An August Bike Park Update

I went for a ride out Cement Creek on Saturday and I saw it.  I tried to ignore it, but I could not keep myself from staring.  Could it be?  Already?  A couple miles further up the road and there it was again.  Just seeing them made me pedal a little faster.  They create a sense of urgency inside me.  Yellow leaves have begun to appear around the valley.  It must be the drought, I thought.  Wait it has been raining every day for weeks.  All of a sudden the air feels cooler, my fingers and toes are tingling.  The first signs of autumn also means the first signs of summer winding down.  I pick up the pace again refusing to recognize this reality of life in the mountains and let myself settle back in to the enjoyment of riding my bike.

One of the new berms on Timetable, now ready for your riding pleasure. Thanks to Justin Barber's excellent raking skills. Photo taken by the Evolution Bike Crew.

There are a lot of great things about this time of year.  It rains often, which has the trails in amazing condition.  So much of the work we do in the Evolution Bike Park during June and early July really starts to shine this time of year with the consistent moisture and traffic.  Trails are riding fast, jumps are hitting great, you can take more speed into corners with confidence.  It generates the same kind of energy from riders that you see on a powder day in the winter.  It is so fun to be riding the Bike Park right now. Period.

There are also some killer new trail segments to ride.  Have you seen the new alignment at the top of the Woods trail?  More speed, bigger features, super fun.  Timetable is a new piece of track that will offer the option of a different finish to the Timeline trail.  We opened the lower section this past weekend followed by a bunch of high fives from the riders who came to sample this fast, smooth section of booters and berms.  We are working the upper portion of that trail now and hope to have it ready in the next few days.  We have been doing maintenance on many other aspects of the Park and it is just damn hard to travel very far on a bike up here right now without smiling so hard you have to laugh.  On that note if you have not ridden down Awakening in a while, stop reading this, grab your whip and get to the top of that trail for a guaranteed good time. 

Owen Tulip packing the dirt on a table top on the appropriately named new Timetable section. Photo taken by the Evolution Bike Crew.

When we finish Timetable we are off to finish what we started on the Gold Link side of the hill and get Crusader wrapped up.  That will be another awesome piece of trail that is worth the pedal to get to the entrance.  Next week we will be walking potential future alignments with the forest service.  If we are able to add these lines to the map next year it will offer more great options for the whole spectrum of riders.

Summer in Crested Butte is nothing short of spectacular.  It goes quickly though and as I said at the beginning of this piece, there are signs of the next season creeping into the landscape.  Get out there and ride.  It is so good out there and there are some fun new additions to the playground.  The Evolution Bike Park is running 7 days a week through Labor Day and the weekends to the end of September.  Hope to see you!

- Christian Robertson, Evolution Bike Park Manager