Kicking Horse Bike Park - Trail Crew Update #4

Posted: Jul 25, 2009

The straight goods on Kicking Horse Bike Park, straight from the trail crew's fingertips.

Sometimes it seems as though the sky has forgotten how to rain. Like the rest of BC, we are experiencing a hot, dry period. But the riding is still excellent and the liquid refreshments have never tasted better – especially at the Eagle Eye, where at 7,700 feet drinks are served well above the scorching valley bottom.

With the earth baked to a crisp, there is very little we can do with dirt. We can’t fill in holes or reshape berms. Once tires hit loose dirt, the dirt disappears in clouds of dust. Instead, we are forced to make improvements that don’t involve dirt. So, in direct contradiction to what I just said, we spent last week building our new dirt jump line.


And they are running great! Hopefully these piles of dirt are big enough to hold their shape until the rain comes. The DJs are now in a permanent location, which is at a lower angle than in the past. This should help us avoid brake bumps. And they are visible from the gondola, so you can look super cool to people you may never meet. We have put up a blue line and a black line, 6 jumps each. We hope to add a green and a double black line next year or so.


The excavator got onto Superberm a couple of weeks ago and tore out all the crappy, wet, organic berms and replaced them with dirt from the adjacent ski run (the skiers will never notice – we put the crappy material back in those holes). We managed to give the berms a good grooming, but once it rains we need to go back in and clean them up again. But they are much better than ever before. Also, we added a bit of wood in a couple places as part of our Battle Against the Bog.


As for the rest of the Bike Park: A new exit for Blaster is under construction that will certainly raise the stoke on the Stoke’o’meter. The Drop Zone after the DJs is brushed out and buffed. Carpet has been added to Road Runner to smoothen the landing of the last booter. The on-ramp to the sky teeter on Time Travel has been extended to improve the approach.


And a number of other tweaks have gone on all over the place ready for your inspection.

There is only a month or so left before the Terminator Endurance Race, so you best be getting up here to strengthen your hands and expand your lungs. This will most likely be the most punishing competition ever in the history of everything (that I can think of at the moment). See www.kickinghorseresort.com for details.

Final note: as I’ve said before, if you can carry a spare tube around all day waiting for a flat, then you can certainly carry your flat tube down the hill to the garbage. Tying it to a tree is just plain lame. Save it for Christmas and tie it to your own tree.

To everyone to whom that message does not apply: thanks for playing the game and not being lame. Pray for rain! (I know that last one was a poor rhyme, but the sun has got in my brain and made me insane. My good sense is frayin’. ‘Stop’ I bet you are prayin’. But this is free, you’re not payin’. So I’m stayin’…
Actually, no. I’ll stop.

Ride on.

-Crowe
FREE bike trail maps for all of Golden at www.tourismgolden.com
www.kickinghorseresort.com