Watch: Transition Presents Blue Ribbon Trail - Story of the Build
We are proud to present "Blue Ribbon", a public trail located on Galbraith Mountain in Bellingham, WA. This project is the culmination of years of permitting work, hours of machine time, and finished off by selfless volunteer work. Watch the video above to learn about how it came to be, and come visit us in Bellingham to catch a lap down this mind bending trail!
Step 1: All trails require one thing, a corridor.
To establish ours for this project we worked with local trail advocacy group, the WMBC, to obtain permits and find a window of time for construction. All said and done, this took nearly four years from when we kicked off the project proposal to when we broke ground. During that time we walked the proposed zone, looking for the right grade to create the flow we were after. With the planning and layout completed, the trail building mastermind, Nico Vink, arrived to start breaking ground.
Step 2: Realize it's too much work for one person and call your friends.
We quickly realized it would be too much work for Nico so we called in TR GiddyUp ambassadors Teddy Jaramillo and Henry Lanman. They run a trail building operation in New Mexico, and were the perfect people to get on the job. Nico had always wanted to work with a crew of three and this project lined up perfect for that. Henry ran the big excavator clearing corridor and mining dirt while Teddy followed creating general shapes for Nico to finish and fine tune in his machine.
Step 3: Dig 'till you can't dig anymore, then dig a little more.
Nico, Henry and Ted were able to work for a solid month of spring, 2023, before the dirt became too dry to continue shaping. Nico then returned to Belgium to ride his bike and process the work he had already completed on Blue Ribbon. Giving him a summer to visualize the flow he had in mind for the trail. With some refreshed energy, he returned to Bellingham that Fall to complete the machine work on the trail. Countless days ensued with the help of WMBC's Ryan Joslyn to create the final shapes that you can ride on Blue Ribbon today.
Step 4: Find every available shovel and pair of hands to butter up the trail after the winter.
With all the machine work in the past, it was time for us and the community to get our hands dirty and butter up the remaining bits of the trail. Nico had done almost 95% of the work with the machine, but a few transitions still needed some shaping. With the help of the community and a company dig day the trail took its final transformations and was ready to ride.
Step 5: Open the trail to the world, and get some laps!
After battling with some wacky Spring weather, we finally opened Blue Ribbon in June of 2024. Thanks to everyone who helped along the way and came out for the opening celebration. And a huge shout to Nico Vink for his relentless work and contributing to making this community better and better.
This trail was a huge effort, and we are stoked to give it to the community. Hope to see you out there soon!
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