'Cross riding along the rim-rocks. Billings, Montana
May 27, 2011
An Adventure Begins
Alan Winslow and Morrigan McCarthy Leave on 10,000 mile tour around US
May 16, 2011
Photo Essay: Mountain Cycle Pro Rider, Olivia Harkness
I had the good fortune to go out on a photo shoot with Mountain Cycle pro rider Olivia Harkness on the trails of eastern Massachusetts. It was a test in the theory that good photos are possible in any weather.
The shoot was aimed at creating promo photos for Olivia and for Mountain Cycle showing her riding and having a good time. As we unloaded our bikes, a misty drizzle began to fall from the flat, gray sky. A good time can be had mountain biking in any weather, but making the images look fun, rather than a cold, wet and dreary were going to be a challenge. We spent some time playing on the natural features, trying to get images with the ocean in the background. Within an hour, my lens cloth was soaked from wiping rain off the lens and my fingers had lost their sensitivity. The images, however, were working, due, in no small part, to Olivia’s riding. Her smooth confidence made the shots come alive. The muted light also brought out the vibrant greens of new spring leaves and the rain-darkened trail added contrast.
After enjoying the rock slabs and wet rock staircases of the oceanside, we hit the trails. For the record, trails in Massachusetts are excellent. She led me along trails that alternated between rocky/rooty technical sections and smooth, swoopy singletrack. We had so much fun railing bermed corners that I almost forgot to stop and shoot.
Almost.
Here are some of my favorites from the shoot.
For more images from the shoot click HERE.
February 3, 2011
Bike Passion on the Silver Screen: Taking in the NEMBA Mountain Bike Film Festival
The dim heart of the Regency Theater swirls with energy as over one hundred mountain bikers greet each other in anticipation. The food and beer lines stretch along the back wall. Mountain bikers oogle raffle prizes including day-passes from Highland Mountain Bike Park, bike care-kits from Pedros, Two Fox suspension forks, CrossMax wheel-sets from Mavic and Back Bay Bicycles, and the Grand Prize, a Kona Tanuki mountain bike. 
This is the New England Mountain Bike Association (NEMBA) Mountain Bike Film Festival and the anticipation isn’t just for the Red Bones BBQ or the beer donated by Harpoon Brewery–or even the prizes–it’s for the films. While screenings of big name films happen all over the country, this is one of the few that celebrate the making of mountain bike films at the amateur level. These are videos made by mountain bikers about their own rides and adventures.
Prizes donated by Kona, Mavic, Fox Shox, JRA, Back Bay, Highland, Pedros and many more...
Soon, the lights go dark and the films begin to tick off one by one. They are all short (rules require under 5 minutes, but most are under 3.) They all have limited production quality. They each shake, wobble and tilt in vertiginous ways. But what these films lack in production, they more than make up for in passion. As I watch beginner XC riders skitter through singletrack turns and freeriders send-it off dirt kickers, I realize that picking one to be the “People’s Choice” was going to be a contentious event.
Mike Feeney produced a couple of hard-charging freeride videos that not only included hucking decent-sized jumps and ripping scary ladder bridges at Highland MBP, but also rednecks jumping ATVs and starting a snowmobile on fire. “Badassalon 2008″ and “I Didn’t Pump My Tire” head up the humorous entries with pellet rifles and a remake of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Marsha MacEachern’s “A Biker’s Playground” is a surprisingly emotional romp through the woods (and a lake.) 
I am surprised to see an animated feature, but Bryan McFarland put one together with some chill music. There is also an iPhone entry that has some of the best composed visuals in the festival. Two high school kids put together a strong contender for the People’s Choice award filming their mountain biking class riding homemade stunts. It is “One Speed Jasper” that barely edges out the other films for People’s Choice, however. This film used the GoPro HD camera famous for helmet-cam shots in so many adventure movies. Of course, the camera ended up attached to the usual places on the bike: helmet, rider’s chest and seatpost. What really made this film shine was that the subject wasn’t just the ride, but also the faithful mountain bike companion: the “trail dog.” In the true GoPro fashion of showing things from “your point of view,” the camera was attached to Jasper the Dog for a trail-dog’s-eye-view of a run through the woods chasing a bike. 
THIS is what makes amateur film shine. The footage shook like “Blair Witch Project” but it focused on a valuable part of mountain biking that often gets overlooked by the large production films.
After watching Highland Mountain Bike Park’s GnarEast film winner, a good film that centered around the central “story” of the park and ride bus that shuttles riders in to Highland from surrounding towns, they announced the raffle winners. 
Not everyone left with a Kona mountain bike or set of Mavics, but, I think it’s fair to say, we all left with a greater appreciation for mountain biking, whether it’s the camaraderie of riders gathering in the dead of winter, the glimpse into where video will be taking us in the future or the passion for riding that made these films happen.
