New website!

New website is here! Please bookmark the following address for all future Boulder Mountain Bike Patrol needs.

http://bouldermountainbike.org/patrol

Don't worry, you will be able to find all your old patrol related blog posts on the new site too!

Boulder Bike Patrol helps out at Pueblo State Park

Headed down to Pueblo State Park Saturday with fellow Patrollers Jason and Andria to avoid Rock fall on Hwy 70 heading to Fruita or Moab..... Spectacular day out with great temps and weather. We ran into Art out there too just randomly who joined up with us a for a few miles on Voodoo. A map of the trails can be found here which is maintained by the Southern Colorado Trail Builders who built most of the trails there. I highly recommend this place for spring and fall for a great day trip or they have campsites so you can come the night before. There are about 33 miles of trails, but many loops are easily done several times to add it up to 50 or 60. There is a mix of super smooth and sweet Fruita 18 road type trails mixed with great narrow rocky canyons with as hard as you want it techy rocky drops/buildups/ramps/and wooden ladders. Its not North Shore, but sure tough and fun. You can ride 40 miles without hitting a techy sections, or of course you can hit all the techy you want--there are about 15 gullies I think that have short tech sections but unlike most technical we ever see here in Colorado. Not much tree cover so the exposure in the middle of the summer would make this place a bit warmer, yet you can always jump in the rez after! Here are a few pics.

Getting all unloaded and dialed in for the ride...

Happy to be out on the bike and in one of the narrow canyons playing on the rocks. I had a rough day since my legs felt like Lead but the trail was so sweet, there was no way not to have a good time!

Andria taking a quick brake--the trail is 12 to 15 inches wide pretty much the entire network except for some double track here and there. I will say that all the folks from up North were not yielding at all and just riding off the trail all day making things wider....some day they may get a clue!

This is Stonehenge trail--named for the cairns folks have built up.

Here are the patrollers at work helping out a guy for the second time on the trail. Art from the patrol had already helped this guy once on the Voodoo Loop as he had rolled his tubeless and after attempting to fix it with two CO2's and no luck. He passed at Voodoo and Outer limits junction and headed out OL to Pedro's for a little more trail like we were going to do. A few miles into that loop he was on the side of the trail asking for more assistance due to a slow leak. After inspection, he had a large hole torn in the tread of the tires (super urber lightweight racers--not recommend for the sharp rocks there). So we booted his tire with a piece of an OJ container (more robust than the soda pop bottles and can take a rock hit--highly recommend always carrying one with you versus the power bar wrapper), got him a new tube and he was off...hopefully back to his car! You will notice that we are on the trail working--there are many cactus and goat heads so you want to stay on the trail as much as you can. No crowds, so its easy to move quick for the occasional rider.

Here is a good idea of the trail network--on the right side there are trails up and down all those small canyons--we just did not hit them all. You will see below the elevation--lots of short up and down, but only about a 1000 feet over 30 miles. Great day overall and worth the drive!

Thursday Night Ride 012810 Marshall Mesa

So for everyone that is curious what it can be like on one of our Night Rides I put a few pics together from this past Thursday night. Turned out to be one of our best rides yet and only by a fluke incident! I pulled up to the Saver's parking lot in Boulder already running late to find my rear brake completely flat, I mean lever all the way to the bar with no chance of even a little friction on the rotor. Since there was snow and ice out, I had to do a quick bleed right there in the dark. Luckily I carry my tools....35 minutes later, we had a rear brake!

David showed up ready to ride.....Me happy to have a rear brake again...front brake only in snow/ice = many wrecks and bruised hips!
Best thing was we decided to ride over to Marshall Mesa TH since we were almost an hour behind at that point and guess what we found--first tracks on perfect snow and frozen ground! We saw a lot of animal tracks too which always adds to the entertainment of the ride...no big kitty tracks though!


Had to walk the steps....and well, the snow packed up real good in the cleats. We both had to use my flat head screw driver to clean our shoes out!


