Backcountry Film Festival to Benefit GORC

The seventh annual world tour of the Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival, taking place Friday April 6th with the films starting at 7:30pm, highlights the beauty and fun of the winter backcountry experience. Submissions come from renowned filmmakers who travel every corner of the globe to submit their best backcountry work, and from grassroots filmmakers who take a video camera out on their weekend excursion a and submit their best film short  The films are juried by a select panel of judges and the fop film are assembled into a 90 minute program.

Backwoods has 150 tickets available at $10.00 each and will be donating 100% of the proceeds to both GORC and Trailnet. Should all tickets be sold, the club has the potential to receive over $750.00 which will assist in the development of trails at Lost Valley, Greensfelder, and other general trail development. This is awesome! 

We will have a membership table setup for the event and members will receive a 20% discount off one item the evening of the event (with normal restrictions).

2011/2012 Films
Best of the Festival:  "Solitaire", by Sweetgrass Productions
Best Short Award: "Chalk and Ski", by Purple Orange
Best of the Backcountry Award:  "Breaking Trail", by Powderwhore

Other film selections include...

• 40 Tribes Kyrgyzstan
• Berber Turns
• Ski Bums Never Die
• Winters of My Life
• Seasons; Winter
• Bike, Ski, Raft Denali Traverse

Below is a preview trailer for one of the films:

The event will take place Friday April 6th with the films starting at 7:30pm. GORC will also set up a informational and membership table the night of the event. Hope you can make it!

2011- The Year in Review

Another busy year for GORC. With 19 official workdays, not to mention some impromptu ones, as well as a lot of unpublicized individual efforts, it's hard to keep track of everything. Here's a summary what went on this year, and I'll try to point out the plans for each of the trails in the coming year.

SIUE - 2 workdays. 0.3 miles of new trail.
1/15 - minor reroutes, and armoring of areas which were becoming troublesome to deal with. Announcement of the opening of additional area for building of new trails.
12/10 - first 0.3 miles of trail in the new area south of the Morris bikeway.
What's up for 2012: Continued expansion south of the bikeway and development of new area east of University Dr.

Greensfelder - 4 workdays. 1.25 miles of new trail.
2/26 - 0.5 miles of new trail on the Deer Run trail descending from Scenic Loop Rd. to Eagle Valley trail.
4/9 - Greensfelder- armoring of Deer Run trail in preparation for Greensfelder Challenge race. Armoring and maintenance on Eagle Valley trail behind Visitor Center.
9/24, Greensfelder - Worked on rerouting trail at the north end of the Green Rock just inside the park boundary that was encroaching on private property.
11/12 - completed reroute on Green Rock.
Greensfelder Challenge race was held in May as a fundraiser for GORC (Thanks DRJ and United in Dirt!).
What's up for 2012: completion of Deer Run descent from Scenic Loop to Eagle Valley. Work on new Beulah trail branching off from DeClue.

Matson Hill - 3 workdays. 1.1 miles of new trail.
3/12 - Matson Hill- construction of 0.6 miles of new singletrack branching off from the Oxen Mill trail, and opening a new section of the Hayes property addition.
4/23 - Matson Hill- canceled due to rain and mud.
10/15, Matson Hill - continued with work extending trail up the hillside.
10/29, Matson Hill - Up, up and away. Continuing up the hillside of the multi-switchback climb.
What's up for 2012: Continue heading southward towards Duke Rd. Matson will eventually have more than 10 miles of singletrack!

Indian Camp Creek - 2 workdays.
3/26 - reroutes, maintenance, and armoring projects.
6/4 - National Trails Day. Maintenance on the Ridge Trail.

Cliff Cave - 2 workdays, 0.8 miles of new trail.
5/21 - work on addition to Spring Valley trail which will complete an inner loop within the main SV trail.
10/22 - worked on completing inner loop of Spring Valley and rerouted some problem areas.
Tons of unofficial work put in by Kevin Ginther, Steve Ludwig and others. The official stats don't do justice to this.
What's up for 2012: Completion of Spring Valley inner loop.

