Logan Mountainbike

Work Day 10

2012-02-08T20:54:00.000-05:00

Date Worked 02/05/12

Weather: Rain

Temperature: 45

Workers Present: 3

Time Worked: 1.5 hours

Manhours Spent: 4.5 hours

Distance Completed: 65 yards

Total Trail Distance: 808 yards

Total Manhours Spent: 106.5 hours

3 is the loneliest number that I've ever seen........just imagine a musical tune and you'll get the idea.

3 worker present, rain and difficult digging leave me a little less than excited about our day. What we got completed looks really good, just not that much of it. The good news.........we scouted ahead a little and found a 100+ yard flat right around the corner. If we have a good turn out Sunday we might get thru the next section and clear the flat.......sounds good to me. Hope to see you soon for another work day.

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Work Day 9

2012-02-01T21:40:00.000-05:00

Date Worked: 01/29/12
Weather: Clear

Temperature: 38

Workers Present: 6

Time Worked: 2.5

Manhours Spent: 15

Distance Completed: 108

Total Trail Distance: 743
Total Manhours Spent: 102

I know I keep saying it...............but another great day of trail work. All the help we are getting and the weather we are having is making this year a great success for the build, hope it continues.

We had another first timer for the year show up this past Sunday to lend a hand. The man, the myth the legend.....POOH-BEAR, Rick S. was out for a hard days work. It always fun when he's around.

POOH-BEAR hard at work

The day yielded about 100 yards of fresh cut trail through a valley and starting back toward the next point. We had about 25-30 yard of flat that we took advantage of without having to bench, now we are faced with a long bench to the point. If we keep hitting flats each workday and manage to complete 100 yards plus each work day we might make our goal.

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Work Day 8

2012-01-25T20:19:00.000-05:00

Date Worked 01/22/12

Weather Sunny
Temperature 58
Workers Present 3
Time Worked 3
Manhours Spent 9
Distance Completed 160
Total Trail Distance 635
Total Manhours Spent 87

What a great day to work, sunny and warm............I could've had a ride!! Oh well, we have to stay focused. Although there were only 3 of us this day we covered allot of ground. It started off with some very rooty (is that a word) section and finished with a 100yard flat that basically just needed raked and a few fallen trees cut. This day made it really feel like we are getting somewhere, we even parked our vehicles in a different spot. It is now faster to park near the second shelter and hike straight up the hill than to walk the entire trail that we have built.

We hope to see a few more helpers this Sunday, we will have an easy start through a valley then more benching to get around the next point. Best thing about it will be the sight of the 2nd park shelter as we round the corner on the point. Gotta have small goal to keep us motivated. Hope to see you there Sunday!!

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Work Day 7

2012-01-18T21:13:00.000-05:00

Date Worked: 01/15/12
Weather: Snow
Temperature: 28
Workers Present: 7
Time Worked: 3
Manhours Spent: 21
Distance Completed: 120
Total Trail Distance: 475
Total Manhours Spent: 78

The day started off good and ended up great. We had 7 people to show up for work, I think our hopes of extra help each week is really happening. The extra help is really paying off, the trail is really shaping up and looking great. The more experience we get building trails the better they turn out. This trail is going to be really fast and flowing. The deep bench cuts make for a wide, smooth sustainable trail. The only drawback to the trail being this nice is we are sacrificing some time. In the past years we have benched a little less and covered more ground. It may take a little longer now but the end result will be worth it. I really think the Wildcat will become one of the most used and most liked trail by everyone from cyclist to runners to the everyday walkers. If we reach our goal of museum this winter and get a trail head established the traffic will really take off.

In my last post I made mention of a member that had not shown up for trail work, well that really did the trick, Josh V was there along with Josh W, Grand Master Ron S, Joey A and the 3 of us die hards (William, Dennis and Chris). Big thanks to everyone for the help. We'll be at it again this Sunday and hope to see everyone again.

Work Day 6

2012-01-09T20:36:00.000-05:00

Date Worked: 01/08/12

Weather: Overcast
Temperature: 44
Workers Present: 5
Time Worked: 2.5
Manhours Spent: 12.5
Distance Completed: 95
Total Trail Distance: 355
Total Manhours Spent: 57

We completed about 100 yrads of trail thanks to the good weather and the extra help provided by Grand Master, Ron S. and Derek T. All the extra help this year has really helped out with our trail building. At the beginning of our trail work season we had hoped to have 1 or 2 extra set of hands each Sunday and that has pretty much happened. Hope the trend continues!! Though I will have to say that there is one LMBA member that has failed to show up...........you know who you are.

