Race for the Ridge Trail Festival 2011

Another great festival has came and gone. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, the trails conditions faster, and the times any better. There was a good turnout for all four of the festival's events. On Saturday October 8th, the festival started off at 9am with the grueling cross country race. The collegiate A and citizen expert classes endured three tough laps with some tight switchbacks, some great single track, and a bunch of climbing. If you know the Arcata Community Forest trails well enough then the #6 switchbacks mean something to you. This is where I posted up for a few hours to photograph the racers battle out the tight, steep corners.

Kevin Johnson tackles the tough switchbacks on #6 at the 2011 Ridge Festival

The short track cross country event started at 2:30pm on the same day. As the name implies it is a much shorter version of the cross country event and a bit more technical. The event took place right in Redwood Park at the base of the community forest. Racers battled out for 20-30 minutes depending on their class, and proved their ability on both the flats and the technical sections. I also photographed the short track race hiding in the ferns in the technical section.

Jason Hayes pushing pedals during the short track race.

The SuperD and Downhill events took place Sunday at Tish Tang near Willow Creek, CA. Riders came out with their squishy bikes and battle armor for a chance to be gravity king or queen.

Kent Johnson blasting over a drop in the downhill race on Sunday to take first in his category.

To check out all the photos from each of the events go to jmbarnesphoto.com.

Community Forest Trail #19

Was inspired by an old friends new album, so I took a break and went out to shoot some video in the local Community Forest. There's not a ton of riding there, but some very beautiful and flowy single track that I can't complain about. I mean, who can complain when there's riding right outside your door? Not me.



Thanks Travis from Leave Let Be for letting me use "Cold House" for the soundtrack and for James for letting me borrow the Sony Cam. Sorry, I'll get it back to you soon.

2011 Ridge Trail Festival Coming Soon

Back for the second year the Ridge Trail Festival mountain bike event will prove to be another awesome event. Both a collegiate points race and an open community race, the Festival will offer a grueling XC route, a fast flowy Super D route, a stomach churning short track route, and even a full on Downhill event. Photos from last year can be seen and purchased here. I'm still undecided on whether I'll race the XC again, but I'll definitely be photographing all other events I'm not racing.

Check out information about the 2011 Ridge Trail Festival here. The event will again be in the community forest in Redwood Park in Arcata on October 8-9. Direct your questions toward Kirk Cohune at kcohune AT gmail.com.

China

I've recently been honored with the key to China. For those of you that don't get out very often, China is a country in Eastern and Southeastern Asia, with a total size of 9,596,961 sq km. which is just slightly smaller than the U.S. and the fourth largest on Earth. Wow, that's big. China has an extremely diverse climate, and a terrain of mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and hills in east. But be careful, there are frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts), damaging floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, droughts, and land subsidence. For more information about China you can visit our friendly CIA website on them.

I could spare the key for a little while so if you're interested in borrowing it please let me know.

Best of Humboldt

Once again the North Coast Journal is putting on their annual Best of Humboldt shakedown where every vote counts, and everything can be voted for. Got a favorite bar, restaurant, or newspaper let them know. You can find the survey in the local newspaper form, or go here for the digital version.

Be sure to be legit as, "Each ballot will be put through an exhaustive 12-step legitimacy verification process — it involves lasers, trained German shepherds and multiple cases of Pabst. We reserve the right to reject any ballots that smell fishy, either figuratively or literally. In short, don’t be that person. Trust democracy."

Have fun and get your vote in by September something.