The Gateway Area MountainBike Extravaganza was a great success. That's event code for "nobody died!"
Despite a short storm that blew through Friday Night, the festival kicked off early Saturday morning as planned. Activities included registration and schwag bags, the IMBA Trail Build Clinic coffee and chilled fruit from The Second Street Bike Stop Cafe, and a large (slightly wet) group ride at nearby Matson Hill.
More festival goers arrived after 11 am and soon a SLAG contingent of adventure seekers headed off towards the skills features that Klondike Park is known for. There was a lot of cameras on hand and many riders were willing to leap off of the bigger drops at Donkey Kong and The Ewok Village to get that sweet airborne still shot or video clip.
A few miscalculations lead to some painful looking get-offs and a few bruises but the entire group had a blast riding and fooling around in the rugged terrain.
Photo Credit: Joe Baxter
Saturday evenings activities included an open cookout with SLAG Burgers and plenty of cold refreshments. After a brief technical delay, we had the movie premiere of Freedom Riders followed by raw clips of the days riding adventures. It was a beautiful night for an outdoor movie and being able to view the videos taken just a few hours beforehand made for a lot of good laughs. The Midnight Ride was by far the most fun, so much so, that I cant talk about it in detail. If you missed it, try to stay up past 10pm next year.
Sunday's activities included rides for all skills levels at nearby Broemmelsiek Park, Lost Valley and again at Matson Hill. After all that riding I suspect there were a few call ins on Monday morning Although this years GAME was a small affair, next year we are planning on going just a little bit bigger and a whole lot better.
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Thanks to:
St. Charles County Parks, Rangers and staff.
The National Weather Service