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Work Day 5

2012-01-02T20:31:00.000-05:00

Date Worked: 1-1-2012

Weather: Rain

Temperature: 53

Workers Present: 4

Time Worked: 1.5 hours

Manhours Spent: 6 hours

Distance Completed: 50 yards

Total Trail Distance 260 yards

Total Manhours Spent 44.5

After a week off for the Christmas holiday we were back at it right where we left off. I was hoping that Santa's elves would have done a little digging over the break but that didn't happen.........maybe next year!

With a pretty tough section to work on for the day it was great to see Joey A. come out to lend a hand, big thanks for that!!! We worked for about 1 1/2 hours and got rained out, this is something that almost never happens. We usually work regardless of the weather, but we are typically battling snow and not rain. Frozen ground is much easier to work in than mud. I guess there are a few draw backs to warmer weather.

We will be back at it next Sunday and will almost surely reach our second milestone of this trail. Getting to the first point and transitioning onto a flat that we hope will speed up production.

Come out and join the fun, Sundays at 10am. Hope to see you there.

Not real happy with the pictures for this week but here is what I've got.

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WVMBA Ride Guide Photo Contest (part 2)

2011-12-22T17:51:00.000-05:00

Well the LMBA had a great start and was in the lead for some time with picture #8. Then something happened.....voting jumped from the 200's to the 600 mark then the 900 vote mark in a very short time period.

I would like to think that was because all our blog anf facebook friends really love our picture but I'm guessing that's not the whole story. Anyway WVMBA has decided to start all over with a different voting tool to stop multiple votes.

So we need everyone to click here and vote for our phote. I still think we have a great shot at winning.

Thanks for all your help!!!!

Work Day 4

2011-12-19T19:47:00.000-05:00

Date Worked: 12-18-2011

Weather: Clear

Temperature: 29

Workers Present: 5

Time Worked: 3 hours

Manhours Spent: 15 hours

Distance Completed: 85 yards

Total Trail Distance 210 yards

Total Manhours Spent 38.5

Another good day of work on the trail. 5 crew members and the most distance covered so far. Manpower sure makes a difference!!! Nothing to interesting on this section, just level benching till we reach the point that is about 20 yards from where we stopped for the day. Just around the corner is the first nice flat that we will reach that hopefully will require little work..........Great to have hope!

Our good friend Alan D. and Grand Master Ron S. Joined us today.......thanks and much appreciated.

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We worked a little longer this day, lasting about 3 hours of not stop digging. It was kinda funny seeing everyone run out of gas about the same time. At about 2.5 hours the pace really dropped off and the question of when we stopping was asked more than once. I had my dog along for the day and the picture below sums up how we all felt. This picture was taken literally 5 minutes after we got home.

WVMBA Ride Guide Photo Contest

2011-12-16T16:55:00.001-05:00

Voting is open for the WVMBA Ride Guide Photo Contest and LMBA has and entry(below). We need your votes to move us to the top. Click here and select photo #8 to vote for our photo. If you have multiple devices (computer(s), phone, tabs, etc) you can vote once from each device.

On the KT

This picture was taken on the Kanawha Trace (KT) in 2010. The KT is an old boyscout trail that runs 32 miles from Barboursville to Frazier's Bottom, WV. Click here to learn more.

Work Day 3

2011-12-12T20:05:00.000-05:00

Date Worked: 12-11-2011
Weather: Clear/Sunny
Temperature: 25
Workers Present: 3
Time Worked: 2 hours
Manhours Spent: 6 hours
Distance Completed: 45 yards
Total Trail Distance 125 yards
Total Manhours Spent 23.5

Cold day of digging!! With temperatures around 25 for the beginning of our day the ground was a little frozen but still good for digging. The frozen ground just helps to keep down some of the mud.

We got another difficult section completed as you come up out of the first creak crossing. Lots of deep benching in this section, some places as much as 24"-36", as you can see in the pictures below.

The next section of trail looks to be a little easier and we hope to pick up the pace and cover some better ground over the next few Sundays.

Finished Creek Crossing

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Work Day Two

2011-12-05T20:07:00.001-05:00

Date Worked: 12-4-2011
Weather: Clear/Sunny
Temperature: 58
Workers Present: 3
Time Worked: 2.5 hours
Manhours Spent: 7.5 hours
Distance Completed: 30 yards
Total Trail Distance 80 yards

Another pretty good day of trail work, weather was good and the ground was kind. What I mean by that is the digging was pretty easy, not allot of rocks or roots to bench thru. We have reached our first mini milestone on the trail. When laying out the design we new that getting to the first creek crossing would be one of the more difficult sections. The pics below will give you a little glimpse of the first switchback/creek crossing and how it turned out.

