Bridge Completion at Stub Stewart State Park

Congrats to everyone! The two year project to build three bridges in the mountain bike and mixed use trail area of Stub Stewart State Park, OR came to an end this weekend with the completion of the last bridge. This work was no easy feat and took 100’s of volunteers to help move 20+ tons of rock and materials into the remote areas where the bridges were built.

These 100’s of volunteers put in 1,500-2000 worth of combined hours and spanned many groups including NWTA, Oregon State Parks, Oregon Equestrian Trails, Westside Trail Federation, and the Northwest Youth Corps. 

Thanks to Oregon State Parks for making this all possible, including finding grants for Northwest Youth Corps to build the bridges. This gave 19-24 year old America Corp volunteers an opportunity to learn two weeks of carpentry skills. 

Gateway Green Project

What used to be the site of the Rocky Butte Prison from 1942-1983 is now becoming a 25 acre mix use park in Portland, OR. Sitting between two major highways, this unused land was recently the home to over 200 homeless. In the fall of 2016, a large outreach effort was started to provide assistance and resources to those living on the land.

A cleanup and trail building effort has since begun and volunteers from @nwtrail, Friends of Gateway Green and @portlandparks have put in thousand of hours thus far. 

This multi-million dollar project will also provide the mountain bike community with a local home and the Dirt Lab section of the park is slatted to open at the end of June 2017.

Check out www.gatewaygreen.org to learn more.

Dry Trails at Stub Stewart

With my camera in the shop and inconsistent cloud levels forecasted for Mt. St. Helens, we bailed on our climb and headed out to Stub Stewart this weekend for some dry trails. Come check out this great trail network that’s within 40 minutes of the Portland Metro area! You’ll find everything from a freeride park down to beginner XC trails here. But snag a trail map before you go here, MTB project and Trailforks didn’t have 90% of the trails that exist there.

Finding Dry Land in the Midst of Winter – Alsea Falls, OR

With the high freeze levels leaving most of the PNW foothills drenched in rain this past weekend, a few of us headed south to ride on two wheels. Arriving at Alsea Falls Trail Network in Oregon, we found exactly what we were hoping for, dry clay!

Since we arrived without knowing a work party was going on in the upper trails, we talked to Mike, the founder of the trails, and he gave us the run down of what was prime to hit and encouraged us to spend the day riding since it was our first time there. Spending most of our time on Springboard, a long and fast flow styled trail, we setup a few quick shots on some of the berms and rollers and took in the beautiful green and red contrast. After having our fill of 3 laps, we packed up and headed back north… into the rain.

Our warming weather…

Well… that’s the first time in a long time I’ve put my camera away on the descent because I was scared the elements would destroy it. Hoping to find a huge dump of snow around the 7.5k to 10k foot range on Mt Hood this past weekend, we instead found a torrential downpour. We made the best of it, braved the elements and had a great time. Thanks Eric Han and Kristian Gamiao for embracing the elements and getting the footage we could.

This does make you think tho… possibly even make you worried. Last year was the warmest year on record. Is this the fate of the PNW, will our winters really stay this warm and will our love for winter recreation slowly dwindle away. I sure hope not, but only we can contribute and help reverse the affects we’ve caused.

Riding By:
Eric Han, Jesse Hambley and Kristian Gamiao

Filmed By:
Jesse Hambley
Kristian Gamiao (GoPro)

 

Happy New Year!

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Jeff Snyder finding some untracked pow stashes on Bennett Pass, Mt. Hood.

It felt so great to break in the new year with some mellow touring on Mt. Hood and enjoying some knee deep powder tree runs. Looking forward to what 2015 brings!