All Sponsors Trail Day

Today my son and I went to our first "Father Son" trail day. These trail days are organised by the NSMBA and are usually sponsored by one bike shop or another. This one was a bit different though, it was a group effort by a number of bike shops and was directed towards a long standing hiking trail that is minimally used by mountain bikers, the Baden Powell Trail. The Baden Powell Trail spans the whole North Shore and three mountains. Today's event was to upgrade and repair a section on Mount Seymour between Old Buck and Severed Dick. This section has seen a lot of erosion due to the torrential rains we have seen in the past year and little upkeep by any of the stake holders. Very few if any other user groups organise maintenance of the trails on the North Shore. The NSMBA has been the major force in maintenance of all trails on the North Shore in recent years, not just mountain bike trails.

Today A and I picked a section of the trail that had been eroded because a culvert had been plugged with debris and water went over and down the trail instead of being moved under the trail. It was great fun. I was worried that A might be bored, but he got right into it. He helped dig out the ditch beside the trail and then moved rocks back onto the trial. Once our section was ready for the North Shore Gold that we needed to "cement" the rocks together A was in his element. He searched and found a "vein" just off the trail where he and Wade Simmons spent a lot of time filling buckets with Gold for the trail. It was difficult to get him to stop for lunch. By lunch we had two sections of the trail completed-- we, and others including Wade, had made a couple of berms to allow the water to flow off the trail and not down the trail. Even with the lure of a birthday party in the afternoon it was difficult to get A away from that North Shore Gold. Ahh, I think he has the bug.

Thanks to all the sponsors which included, Different Bikes, the Cove Bikes, On Top Bike Shop, Steed Cycles, The Northshore Bike shop and the organisers at the NSMBA. We'll see you at the next one.