LOCALadk Magazine

22 Summer 2019 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk On Westport's Main Street, just east of the Essex County Fairgrounds, sits a navy building with black letters that spell out Solace North. An oversized garage entrance and a plain door split the front. The look hints at the facility's past life as an industrial shop. But step inside, and it's clear that this site is dedicated to creating something new: mountain bikes. To the right, a mini showroom holds polished fat tire bi- cycles loaded with panniers for self-supported tours. A Surrata roadster hangs from the high ceiling with a carbon front fork. Farther back, five mountain bikes lean against the wall—models from big-name brands, like Santa Cruz, wheel- to-wheel with nameless, unpolished steel frames. A lanky Goldendoodle pops out of an office door way, lop- ing past bikes, three-pin cross-countr y skis, and a pair of fat-waisted Black Diamond skis mounted with telemark bind- ings. "That's Piper," says Courtney Fair, a furniture maker with a workshop on the building's lower level. A gray fleece bean- ie is pulled close over his short brown hair, and round eyeglasses frame his gray-blue eyes. His clothes—a mix of nylon, can- vas, wool, and more fleece —suggest he's at home at a tool bench or a trailhead. "And this is Miles." He motions to an af- fable Australian Shepherd that joins the nose-twitching investigation of the new- comer. Courtney leads the way to a make-do conference room an- chored by a heavy wooden table and a big-screen T V. Against one wall, a fridge and sink bookend a panini press, espres- so machine, and microwave. The room is filled with playful and adventurous inspiration: a topographical map of Alaska, a dartboard, a miniature human skeleton, a three-masted model ship, a coin-operated M&M candy machine, and a car- bon fiber canoe paddle used in Olympic competition. Jeff Allott enters, and powers up the espresso machine. Like Courtney, he's fit, dressed for work or play in a Patago- nia fleece vest, half-zip base layer, and work pants. A black baseball cap covers closely trimmed white hair, with oval framed glasses perched atop the brim and bright blue eyes underneath. Both men's hands are weathered, with short nails framed by traces of stubborn stains that might be oil, grease, or dirt. They settle in with coffee, and a company-wide meeting for Solace Cycles begins. In 2016, Courtney and Jeff used their own capital to launch a business that has become the lone pur veyor of mountain bikes based in the Adirondack Moun- tains. Or, in their own words, "Aggressive hardtail mountain bikes designed for the Adirondacks, built to ride anywhere." How'd they get here? The duo, both long-time paddlers and telemark skiers, first met in the early 2000s. Courtney had moved his family and business north from Virginia, and soon co-founded Dogwood Bread Company in Wadhams. Jeff lived in Elizabethtown, raising a family in the same town where he grew up. Like Courtney, he was an established entrepreneur: in 2010, he sold General Compos- ites, Inc., a company that engineers and fabricates parts for aerospace, sports, and medical industries. Today's Solace headquarters is GCI's former machine shop. Then Jeff moved on to endeavors aligned with his off-hours pursuits. He owns 230 acres outside Eliza- bethtown, the site of Otis Mountain. The former ski area with a single towrope is where Jeff learned to make turns in the 1970s. When Jeff sent out an "Otis no- tice" that he'd fire up the lift for friends and family, Courtney often showed up. More recently, the hill has hosted demos for the Adirondack Backcountr y Ski Fes- tival, which prompted Jeff to cut uphill trails for backcountr y ski gear demos. These routes were trafficked by skiers who fixed mohair and nylon skins to their skis and hiked uphill for human-powered turns. Eventually, Jeff realized the Otis skin track was climbable on a mountain bike. A core group of friends, including Court- ney, began to scout and build more singletrack for summer rides. "Plenty of people just want to get after it and not be idle," says Courtney. "But for us, there was something to it besides just exhausting ourselves. We were interested in the idea of adventure and positive change." This coincided with an uptick in trail-building efforts in Wilmington, Lake Placid, and Saranac Lake, and the Barkeater Trail Alliance's emer- gence as a nonprofit leader in creating more bike and ski trails in the High Peaks region. More unpredictable winters, and a ton of innovative gear from the bike industr y, sparked a new wave of local interest in off-road—with Courtney and Jeff leading the pack in the Eastern High Peaks. " When they ride together, one is right off the other's rear tire —the two of them will just be flying," says Jen Ka- Finding Solace in the Woods—And the Workshop By Olivia Dwyer

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