedicate to two thesis-level projects.  Should anyone else want to make this a cause to rally the community around, develop a rapport with the Beav staff and ownership, and really make something huge happen at that little mountain, I’ll be in full support, and can even turn this website over to you.

I know there’s a certain Cache Valley Freeride Association that’s looking for a way to develop… maybe this is it. Maybe a local bikeshop needs to take over the push – more trails brings more riders brings more broken parts and upgrade lust brings more profit to the bikeshop…

Anyways, as always, if anyone would like to take this movement over, I’m more than willing to hand over the keys.  But my ride is taking me elsewhere, and I’d better get pedaling soon.

 

Preserving Access

Think of all the miles of singletrack you’ve ridden in your life.  Think of the hundreds of thousands of feet of manicured earth you’ve enjoyed, the meters of berm and roller you’ve utilized to defy gravity for just a moment.   Adds up, don’t it?

Think of all the times you’ve come across a downed tree, a rockfall, washed out section, or other obstacle blocking the trail.  Maybe, if it was in your power, you moved it.  Maybe it was too big, you vowed to come back with friends and tools to take care of it.  Maybe you didn’t.

Point being, is that for all we enjoy riding the trails, too few of us get involved in the effort of maintaining them.

I’m one of the guilty party too.  National Trail Day came and went, and I only found out after the fact that a dedicated crew of trail workers was there, working on improvements all day long.  And from what I hear, there were not many mountain bikers.

In Green Canyon, that’s a problem.

That trail is one of the best resources of any Logan or Cache County mountain biker, and we need to show we care about the trails we love to ride.  The more we do that, the more opportunities we’re going to get, from eventual access at Beaver Mountain to more mountain bike and freeride specific opportunities in Providence canyon and elsewhere.

But please, don’t be one of those people building imitation north shore features on public land. That does nothing but piss the forest service off, and make it harder than ever to establish more mountain bike opportunities.

If you want to help us create more goodwill with the forest service, and establish mountain bike specific trails that will last several lifetimes – come out and help us build again in Green Canyon.  I’ll See you there.

June 11th 8:30am, Green Canyon Parking Lot

Excuses? I’ve got thousands.

Yeah, I could go into the varied reasons why this blog is so infrequently updated.   School used to be one.  Now it’s that there is no school, and lo and behold, the lower trails of Logan Canyon are drying out.  For those of you who don’t know -

River Trail: Clear.

Nature Trail to Guenevah Campgrounds: Clear.

Windcaves: Clear

Bonneville shoreline: Clear

Deerfence: Clear

Green Canyon: Lower 1/3rd Clear

Spring Hollow: Not yet clear to the scree field.

Man, writing those out make me feel pretty happy that there now exist options for some good, old fashioned leans through the dirt and huffing up some big climbs.  My legs hurt, but it’s a good hurt.

I’ll be working on the phases of the tan line:

In other news, I’ve put a little bit more detailed information up on the about page to make this bikethebeav movement a little less mysterious.  It’s moving slowly at this point, but over the summer, I hope to develop a working relationship with the management of Beaver Mountain and begin to move this project forward.

And now for something completely different

School’s got me underwater these days, but summer is around the corner.  Summer of barbecues, sunny days, and perhaps a new bike in my stable.  The scraperbike.

and if I could dance like this, this is how I’d dance when school gets out.

that’s it for now.  More to come that actually has to do with the Beav, and mountain biking.

Uh, yes, could you stop snowing please?

Seriously. Who ordered these powder days after the beav has closed? Lets all get together with some hair dryers this weekend and go dry out green canyon, k?

Das Pumptrack!

Ok people, I’ve put a few of them there flyers out this weekend, and it is pretty clear that there’s some interest and excitement about building a bike park up at the beav.

Well, shucks.  That’s just awesome.

But there’s a good bit of footwork before shovelwork can commence, so bear with us as we meet with the ownership of the beav, see what they would need to know in order to create something up there, and figure out all the other intricacies involved with building acres and acres of awesome trail.

But here’s the give-it-to me now sort of dream.  One of you has an ugly backyard, I just know it.  You’ve been wondering what to do with the dead grass and weeds.  But the dirt is good, oh – so – good.

So we should build a pump track.  Something fun, fast and beautiful.

Seriously.  Call me.  Email me.

We’ll hang out on weekends and build some berms and rollers and lips.  Good practice for what might (hopefully) become phase one of the beaver mountain bike park.

Oh man, so many words, so many words.  Where is the audio? the visual? Forgive me.

the theory

the practice

(note: at the time of this posting, youtube is being all sorts of finicky.  hopefully by the time you read it, the tube is behaving.)

It’s not about the bike

Sorry I’ve been lax to keep a regular posting schedule on this here blog-o-tron.  I’ll try to be a little more regular with some postings of interest and intrigue, to keep us all jonesing for singletrack and summer dirt, and of course, eventually a bike park at beaver mountain.

Do y’all remember this flyer that was up here a while ago?

Well, we could still use some help getting a few more of these paper flyers up around Logan.  The more people that sign the petition, the more inclined the owners of beaver mountain will be to invest in mountain bike infrastructure.  If anyone would like to help canvas this town with some flyers, I’d be only too happy to meet with you and hand off a few – I hate to admit it, but it’s been hard to find time myself to get out on the town and put up flyers.

Email me: singletracksavant at gmail dot com, and lets arrange a time to meet and get some flyers in your hands.

And what, of course, would a bikethebeav post be without a video to inspire? Nothing, that’s what.

Made with love

Anyone who loves bicycles, and has actually invested more than 100$ in one, is privy to the sort of reaction you get from average folks when you say you spent 2, 3 or 5k on your vehicle.

Here’s a video to show them the precision, craftmanship and care that goes into creating a simple steel frame.

Oh yeah, and fill out the survey to the right – we want to build a bike park for all of us to ride up at beaver mountain.  Every local voice we can get helps.

 

Riding (even road riding) is wonderful

We had a good weekend. Rumor has it it hit 50 degrees here in Cache valley. It sure felt nice. So nice, I pulled the cyclocross bike (aka the road bike) out, pumped up the tires, and jumped up blacksmith fork canyon. Yep – these winter months are no joke, and my legs paid for it once I got home.

But what a beautiful thing, to be riding again. Us mountain bikers like to thumb noses at the roadies, laugh at them a little bit, and why not with their day glo colors and electronic power measuring gadgets and such?

But really, I think I may have to be a road rider until April, or whenever trails start to dry out some more. Because frankly, it just feels good. Maybe I’ll even ride the road up to the beav for some spring skiing one day. Is that crazy? Maybe.

Here’s some good crazy for you, and perhaps some images to inspire you out on a bike (even if it is a road bike). I present:
Ritte Racing