The next portion of trail will be another difficult dig up and out of the creek for the next 100 yard, after that hopefully a pretty long section that will need much less benching..........that means more ground covered on our work days.

Hope to see everyone at the trail next Sunday at 10am!!!!

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Creek Crossing Before

Creek Crossing After

Trail Work Has Begun

2011-11-29T19:22:00.001-05:00

Date Worked: ~~12-27-2011~~ 11-27-2011

Weather: Light Rain

Temperature: 61

Workers Present: 4

Time Worked: 2.5 hours

Manhours Spent: 10 hours

Distance Completed: 25 50 yards

This past Sunday was our official kickoff to the Wildcat extension and I will have to say things went pretty well. It rained a little the morning before we started but that didn't stop us. We had a crew of 4 show up and we managed to get some nice benching knocked out. Big shout out to Alan Doss for helping and logging his first ever trail benching. Hope to see you back soon, we need all the help we can get.

Anyone interested in helping, come on down.We'll be meeting this Sunday (12-4-2011) at the ranger station. If you can't make it right at 10, no problem, just show up when you can and come straight to the end of the Wildcat where it intersects the Guyandotte Beauty trail.......you can't miss us.

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Time for Trail Work

2011-11-21T13:06:00.002-05:00

November 27th marks LMBA's official trail building season. We plan to begin the second leg of the Wildcat trail. This will extend the Wildcat past the Guyandotte Beauty to the museum. We plan to work every Sunday at 10am and can use any and all help. If you would like to join us just show up at the ranger station, we have all the tools needed.

I hope to post allot during the trail build with lots of before and after pics of our work. In the mean time here is William in a before and after pic while blowing leaves.............WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!!!

Like Father, Like Son

2011-11-17T20:04:00.001-05:00

New Web Site

2011-11-14T20:45:00.002-05:00

I keep opening this blog post with the same sentence; "It's been a long time since I've posted". Since that is a true statement why break the streak.

It's been a long time since I've posted and there has been allot going on to catch you up, and like I've said before.......I'm going to start posting more frequently.

The first thing to discuss is our new Logan Mountain Bike web page. We have a new site with a new look and better content. Check out the link and let us know what you think(please keep in mind it is not complete yet). We hope to have profiles, up to date race course info, picture slide show and a section dedicated to places we like to ride (more on that later).

Next topic..............well we better save that for a new post so I'll have something to write about. Here is a little of what is to come.

New trail at the Chief Logan Recreation Center
Trail work season begins the Sunday after Thanksgiving.......extending the Wildcat!
Places we like to ride
Tentative date of Chief Logan race next season

Check back soon to here more about these exciting topics!!!!!

Davis Race

2011-07-27T18:04:00.000-04:00

Not allot of race reporting lately, but I thought these pics were blog worthy...........everyone needs a good laugh from time to time. I gues there's nothing worse than wet feet.

With this slick move Dennis locked in 4th place in the sport vet class. As for William, a broken chain on the second lap left him with a DNF. I guess I have no room to talk..........this move is better than me setting on the cough and missing the race.

Hopefully I will be racing 5 of the last 6 races and blogging to go along with those.

Chris

Crying Wolf Challenge

2011-05-19T21:36:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we made the trip to Bluefield for the "Crying Wolf Challenge" and encountered a wet, cold, muddy and rainy race day. There were about 61 riders that showed up that day and we were all greeted with a downpour as we lined up for the prologue. That in combination with the already wet conditions made for a very muddy race.

LMBA had 5 members present for the race; Dennis finished 1st in sport vet, William 2nd in expert masters, Derek 3rd in sport vet, Me 5th in sport vet (I won"t mention that there were only 6 in my class, or the fact that the 6th rider was a DNF, I will however focus on the fact that I was only 10:45 off of the lead.) and Alex was 4th in beginner class. A pretty good showing for the team at this early point in the year.

A big shout out to Josh Vance for finishing 1st in the clydesdale class. Check out this video from the Bluefield Daily Telegraph of his smooth move thru a creek crossing, be sure to listen close at the end for his excuse. http://bdtvideo.com/videos/183/crying-wolf-challenge

Next up, Tour de Lake at Spencer.........hope to see you there.
Chris

Twin Falls

2011-05-17T19:37:00.000-04:00

Recently we took a trip to Twin Falls state park for a group ride with the "Tire On the Mountain" group, little did I know that we would be in for such an interesting ride.

Twin Falls is a WV state park with several nice attractions that make for a great ride. First up is their premier biking trail, "Moonshiner". This is one of the smoothest and best flowing trails around. The 3.5 mile loop is fast and fun in either direction and worth the the trip in it's self. Next you have a really spectacular rock cliff overlook located at the end of a trail named................. "Cliffside"

Next up, the name sake of the park......the falls. I nice double track decent and a sweet rock garden take you to a really cool photo opp.

