This map has a transparent background, so you can load it and it will show on top of your other maps. I would recommend Garmin’s Topo US 2008, or if you want to save some money, the excellent free NY Topo. This map is for Garmin GPS devices only and can be loaded into their free MapSource software.

A big thanks goes out to the Western New York Mountain Bicycling Association for the data and maps that they provide. They gave me a great start on this project.

Installation

1. Download EVL.1.13.zip UPDATE: v1.14 released.
2. Copy the contents of the ZIP file to C:\Garmin\EVL
3. Navigate to C:\Garmin\EVL and double click on Ellicottville Mountain Biking.reg to install the maps into MapSource.
4. If you are running 64 bit Windows, instead of #3, double click on Ellicottville Mountain Biking x64.reg to install into MapSource.

Currently, I only have the Ellicottville trails covered. I will add other areas as I get time, probably starting with Golden Hill.

Please send feedback, corrections and updates to rob (at) prouse (dot) org. You can send new trails in GPX format, but I can handle most common GPS file formats. If there is enough interest, I will try to release the maps compiled for other GPSs. I will probably also try to create a Mac version for my Apple minded friends.

The maps are for reference only and contain inaccuracies. Data for the trails comes from many sources and all have not been verified. Trails also regularly get re-routed, trails are closed and new trails are opened. I’m not responsible for how you use the data, or any inaccuracies.

Most of all, have fun and play safe.

Juliette and I are racing together as a team, working and riding together for the entire race. We work best as a team, encouraging each other and pushing each other. We haven’t trained very much since the 24 hour solo a few months ago, but we are still feeling strong and are looking forward to the race.

For once, the weather looks good, sunny and cool all weekend. There has been a lot of rain this summer and parts of the course are still muddy as you can see from the picture taken by race organizers a couple of weeks ago. It’s going to be tough, but one that we will remember.

See you when we get back…

It was a hard race this year, but thankfully we had a wonderful support crew. Juliette’s parents flew over from England to help. Our friends Tecla and Paula were there for us and my Dad and Doris cheered us on. There is no way I would have made it through the night without their support. They took us under their wings, fed us, pushed us and cheered for us. Even through the thunder showers at 3 AM when I just wanted to stop, they were there for me and kept me plugging away.

It is only because of their support that Juliette and I did so well. Juliette finished in 3^rd place and I managed 1^st place. The rest of Team Wanderlust did great to. Tim came in 6^th in Solo men and Matt/Peter came in 7^th in Tag Team.

At the finish, I was only 1 minute and 27 seconds ahead of the second place solo. I started the last lap thinking that I was 15 minutes ahead of him, but then when the course came out back near the start a few minutes later, everyone was yelling at me that he was only 2 minutes behind me and going hard.

I put on the speed and gave it everything I had. After riding the course 17 times previously, I had every line, log and corner wired and despite having been on my bike for nearly 24 hours, I rode the lap perfectly and had nearly my fastest lap of the race.

In these races, as long as you come in under the 24 hour mark, you can go out again for another lap. I came in at 23:59:46. I was spent and didn’t have the heart to head out again, so I stood in the timing tent as everyone counted down the seconds until noon. Thankfully, Dave Stowe didn’t make it through in time to go out again and the race was finished!

Everything seemed to go really well for me this race. I paced myself really well, trying to stay in heart rate zone 3 and below for the entire race. I stopped for a quick bite to eat and more water every two laps. Every four laps I stopped for a bit longer and ate as much as I could. I don’t think I took in enough calories to cover the 15,000 that I burned during the race, but I never felt overly depleted.

The hardest bit of the race was through the night. It rained hard and several sections of the course were unridable. I plugged away at it though, walking and slipping my way through, riding what I could, but always moving forward. Finally, at 4 AM I fell asleep on my bike several times, crashing a few, so I stopped and slept for an hour.

It was the fact that I kept plugging away at the course through the rain that moved me from second place into first. I was tired when I started riding again in the morning, but I was in first place, well ahead and moving fairly quickly. Dave was better rested and was slowly gaining on me, but I managed to hold him off to the end. My only mistake was stopping to lube my chain right before my last lap. It was grinding badly and I was worried about it, but that allowed Dave to catch up nearly 15 minutes and nearly cost me the race. I can see now why many of the other solo riders had multiple bikes.

In the end, it was an excellent race. We had some high calibre competition that pushed us beyond our limits. The challenge, weather and adversity as our advantage.

As our new Wanderlust shirts say,

F=EA²

Fun equals Effort times Adversity squared.

Once again, I need to thank our wonderful support crew. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to do this. Huge hugs and thanks to Don, Carrol, Tecla, Paula, my Dad and Doris, we owe you so much.

We will continue to ride through the night and into the next day, finally finishing at noon on Sunday. At the end, whoever does the most laps wins, so the idea is to keep going as much as possible, and only stop when absolutely necessary. We will eat and drink on the bike and keep going through the night without sleep.

The only way we can do this is with the support of others. We will be going fairly batty by about 3am and it is our support crew that will feed us, encourage us and keep us going. Thankfully, we have one of the best support crews around. Juliette’s parents are arriving from England tonight and will be there for us through-out the race. My dad and Doris are also coming up to cheer us on on Saturday and two of our good friends, Paula and Tecla are also going to be there to help.

The course this year was a blast with more great single track riding than I expected. As always, it started with a long climb then quickly got into fun twisty riding. There were some great technical downhills, enough climbing to keep you honest and some fun, fast riding.

Despite starting the race with stomach problems, both Juliette and Tecla did great, coming in 6^th and 9^th in Solo Women respectively, both with 11 laps. I managed to squeak into 4^th place in Solo Men 40+ despite some strong competition this year.

A big thanks go out to the True North racing team for their support and encouragement during the race. As always, they are a great crew to ride and hang out with. Congratulations to Mari Evans and Jennie Jackson who came in 1^st for female tag-team and to Dave Dermont for his 1^st place in male tag-team.

Juliette wrote a great race report on her blog and Jennie has a report on the True North racing blog. Head over and give them both a read.

Next up is the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice in 4 short weeks. I’d better get training… To keep us motivated, here is a video from last year’s 24 hour that I found on YouTube.

If you want to see more pictures from the race, check out Dave’s photo album with hundreds of great shots from the race.

I have also uploaded a video that I took from the race and I have found another video on YouTube of a younger category. It has more of the singletrack sections, so it is fun to watch.

Thanks to Dave for taking the photos and for letting me upload these great shots.

I did have my video camera mounted on my seatpost though and got some good footage of the first 15 minutes of the race until the lens got covered in mud. I have condensed the video down to about 3 minutes of fast double-track and a bit of twisty single-track. It makes for a fun watch.

Juliette did amazing as always, finishing 5th in her category. I managed a respectable 6th against a strong field. We are now back to training for the 24 hour and are looking forward to our first long race, the Opus Epic 8 Hour Spring Relay in two weeks.

For those people with GPS’s, you can download the GPX file linked below the maps and upload them to your device if you want to ride the same course. Maybe this belongs on the Team Wanderlust site, but I think its cool. What do you think? Please let me know in the comments.

080401 Hilton Falls.gpx

If you haven’t seen it yet, Juliette wrote a great race report on the Paris to Ancaster and another on the O-Cup.

The second album is from my surprise 40th birthday party at the beginning of the month. All of the pictures were taken by Tecla, so a big thanks go out to her for all the great shots.

It was a wonderful party and it was great to see everyone. I must say, I was quite surprised at how many people came so far out of their way for my party. I really appreciated it. Thanks.