The Wide Eyed World was featured on MountainBike.com this week after spending last weekend shooting at Crankworx Colorado. The festival took place at Winter Park Ski Area and featured a full compliment of freeride mountain bike events. Leslie was on hand for all of the events and got a front row seat for all of the action.
Late last spring we traveled way up north to work in Portland, Maine with local mountain bike club on our Trail Care Crew tour. While we were there I shot some images for an article featuring the riding in this hip town in the southern part of the state. The article was recently published on Bicycling.com
Last Friday we turned in our car, handed over our keys, and entered the Trail Care Crew Alumni Association as the 14th Crew. We are so very grateful for the journey we traveled over the last two years. Without a doubt, it ranks as the ‘best job in the world’.
No matter what we did all weekend, we always seemed to have a lot of fun. As one of the key ingredients to building great trail communities, RAT is already wise beyond their years. Our visit was nicely wrapped inside the inaugural, and certain to be legendary, RAT-fest. Festivities included bike demos, live music and auction, kid’s clinic, and group rides. This is just the kind of fun thatt RAT can use to bring new people into the fold, build relationships, and create future leaders.
With only two visits to go we achieved another milestone in our Trail Care Crew travels – the highest visit. At 10,200 feet, Leadville Colorado is in the heart of the Rockies and home to the Cloud City Wheelers.
Had a chance to ride mountain bike trails in Salida last week. It was the perfect place to stretch the legs on the way to Denver from Santa Fe. After a very short detour off Highway 285 unloaded the bikes and gear in an epicenter of fat tire fun.
It’s been a rule of thumb to expect the unexpected on the Trail Care Crew. We usually roll into a new town with new faces and new trails every weekend. It’s actually become the rule, not the exception. This past weekend was a little bit different. We started the last month of our TCC tour in very familiar territory: our home state of Colorado.
After a Trail Care Crew in 2010, a group of dedicated fat tire enthusiasts set out to make an already successful trails community even better. It’s no surprise that TCC Lommele ( go Steve and Morgan!) did their little things well and inspired the formation of the Santa Fe Fat Tire Society. Since last July SFFTS has been following their vision and working towards putting Santa Fe on the mountain bike map.
Chris is short for Christmas. Tom, his best friend, found him wandering around Christmas Eve day and took him in for the night. Thirteen years later he’s spent his lifetime hiking in the woods. Chris was our constant companion during our visit with TRACKS, the local trails organization in the Pinetop-Lakeside area.
Over the course of the last two years we’ve seen and ridden a lot of different trails. For the most part, they serve a majority of the mountain bike population, but not every single rider. It’s our view that beginners and expert riders tend to be the most underserved in our sport. Collectively, we need to think seriously about two ideas; lowering the barrier of entry for new or less skilled riders and plan for the folks who continue to reach the highest levels of the stratosphere.
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Tag: Trails