Come and Ride in Memory of Duncan MacKenzie

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Come-and-Ride-in-Memory-of-Duncan-MacKenzie-2012.html

China Ridge Trails in Princeton BC will be hosting a memorial ride to celebrate Duncan's life and work as a trail builder. Duncan came to Princeton in 2009 to build our new down hill bike trail called the "Rail Trail". He then came back in 2010 to design and build our bike park and pump track.



There will be three different rides for all levels of riders. We will be unveiling two plaques and will be spreading some of his ashes. After the ride there will be a pot luck BBQ to follow at the bike park. China Ridge welcomes all of Duncan's friends and family to come and celebrate his life with us.



The ride will take place on June 16th , 2012 at 10am at the Princeton bike park . If you have any questions or need more information please contact Lisa at 250-295-6225/ lisa.marie.thompson@hotmail.com or Trenna at 250-295-6434/trennamacleod@hotmail.com or check our our website at www.chinaridgetrails.com. Look forward to seeing you all there!

Do I hear a Road Trip? Gary rode a few of their trails when they were 'green' and his feedback was that they were a little rough. It would be interesting to see how well they've formed up over the past year or so. Too bad about the dude; from the pics alone you can tell that he was a really cool cat!

A.

The more that I think about this, the more that I feel that its a great idea to ROAD TRIP over there for a day of riding. I mean, whats' it - and hour or so of driving away? One good CD on the deck worth of road trippin'?

See new trail; meet new rider bros and sis's, honor a cool cat - and !!ROAD TRIP!! (a mini-road trip anyway)

Who's "in"?

Andrew

250.486.2443

I'll check with the boss, but I don't think I have plans (other than riding). Pencil me in.

I'm also interested, and need to talk to my boss as well. Got room? My truck can take 6 but is comfy with 4.
Pierre

Sounds excellent! If we all pop in a few bucks for gas, then pile into your truck...

So far its me, you, Brent (1Part@atime) and --- Gary / Curt, you reading this...? We can always bring two vehicles / three or four per vehicle.

The gig begins at a bike park; bring some light armor (?)

A.

Guys

Sorry the boss and I are scheduled to ride on Saturday. Enjoy though!!

Gary

I got the go-ahead, so I've freed up my day.
Is there any preliminary plan established? When/where to meet?

We split outta' here [at] 8:30am. That gives us an hour and a half to get to Princeton, which I'm sure will be more than enough.

Once there, they have a crew organizing the gig, ride, food etc. Here is a note that I received today about the event:

Hi Andrew, Kelley Cook here from Princeton.

I am one of the China Ridge members organizing the ride on Saturday and have heard you and a few others may be coming over to join the ride.

It would be great to have your club meet some of our members and enjoy a ride together.
We will be starting at the Bike Corral, right next toe the arena on Old Hedley Road at 10am to organize people to do three different rides we will offer. We have shuttles lined up to take people up to China Ridge. while others may want to ride the entire Chugger which is a 40 km loop from town. I'm sure your group is up for that one...

There will be rides for all abilities, even one on the KVR for those who like the gentle terrain so kids are welcome!

At 5 pm or there about, we will be hosting a barbecue at the Bike Corral with yummy Doug's Homestead burgers, cost will be by donation, and later we will unveil a plaque for Duncan.

I just wanted to fill you in with a few more details and extend a warm welcome.

Hope to see you Saturday,

Kelley

Andrew

I'm in and I'll bring armor to try and follow you guys.

Eeesh, I might have to drive myself. I have some stuff to do in Oliver just after 5p.
I didn't expect it to be that long of a day.

Side note : I am NOT doing the 40k uphill loop. Shuttle only

Ok, we have the when ... where do we want to meet?
If you guys are staying for the full shebang, I'll drive up and duck out just after the ride and drive home.
If anybody else needs to do the same, let me know and I'll bring my car with the racks (otherwise I'm taking my non-racked car since I haven't driven it in years).

I have parking for a couple vehicles behind my place, Andrew has a whole street to work with, Curt has nothing and I have no idea where Pierre lives.
b

Meet at my place - 601 Braid St., at 8:30am Saturday.

I doubt that I'm in for 40km either, as Gary tells me that would include pavement; which we all know is pure kryptonite for mountain bikers :-)

A.

Below is a message that I received from the Princetonites today;


Hi

Presumably this is Andrew?

I sent you the Chugger stuff to post last year, but looks like you found the details on Duncan's Ride this year. Some tips.

The full "Chugger Loop" is a 7-8 km FSR climb up to a longhouse (water etc will be waiting).