We call this the "Shifter" gate. One thing that is really interesting on the Marshall trails is that no two gates are alike, so some you can get through without a dismount, others, has to happen.

Here David is heading over to Hwy 93 to check out the Dowdy Draw area--fresh tracks all the way! Kind of amazing for this area so close to Boulder.
The climb up Prarie Vista trail was mixed snow and frozen dirt--you could not even see the tire marks after we rode over it.

We hit up Dowdy Draw and here is a little crude video from my point and shoot.

From Marshall and Dowdy 012830

Here is a shot on Spring Brook Loop--you can see the Hoar Frost on the grasses. Right after this we turned the lights off and rode through the meadow area with just the light from the snow and low cloud ceiling.
Some more on the trees up on the back of the loop--the spikes of frost were almost an inch long.

Here is a map of what we did and an Elevation profile. We ended up riding about 22 miles that night. We added on the Springbrook loop due to my recommendation and then missed the Kitchen at Southern Sun after picking out what we were going to eat on the ride back along Broadway! We enjoyed a stout anyway and then off to IHOP to grab a monster late night breakfast to refuel. Can it get any better? :) Hope to see more of you come out soon!

Patrol hours for 2009!

Check the main patrol site for preliminary patrol data for 2009. Thank you all so much for your hard work and effort this year!

http://www.bma-mtb.org/patrol/

End of the year 2009 Bike Patrol Party at Avery Tasting Room

Another great year comes to a close. We ended up having 27 folks show up for the end of the year party including Amanda and Ed from the various rep areas! I think a good time was had be all. Thanks to Avery again for giving us a great place to meet up each month. We ended up with a record number of hours and miles this year--details to come.

MK and David S. talk serious stuff!

Chip and Bruce enjoying the great Avery Beer!

Chuck, Jon A., Ken, Jake, and John D. all relaxing and enjoying the salad and pizza.

Thanks again for making this such a great year for the trails in Boulder County and the Bike Patrol!

LED bike lights

Seems some people on the patrol are interested in the latest on bike lights. Well we all know that LED lights are getting better and better and less expensive.

The latest rage is the 'Magicshine' LED light.

It appears to be a knock off of a $400+ light from Lupine called the 'Tesla 4'. But only costs about $80. Its what happens when a product gets made in China.

You can get a basic light here with free shipping.

dealextreme

I've ordered several items from them and had great luck. I hear the quality control can have issues so one might have to be prepared for that. I haven't had a bad one though.

If you want more security of ordering from someone you can deal with for a slightly higher cost, there is

geomangear.com


They have the magicshine for $85 plus shipping but also sell parts such as spares and even a helmet mount adapter.

Walker Ranch closed for wild fire

Walker Ranch has been temporarily closed due to a wild fire nearby. Info here...

http://www.bouldercounty.org/openspace/Walker_Loop_Closure_Notice.htm

Check here for updates...

http://www.bouldercounty.org/openspace/

New Patrol Reports are up and working!

Ok patrollers, we now have 3 separate report forms for the 3 different agencies we volunteer for. City, County and USFS. Please fill out the appropriate form after each patrol with the according agency. This will be a BIG help to each agency and the patrol in keeping track of your hard work out there.

You can access the forms here at the main patrol site...

http://www.bma-mtb.org/patrol/

Questions? Contact John or email me directly... nick.lasure [at] gmail.com

Performance Bike Steps up to the plate!

100 tubes for the bike patrol! Incredible. Steve really hooked us up this year!!!

Wild Turkey seepage and bad rider habits...

Well, did a patrol yesterday from Longmont and there is a lot of seepage from the water table right now on top of the Heil Knoll. So, there are a few sections on WT trail that have been affected and folks should not try to ride around them--serious damage has been done as you can see from the pics.

Mike Rutter preparing the trail for the Trail Day Saturday

The other side of the switchback--deep ruts up to 8 inches deep and some 3 feet off the trail--gotta love it. There is actually a tire track four feet to the left you can see. :( This is the turn just below the dirt road that you cross on WT. Repairs will be needed here for sure. Either ride through the deep middle rut or turn around.....

