The showing will be at 7 p.m. in the Goldenstate Theater, 417 Alvarado St. in downtown Monterey.

Pedal-Driven, Join the Ride! from Howell at the Moon Productions on Vimeo.

Washington and B.C. riders will feel right at home with the film’s depictions of high-country riding in the Leavenworth area and Seattle-area haunts like Duthie Hill and Colonnade mountain bike parks.

The story line has to do with clashes between trail builders and regulatory authorities, mostly the U.S. Forest Service. If you want a clear understanding of the passion and principle driving both sides of the equation, you need to see “Pedal-Driven.” A full page of trailers for the film at here.

Movie premieres at Sea Otter always bring out the best crowds in biking culture, and “Pedal-Driven” promises to stoke the folk as much as past hits like “Freedom Riders” and “Follow Me.”

“Pedal-Driven” was put together by Howell At The Moon productions in Wenatchee and boosted by donations from Kickstarter. Sponsors also include IMBA, Specialized and Shimano.

Come on out at Sea Otter, or otherwise watch for a screening near you!

Women of Dirt rider Leana Gerrard smiles through the mud at Duthie Hill Park Grand Opening.

The 120-acre Duthie Hill Park has more than five miles of trails comprising everything from beginners’ “boot camp” routes and features to full-on jumps, catwalks, drops and stunts of mini–Whistler proportions. About 300 riders, officials and mtbers were on hand to hear speakers praise the partnership between the county and Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance that got the park to happen starting in 2004.

Engraved tiles helped raise funds for Duthie.

Despite its mud-splattered inauguration, Duthie Hill stayed in better than might be expected shape as riders of every size and skill toured the trails — a testament to trail construction, routing and drainage. A few days of warmer and drier weather will restore them back to primo tackiness.

King County Executive Dow Constantine cuts the ribbon.

There’s more to come, with a Phase 2 about to kick in, but for now Duthie Hill stands as a model of public-private cooperation in the ongoing efforts to increase mountain bike access to public lands.

*[We're hedging a bit here because Colonnade also is referred to as a mountain bike park, but is actually more of a stunt park.]

Duthie Hill, An Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance Project from Walter Yi on Vimeo.

Happy Tax Day, or as we better know it in the Northwest, opening day on Tiger Mountain! Now git out ‘n RIDE!

If you’re headed to Tiger, the longstanding premier singletrack in the Seattle area, brace yourself. A huge section of the Northwest Timber Trail has been hacked into oblivion. While the trail itself is still in existence (although without its former swoopiness and obstacles of course) and replanting has already started — and while the logging raised some $363,000 for public education — the ugliness and ecological damage cannot help but leave longtime Tiger denizens unnerved.

Just as the beauty of a living forest cannot be matched — it’s one of the reasons we ride in the outdoors — nothing prepares you for its gutting. We hope flora and fauna made the transition to remaining habitat (we did find a tiny frog that looked in trouble). If there’s any consolation, it’s that forests do come back. And this clearcut may pose some opportunities for creative regeneration, depending on how the state’s Department of Natural Resources wants to proceed.

Oh and by the way, the next time someone raises environmental concerns about trail riding, just remind them of stuff like this. As we like to say at BikeIntelligencer: Next to mountain biking, logging is the single most ecologically harmful human activity a forest can endure.

The bottom line for now: The trail is still intact and rideable. But it’s a good place to practice riding with your eyes closed.

[Directions and more details here.]

Today Canadians are arguably the best bike trail builders in the world. And at the top of any pantheon of legendary trail builders has to be the soubriquet Digger, renowned along with Dangerous Dan as progenitors of today’s freeride boom.

Spend some time with Digger on NSMB.com.

Forest Park is admittedly a terrible place to build a bootleg trail. It’s widely used, it’s urban, it’s sensitive ecologically.

But the crudely constructed trail shows the desperation grommets feel who want rad places to ride. At a certain point it can only be expected that they’ll take matters into their own hands.