All in all about 15-20 miles for the day and some really nice trails and beautiful scenery. I highly recomend a trip to this location.

2011 Race Season

2011-04-21T22:35:00.001-04:00

The WVMBA 2011 race season has kicked off and the LMBA race team has jumped in with 3 members competing in the 2nd race at Big Bear Lake this past Sunday. This year the team consists of Dennis, William, Derek and myself.

I decided to sit this race out given it's long distance from Logan. The team left out real early Sunday morning and arrived in time for a good warm up before the race start. William is riding Expert Masters this year and this will be his first race after moving up from the sport distance. Starting out with the prologue and seeing several riders wrecking in the technical sections he decided to dial it back and take it easy. This proved to be a bad idea as he settled into the layed back pace for the entire race and failed to push himself to his full potential, finishing 9th in his class. Look for a much better finish next race.

Dennis and Derek are both riding sport class, vet and open respectively. Riding much of the race together they traded positions back and forth, Derek leading on climbs and Dennis regaining on the downhills and flats. With a few miles to go Derek crashed and broke his rear shifter and was forced to complete the race stuck in a single gear on the rear cassette. Dennis finished 2nd in sport vet and is setting the ground work for a great season. Derek ended up 9th in a very competitive sport open. With no mechanicals and a climbing course, Derek is likely to improve on that finish at the next race.

Looks like the entire team will be at WVMBA race #3 at Bluefield, with lots of climbing and my first race at the sport distance I'm not expecting great things but I'm sure it will be painfully fun.

Just because a blog post just doesn't feel right with out pictures, here are a couple for your viewing pleasure.

Overly staged picture of my bike on a recent training ride

Surprise visitor in my garbage can a few days ago

Thursday Fun Rides

2011-03-05T09:59:00.000-05:00

April is quickly approaching and everyone has been busy training for the the start of race season. We are all ahead of pace compared to last year, some a little more than others. I won't go into any more detail, wouldn't want to give out any info that could be used against us (yes I agree, everyone in WVMBA is probably scouting this blog as they prepare their race season strategies).

We all love to race but that is not what I wanted to talk about today. We all also love to fun ride. Riding with a large group of people that are out to enjoy the trails is also very enjoyable. Last year we typically rode every Wednesday and toward the end of riding season we had a few rides where 5-10 people would show up. sometimes everyone seamed reluctant to ride with us, thinking that we were out to train and ride fast. This is not the case, we enjoy riding with others and sharing our enthusiasm for the sport of mountain biking.

So this year we are going to have a weekly fun ride at Chief Logan State Park geared to draw a large number of riders of all skill levels. This ride will be every Thursday at 5pm, starting the first Thursday after the time change. The pace and route selection will be geared toward everyone having a good time and enjoying a ride with friends. We hope that this regular set day will allow people to plan on riding and show up for a great time on the trails with out having to call around and try to coordinate people to ride with.

Here is a video and a few pictures from recent rides for your viewing pleaseure............hope to see you on Thursdays!!!........Chris

Winter Road Ride

2011-01-31T19:54:00.001-05:00

The weather was pretty good this past weekend and I needed to ride. I only had about 2 hours to play with, not quite enough time to load up and go to the park for a mountain bike ride, so I decided to get out on the road bike and log a few miles. Rolling out from my front door I road to the Logan County Airport and back. This is about a 10 mile ride, not much on a road bike but given the winter weather, lack of riding, Cat 2 climb and 12% grades this is a pretty challenging little ride. Check out the pics and MapMyRIDE data.

Long Time No Post

2011-01-09T20:45:00.000-05:00

Well it's been a while since I last posted but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy. This winter we decided to focus our trail work on improving some of the existing trails rather than creating new ones. So far the work is coming along pretty well with some repairs and re-routing of trails in some area, though I have to say I do miss the excitement of building (riding this summer) a new trail. We have benched in some areas that needed it and chosen some better lines to improve the flow and increase the speed on a few trails.

If any of you are familiar with this blog or our trail working habits you know that the weather rarely stops us from working and today was no exception..........19 degrees and snow on the ground. Below are a few pictures from the last few weeks work.

LMBA TT

2010-10-21T12:28:00.010-04:00

Yesterday we finally put together an idea we have talked about for a while.......doing a time trial. This seems to be a common thing amoung mountain bike groups. Pick a good trail on your home turf, create a loop with a good combination of technical sections and speed sections and see who can ride it the fastest.