Another spot just up and you can see again how folks run off the trail to avoid and then just create more of a mess. No doubt here, bikes did this. Maybe we can use these pics as a tool to help out? Mike Rutter was pretty bummed about it but said they will work on it--no way to know it would seep where it did and get so wet. He wants to the patrol to help out with mini crew days--3 or 4 of us go up during an evening and work on this type of repair. Stay tuned!

Commuting by bike to training Saturday?

There has been some interest to meet up in Boulder to commute to the training on bikes. There are folks for the am all day session and also some meeting around 11:15 or so to get out there for the scenarios. Either respond here or send me an email to coordinate. Thanks, John

Bike Patrol Weekend Training Rescheduled!

If anyone still does not know....training this Saturday, May 2nd. Same Place, Same time.

Bike Patrol Training Cancelled for Saturday!

Breaking news...

The training for tomorrow Saturday April, 18 is postponed due to the snowstorm! Keep checking back here and the main patrol website for updates.

Bike patrol signups and 2009 training!

Thanks everyone for coming Monday night--hope you enjoyed yourselves! Here are some links for the patrol information and the details about the training for the 2009 season.

Bike Patrol Web site

To signup for the patrol (new patrollers only!) follow this link below and fill out your basic information. Training signups will happen when we follow up with you.

2009 Bike Patrol Signup (new patrollers only!)


There are two training sessions this year to hopefully fit your schedule. You only need to attend one session but must attend in order to complete the training. The first session is two nights, the second session is one Saturday. Again, you will be able to sign up for these after you fill the signup form out above and you are contacted. There will also be optional day of first aid and CPR training within a few weeks that will be free to bike patrollers.

Session I:
April 8th, Wednesday and 9th, Thursday from 5:30pm to 9pm in Boulder. Dinner will be served each night.

Session II:
April 18th, Saturday from 9am to 4pm in Boulder. Light breakfast and a lunch will be served.

Thanks again! John

Some Bike Patrol Kickoff Party Photos

The place




The people











Some door prizes

Short-cutting the log steps at Marshall Mesa

The city put in a couple extra logs at the marshall Mesa intersection North of Greenbelt plateau a few months back. Those extra logs make it really hard to get up compared to the past. So it seems as a result people decided to short-cut them.

I did some impromptu trail work here today on my patrol. The results are shown below. However, this looks to be an unsustainable fix. I'm worried people will continue to bypass the logs in some form.



Otherwise, it was an excellent day to be out riding.

More Spring Brook Loop Photos!

Well, folks, here are a few photos I took from the ride to add to Rich's posting. Did not have time to drop them into photoshop so hope the raw images are bearable. Great day out and a nice addition to the West TSA for sure on top of the new Flat Irons Vista Trails, Dowdy Reroute and so on! The trails just keep coming. Enjoy and thanks to the City for giving us this opportunity to give input as some of the first bikers on the trail.

Folks showing up and enjoying the bagels and coffee Dean brought for the gathering.

Herschel rode his bike to the TH from Boulder

Dean giving everyone the plan of attack and introducing the other City reps.

Jon heading up Dowdy road towards the Flat Irons Vista Trails

Dean heading out

Another shot of Dean on the Dowdy Road

John Daily with a nice view of Mickey Mouse wall


John and Jon riding along--look at Jon's sweet Walt Works fixed gear.

A short meeting at the Spring Brook spur to divide the group and ride both directions

Mike getting read to head out. First group is in the distance riding across the wash. Steve and Dean tape up a sign to let other users know that we are doing a training.

Meadow section and a great view into Eldorado Canyon


Mike and Andria with a view to the North

Andria enjoying the fast meadow just before entering the trees.

Mike giving the thumbs up--he must be enjoying him self!

Final group shot but wait, who is that off on his cell phone? At least he made it for Rich's camera.

Trail is scheduled to open December 2nd. Maybe we can have a group of us there to patrol and see how the public takes to the new single track.