MTB Project bills itself as the “next generation of mountain bike trail maps” and is in partnership with IMBA. Among their many map-related features and tools, they make it possible to embed their maps on a website. I’m the webmaster for CROCT and we now have a Sechler Park Trail page where we’ve done this.
Year: <span>2014</span>
The results are in and my logover analysis is finished. (See last Monday’s blog post, Straw poll: Analyze these two attempts at a logover.)
Watch this 7-minute video. The comments thread is open for discussion.
Last Saturday morning, my buddy Clay Haglund from MAMB captured my two attempts at a logover that’s along CROCT’s Sechler Park MTB Trail in Northfield.
Watch this 45-second video of the two attempts (each with a 50% slomo clip) and then take the straw poll below.
I’ll post the results on Friday along with my analysis and then open it up for discussion.
12/06 update: See the logover poll results and video analysis in this blog post.
Back in the summer of 2013, I blogged about the mountain biking-related possibilities for Northfield’s new Meadows Park. So it was pretty cool to attend the City of Northfield‘s Meadows Park community planning meeting at the Northfield Middle School on Wednesday night and have mountain biking be mentioned by the consultants (Paul Miller Design and SRF Consulting) as one of the possibilities under consideration.
Even better, there was some support for it from citizens at the small group discussions, helped along by participation from fellow Cannon River Offroad Cycling & Trails (CROCT) members Marty Larson and Scott Klein.
I’m on the Board of CROCT (Cannon River Offroad Cycling and Trails), a new IMBA chapter here in Rice County. And yesterday, we hosted our first ever group ride in Northfield’s Sechler Park during the area’s first real snowfall of the season. Nearly two dozen riders participated.
CROCT Board member Carl Arnold made this 1-minute video of some of the rides:
After a couple hours of riding, we convened for some refreshments at Fit To Be Tri’d in downtown Northfield.
See the large slideshow of 80+ photos (many low res, captured from video) or SLOW CLICK this small slideshow:
The results are in for the 2014 Top Ten Difficult MTB technical obstacles in Twin Cities Metro area.
- 1st place: The Browner Stockade Skinny; Hillside Park, Elk River
- 2nd place: Wall of Death Hillclimb; Battle Creek Regional Park, St. Paul
- 3rd place: 9-Mile Creek log crossing; MN River Bottoms MTB Trail, Bloomington
See all the details for the whole project here.
I rode the new South Wirth trail at Theodore Wirth MTB Park in Minneapolis on Monday afternoon. It’s a hoot. It’s crammed with flow features that can be rolled for intermediate level riders. But advanced level riders (or wannabes like me) will have a rollicking good time. There’s nothing like this trail in the metro area. It’s like having a slice of the intermediate/advanced flow trails at Cuyuna, Spirit Mountain and CAMBA , all packed into a very small area. Truly amazing. Props to MORC, MOCA, and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board for making it happen (details below).
Here’s a 1 min 45 second video clip, taken with my GoPro in a chest harness. You’ll see when I got to the drops that I stopped and walked them, turned around and walked back, then rode them but not fast enough to clear them. I sorta rolled them and was lucky I didn’t crash. I’ll be back asap to try again.
I have a guest blog post on Singletracks. com today:
How To Prepare Your Eyes to Ignore Your Survival Instincts When Riding Skinnies
It’s my third guest post for them. The others:
- 11 Drills for Holding a Line: Gain Confidence on Skinnies and Narrow, Exposed Terrain
- Light Hands, Heavy Feet: 17 Drills to Help Make Your Riding More Stable no Matter What the Terrain
It’s been terrific working with Editor-in-Chief Greg Heil.
I’m hoping the collaboration will continue.
I have a little story to tell but if you want to get all the info about the MORC 20th Anniversary Gala coming up on Nov. 9, CLICK HERE. More on the Gala’s Facebook event page here.
I took up the sport of mountain biking in serious way in June of 2011 after attending the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Festival Grand Opening. In the photo above, I’ve added an arrow pointing to the MORC and IMBA tents in the back of the parking lot at Cuyuna that weekend. I’d never heard of either organization but I became a member a few days later shortly after purchasing a a 2011 Trek Gary Fisher X- Caliber 29’er from Penn Cycle in Bloomington, courtesy of Ben Witt at Milltown Cycles in Faribault. (If that makes no sense to you and you’re curious, click here.)
I’ve been hooked on mountain biking ever since, as evidenced by the 250+ posts to this Mountain Bike Geezer blog. And in those 3 years, I’ve done 90% of my year-round mountain biking on MORC trails in the Twin Cities metro area. I feel a kinship to the organization like no other because of what it’s given me: the enjoyment of a sport I love and the opportunity to meet and spend time with so many great people. Being a MORC board member this year has been an honor, especially since it’s MORC 20th anniversary season, topped off with this big fundraiser Gala,
I’m also pleased that Penn Cycle, where I bought the bike that I still ride nearly every day, has stepped up to be the Title Sponsor for the Gala. That’s founder/owner Pat Sorenson handing a check to MORC Executive Director Matt Andrews in the left photo.
Yup, voting is now live. Deets here, including photos and videos of all the candidates.
Stage 1 voting ends midnight on Friday, Oct. 31, 2014.