Here's what we did.....started at the shelter #5 (across from the train), rode the Fitness trail up the park, hard road to the beginning of the Woodpecker trail, Woodpecker back down the park, took the first exit point (the one with the sharp right hand switchback in the downhill) from the Woodpecker to the hard road, hard road back to the Fitness trail all the way back to the shelter, 2.5 miles in all.

As in all time trials we started the first rider, waited a few and started the next. We all made a big mistake and began our ride without any warm up. By the time we all finished, the cool temperature and the 100% effort really put a hurting on our lungs.....they weren't the same the rest of the day.

Here's the results..........next time around we hope to have a few more participants!!

100% Complete

2010-10-15T20:26:00.003-04:00

I'd like to give a shout out to a rider that completed all 15 races in the WVMBA series this season......Ron Salisbury Jr.

Ron is a good friend of the LMBA and participates in our trail wok efforts. This year he competed in the Sport Grand Masters division finishing 2nd over all and finished all 15 races this season. After a quick scan through the WVMBA overall standings for all the past seasons it appears that this feet has not been duplicated.

This shows a great commitment to the WVMBA race series and the sport of mountain biking in West Virginia and we hope to see him out on the trails for many years to come.

Chris

Update Pictures

2010-10-03T16:37:00.003-04:00

We have added some new pictures from the Chief Logan Wilderness Challenge.

Here is a link, the new pictures begin about half way through.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jsj7475/2010WildernessChallenge02#

Check back soon for some different race course photos.

Hope you enjoy,

Chris

WVMBA Championship

2010-10-03T16:06:00.005-04:00

Well after a big gap in blog coverage I'm finally getting to post a little about the WVMBA championship race at Eleanor, WV. The LMBA had a pretty good showing at this race with even better overall results in the series.....Let's just move straight to the overall year end standings.

William- 1st place sport masters

Dennis- 5th place sport vet

Chris - 2nd place beginner

Derek- 3rd place beginner

Here is a link to some pictures from the championship-

http://picasaweb.google.com/jsj7475/WVMAChampionship#

We have had a great time this year training and racing, but to be honest it's OK that it's over. now we can focus whats left of the year on some fun rides and kick back and enjoy.

We all plan on racing next year with some class changes of course. William will be moving to expert, Dennis staying in sport vet, Chris moving to sport vet and Derek to sport. It should be interesting to see how we all handle the moves.

Next on the agenda, is the return to our commitment of trail work. We will be focusing the first part of the off season to improving our existing trails in Chief Logan State Park. We will be fixing several problem areas and overall just tailoring this trails to be more fun and smooth. The second portion of off season will be devoted to extending the Wildcat trail. If your not familiar with this trail check out some of our older post and you will quickly see how much work has gone into it so far. Many riders have commented that it is the "best trail in the park" and it will only be getting better this winter.

I hope to have more regular post from here on out, please check back often to see how we are doing

Race at Davis

2010-07-22T13:17:00.002-04:00

The team was together this weekend for the WV State Mountain Bike Championships in Davis WV. Several of us took our families up for a long weekend and enjoyed the surroundings of Canaan Valley, Seneca Rocks, Dolly Sods and the downtown area of Davis.

On race day, the morning started off a little sketchy with the late arrival of William to our tent area. He had been delayed on the way in and was scrambling to fix a pre-race flat before anything got started. We managed to get it fixed, and him geared up in time for the race meeting with a few minutes to spare. This is the race début for his new Cannondale Flash 29’er and things were off to a rocky (literally, if you know the course) start.

As the race started William got out to a good start, just to be brought to a halt a couple miles in by a rear tire flat. We all passed William as he fixed his flat and got back on the trail. It wasn’t long before he caught us and passed us with hopes to climb back to the leaders of his class.

Derek (newest member of the LMBA) and I continued to race the beginner loop never to see William again. Derek passed me at one point and opened up a small lead. I got off to my usual slow start and then got the motor turning about half way thru the race. After Derek opened up his lead I saw him bobble on one of the many rock gardens and used this to make my move. I powered through that section in the big ring and opened a lead on Derek that I was able to maintain throughout the race. I then started to pick off other riders as I started to feel better and pick up speed. My effort landed me an 8th place finish, not as good as I had hoped but not bad considering I was only 4:40 off of the leader. Derek finished a very respectable 10th out of 28 riders in our class.

Dennis had the best finish on our team with a 7th place in the Sport Vet category, continuing to improve his strength at the new sport distance that he is trying to get use to this year.

As for William………2 more flats that day (yes that's a total of 4) put him pushing to complete the race and a 12th place finish. This dropped him to 2nd place in the overall Sport Masters class for the year. A couple more 1st place finishes should remedy that and lock in the overall win this year.