July 31, 2010
2010 Claymore Challenge Pt. 2
22 riders, 3 hours, 2 runs, one slope.
1250 photos.
10 that speak louder than words.
July 26, 2010
2010 Claymore Challenge pt 1: Roadtrip
The hum of SUV tires on pavement sparks something deep inside me, long-since lost. the thrill of a road trip. For once, however, I’m not pushing the pedal down and moving the steering wheel. This time, I’m stuffed in the back seat, wedged in with the dusty riding gear of two free-ride mountain bikers. Their full-face helmets lie beside me like the heads of slain heroes upon piles of body armor, gloves, and spare inner-tubes. My backpack filled with lenses crowds my feet, and I carry my camera in my lap. The truck sways as we pass cars and the heavy bikes stacked on the most jury-rigged bike rack I’ve ever seen sway with it.
Road-tripping with freeriders involves risk to life and limb, even before getting to the destination. Check out this rigged rack set up. Are you sure the bikes are going to make it?
I’ve spent a lot of time on the open road. In Montana, where it’s two hours at eighty mph to the next sizable town, time in the car is measured in CDs listened to, tanks of gas or mountain ranges crossed. Here, it’s just two hours of trees, back-road corners and pockets of open farm land to Highland Mountain Bike Park in Northfield, New Hampshire. We are traveling to see the Claymore Challenge Slopestyle Competition and the atmosphere in the truck is shivering with energy. Will and Zander will ride between rounds of competition. I am here to shoot photos.
Traveling with these guys takes me out of my element. The element of the solitary traveler. We stop at a country store for some snacks, and before I know it, Will is talking to an older gentleman about the color of the buildings in town and our business being there. I never would have attracted that kind of attention. Will relishes it. Though pleasant enough, the old man is dealing with some sort of dementia and Will keeps the conversation going until Zander comes out of the store with a foot-long breakfast super-sandwich. I make a mental note not to be so stand-off-ish in my future travels.
Traveling with more outgoing people often results in getting to know the locals. Unlike me, Will Carrol will talk to anybody. We had a lively conversation with this guy in front of our breakfast stop.
We meet up with a few of Will’s other friends at Highland. The park, built out of an old ski mountain, is in full swing. The lift whisks riders up to the top so they can charge back down. Riders pump the dirt jumps. The pro riders practice throwing huge tricks on building-sized jumps. Spectators already line the fence. Will and Zander disappear for their first runs and don’t reappear until after the competition has begun. In fact, they see only a few minutes of the competition all day, coming in for an update, then zipping off again. It’s hard to underestimate the call of the trails.
Riders putting on armor and getting ready to rip up the slopes.
Highland Lodge, Highland Mountain Bike Park, New Hampshire.
Will and Zander admiring the artwork and filling out ride forms in the Lodge.
Lift Service, Highland MtB Park
Tires
During a break in the competition, I head over to Sherwood Forest, where a stash of immaculate dirt-jumps are hidden, and shoot a few lines. Perfect light emerges from behind the trees. I hit the shutter. It’s been a long time since I’ve used my camera without expectation and it feels good. Really good. I continue firing, following dirt-jumpers as they bob up and down between the trees. I don’t worry about anything but exposure, composition and focus. I forget about the requirements of stock agencies. Snap, snap, snap in quick succession. Each frame is allowed to come out badly. Each frame is art.
- Sherwood Forest Dirt Jumps, Highland MtB Park
- Sending it over the gap!
Wall Ride, Sherwood Forest, Highland MtB Park.
Shredding Sherwood Forest, Highland Mtn. Bike Park.
July 16, 2010
Talking the Walk
Project Tandem Presentation at Asymmetrick Arts, Rockland, Maine
Crisp black and white images line the white walls, while people, glasses of wine in hand, cluster and talk. At first glance, the scene at Asymmetrick Arts in Rockland, Maine looks like any other art gallery opening. What gives away that this is something different, besides the myriad regional dialects speaking about their personal thoughts on the environment emanating from the overhead speakers, is the two well-worn bicycles displayed in the gallery’s front windows. This is not just an art show, but also a talk given by Morrigan McCarthy and Alan Winslow of Project Tandem about the year they spent on bicycles, touring the country and gathering these sounds and images.
Alan Winslow's Giant FCR-3 after 11,000 miles.
11,000 miles. 24,200 pictures. Dozens of hours of audio. What we see on the walls and during the slide show is the barest sliver of an adventure that took a year to complete. Alan and Morrigan, both pro photographers, started Project Tandem as a way to open up the discourse on the environment in the US by letting the voices of rural Americans be heard. The project ended up being much larger than that.
Originally, the bicycling aspect was more about fuel-free travel and a way to see rural America from the “ground-level” rather than speeding by at seventy-miles-per-hour. They also hoped that riding up on loaded touring bikes would get people to open up in ways they might not if they stepped out of a car hauling cameras and recorders. It worked. “We never once had someone refuse to let us take their picture,” Alan says. “Everyone just opened up their homes and their lives to us.”
