October 16th-20th, Wet foggy days, build day #2, and burning legs.

I've only lived here in the Okonagan for a little over a year now, but I do know that the fall is one of the only times of year where you can get to ride in the wet. This past week we saw a lot of rain, not like coastal rain, but some pretty solid dumps. I am from Newfoundland, I grew up there so I was forced to like cold, wet days on the bike. I found that riders from the east coast have really good technical mountain bike skills because they are often forced to ride in super slick conditions. The trails there are gnar, there are LOTS of rock and roots on the trails and you will find a wet spot on a trail no matter how dry it has been. With all this rain I was stoked to get out and ride just for the challenge of riding in the wet. Also it was a little practice too. On October 16th we had a massive dump of rain overnight and into the morning so I went out as soon as the rain tapered off a bit. I rode in Kal park with my dogs. I did a few mini 2 k laps as a warm up, getting to hit a favorite section of mine that has a beauty rock face that was sweet in the wet. I eventually did a hike a bike to the top of Kal Lookout so I could bomb the DH back to the truck. The ride down was sick! The wet trail was just loose enough that the bike would drift a little but then hook up! I really felt like I could lean the bike in to turns hard, getting the side knobs of my tires to find traction. I wish the ride down was longer but it was well worth the hike.
On Sunday October 18th I went to the NOCS trail day #2 at Kal park. The crew was committed as it was raining most of the day. The amount of work you can get done with 12 people is amazing! The Park rangers helped us out HUGE and lent us a hand by bring a quad. They also opened gates for us so we could drive supplies and equipment deeper into the park. In about 5 hours we rebuilt entire sections of trail, added a few new features to some and completely opened up some old beat down trails. We finished up at around 3, so that left us with some time to ride what we just built!!!!!
Some of the other guy's that were out riding with us were up for a ride as well so we all got together quickly on a mission to ride up to Jimmy Thang and ride some buff trails!!!! Joining me were to great guys, Ray and James. I had never ridden with these 2 guys but I had a feeling they were pretty good. I was only hoping they weren't animals on the climb as I only ride a 9 speed drive train. Ray was an animal. James was pretty mad as well! They both had granny gears on their bikes giving them a bit of a break on the really steep climbs but I had no choice but to slug it out on the climbs. Ray is in amazing shape, he was flying up the climbs and setting a blistering pace from the get go. After about 20 minutes on the bike i felt good, but I was feeling pretty haggard by the time we made it to the top of Jimmy Thang. I then slammed my seat post and dropped in!! The ride down was so much fun. We connected into another trail called Purple Haze, which I had never ridden on due to all the dead fall on the trail. The trail was sick. Fast flowy, with quick turns and a few small natural stunts. Loads of fun. From there we hit Stairs, a 200M section of trail that's steep and rooty with some techy lines in there. From stairs we hit Foxy lady, another short trail but fun, it was also fast with some little techy lines. From Foxy lady we hit Interstellar once again a short section but fun. I had never ridden that one before either. From Interstellar we hit root cellar, a trail I am familiar with. As the name implies it's a little rooty. We finished the downhill with everyones fave, No Boats! We still had about 2-3K to go till we got back to the parking lot, its mostly uphill and I was already gassed. My legs started to cramp up slightly and I was just trying to nurse it back to the truck. I had had full leg cramps from racing before and it's something I never want to go through again! Once the ride ended I was so exhausted but felt so good to do such a hard ride. It's great to be challenged like that. Pushing it with people like that will only make you a stronger rider. I was sore for days but I can't wait to do it all over again!!!!

October 10th. Thanksgivin er!