All in all, this race turned out to be on of the worst showing for LMBA this year. We will be at Little Beaver next hoping to improve our results. Although we are all out to just have fun and ride, finishing well never hurts.

Remember,

If you don't crash, you're not riding hard enough,
Chris

2010-07-13T21:57:00.001-04:00

Follow his link to pictures from the 2010 Wilderness Challenge.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jsj7475/2010WildernessChallenge02?feat=directlink

Home Course Advantage

2010-06-17T12:27:00.002-04:00

Our home course race has now came and gone and I’ll have to admit I’m glad it’s over. When your hosting a race it takes allot of time and coordinating to pull it of. Although I was not responsible for the majority of the work, it still created allot of tasks for all our club members. Hats off to Dennis for shouldering most of the responsibility!!

With that said let’s talk a little about the race. The day started out pretty good and then turned into what we have dealt with at most of the races this year……..rain!! The trails at Logan have always been pretty hard packed and shed water very quick. Often we can ride the same day as an earlier rain and not be affected at all. I will have to agree with William when he said “the trails today are in the worst condition that I have ever ridden here”. Even with that, they were not too bad and the race went on.

Now to our results….William continues to dominate the Sport Masters and bagged a 1st place finish in the sport master and an overall 3rd place in the sport division. Dennis also continues to improve at the sport distance and took home a 4th place finish in the sport vet category. Josh started off very strong in the beginner class and was a couple minutes ahead of the pack until a slippery bridge took him out of the race and to the hospital for 12 stitches on his ankle. To poor salt in the wound, his front wheel was pretty messed up and will probably need replaced. I managed to hold onto 3rd in the beginner class after a flat tire on the Backbone trail climb about 2 miles from the finish.

We hope to update the blog in a couple days with a link to pictures that were taken during the race.

Until next post,
Chris

Race Course Marked

2010-06-04T23:22:00.003-04:00

Finished clearing the trees that fell yesterday . Course is marked and ready for the pre rides. Expert will be approx 19...Sport is 15 and Beginner is 10...Trails are in great shape and if it rains tomorrow and sunday the course will still be in great shape. Course starts at the ranger station. The food will be great and an enormous prize table....Hope to see everyone there...

Tour de Peanut Butter

2010-05-28T19:51:00.003-04:00

The crew headed to Spencer, WV for the Tour de Lake this past weekend. The weather that day was pretty good, no rain and pretty hot. The problem was the rain that they had on Saturday......just enough to turn the trails into a 10 mile loop of peanut butter mess. The trails were narrow, slippery and full of roots, this made for a very technical course and a great race. I got off to a slightly better start this race, I have had problems starting strong that have left me playing catch up for most of the races. This time I was a little stronger in the beginning and possible payed for it with a slower second half of the course. 3/4 thru the race I had worked my way to 3rd place in the beginner class and could here a ride closing on me. He caught me with about a mile left and passed me only to crash on a slippery root 100 yards after the pass. After this I was able to hold him off after a quick decent and a sprint across the dam to the finish, I managed to be about 5 second ahead of him for a 3rd in the men's beginner class.

William had a strong race even though the mud is his worst enemy, being his least favorite race conditions. He came across the line in 1st place for the Sport Masters. Dennis also was strong with a 4th place finish in the Sport Vet class. For an interesting story, ask him about the rider he came up on that was taking a dump on the trail...........Dennis has the worst luck!!

CHIEF LOGAN TRAIL VIDEOS

2010-05-15T15:57:00.002-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1CoPi3UNrQ VIDEO 1 OF 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyiX4yOZSTA VIDEO 2 OF 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1K4FVUfCiM VIDEO 3 OF 3

THIS IS NOT ALL OF THE TRAILS IN THE PARK JUST A FEW. ENJOY THE VIDEOS...

Mountwood..........RAIN FEST!!

2010-05-13T14:03:00.002-04:00

Dennis, William and I made the trip to Mountwood for the WVMBA points race #2 for the season. Weather was pretty good as we left Logan and went downhill from there. Just outside of Charleston it began to rain and continued pretty much the entire day. As we arrived at the park the rain was pretty steady and we knew we would be in for a wet day. As the race started I got off to a very slow start and just could not get the pedals turning as fast as I needed to. About half way thru the race I began feeling pretty good and managed to pass 6 or 8 riders and finished 2nd in the beginner class......pretty happy with that result given all the mud. Dennis and William rolled out in the sport vet and masters classes respectively and had pretty good runs. William was plagued by a long delay to fight his chain as it was hung from chain suck, almost to the point of giving up he managed to free it and finished 3rd in his class. Dennis finished about 4 minutes behind him to secure 6th in the vet class. Both suffered brake failure, a common comment heard at the finish line. All in all a petty fun race, defiantly a course I would like to ride again in dryer conditions. Next race that we will b attending will be the WVMBA #3 in Bluefield this weekend.

