One thing’s certain — the mountain biking double header held in deep Errington over the weekend turned out to be a big hit.
While it was hard to keep tabs on the exact tally of riders that turned out Saturday for the inaugural Island Bike community ride, co-organizer Michelle Haines pegged the number at 200-plus, while just under100 riders turned out for Sunday’s Hammerfest XC.
Saturday, said Haines, was great weather, “and a steady flow of people coming by for a ride. There were people coming in and out all day starting at 8:30 in the morning right up to 4:30 that afternoon …we had a group of six guys show up as we were packing everything away that wanted to go out,” she said.
Pulled together by Michelle and Victoria’s Dan Cammiade from Freak Maps with the rides led by members of the Arrowsmith Mountainbike Club, the event was the brainchild of local freeride mountain biking legend Darren Berrecloth. Joining ‘the Claw’ and helping the cause were other locals the likes of fellow pro rider Dylan Tremblay and trail builder extraordinaire Riley McIntosh and other club volunteers who took groups out for trail rides, most of them lasting around two hours.
“Wow, that was awesome,” one stoked Denise Popoff from Maple Ridge beamed as she pulled up to the end of her outing — her first time riding the trails of Errington. “Great trails, great place for a ride — it’s beautiful up there …an absolute blast and I’d definitely come back year.”
Popoff, 43, said she’s been mountain bike riding about six years, and in the true spirit of the event, was part of a group of three women from the ‘Ridge and Coquitlam that came over for the ride Friday, and which they heard of through a local friend.
“It was definitely a success,” Haines confirmed after. “We had a lot of positive feedback, people encouraging us to continue doing this every year up and down the Island at a different community every year. People are so happy to see something like this going on. Something to showcase the Island’s different trails, that’s what it’s all about.”
Riders ranged in age from five to around 80. The event was staged at Tranquility Woods and featured a Demo Day with big names like Kona, Marin, Trek, Race Face along with local companies like Dirty Girl Designs on hand.
There were also prizes and an easter egg hunt and races, and local businesses stepped up with lots of donations.
“Everybody walked away with something — lots of swag given out,” said Haines, pointing out the winner of the bike toss event won two day passes to Mt. Washington.
“It was a great day,” she confirmed, adding “it started out with bringing some friends together for a ride on our local trails and just spread from there. We only had five weeks to pull this together …it was great fun, and it wasn’t that hard to do. Just a lot of teamwork and dedication to get it done, and it will just keep getting bigger and better every year. Definitely.”
LOOKING DOWN THE ROAD the plan is for Island Bike to surface at a South Island location yet to be determined in 2014, and Cumberland has already signed on to host the event in 2015.