From there it's the full Parker trail (7km or so) to the Cabin for lunch (bring food/water/lunch to the bike park, and someone will shuttle it to the cabin for you). After lunch we back track on Parker for 3km, then plummet down The Rail Trail (I flagged it, Duncan and vollies built it).

This is an 800m drop over 7km to the river, and KVR. Then it's a 40min pedal along the KVR back to town. Should take under 5 hours, it's a reasonable leisurely pace, and lunch is a relaxing break :)

Cheers

Matt

above is from me

There's 500m of pavement at the start, and about 1km at the end (used to be less but they paved a section of the kvr)

We should get beer shuttled up instead of lunch.

:-)

In case people check this before venturing out .. I'm all packed and will be showing up at Andrew's to see if anybody else is going.

weather is good enough here.
overcast, with a couple of light showers maybe, but more likely to warm up substantially (20C+) later on.
The Rail Trail will be fantastic, tacky goodness. Just watch out for the suprise corners

just got back from the boozy bbq...great times

Thanks for making the effort to come over today, hope the trails and camaraderie were worth it.

Cheers

Matt

Only photo I took ....

Saturday morning found Brent, Dino, Pierre and I packing up and heading for Princeton to meet fellow trail-junkies, honor a fallen builder and ride some new singletrack!

An hour and a half later we were standing among a large group of like-minded hikers and bikers at the Princeton skills park (yes, the community actually has a skills park!). Several local die-hards rode the seven or eight km. of pavement and FSR to the staging area while the rest of us enjoyed a comfortable shuttle up. From there were split into small groups; in our case, we ended up riding with a dedicated trail-guide, making for a fast-paced quintet.

A 'green' but well-signed, winding singletrack ascended past numerous map kiosks and xc-ski warming huts to a final summit cabin with views to the west. The structure is really impressive, comfortable and inviting. More fast, flowy singletrack descending from there and we connected with the top of the excellent new RailLine singletrack trail.

Midway along this (excellent / bermed / flowy) singletrack we stopped and regrouped with everyone involved with the event as a whole. There a plaque was unveiled and ashes of Duncan were placed onsite.

Another few kilometers of wild, hand-built, full-bench-cut singletrack followed (countless hours of work evident here!) before popping us out onto Princeton’s section of the KVR. Their railbed trail system differs radically from ours in many ways, but the most striking difference is that it follows the currently raging and roiling Tulameen river for many kilometers. Rock features, a wild river and several tunnels make this a really interesting section of KVR.

Above all, every single person that we met was outstandingly kind and friendly to us. The warm welcome that they extended to us at every turn was amazing and simply so damned down to earth / grass roots that it found me coming away with deep respect for the area's people and terrain.


Kick Off, a few of the many folks who showed up (from as far away as Nova Scotia!)




Duncan's Sis and her boyfriend - amazingly gracious people




Excellent signage everywhere - Brent's hand doing his best imitation of Michelangelo




Stunts (well) made without nails!




The 'Rail Trail' singletrack - Jaw-dropping amounts of work evident along its entire length




Why is everyone in the photo looking at the ground together? Morels? Contact Lenses? :-)




China Ridge Hut - A real beauty!




The Hut Builders - Solid Dudes!




I think the blackboard says it all




Pierre and Brent - Sussin' the place




I love horses! This beauty joined us at a rest-stop.




The great unveiling - Plaque to Duncan @ "Duncan's Rock"




Nice work!




And a little of Duncan lives there forever!




Dino on the '4-Lane Hwy'. log-ride




Singletrack ends riverside - nice in the summertime!




Roiling Waters - KVR 'Trailside'




Hoodoos along KVR




Red Rock along KVR




A Bridge to a Tunnel




Princeton paved the KVR near town with 'real' pavement vs. the crush+recycled that Penticton laid down




More tunnel shots, this one near town




KVR with streetlights (!) near Princeton




D'a Boys playing in the park - Funky photo looks like they're sharing a teeter :-)




Brake-pads - what brake-pads? Time for a new rotor? (from a participant's old Brodie)




All four of us came away with a real appreciation of the place. I encourage you to visit the area, its amazing people and beauty trails - especially RailTrail (singletrack).

Check out China Ridge's website for full details / maps: http://www.chinaridgetrails.com

A.

The post-pizza pretzel event you all were curious about was not photo worthy. Sorry to let you down.

I don't have time to do a full edit so I'll leave you with this ....
HD version on YouTube

I think we were all getting mozzies off our legs in that pic.
Looks like I was spraying on some Off...which didn't really help.

Notice the nicely executed roll and stop...so as not to hit tree!
It was a great road trip.
Thanks to all in Princeton.
Would have loved to had the homemade burgers.Maybe next time.
Condolances to Duncans family and friends.
dino