Hope to see you there!!!!

Tis Race Season

2010-04-23T22:36:00.009-04:00

With our trail work season almost to a close it is time for LMBA to start focusing on another area of mountain biking interest..............racing.

With the opening of the WVMBA race season this past Sunday we have all been training and gearing up for the year. I thought I would tell everyone a little about our race team before we start giving updates on the teams progress after each race.

I use the term "race team" very loosely.......we are just a group of guys that like to ride and have stumbled onto racing as a fun way to do that and experience different trails across West Virginia. We are not sponsored by anyone but have managed to get custom uniforms created and hope to race with some minimal success this season.

Now for rider profiles on the team:

Dennis- This will be his 3rd season racing, 1st year he only ran a few races as a beginner and then cranked up the volume to win the overall beginner in his 2nd season. This year he has moved up to the Sport Vet class and faces the challenge of more miles and a higher level of competition between riders. His ride this year is a new Top Fuel 9.8, pictured below.

William (the Finisher)- Has been riding for several years and is one of the strongest riders of the group. He raced a few races last year in the beginner class and even won our home course event. After a few beginner races he moved up to the sport class for a couple races to finish out the season. This year he will be competing in the sport masters class and hopes to be very competitive. His ride this year will be Cannondale Flash Carbon 2, no pictures yet......bike is still on order and expected in soon.

Me (Chris)- Has been riding off and on since 1992, with several large gaps of no riding mixed in those years. Last year I got back in the saddle and have pedalled more than ever, competing in 4 races in the beginner class. This year I will be competing in the beginner class and hope to race 8-10 events with the main goal of increasing my abilities to ride the sport class. My ride is a 2004 Trek Fuel 100 that has been updated to disc brakes and is pictured below.

Josh- Has has been riding a couple years and plans on competing this year in the beginner class. Look for some good friendly rivalry between Josh and me, we are both real close in fitness and should have a allot of close races this year. He has a new ride this year and is trying out a Gary Fisher 29'er

Check back often for race updates and to check how we are doing in the WVMBA standings.

First Leg of New Trail Almost Complete

2010-04-16T22:19:00.007-04:00

Work on the first leg of our new trail is almost complete. After much debate we have finally decided on a name......"wildcat". We have finished the bridge and only have a few hours of work left to complete the first leg from the wildlife area to the Guyandotte Beauty Trail. The trail has turned out very smooth, fast and has a great flow, look for it to be added to this years race course

Rogue Hoe

2010-02-23T19:44:00.005-05:00

No, I'm not talking about anyones wife!!

I'm talking about a trail building tool that we have stumbled across and would like to share. The Rogue Hoe is a simple but very good trailbuilding tool that we started using about 2 months ago and absolutly love. When benching you can't beat it. The width that it provides, significantly speeds up progress. Not the best choice in rocky terrian but a definate advange in most other conditions. This tool comes in many different sizes and shapes, we chose the basic 51/2" and a 7". I would have to say that the 7" is the best size and will be what we purchase in the future.

We found this tool so benificial we wanted to share it with anyone else out there doing the grunt work we call "trailbuilding'

Here is a link to their web site, so you can see for yourself.
http://www.roguehoe.com/index.html

Trail Work Continues

2010-02-01T08:40:00.003-05:00

We've been busy with our current trail project and the added work of clearing trees that the winter storm fell. We have made pretty good progress but it has been slow going. We have worked every Sunday since Christmas with a few added days through the week. Our race date was pushed back from April to June due to all the damage that the park sustained. Below are a few before and after pictures of a recent valley crossing that we just completed. Once again please note the perfect working conditions on the after pictures, it was 15 degrees!!

Winter Storm Woes!!

2009-12-31T11:35:00.004-05:00

The recent winter storm did a real number on Chief Logan State Park. Rangers estimate that nearly 100 tree have fallen in the park and we think that's just near the main roads of the park, not the trails.

The park was closed for a couple weeks while AEP crews cleared and repared power lines. During this time LMBA was able to begin assessing the damage to the trails. We can see alot from the main road, counting around 50 downed trees on the trails and this does not count the 2 longest trails (wilderness and backbone) along both ridges of the park.

All the extra work to clear these trees will make it more difficult to prepare for the April 11th WVMBA race but we are confident that all the work will be completed. We had started work on a new trail that we had hoped to complete and include in the race. This is now questionable and we'll update that possibility as the work progresses on all the clean up.

