Located just west of the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border is the small town of Esterhazy. With a population of about 2400 it wouldn’t seem a likely spot for a network of mountain bike trails. However, Esterhazy is a favorite riding spot for people across the province.
For the trailbuilding school on October 16 th , 2010 we had a group of 4 come from Saskatoon, 9 drove from Regina, 1 from Russell, Manitoba and of course the main club members from the East Qu’Appelle Cartel. The main trails used for races and by most of the Cartel run along the Qu’Appelle river valley. Having plenty of elevation to work with coupled with epic views and the only oak tree grove in the entire province, the site for our trailbuilding school was second to none. We worked with our host Tom to design a 200 m reroute around a difficult fall line section. Our volunteers were enthusiastic and voracious when it came time to benchcut. After 4 solid hours of work the crew punched through the entire 200 meters of designed trail.
Sunday morning greeted us with a little frost and a whole lot of sun and we met everyone back at the site for a group ride. After two laps around the trails and some time spent riding the new section of trail we finished the day with a delicious BBQ and social time.
A HUGE thank you to Tom Landine and his wife Val for the coffee, good food and warm bed. A special thank you to all the volunteers who made the drive down for the weekend to help out another club with their trail work. The sense of community and camaraderie that we experienced over the entire weekend was a reminder of why we became involved in the sport in the first place.