2014 BONC Grouse Fest

The third annual Bicyclists of Nevada County Grouse Fest rolled around an was a great mix of trail work, fun around the campfire, and epic back country riding.

photo by Keegan Zetterberg

The first day I set up camp and enjoyed the beauty of Lindsey Lake and the surrounding mountains that were the setting for great time in the mountains.  Towards dark we had an awesome night ride down Bull Pen trail and back up to camp.

The next morning volunteers were caravanned on 4x4 jeep road and then had a few mile hike to get to the work site.  Tons of progress was made on the first day and the despite thick Manzanita roots the new rerouted Lindsey Lakes trail was close to completion.

The second day some volunteers choose to continue to work and complete the trail work project while others choose to enjoy the technical back country mountain biking Grouse Ridge has to offer.  On the last day there is always a big group ride that show cases the best trails of the area.  Here are a few photos from my ride.

Photo by Keegan Zaetterberg

This years Grouse Fest was tons of fun I cant wait to see what this event will grow into in the future.  Thanks to the USFS Tahoe National Forest and Bicyclists of Nevada County for making this event possible.

CES #3 Livewire Enduro at Northstar

 

Stage 1 Livewire

The third stop of the California Enduro Series at Northstar Ski Resort was a blast and featured flowy bike park terrain, physical cross-country trails, and  technical black diamond runs.

Me and other racers from the NU Miners MTB Team.

The race was part of Northstar's Livewire Classic which brings their downhill and enduro race season to an end, the enduro race was well attended and had close to 300 competitors.



Stage 3 Speed Control/Pho Dog
 

Stage one was Livewire one of the bike parks most popular trails consisting of fifty 20-50 foot table tops and massive berms Livewire is also fully irrigated.  Stage 2 took place on various multi-use trails on the mountain and proved to be extremely physical, to get a good time racers had to go through over fifteen minutes of hair bleeding agony.

Pho Dog

For stage 3 it was back to the fun side of things and was my favorite stage of the day, it started on Speed Control a fast flowy bike park trail and then went into Pho Dog a mildly technical downhill run with jumps and berms.

At the end of the day I finished 9th out of 29 fast riders in the Junior Open category and was able to some good stuff in the post race schwag giveaway and raffle.