We have had a couple tree cutting days and have managed to clear 15-20 trees, a great start but a long way fron complete. As luck would have it there are alot of tree "toppers" onthe trails. When the canopy of the tree lands on the trail it takes much longer to clear opposed to just the trunk crossing the trail. So far we are seeing about half of the downed trees having the canopy on the trail.

Pictures below are from some of the work.

Work on our next trail has begun!!!

2009-12-12T10:13:00.010-05:00

You've heard of epic trail rides, this is going to be an epic trail build. The red line on the map is a very rough projection of what we have in mind.

This trail will begin behind the wildlife exhibit and wrap all the way around the center ridge of the park and end up above the park pool connecting to the coal mine trail. Currently there are no trails on this ridge of the park.

We are estimating that this tail we be in the neighborhood of 10 miles and will probable take a couple winter seasons to complete.

We plan on breaking the work up into smaller sections with access points along the way so riders and hikers can utilize the trail in distance increments that suit there needs.

The first section that we will complete will be from the wildlife exhibit to the Guyandotte Beauty trail. If completed in time this section will be incorporated into the 2010 WVMBA points series race in April.

Check out a few pictures of the first days work, please note the perfect working conditions.

Jersey Time

2009-11-26T20:23:00.006-05:00

LMBA has been busy lately with trail work and the building of our custom jersey. I think everyone has seen enough of our trail work for now so I thought it would be good to give you a glimps at our first proof. It's not perfect yet, one logo is wrong but will soon be corrected. Our main logos and a few key sponsers are show......hope you like!

Waterfall Trail now complete

2009-11-25T19:11:00.007-05:00

Final work was done on the waterfall trail today. Its completly done and ready for some traffic to get it worked in. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to ride it. This trail has alittle bit of everything in it. Rocks, Roots, Narly Downhill and alot of fast single track. This trail will be an addition to the race course for the 2010 points race. Here are some pics of the trailwork today.

Raccoon Mountain Ride

2009-11-23T16:00:00.007-05:00

Went this weekend to raccoon mountain in TN. Rode 16 miles of IMBA designed trails. I have to admit those were the best trails that i have ever rode. There were no large climbs and everything flowed beautiful. There was a little bit of everything from smooth single track to rocks and roots. I would recommend this trail system to the beginner and up to the the well rounded riders. This pic is of the trail that runs along the front side of the reservoir. From top to bottom the its about 250 feet high. If you look at the bottom of the reservoir you will see a trail and thats where we came out of the trail and it loops up and around to ride the middle trail which is an amazing amount of work to build.

Dennis Butcher

2009-11-17T19:39:00.011-05:00

More trail work was completed this past weekend and thing are going well with the new section. Worked about 3 hours on a downhill that required allot of hard work to bench but turned out pretty sweet.
We are all in trail work mode but with the weather as nice as it has been this fall I'm not so sure we have our priorities right. We have managed to get in some good ride time but have also sacrificed some very nice ride days for trail work........this past Sunday being a good example of that. When you look at the big picture I guess we will have more and better trails to ride and that's what it's all about.
Check out pictures from our work!!

If you don't crash, you're not riding hard enough,
Chris

Some info about LMBA

2009-11-11T12:28:00.001-05:00

Trail work, trail work, trail work………..that’s what the LMBA has been focusing on over the past 3-4 weeks. We are working on a section of trail that will complete a loop on the Waterfall trail. This will keep you from having to ride the Waterfall out and back and should add a pretty nice downhill and a highly visible section of trail to the single track at Chief Logan. Pics coming soon!!

We have picked up some help from a couple new volunteers for this portion of trail work. A special THANKS goes out to them for helping and we hope to keep your continued support. Anyone interested in helping can send an email to loganmountainbike@verizon.net and we will add you to the mailing list so you receive the alerts regarding rides and trial work.

Something else that has been keeping LMBA busy is the pursuit of custom cycling jerseys for anyone interested. We are currently working to get our logo on a custom jersey. As soon as we have a proof we will post it on the website/blog for everyone to see. We hope to order soon so we can start sporting them on local rides very soon.

Another thing of interest for us is the 2010 WVMBA race season, yeh is still pretty far away but we have all been talking about it quit a bit. For the 2009 season Dennis won the beginners overall title and the rest of us got our feet wet in race competition. For the 2010 season we all plan on racing more and hopefully challenging several of the top positions in several different classes, more on that to come.

Check back soon for more trail work updates, custom jersey pics and our bike specs for the 2010 race season.

If you don’t crash, you’re not riding hard enough
Chris