Castlewood - 2 workdays.
6/4 - (moved from 5/14) - National Trails Day. Maintenance on main trails at the front of the park.
11/19 - reroute on Cedar Bluff trail, and maintenance.

Rock Hollow - 2 workdays.
9/17- worked on creek crossings which will show the contractor who wins the bid to complete the trail what level of work needs done.
12/3 - continued work on creek crossings.

Creve Coeur - 2 workdays, 1 mile of new trail.
11/5 - (GORC Appreciation Party) - 0.5 miles of new trail and Volunteer Appreciation Party complete with donation of Stone Beer from Major Brands! Thanks to all GORC volunteers.
12/17 - completed 0.5 miles of new loop trail giving it a total length of 1 mile. There is now 4.25 miles of singletrack at CCP!

Lost Valley - No official workdays, but the trails got a lot of much needed maintenance attention thanks to Greg Ott, Mitch Johnson and Larry Koester.
What's up for 2012: replacing doubletrack with singletrack, and lots of it!!!

In additon there were many events throughout the year that GORC members participated in: Ouachita Challenge, Syllamo's Revenge, trip to Taos, Brown County Breakdown, Berryman Trail Epic, Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day, and numerous mountain bike and cyclocross races.

Matt Buckley took over as head of the GORC chapter of the National Mtb Patrol. Look for them out on the trail, or at a race.

This year also has something different with a bike (donated by Ballwin Schwinn) being raffled off to those who participated in 2 workdays. The drawing is January 4th at the monthly meeting.

It was a great year, and we hope to continue to add new trail, and keep what we have in good condition. None of this could be done without your help, so please continue to volunteer whenever you can.
See you on the trails!

GORC Trailbuilding Statistics

 

 Area trails with their total mileage, and the part of each which was constructed by GORC 

GORC World HQ recently compiled the statistics showing the course of our trailbuilding efforts over the past 10 years, and they proved to be somewhat of an eye-opener, even to those who are actively involved in trail design and building.

Many people in the STL area probably take these trails for granted, or think that they were built with taxpayer money, and don't realize how much trail was really built by volunteer labor. Some of these trails listed have been around for a long time, others are brand new. One thing they have in common is that GORC has at some point contributed to them. The contributions range from very small, like construction of a short reroute on Berryman, and periodic maintenance there. Others are like SIUE, Klondike, or Creve Coeur where the trails were completely designed, built and actively maintained by GORC. We are not taking credit for all of the trails listed here, but the mileage totals speak for themselves. Many different outdoor-oriented groups make use of these trails, and we wanted to make it known how they came about.

GORC is really a pretty small group, and most of its effectiveness comes from being able to manage the logistical aspects of drawing together a shifting, and diverse pool of volunteer labor- not just mountain bikers, to get trails built. We need all the help we can get to continue to build and maintain trails in the area. Please consider attending a workday to help out. If you don't want to attend a workday, we'll also happily take your donations, but we'd rather have the labor.

 

Total trail mileage, and that constructed by GORC 

Area trail mileage constructed by year
The dip in production in 2005-06 was due to our hosting the Midwest Mountain Bike Festival, which took away a lot of time from design 

Be Prepared

Tom shows how many nails it will take to sign the whole Berryman

(and probably every trail in Mark Twain Natl Forest)

Every year or so, GORC's chapter of the National Mountain Bike Patrol gets together for a refresher class on CPR/AED, and First Aid. This was the third year, and we talked about a few other things that were related to making sure everyone remains as safe as possible while they're out enjoying the trails.

Perry, the SLAG overlord, and first-aid expert brought up the so-called "10 Essentials" which are items that should be carried on every outdoor adventure. You might think that you're only out for a little mtb ride, what could happen?, but it's amazing how many people there are who are woefully unprepared when something really does go wrong. This was one of the main reasons the Patrol was started in the first place. With its motto "Assist, Educate, and Inform", the hope is to prepare patrollers in advance for an emergency, as well as help those who need it.

