Northstar Bike Park Report 9/25-26

Sit back, relax and enjoy the show ......

Fri: Jefe, Tiny and myself loaded up friday after work and headed out of HB around 6pm. Picked Diesel (oldschoolpl510) at 6:30 and then the adventure began. Figured we'd head up the 5 instead of the 395. Hit friday night traffic going through LA and made the long boring 9 hour drive out there only stopping for gas. Got into Tahoe around 3am, found our hotel in Tahoe Vista and crashed for the night.

Sat: Woke up fresh as a daisy at 9am, loaded up and headed to Northstar. This was our 1st time there, so trying to figure out where to park, buy lift tickets, etc added a little time. Bought 2day passes and headed up the lift. For our first run we did Livewire, pretty much cruised it to feel it out, then hit it up again right after with speed to see what it was all about. Laid down a good run, cleared most jumps and had fun. It wasn't Whistler, but it felt good to be back in a bike park. Waiting at the bottom we see Diesel walking his bike down, figuring he got a flat. No flat, his rear shock shaft un-threaded from the lower rod end, blew out all the oil and damged the shaft & rebound adjustment. He went to go talk to the Santa Cruz reps that were there and we headed back up the mountain. This time we took the other lift and took Flameout to Karipel to Sticks & Stones and then ended on Phodogg. Trails weren't marked very well so we were all over the place. They were pretty technical trails at speed, fun, rocky and really dusty. We all headed back down the mountain for lunch in the village and then headed back up. Diesel tried to rent a Glory, but they were all out for the day. We hit up Livewire again, then boondocks. I ended up twisting my knee on a rocky downhill section so I cruised the last part of it. We hit up Livewire again, now that we ran it a few times I was able to throw down a good run and clear everything and had a pace I was happy with. Then we took Gypsy down and thats when things got ugly for me haha. Was riding good and came up to a rocky section. Came over the top of it and then I went to pedal off the drop and my knee gave out and then sent me into the drop nose first. Tried to catch myself and landed on the same hurt knee and twisted it again and then jammed my wrist into the ground. Got up not able to stand on my knee pretty much and took a personal time out haha. Everyone else headed down while I regrouped and then I cruised down, not able to pedal all that much or hold onto the bars with my one hand. My day was done, thankfully it was at the end of the day. They did one more run and we headed back to the hotel for ice cold beers in the spa! Sadly, no girls around. Hotel clerk was a babe though. Headed back into the village for dinner had tasty sushi and pitchers of beer at Mikuni. Recommend that place highly, tasty food and hot cougars everywhere!

Sun: Got to the village early so we could round up a bike for Diesel, I was out of commission so I just limped around with my bike since I had no place to put it. Not about to leave it in the back of a truck in the parking lot. Santa Cruz was demoing bikes so Diesel but his name on the list and about an hour later he got to demo a new carbon V-10 for a couple runs. He can tell you all about that himself. I hung out at the bottom, put out the vibe and watched everyone ride. The guys got in a few runs, had a few get offs and then we called it quits. Left tahoe at 1:30pm and was back home in HB at 10:30pm.

All in all it was a great trip. Wish I could have rode the 2nd day though. The place was pretty torn up this late in the season so I can imagine it's a lot better early on. Was pretty cool to see Steve Peat, Greg Minnaar and Cedric Gracia out there doing their clinic. Those guys are giant's! super tall. Looking forward to hitting it up next year a few times as a warm up for our Whistler trip.

I dont really have any riding pics since we were busy riding, but we have some general pics we took that I'll round up and post.

Well thats my story and I'm sticking to it ... if you thought this post was too long, well no one asked you to read it haha :)

- Scott

Loaded up and ready to head out! SX Trail, M6, Session 88, V-10.

sounded like a great trip up until you got hurt. Doh! No refund for the second day I guess.. Iv never been also and it's on my to do ride..

heal up!

The thing we learned most about this trip was that you have to be a giant to be a top world cup rider. These guys were laughing at me when I was chatting it up with Minaar. He had six inches over me. No wonder those wc drops are a piece of cake.
Although my trip was almost ruined by my rear shock, the silver lining was the carbon V-10. I got on that thing and headed straight for Boondocks. It was SO LIGHT it pedaled like a Nomad. On the short ride to Boondocks, I literally lost the other guys behind me. It was one sweet bike.
We all had our gremlins this weekend, but it still turned out to be a pretty rad weekend. And get this, they're sending the trail crew to whistler for a week to check it out. Hopefully they will get some good ideas for next year. We will definitely be back to check it out. We'll stop and take pictures next time.

Nice report!

Hey Diesel, if you can use that spare shock that you gave me, let me know...you can have it back.

Thanks, but it's a different size. No problem. I'm sending it out to PUSH today.

nice RR. sounds like you guys had a great time. how long are those runs in generall!

Too bad we missed each other. We were also up there over the weekend and had a blast, despite the trails being so damn blown out and loose.