[Shartist]

Orange O'Neil jersey

Nice! :thumbsup: I showed some buddies and even some of my family this picture and asked them if they could pick me out. 9/10 they pointed to you instead of me...

I’m the second person over to the left of you (photographers perspective) with the green Fox lettering.

 

[aaronofgroove]

May 18th opening day!

 

[Shartist]

Woooooh!!

Opening day right around the corner! Wooh! I got antsy to finally ride the new DH bike that’s been sitting in the garage since November so I made the trip up to Mountain Creek Saturday, super sore afterwards despite riding GP on the trail bike in the preceding weeks. By chance, I even ended up sharing a lift with Lenosky and Slavin, super cool down to earth riders for sure.

Weather is looking good for Saturday with showers on Friday to get everything nice and tacky. Anyone else planning on heading to Blue for opening weekend?

 

[Joules]

I'll probably be there Saturday. Riding my Capra, in its first real bike park test. Weather looks perfect for opening day.

 

[Shartist]

I'll probably be there Saturday. Riding my Capra, in its first real bike park test. Weather looks perfect for opening day.

Nice! It would seem we’ll have the place to ourselves lol. I’m a little surprised at the otherwise lackluster level of stoke on this thread. What color is your Capra?

 

[aaronofgroove]

I'll be there both days on my new Process 165.

It can go either way as far as crowd. Most racers will be between Glen Park and Mountain Creek, which could also drive a lot of the more casual riders here for the weekend.

 

[sutter2k]

Nice! It would seem we’ll have the place to ourselves lol. I’m a little surprised at the otherwise lackluster level of stoke on this thread. What color is your Capra?

Coaching AAU girls basketball. Tied on in weekend long tournament. Looking forward to getting some weekends free.

 

[Local717]

I'll be there Saturday, riding a black Knolly Warden

 

[Shartist]

Aaron / Local / Joules I’ll keep an eye out for you guys Saturday maybe even try to tag along for a lap if you’re down. Also happy to share a cold one later on in the day, my treat if you catch me in the lot. I’ll primarily be on a black V10, but might be spotted on a carbonish/blackish Bronson for a lap or two.

 

[aaronofgroove]

Sounds good man. I'll be on the grey Kona with shiny orange pieces

 

[Joules]

Aaron / Local / Joules I’ll keep an eye out for you guys Saturday maybe even try to tag along for a lap if you’re down. Also happy to share a cold one later on in the day, my treat if you catch me in the lot. I’ll primarily be on a black V10, but might be spotted on a carbonish/blackish Bronson for a lap or two.

I'll look for you guys there. It'll be good to ride with some people - all my friends are either busy or too lazy to make the trip

Black and Red Capra (with orange spring).

 

[jonkranked]

for those of you who went this past weekend how was it? there's a chance i might head up Sunday this weekend.

 

[Shartist]

for those of you who went this past weekend how was it? there's a chance i might head up Sunday this weekend.

It was as aaronofgroove predicted, pretty crowded, but likely because of races at Mtn Creek and Glen Park last weekend. Pretty dry and dusty so it was riding fast. They've redone and rerouted a few trails especially at the top so just be aware before you charge into where you think the trail is headed. They still have some stuff to finish up, but everything seemed open-- I was told by staff that they ran out of time to get the road gap jump on cannonball built before opening day. They also redid parts of Ewok, and IMO, improved it in doing so.

I'll be up again Saturday and IMO, all in all conditions and trails were good.

Joules and Local, did you guys make it out? I ran into a guy from MD and asked him if he was Joules-- he wasn't lol. I was a little late and got held up by the season pass snafu plaguing their computer system. I kept an eye out, but it was pretty crowded -- I did meet Aaron at the bike wash station at the end of the day. There was another guy there with a black V10 if you happened to see one of us, I was the taller rider of the two with the red and white fox helmet and shaggy mop.

 

[Local717]

Yeah made it out! Very crowded on Saturday but conditions were very fast!

Can't figure out how to embed the video correctly... But top to bottom run down Boulevard ending in the DS track

OCS

 

[Joules]

I did make it on Saturday. I don't think I've ever seen Blue that crowded. Bummer in a way, but also... most times I've been there in the past I've asked myself how they could possibly be making money with that few customers.

