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Fat Bike with Mr. Bon Soo!

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We’re going to Bon Soo again! There will be bikes, music and a bonfire.

On Sunday February 9, from noon to 3pm, the Sault Cycling Club will have fat bike trails at Bellevue Park.  Come out and try fat biking for the first time – demo bikes will be available.  If you have a fat bike, bring it out and try out our advanced trail.  It may not be wilderness, but we will have some fun features to challenge you!

There will be a number of events happening at Bellevue park on that day (e.g., polar bear swim, ATV rides).  It would be great to have 100+ fat bikers out shredding the trails and showing that cycling is a year round activity enjoyed by many (we’re not just a few crazy riders…there are hundreds of us!).

We will be looking for volunteers to help build the trails in the week leading up to Feb. 9.  This is a great opportunity to learn what it takes to establish a winter trail.  Watch this website and Facebook for details closer to the event.

Spread the word and help us promote the Sault as a year round cycling city!

 

Hey! Where’d the trail go?

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Despite our best efforts, trail conditions can change over time.  Changes can necessitate some maintenance actions like improving drainage, re-contouring the trail surface or removing fallen trees.  However, there are times when the best course of action might be to put the trail in a different place.  This was the situation for the southern end of Stickman Drive.

In the spring, the bottom end of Stickman descended into a seasonal pool of water and after about 10 meters, emerged out the other side.  This is fabulous habitat for spring peepers and salamanders, but less so for mountain bikes.

Pool on Stickman Drive
Seasonal pool on Stickman Drive

So the club scouted the area to determine if there was a drier, less sensitive route to connect to the ski trail at the end of Stickman.  A potential new alignment was flagged and mapped that avoided the areas prone to spring ponding.  A proposal was presented to the landowner for the realignment and permission was granted for the work.

Clearing of the new route happened in August.

New alignment of Stickman Drive.

After the new section was ride-able, the old alignment needed to be made unride-able.  Work happened over the weekend to naturalize the old trail.  Trees, ferns and logs appeared where there had been none before!

Step 1 – Dig hole in the trail.
A tree appears in the forest.
Step 2 – Fill hole with tree from surrounding forest.
Step 3 – Make it look like you were never there.

The old alignment has been reclaimed for the frogs and salamanders, and the new alignment will develop in to perfect mountain biking habitat.

Trail? What trail?

Kids Shredding Singletrack – Farm Team Edition

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KSS is Expanding!  We’re creating a Farm Team to complement and grow the KSS group.

Have you got a trail rider looking for riding opportunities, but they are not quite old enough for Kids Shredding Singletrack?  Well we’re going to try something new this fall to meet that need.

KSS is expanding to provide trail riding opportunities for 7 to 10 year old’s.  (This is in addition to the 11-16 year old group that rides on Wednesdays.)  Farm Team riders will need to be comfortable riding the trails and able to ride at least 2 km on trails (e.g., 2 laps of the Kinsmen Adventure Trail).

  • When:Tuesday September 17 –  October 8th (4 weeks), 6:00-7:00pm
  • Where:Kinsmen Park/Hiawatha (behind the ice cream shop)

A typical session will include a brief discussion and demonstration of a skill or technique, then we will divide into groups to ride the trails.  We will stop at features where they can practice and develop their skills.  The focus will be on fun, but there will also be some learning going on!

Parents are welcome to ride along and, depending on the number of participants, might be asked to perform a “sweeper” role, trailing one of the groups and assisting the instructor/leader as needed.

To participate, your child will need to:

  • be a member of the Sault Cycling Club ($15 for youths, $70 for a family membership), register here: Join our Club
  • have access to a mountain bike in good repair
  • wear a helmet
  • be comfortable riding trails using a two-wheeled bicycle (no training wheels or balance bikes)
  • Kids will need to be fit and motivated enough to ride between 2 and 5 km of single track trail in an outing

The focus will be on introducing the kids to fun and safe mountain biking.

If you are interested in having your child participate, please complete the KSS Registration Form and the KSS Bike Check Form (yes we need both forms, even if you have participated in a previous SCC program).   Send these to Peter@SaultCyclingClub.ca by September 15, 2019.

If you have questions send me an email:  Peter@SaultCyclingClub.ca

 

Gravel Wednesday – St. Joseph Island

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For our second Wednesday, we’ll be riding out at St. Joseph Island.  Meet at the Jocelyn fairgrounds.  Map: Google

We’ll start at 7:30pm to give everyone time to get out there since it’s a bit further than we normally go to start a ride.  Please bring lights.  We’ll almost certainly be finishing at or after dusk.

Our route will involve some well-groomed gravel, some pavement, and some sandy sections.  Map: RideWithGPS

Shawn will be there to lead a C-group ride that cuts off a few kms, but keeps in the section that usually has raspberries!

Gravel Ride September 4th – Echo Bay

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This week, we’ll be starting up Wednesday gravel!  Meet at Echo Bay School at 7pm.  We’ll do about 50km.  Definitely bring lights, we’ll likely be back at dusk or later.

For the first time ever, we’ll have a C-group option for gravel riding, so if you’re looking to ride at a very casual pace, Shawn will be there to lead a group out.

There are a couple torn up sections of pavement on Pioneer and Government roads, so we get some bonus gravel!