The bikes ended up being the central feature of the project in unexpected ways, however. “People kept warning us, ‘be very careful. There are dangerous people out there,’” Morrigan adds. “That’s not what we saw. Everyone we met went out of their way to be helpful and friendly.”
From there, the presentation about cycling 11,000 miles is quickly overshadowed by the stories of the kindness of strangers. They regale stories about running out of food with the next services fifty miles away, only to have a family stop and give them their last granola bar and mini-bag of chips. They speak of being stuck in a lightening storm and having a single mother and two kids run out into the downpour to bring them into their home where fresh towels and food awaited. A couple living in a dilapidated trailer, living so far from the mainstream they’d never seen a digital camera, cook them breakfast with the last of their eggs. A wealthy ranch owner took them in and fed them beef raised in one of his fields. Alan says, “We got to see the very best of what America has to offer.”
Where did they go?
Looking at the map with all of its pins marking their adventure reminds me how far they went, and my relationship to the Project’s beginning. I helped these proto-cycle-tourers find the bicycles that carried them around the US for a year: two Giant FCR-3′s. In a special way, I got to tour with them. Not just following their daily blog, but also, occasionally, giving technical advice over the phone and mailing tools to them in remote locations. For my small part of such an incredible endeavor, I got a special thanks during the presentation. I certainly appreciate it, but no thanks is necessary. It’s been my pleasure to be one of the countless acts of kindness Project Tandem met along their journey.
Alan Winslow and Morrigan McCarthy of Project Tandem.
July 2, 2010
Winnick Woods Trail Day Video
Here is the film from the footage I shot during the Winnick Woods trail day.
If you look at the dates of the trail day, you’ll see that it’s been a while since the work got done. I got the final shots of the completed work being ridden just a couple of days ago. Enjoy!
June 9, 2010
Trail Day pt 2: IMBA Trail Care Crew
IMBA TCC with Portland trail crew Photo by: Leslie Kehmeier
It’s not every day that you get to work with the preeminent experts in your field. Greater Portland NEMBAgot that opportunity when they won a grant to bring the IMBA Trail Care Crew to Falmouth to teach a trail building clinic. Thirty people showed up for the workshop that included both in-class instruction and field work at the new Falmouth open land project. Chris and Leslie Kehmeier of the IMBA Trail Care Crew (East) spent the morning teaching us about “flow” of both water off the trail and of mountain bikers gliding along singletrack. After spraying a heavy coat of bug spray on ourselves, we picked up our Pulaskis, McLeods and rakes and and began the outdoor clinic. With their help and instruction, we turned 1800 ft of nothing but little pink flags into fresh, sustainable trail. There is still plenty of work to keep us busy out there, but with their technical, hands-on teaching, we have a good start on a great trail. Thank you, Chris and Leslie, and IMBA.
Apply for a visit by the IMBA TCC here.
May 31, 2010
Trail Work Day Pt 1: Winnick Woods
Winnick Woods Trail Day, Cape Elizabeth, Maine
There’s something thrilling about riding a trail that you helped build or maintain. The trail feels smoother and faster. The descents are more fun. The climbs, more ridable. The root-sections, suddenly, less dangerous. And, as you ride over that rock-fortified, erosion-resistant section, you can feel each stone that your hands placed as your tires roll over it. The elation you feel when you ride that trail is pride. It comes from long mornings of hauling wheelbarrows full of gravel and chopping out hidden, tire-eating stumps from the edge of the trail. It comes from wiping gritty sweat out of your eyes with the back of a work glove. It’s pride of a job well done (even if it’s a work in progress.) You begin to take ownership of it. This is my trail.
John swings at a stump, Winnick Woods trail day, CE, Maine
I’ve been able to experience that thrill several times while riding the “Holy Cross” trail outside of Grand Junction, Colorado, after working with COPMOBA. If you’re in the Grand Junction area, go ride it. It’s the masterpiece of theTabeguache (Lunch Loop) trails system. Every time I ride it, I experience that pride. Now, I get to experience that sense of pride here in Maine.
I volunteered time working on the Winnick Woods trail system in Cape Elizabeth for Greater Portland NEMBA and had a blast. Winnick Woods, already one of the area’s best trail systems, is now better than ever. The trails will be more fun for me to ride, not just because of the improvements we made to them, but because of the effort I put in.
Some ways you can find out about trail work days going on in your area is to search for local trail organizations or look through IMBA’s trail organization database. Keep in mind, also, that a large presence of volunteers doesn’t just make the work of keeping trails up easier, it also shows land managers that mountain bikers care about the trails. Providing free labor to cash-strapped land agencies (public and private) helps ensure a good relationship when it comes time to decide what “multi-use” really means. Mountain biking, like all trail-based activities, has an impact. Make sure you give more than you take by volunteering.