This weekend I called up an old friend Mark Ed to see if he was in for some XC laps but he had something a little more fun planned. A lap of Big Ed!! Since everybody in the clan was on a short travel bike I took my Little bike as well! On this ride it was myself, Adrian, Mark, Anna, Lisa, Danny, Julie, and the Rookie Dana. Dana had never really been mountain biking before and dropping in to Big Ed I heard "So right brake is rear...right?!?!" Needless to say the guy stepped it up huge and rode some pretty techy stuff on his first ride ever. I was lovin it!!! It was a pretty darn cold day and the dirt was frozen up top. It was very interesting. Frozen dirt makes for amazing climbing traction but I find pinning it makes for some sketchy moments. I Was loving the super steep section of Big Ed so much that I climbed up and hit it for the second time. I went down on the second attempt and ripped my speedometer wires apart. So a good reason to go wireless!! On this ride I got to ride another trail for the first time!!!! It was called Jimmy Thang. It's one of Marks projects and the work he has done is amazing!! Super fun flowy side cuts that are off camber in sections with Raw flat turns. We ended up coming out on to a run called No boats. A personal fave of mine in Kal park. But not before I blew up my rear derailleur. I trained into a 15 foot gap jump behind Danny and Mark and ended up popping off the lip a little too hard. The landing was short and sniper and I missed it by about 8 feet. I came down hard and some how my derailleur cage cracked and I lost a pulley.

But thanks to Danny "Eagle Eyes" Laroche I got the pulley back and salvaged my ride. The total trip was about 10K plus some and took about 2.5 hours to finish. Big Ed is a epic ride. It has everything you could want in a trail and as you get towards the bottom there are many options on how you want to finish. The only catch is the ride back to the retrieval truck is mostly uphill. I didn't mind too much as it was pretty cool out and the pace was pretty chill amongst the group. Overall it was a stellar ride! I think everyone had a great time. It as awesome to get out with some old friends and ride new trails! For me that's what's it's all about! I am looking foward to my next lap down! Night laps on Ed? Hmmmmm......

Fall XC laps....how good can it get?

What can I say. I love riding in the fall. The weather is much much cooler, the dirt is tackier, the leaves are falling and the colors are amazing!! Lately I have gotten the privilege of getting much more XC riding in. My dad came to town for a few weeks so we got to get out riding together. When I was a grom racing XC 15 years ago my dad was the only other guy in my town who mountain biked. So we were riding bro's as well. I live 5000 clicks from my home town so I don't really get home much, and when I do getting out for a ride in hard to do. So there was a little nostalgia in the air as well. I took him to Kal park a bunch and he was lovin it. It was his first riding experience in B.C so how could'nt he?!!!! I also got out with Rob-E, my girlfriend Laura, and my dogs for some xc fun in the past few weeks. For a guy who likes to pin it almost the entire season the fall is a great way to wind down, no pressure to get to races or train hard. It's just about enjoying being on the bike with friends and having fun!!! With the weather so cool I feel like I could just ride for hours and hours and never get tired. I just wish it could stay that way.















Tomorrow I am going to ride Big Ed!!! Story and pics to follow!!

October 6th.....last man standing?

So it was just me and Adrian out on this ride. We kept it simple. We hit Spankys and rode down to Shy turtle. The days are getting shorter and we never had time to hit up a full lap. I was on my little bike but I had big fun! Riding a 5 inch travel bike makes you work much harder in keeping it smooth. I always think the big bikes spoil riders somewhat because you can just steamroll over most things in your way. On the little bike however I think you have to be more creative to keep the bike on a smooth line. Hitting the bike bike lines clipped in to my little bike was a little scary at first but I was soon loving it. Adrian was feelin a little bagged and had a few bails so he was takin it a litle easy on this one. I am fighting this upcoming winter as hard as I can... I have night lights on the way. Keep posted for a review of night riding.....I have never tried it and am super stoked to try it!!!!

Sept 29th....3's a crowd?

So this week we hit up spankys, a local trail located on Silverstar road in Vernon, the entry point is right across from sovereign lake ski resort and drops all the way into town.....if you know the right way! I have only ridden the top half as I was always afraid I'd get lost on the second half as I heard it was a bit of a maze. Needless to say it was a sickter lap. Once again it was a skeleton crew but numbers didn't matter. Me, Rob-E and Adrian, a newbie to the crew had a blast! Adrian was killing everything including the old rotten skinnys that are on the trail. The top of the trail is moderately tech, lots of roots, a few rocks, not too steep. The lower trail is fast, open, and super fun!!!! I just wish we had the time left to do a second lap!!! Riding in the falling leaves going mach turkey is total sensory overload! It's my favorite time of the year to ride, but is always a bummer because it gets dark early, and only lasts about a month and a half before the white stuff comes into town and makes it impossible to ride.