Perry also suggested looking at the REI website, which has a section called "Expert Advice" that has checklists, how-tos, and other advice on all sorts of activities, including one which is cycling-specific.

If you're interested in first-aid, or the Patrol, you can find out more information on IMBA's website, or by posting on the GORC message board.

KC Summit 2004: We're Gettin' the Band Back Together, Man! March 19-21, 2004

as written/reported by Matt. Facts might be inaccurate here or there, just because he can't remember...

The 2004 Midwest Mountain Bike Advocacy Summit in Kansas City, MO may have lasted only 3 days (Mar. 19-21) but the memories will last for years.

Since GORC is an ever-growing entity of like-minded MTBers, I can only shed light on this annual event based on my perspectives and who I rode with. But overall, it was the same experience for everyone.

Wednesday : Dirt Rag Ride
Yes, the weekend started on Wednesday for me. Maurice Tierney and Thanita Adams of Dirt Rag fame we're passing through St. Louis and wanted to hook up with GORC for some riding. John Donjoian, Ray Easterling, Matt (?), and Matt Hayes arrived late afternoon at the West Tyson side of the Chubb trail to show them our fine trails. The only problem was that it had rained steadily for about 2 hours before the ride was to kick off.
Needless to say the ride was wet and slippery but Maurice and Thanita had a great time. Props to Thanita who has awesome handling skills and attempted to ride the "Steps" 3 times before calling it quits. Pimp-Daddy John schooled everyone on the ice-slick Steps and rode them with style and a puckered arse. Overall, a successful ride with no injuries and only smiles. Maurice and Thanita commented on the rocky technical trail (they were impressed) and they introduced us to Tiglett (Thanita's cat). We parted ways and would see them again soon.

Thursday : A Minor Detour for A Miner Party
Johnny D., myself and Scott Whitaker headed down to Blue Springs in the GORC limo Thursday afternoon. We checked into our 1 star motel, the Knights Inn, and threw our crap inside. Our next stop was Ken Miner's pad to meet all of the industry reps, speakers and other Summit masterminds. Ken operates the successful and well-oiled Earth Riders Trail Association (www.earthriders.com, earthriders.org). GORC is much younger than ERTA and has learned much from them. The social party was fun and intelligent for the first couple of hours but once the Fat Tire flowed and the Single Speed Outlaw posse and the Minneapolis Evil Cycling crew arrived the party quickly degenerated into conversations about goats, ragbrai hijinx, and beer selection. Hurl Everstone (www.carsrcoffins.com) brought a case of The Beast and we all played the head-to-head Playstation2 Downhill Domination game. We left around 11 to get a good night's sleep.
We had a 7am ride the next morning, after all.

Friday : When Friday Night Is A Tuesday Night You Know You're in Trouble
The 7am ride went without a hitch. John, Scott and I rode with 13 other SS'ers on the Blue River trail system. Only one gearie on this ride. Damn, I guess single speeding has caught on in some parts. The MinneNuts, Single Speed Outlaw (SSO), Frank Tuesday and GORC rode the trails fast because we all had to be at the Summit meetings by 9 - a half hour drive at that.

Within 10 minutes, someone had bombed a small creek crossing and was under the water. It was kinda cold but he persevered for the hour and a half ride. It was slick in several spots but no one went down. We rode a bunch of new trail ERTA had recently completed and it was fast and flowing. It was definitely cool to see the trail in the daytime as this was the location of last year's Frank Tuesday nightime event. The highlight of this ride came out of our asses. At one resting point we all separately launched our own ass tirades. For about two minutes there were random gas attacks, one after the other, like something you'd see in a cartoon. It was unreal.

