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(Write up and Photos by Conor Coen)Sunday September 11th brought the fourth and final trail day on Boogieman for the 2011 season.  Backed by Steed Cycles and Giant Bicycle Canada, local builder Sean Gerke took on the task of maintaining Boogieman through the NSMBA Trail Adoption Program, and has since hosted four trail days mostly oriented around repairing structures which are on the verge of failing.  This trail day’s goal was to replace two bridges after the swamp log which were beginning to rot, not to mention they were bad news in the wet.

Here’s our project for the day (taken in the rain for dramatic effect)

This trail day started as most others, treats and coffee  at Bean Around the World in Parkgate Mall as we assembled our team of volunteers.  This trail … Read More »

Giant Bicycles Canada Inc. has partnered with Steed Cycles to take part in the North Shore Mountain Bike Associations (NSMBA) trail stewardship initiative. Given our geographic location and the rich north shore heritage of the “boogieman” trail located on Mount Seymour, the trail stewardship program seemed like a no-brainer to both Steed and Giant.Sunday, August 14th/11 represented the return of the Steed/Giant trail maintenance crew to the wilds of Mount Seymour to complete phase 3 of the boogieman stewardship project. After a quick application of rider repelling tape and trail closure signage at the boogieman trailhead, it was time to take a quick spin down the trail to meet with the rest of the crew for a quick safety meeting + build plan for the day.

After making my way down boogieman, I was able to creep through the rich north … Read More »

Time for some love. Broken and rotted rungs stop the flow of a trail.
We spent this June NSMBA Trail Day to fix one of many damaged structures.

Anyone who regularly rides on the North Shore trails will agree that ladder bridges are an integral part of our trail network. We use them to connect sections of unridable trail, to ride over mud bogs, streams, fallen trees, and across ravines, not to mention to reduce erosion in sensitive environments. In the case of Boogieman there are numerous sections that require a bridge to complete parts of the trail. We selected one bridge in particular that was becoming unsafe due to rot and did not have a ride around as an option. Our focus: to re-build a new bridge that was safe, would sustain at least a decades worth of mountain bike traffic, … Read More »

><p><p><p><p><br><br>As</p></p></p></p>(Video by Connor Macloed) As it was brought to my attention, building a ladder bridge is much more time consuming that you would think. Part of what added to the challenge, was using all natural wood from the fallen trees; trail side. Going so far as to splitting cedar logs to make the planks to complete the runway for the ladder bridge, added to the craft of the process.

Over the years I have ridden miles of ladder bridges without the slightest idea how many pain staking hours it takes to build just one of these things! Spending the day building one was a real eye opener and was incredibly interesting and an educating experience.

Here is a 3 minute video speeding through the steps of the 8 hours of how this ladder bridge was built by Sean Gerke and … Read More »

May 22, 2011

Steed Cycles has been a part of the North Shore cycling community for over 14 years, and mountain biking has always been a big part of who we are. Of course Kim’s presence in early bike videos such as the North Shore Extreme (NSX) series, and Kranked movies showcased Kim’s riding and the North Shore Trails themselves. Boogieman is a North Shore classic trail that has been around for about 13 years. We’re happy to get the opportunity to get Boogieman back into great shape, and add a couple modernizations.

We’re able to get the opportunity to work on Boogieman through the NSMBA TAP (Trail Adoption Program), and with the partnership of Giant Bicycle.

This is how our first trail day went down:

Fuelled by Caffeine

Thanks to Cowboy coffee, roasters of Bean Around the World, The Bean Around the World Park … Read More »