I got tripped up on my first run with the reroute up top - I'd always just taken the trail I think they're calling high top, which led to all the trials on that side. No more. El Camino and Miles only (and I wasn't ready for Miles at that point in the day).

 

[aaronofgroove]

I knew it'd be crowded, but the crowd that showed up still caught me off guard. It sucked waiting in the lift line, but the $$$ is what will keep the place open so no complaints here.

Lots of people bitching about the conditions on BLVD and El Camino among others with rocks popping, chunkiness, etc. There's nothing anyone could have done. Fresh trails that haven't been ridden in 6 months in dry, dusty conditions with that many people, no **** its gonna blow up quick.

The reroute up top is what it is. There were too many people getting hurt between that table and people having never ridden there needing to make a split second decision on where to go while in the air. Now I just need to break the habit of slowing and looking up trail going into the entrance off the ski slope.

The road gap will be back for this weekend, and the King Tut rebuild started. The idea was to get sections at a time done to keep it open, but that all depends on weather and any snags hit while building. In any case it will hopefully be done by the ESC race.

I'm hoping to be up Sunday or Monday.

 

[Shartist]

I knew it'd be crowded, but the crowd that showed up still caught me off guard. It sucked waiting in the lift line, but the $$$ is what will keep the place open so no complaints here.

Lots of people bitching about the conditions on BLVD and El Camino among others with rocks popping, chunkiness, etc. There's nothing anyone could have done. Fresh trails that haven't been ridden in 6 months in dry, dusty conditions with that many people, no **** its gonna blow up quick.

The reroute up top is what it is. There were too many people getting hurt between that table and people having never ridden there needing to make a split second decision on where to go while in the air. Now I just need to break the habit of slowing and looking up trail going into the entrance off the ski slope.

The road gap will be back for this weekend, and the King Tut rebuild started. The idea was to get sections at a time done to keep it open, but that all depends on weather and any snags hit while building. In any case it will hopefully be done by the ESC race.

I'm hoping to be up Sunday or Monday.

Agreed on the crowds and it being good for the mountain and ultimately to everyone’s benefit.

I’m a little surprised people were complaining about the loose chunky stuff... this is mountain biking and blue mountain is kind of known as a rocky chunky loose mountain, flow trails and all.

I don’t know why, but I find that tabletop turning out to be a death trap and the bane of mountain emergency personnel amusing in a non-malicious kind of way (I talked to one the first aid guys at the bar in the lodge and he echoed this sentiment). It’s just that out of everything that’s there, that little tabletop was kind of unassuming. It was super satisfying coming off of it and compressing right into that little berm and slingshotting around... unless it was pretty wet, I was behind a few different people who blew up (no day-ending injuries) when they hit that berm or the patch of mud right before it when it was super greasy.

What’s the plan for upper king tut if you don’t mind my asking?

I’ll be heading up Saturday and maybe Monday if they plan to have it open.

 

[aaronofgroove]

Yeah I'll miss that table, but no one can really deny the deceptively high consequences of it. The other killer is the table before the road gap. That might get turned into rollers or something else eventually and I personally won't miss it at all haha.

King Tut was always supposed to be a flow trail, like lower is now. So that's the plan for upper. I, along with most, would rather the flow trail be a new trail and leave Upper Tut as is, but there is logic behind it to help ensure the bike park's future with the new owners.

People complain about anything/everything when it comes to blue. I'm just happy to have lift access DH so close to my house. To be honest there's a massive amount of drama in the Lehigh Valley MTB scene in general, but it is what it is. Opinions are like assholes, etc.

 

[aaronofgroove]

Mike and whoever else: If you guys know of anyone looking for a full or part time job at the bike park, send them my way. We're looking for part time (2-5 days/month) trail guides/patrol. Perks include free pass, free MASS race entry, employee discount on parts and gear, and getting paid a bit to ride your bike. There may be openings for full time trail crew as well, but I have to follow up on that.

 

[Local717]

Mike and whoever else: If you guys know of anyone looking for a full or part time job at the bike park, send them my way. We're looking for part time (2-5 days/month) trail guides/patrol. Perks include free pass, free MASS race entry, employee discount on parts and gear, and getting paid a bit to ride your bike. There may be openings for full time trail crew as well, but I have to follow up on that.

I could seriously be into the part time job. How do we move forward with something like this?