We packed up, went to the hotel and cleaned up. We jetted to the Summit and met up with a bunch of GORC brothas and sistas. After a two hour stint and a break for lunch, we opted to all ride at Landahl Park, the location of the Summit. The drinking had commenced and we were ready to rock. The ride was brisk and we checked out "Tasty Goodness," a recently added trail to Landahl's stacked trail network. At the first turn, TomE smashed his head and shoulder on a tree. Ouch. After he stopped seeing stars we rode for about two hours and ended up on Trail 11 on the opposite side of the park. Trail 11 is a black diamond expert trail like Greensfelder but about 10 times rockier.
Late in the afternoon we headed back to the Summit conferences for a QA session and then ate at Minsky's Pizza. Next stop: The Frank Tuesday night ride.

We unpacked, prepped and arrived at the scene. The beer was a-flowin and a blow up doll was surfing the crowd. A derby erupted and the hardcore made a tight circle and went for the kill. Riders and bikes went down - hard. Some people were rammed into the concrete barriers, others were forced to blaze through the race banners (oops). John Farinella suffered some nasty finger mashy before the word was given and we were off.

Despite being unorganized, most people eventually made it to the Frank Tuesday spot #1. Beer was tapped and bottlerockets were launched. Tom Erb's Marzocchi fork made a great launch pad for Farinella's rockets. Oops, white gas came with us, that's bad. I go for a refill and next thing I know Tom's got the trail on fire. Then a bike. And a rider (Ben). And I see the bottle thrown down. Kicked. Whoosh! The field is on fire. Whoopee - I mean, holy shit, the field's on fire! We all rush to stomp it out with our feet. This is Ben's first Frank Tuesday event and he's already got 2nd degree burns on his right leg. Damn, that blows. He rocks on, though!

We ride on and hit the "downhill." We hit it and mach 2 and end up at the bottom in a field. Dozens of bottle rockets are launched at the slow and weak but their guidance systems fail to reach any meaningful targets. Oh, it was a Frank Tuesday joke, we gotta ride back up the huge hill. No, seriously. We walk up the steep pitch and head on to the last stop for more beer. This time it's an uphill challenge. Riders coming into the last field must go balls to the wall in an attempt to scale a 20+ foot high gravel pile. As soon as the tires hit it, everyone bogs. Some get very close, others endo up the thing in fantastic style. The drunker ones loop out and crash down it in spectacular fashion. Matt James is bombed and has fallen about 6 times at this point. He's finished... Matt Hayes has forgotten to take allergy medicine and is getting his ass beaten by Mother Nature. He just wants to fall over dead. Despite looking like he had a bottle of Jim Beam, he was only drunk on snot that night.

Wrapping up the Frank Tuesday event around 12:30 (??), GORC shuttled out to the Waffle House and ate well. Our table enjoyed watching the Miller Life Mullet Man cough his lungs out and fall asleep at his plate. I continued the downward spiral courtesy of Mother Nature. Nice work, I give up.

Saturday : Single Speeders Everywhere

By Saturday all GORC attendees had arrived. Since there was a time trial at Landahl, we chill out and make our way over there around noon. The weather for the weekend was mild and this would be the best day yet.

GORC split up into two or three rides, mainly because we weren't time-synched. If we would've waited a half hour we would've had the whole crew together. We ride all the trails again and take a break at a trail branch. There are single speeders everywhere riding the trails. GORC was a 50/50 mix and we even managed to convert Nathan to the dark side. He opts to buy Scott's Redline Monocog. Well done. While waiting, more GORC people meet up and we proceed to move on. It's demo day at the Summit and some rigid SSers has opted for a full springer. We hit a fast dowhill stretch and Matt Hayes clips a tree with his bars on a downhill. Dumbass. He goes down like a ton of bricks on his left shoulder but nothing is broken. It hurts a bit but the best therapy is more riding.

We ride and drink all day until the raffle drawing starts. By then, everyone is buzzed and having a blast. We are moshing for prizes and causing a commotion. By evening, we decide to eat and come back for a GORC night ride. We later find out Matt Stenberg has left early. WTF?? This is unheard of in the GORC ranks and we are disappointed. Unless it is serious injury or a personal issue, you cannot leave early. Man, that's just wrong.