Instead of a lot of sturm und drang, name-calling and righteous indignation, the situation would be better served with understanding, dialogue and a plan.

That’s what’s happened in Portland’s sister city to the north. Under the leadership of Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, urban mountain biking parks around Seattle are popping up all over, even under the I-5 freeway. As a result, rogue trail building — although it’s still happening — is far less pronounced and invasive.

One case in point: Lower Woodland Park. Time was when new trails were being sliced in everywhere, especially the steeps, where erosion quickly became a problem. Then the Parks Department put in a jump park down below, and a skate bowl (shared with bmxers). The bike trails that made sense and were well-built stayed. Others were blocked off with snow fencing.

Result: A city-wide magnet that keeps stunt riders occupied and happy, with no need to go rogue. Lower Woodland is even featured on YouTube videos and in the new film, “Women of Dirt,” where international mountain bike star and Seattle native Jill Kintner mixes it up.

Seattle’s example helped jump-start an urban ride park movement throughout the region. Almost overnight, Duthie Hill north of Issaquah has become a miniature Whistler mountain bike park. Not to be outdone, the trail hobbits around Black Diamond are doing amazing stuff on Summit Ridge and other areas near Lake Sawyer. A magnificent new cross-country trail has gone in on Grand Ridge, the result of savvy political spadework done by Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club (before it was renamed to Evergreen) when King County approved the Grand Ridge area for development more than a decade ago.

Other urban areas are following the same advise-and-consent path toward dealing with bootleg trailbuilding. Aptos and Santa Cruz, California, have become international icons for mountain biking’s elite with their expanding network of jump parks, freeride trails and even a new planned pump track. To the east of Portland, Bend OR has a thriving mtb scene. San Francisco is looking to build a new network at McLaren Park. There’s still mostly gray stuff (our preferred term for trails that fall in between authorized and unauthorized) in Marin County, but an incipient mtb culture fostered through high school leagues promises to change that in the future.

In British Columbia, there’s virtually no such thing as “unauthorized” or “rogue” trails. Whatever gets built gets used. If it’s in the way or gets taken out, another one pops up soon enough. B.C. admittedly has a lot more space, and tolerance, than the states.

Ultimately, a showcase cycling city like Portland faces the choice of fighting the urban freeride movement through finger-pointing, negative publicity and legislation, or supporting it with a forward-looking, collaborative vision for the future. The Forest Park flap is off on the wrong foot. But hopefully sensible heads will prevail, and this scandal will be used as a podium for invoking positive change.

Guess we won't be hitting the trails soon...

From an alert issued by the California State Parks System… I was riding in Arastradero today and the rangers were all over, battening down the hatches. “Don’t expect much in the way of riding weather through the end of the month,” one told me.

We at Bike Intelligencer ride when sane mortals rest. But this one looks ugly indeed. For weeks I’ve been reading Robb’s sobs (at MTB198) ‘n tweets about sloppy weather, and I’ve been getting mail from cohorts in the Northwest that things are “drippy,” a Seattle euphemism for “aquatic.”

Now I guess it’s our turn to suffer in Cali.

Here’s the alert:

“Currently, the strong El Nino is reaching its peak in the Eastern Pacific, and now finally appears to be exerting an influence on our weather. The strong jet has been apparent for quite some time out over the open water, but the persistent block had prevented it from reaching the coast. Now that the block has dissolved completely, a 200+ kt [this means approximately 230 miles per hour] jet is barreling towards us. Multiple large and powerful storm systems are expected to slam into CA from the west and northwest over the coming two weeks, all riding this extremely powerful jet stream directly into the state.