We ate at Jose Peppers Mexican Grill and must commend the staff for dealing with our shitheadedness. Drinks were spilled, Mexican toothpick flags were thrown and it was 2 margaritas for $5 bucks. Some of us are cut off, if you can believe that. We leave a nice tip and get the hell out before anything else happens.

We go back to the lone star motel to change and get ready to hit Landahl. John, Matt and Scott's room are shot up with bottle rockets courtesy of Farinella and crew. It's a miracle nothing is on fire and that the cops haven't arrived. The motel owners, the Patels, live right next door to our room and we're certain that it's all over. But nothing happens, thank goodness. They were probably too scared to deal with us! Tom's truck tailpipe is shot up with bottlerockets. Good times.

Matt does a Surly crank check in the parking lot because his Truvativ Stylo SS cranks suck ass. The ISIS interface has incorrect tolerances and the drive side works loose every 8 miles or so. MikeyD falls over on takeoff so he's out of the picture. There's a trashcan fire someone has started so he can go hang out there along with Doug R, John F, Black Matt, Thanita and the Minneapolis Evil Crew.
Our night ride is scary and blurry. Myself, Scott, John, Randy and a SAMBA guy (?? right, what's his name, sorry it was a fuzzy night) head off into the night. John and Matt try to go lightless after our first stop but it's so dark Matt misses a turn and rides off into the woods. We ride Swedish Erotica, Rim Job and Little Moab. Matt gets a slow front leak and stops to air it up. We're greeted by Mr. Single Speed Serotta Guy who has chopped his XTR cranks (WTF??) and likes to talk about himself, blah, blah, blah. I am too buzzed and lazy to change a flat in the dark so I air up and bolt out like my ass is on fire. We all make it back to basecamp and find everyone still around the fire kicking each other in the ass. Hmm. We hang out for a while and join the mayhem. Mikey seems a bit f'cked up so I opt to leave him be.

A good night ends well.

Sunday : One Last Epic
OK, let's cut this one short because by now my memory is fuzzy and I'm tired of typing...
Everyone is sore from all of the riding but we press on to do one more cold epic ride. The weather is in the 40's and everyone is ready to bail. But somehow, we convince ourselves to do just one more ride. We ride almost all of the trails again before we pack up and head back to St. Louis.
Remember kids, where there is GORC, there is mayhem.

GORC Road Trip - Sun Valley, Idaho : August 2003 Riding High in Idaho

as written/reported by Matt Hayes to the best of his knowledge. Facts might be inaccurate here or there...

Partakers in the quest to bring some STL hi jinx to the high country:
Scott Whitaker, Mike Donais, John Donjoian, Matt Hayes, Doug Smith and Matt Stenberg from St. Louis
Scott Nelson, formerly from St. Louis, now in Park City, Utah.
Doug Wright from Durango, Colorado.
Idaho IMBA rep: Harley Pearson
Former IMBA Trail Care Crew, Rich and Jen Edwards
Saturday August 2, 2003

• Depart STL, Arrive at Salt Lake.
• Rent matching white Impala "cop cars" and eat at the Red Iguana in Salt Lake, purported to be the best Mexican food in the city. Met up with Scott Nelson, the guy that used to live in St. Louis and rode the Spot singlespeed. He lives in Park City now. Also met up with Doug Wright from Durango. He used to be from St. Louis, too, and is known to ride the trails topless.
• Proceed to haul ass and arrive in Ketchum, the small mountain town next to the Sun Valley Ski Resort. Our house rocks, we are not worthy! Estimated at $750,000 and 2,700SQ.
• Harley, the Idaho IMBA rep, crashes for the night along with two of his comrades. Tomorrow is the Sunday Epic - The Fisher Creek trail system (25?? miles)
• But before an epic we must, have some drinks at the local dive bar - The Casino. It was fun, we all had our share. Matt Hayes got a bit trashed.
• Tomorrow would come quickly.