The jet will itself provide tremendous dynamic lift, in addition to directing numerous disturbances right at the state and supplying them with an ample oceanic moisture source. The jet will be at quite a low latitude over much of the Pacific, so these storms will be quite cold, at least initially. Very heavy rainfall and strong to potentially very strong winds will impact the lower elevations beginning late Sunday and continuing through at least the following Sunday. This will be the case for the entire state, from (and south of) the Mexican border all the way up to Oregon. Above 3000-4000 feet, precipitation will be all snow, and since temperatures will be unusually cold for a precipitation event of this magnitude, a truly prodigious amount of snowfall is likely to occur in the mountains, possibly measured in the tens of feet in the Sierra after it’s all said and done.

But there’s a big and rather threatening caveat to that (discussed below). Individual storm events are going to be hard to time for at least few more days, since this jet is just about as powerful as they come (on this planet, anyway). Between this Sunday and the following Sunday, I expect categorical statewide rainfall totals in excess of 3-4 inches. That is likely to be a huge underestimate for most areas. Much of NorCal is likely to see 5-10 inches in the lowlands, with 10-20 inches in orographically-favored areas. Most of SoCal will see 3-6 inches at lower elevations, with perhaps triple that amount in favored areas.

This is where things get even more interesting, though. The models are virtually unanimous in “reloading” the powerful jet stream and forming an additional persistent kink 2000-3000 miles to our southwest after next Sunday. This is a truly ominous pattern, because it implies the potential for a strong Pineapple-type connection to develop. Indeed, the 12z GFS now shows copious warm rains falling between days 12 and 16 across the entire state. Normally, such as scenario out beyond day seven would be dubious at best. Since the models are in such truly remarkable agreement, however, and because of the extremely high potential impact of such an event, it’s worth mentioning now. Since there will be a massive volume of freshly-fallen snow (even at relatively low elevations between 3000-5000 feet), even a moderately warm storm event would cause very serious flooding. This situation will have to monitored closely. Even if the tropical connection does not develop, expected rains in the coming 7-10 days will likely be sufficient to cause flooding in and of themselves (even in spite of dry antecedent conditions).

In addition to very heavy precipitation, powerful winds may result from very steep pressure gradients associated with the large and deep low pressure centers expected to begin approaching the coast by early next week. Though it’s not clear at the moment just how powerful these winds may be, there is certainly the potential for a widespread damaging wind event at some point, and the high Sierra peaks are likely to see gusts in the 100-200 mph range (since the 200kt jet at 200-300 mb will essentially run directly into the mountains at some point). The details of this will have to be hashed out as the event(s) draw closer.

In short, the next 2-3 weeks (at least) are likely to be more active across California than any other 2-3 week period in recent memory. The potential exists for a dangerous flood scenario to arise at some point during this interval, especially with the possibility of a heavy rain-on-snow event during late week 2. In some parts of Southern California, a whole season’s worth of rain could fall over the course of 5-10 days. This is likely to be a rather memorable event. Stay tuned.”

Mike Bikes! to press conference

You have to love this: Newly elected Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn riding his bike to a press conference. Thanks to BikeHugger for the pix. When we wondered last August whether Seattle could get a mayor “who actually rides,” we were expressing more hope than expectation. Now it’s breakthrough reality. Images like this do wonders to advance the cause. Our full mayoral-bike thread here.

Toll avoidance maneuver: “Bicycle enthusiasts and certain tourists who use the Ohio Turnpike are paying up to 75 percent more in tolls thanks to a change in vehicle classification that took effect toward the end of last year.” As I tweeted to BikingBis, here’s the drill: “Arrive toll booth, get out of car, get bike down, ride past toll booth, back to car, drive thru, put bike back on rack, drive on.”

Pedal Pusher Club's Bicycle Safe Vehicle

The Freeride Revolution continues apace. Up on Galbraith Mountain, not content with the region’s bestination (south of the border), they’re taking Galby to new heights with work on Luge, Upper Mullet and other hot spots. Thanks to WHIMPS, EB, Fanatik Bikes and everyone for giving us a 2010 season to top them all!

Kudos to Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle for birddogging the bikes-on-bus at any stop in downtown free ride area.