Sunday, August 3rd, 2003 : Fisher Creek Epic

• Time to show Idahoans what the STL crew is made of.
• Drive an hour to the Sawtooth Mountain range and meet at the Fisher Creek trailhead.
• It starts as a gradual 7-8 mile fireroad climb and then nearly doubles the grade for the last 3/4 mile until we peak. From here it's several miles of downhill bliss. The downhills in Idaho seem to go on forever. They're relatively smooth and very fast, very loose. Sorta rollercoaster like the back part of Greensfelder but much sweeter.

We come out into a beautiful high altitude valley. Harley tells us it's being threatened by the Wilderness Act. Over half of this trail would be off-limits, including this mesmerizing field of wildflowers. Over a mile and a half long and half a mile wide, surrounded by mountains, I've never seen anything like it.
After getting through the field, we drop (!) again and pass a swift waterfall. We haven't climbed for over an hour - definitely not St. Louis riding. Harley leads us into second half of the trail and it rides more like Missouri - rocky and semi-technical (a combo of Castlewood and Chubb). Johnny D, GORC pimp extraordinaire, leads into the switchbacks. His front Avid disc locks up a bit, checks it out, starts out - boom, he endos onto his head/face. He's fine but the helmet died. Idaho has taken its first victim - but he's not the last.
Nearing the last hour it begins raining - a cold rain. We hold our own and complete the Sunday Epic intact. 21+ ? miles. A shuttle picks our tired bodies up and drives an hour back to the trailhead. Beer is passed around and it is good.

Monday, August 4th, 2003 : Up, and Up and Up and Damn! Up!?
This ride starts on the road and ends on the road. Today we will do 33 miles. Ketchum has a sweet bike path network for miles along its roads - we ride 10+ miles before we turn up the gulch to our trailhead. We climb for about an 45 minutes on tarmac and then head up onto scrub mountains. Tons of suns today, no shade, heavy sunscreen recommended.
This climb is brutal. Everyone is feeling it. Mike Donais who had broken his collarbone 6 weeks prior was carrying himself quite well despite the circumstances. We climbed 9+ miles continuous (maybe more - I forget). Up and Up, steeper and steeper, it's not letting up. John Donjoian begins pulling away from both Matt's and leads to the top.
The downhill on this run is fast and somewhat sketchy. Loose and gravelly from motocrossers we haul ass through switchbacks and whoops. It's so dusty there's mud in my mouth and I can't see the ground where my tires are headed. I'm using up way too much karma on this ride.
We run into a herd of sheep in the middle of nowhere! Hundreds of sheep are clogging the trail and the hispanic farmer doesn't seem to care. He tells us to just push forward and they'll get out of the way. We parted the great sea of sheep and continued onward downhill.
Again John goes down. He was out front so no one saw it. He said it happened too quick when his pedal hit a rock. Nothing serious, we finish out the trail by crossing the gulch creek over 10 times. The trail ends at the warm springs. The frigid creek has two natural warm water springs that people chill out in. Doug Wright is a water nut (sea otter?) and doesn't want to leave.
Doug Smith, Matt n Matt and John head out on the road back. We draft a semi and keep a 23-26 mile pace all the way back to the house. What a way to end a killer ride.

Tuesday, August 5th, 2003 : Bike Death or Death Ride?
Today the crew splits up. Scott, Mike, Doug Smith head out to do an easier loop without so much climbing. Turns out that their ride is just as tough as the other ride that Matt, John, Doug Wright and Matt Stenberg go on. They are doing Chocolate Gulch. The ride is awesome until we climb switchback after switchback. We meet an original mountain biker out there still on his rigid steel hardtail. He's 50 something and keeping pace with us.
Stenberg begins pulling away from Matt, Doug and Pimp Daddy. Hayes says hell no and kicks his Giant NRS into 2-1 mode and catches up. At the top the view is incredible.
Matt notices his Rockshit Duke is leaking oil like an old tanker. Oh well, at least it still bounces.
We end the ride with a fast and swoopy stretch along scrub brush hill sides. Speeds close to 30mph are achieve and brakes are beginning to smell. Life is good.
The crew meets up at the pad and swaps stories. Turns out Scott put the hurt on the Ellsworth by pulling a JRA (just riding along) and cracks, no strike that - completely separates, his seat tube. The bike is dead. Time to rent a Kona Dawg. Scott likes it so much that he buys it! Time to drain the keg Mike Donais purchased for us. He's alright in my book.