Downieville Classic will be July 9 through 11. Note the reference to “mental hardship”…there was talk of abandoning Downieville because of hassles from locals and the Forest Service. Sounds like nerves are still a bit frayed but at least The Big Dawg is on!!

Momentum: New Bicycle Safe Stickers from Pedal Pushers Club now available!

Have you checked out the Ghost Bikes Film project’s blog? Cool stuff…

Guy turns 70, decides it’s time he rode across the country.

Yeah, it’s January. It’s in the 30s and 40s out there, and mud everywhere. It’s another three and a half months till the Sea Otter Classic April 15-18 outside of sunny Monterey, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to build the buzz.

Here’s a worthy cause that’ll etch you or your message in posterity. Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance is selling engraved tiles for a facade outside Duthie Hill mountain biking park near Issaquah. Funds go to paying for all the great work at the park. More on the Evergreen site.

Commemorative coal car at the outskirts of town

The term has far different connotations for the phenomenon transforming Black Diamond today. In extreme sports parlance, “black diamond” is a trail designation meaning, “Watch out!” It’s a measurement of degree of difficulty, an alert for skill requirement. For bike riders, “black diamond” trails mean steepness, rocks, drops and other challenges lie ahead: Ride at your own risk!

Today Black Diamond is where the lexicon and the phenom merge. While no one is going to mistake its swoopy flatland trails for Whistler or Kamloops, the area is sporting a growing matrix of increasingly challenging rides. At Summit Ridge they’re putting together a signature mountain bike freeride park, with structures, jumps and other cool stuff.

But they need your help, and here’s your chance. Beginning 10 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 23rd, two weeks from now, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, Black Diamond Bike shop and local riders will host a day-long work party and fundraiser to build on what’s already shaping up as a prime destination for Seattle-area mountain bikers. Walter Yi will be there to add to his killer video collection, and the Facebook tribe currently numbering 330 will be well-represented.

It’s all happened pretty suddenly. But that’s just a reflection of the pent-up demand for this stuff. Freeride parks are starting to explode all over. Witness the reception to Duthie Hill, which in just a few months has come from an idea to a whiteboard to a full-blown case study in how to get things done at the local level. Galbraith Mountain continues to evolve to world-class stature, and great expectations are in store for the forthcoming Stevens Pass mountain bike park.

Last winter Jim Lyon introduced me to the Sawyer Lake network just outside of Black Diamond and we immediately saw the huge potential for the place. Some rudimentary structures had fallen into disrepair, including a wild teeter-launch combo, and trails were getting overgrown from neglect. Still, the trailheads were never empty of vehicles with bike racks, and on any given weekend you’d run into lots of locals out thrashing the trails. There’s not a lot of climbing in this area, but there’s great draining and the trails do go up and down and make you work. For winter riding it’s one of the few places you can count on not to turn to mush.

With Summit Ridge, the Black Diamond area is taking the next big step to stardom. But it isn’t just about serving the riding community. Freeride parks provide a great positive outlet for kidz, a gathering spot where good things happen, where sports and fitness blot out less attractive pursuits, and where generations intersect in a common purpose and setting.

Plus — business leaders listen up. Parks draw. Duthie Hill’s once-spacious and underused parking lot already has expansion challenges from unexpectedly huge popularity. Freeriders eat and party and visit local attractions just like normal people. If you’re looking for a shot in the arm for local commerce, you’ll want to welcome the mountain biking crowd with open arms. Back in the day, when I was a suburban reporter for The Seattle Times, I used to drop into the Black Diamond bakery for oven-baked bread unlike anything you could find anywhere. The bakery is still there, it’s bigger and better, and it’s a perfect post-ride hangout.

So mark your calendars, bring your trail gear and generosity, come on out on the 23rd and join the revolution!

Summit Ridge Freeride Park links:

Take the survey to let the city know!

Walter Yi’s rockin’ video.

Facebook page.

Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance page.

Event flyer.