Wednesday, August 6th, 2003 : Fisher Creek Revisited
Scott Nelson meets up with us and we tackle the other half of Fisher creek. He is riding Spot the single-minded singlespeed. He is a monster and climbs the whole 7 mile ascent. Matt Hayes reaches the top in 54 minutes, the best time. He climbs without dabbing the whole thing. He had a score to settle with that mountain.
We re ride the rollercoaster downhill, faster this time. Faster, faster. No one crashes. Now we ride the new section and climb again. Scott is leading us on the uno gear. Matt's fork is still crying like a little beyatch.
Awesome ride, one of the best of the week. The keg must die today. Not a problem with GORC.
Tonight we party. The goal - get Stenberg trashed - at The Casino.
Mission accomplished after he begins craving food and seeking out fast food Jack in the Box in a town with NO fast food joints. The vodka makes him slightly scary to me. Very solemn, gotta watch the quiet ones. Matt Hayes again has too many Long Island Teas. The Casino treats us well. Good night.

Thursday, August 7th, 2003 : Gotta do your own Thang
The crew splits up again. John, Matt H, Scott N and Doug W decide to ride the pain train and do a 26-30 miler to end on the week of epics.
Mike, Scott W, Doug S, and Matt S all decide to try downhilling on Bald Mountain.
Sidenote: Weird ass trip - Everyone has similar first names except for John and Mike -
Scott Nelson, Scott Whitaker

Matt Stenberg, Matt Hayes
Doug Smith, Doug Wright

John Donjoian
Mike Donais
Weird stuff. Anyway, the downhill according to Scott W is "f'kin incredible" and he ranks it as one of the best rides all week.
Meanwhile, the pain train is climbing and then walking double black diamond uphills. Holy shizzle, we end up walking the gulch for about 2 hours until we reach the summit. The last 100 feet is straight up the fall line, probably 25-30 degrees. But it's a postcard view! We ride to the base and are all feeling it. We stop for a crash junk food lunch at a lone gas station supposedly where Marilyn Monroe filmed "Bus Stop"
Six hours later we're finished. Finished in all aspects of the word.
Tonight we party. Again. The Roosevelt bar has good jammin' rap and dance mixes. Free beer for an hour. Good enough for GORC.

Friday, August 8th, 2003 : Quickie Downhill
We need to prep our bikes for shipping and prepare to leave at the crack of dawn. It's Doug Smith's 30th birthday so we gotta celebrate. Everyone is completely shattered from the daily epics. But someone spreads the word of just one more downhill on Bald Mountain. We didn't come all the way up here to blow a day without riding, right? Hell no!
We pay our $15 for the ski lift up. An hour later we're heading down the 9 mile downhill. The run condensed:
First couple of miles are on side slope of mountain with lots of exposure. 25+ mph.
Scott gets a flat, then this spare shreds while pumping it up.
Ride more and get into the forest. Dusty!
Matt H gets a flat.
Ride uphill on the downhill, ironic, but it doesn't last too long.
John D gets a flat. The sharp rock is brutal.
Switchbacks catch a few off guard and then we find the flow.
The ride ends almost in back of our house. Takes about 45 minutes to do - give or take a flat.
Time to prep the bikes. Riding time is over.
John, Doug and Scott head out to celebrate Doug's birthday. The rest of us are destroyed from the week of heavenly riding.

Saturday, August 9th, 2003 - Homeward Bound
We leave around 5 am to head back to Salt Lake. I know I'm gonna miss Ketchum. We get on the plane and come home.
145+ miles
The end as I remember it...