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!!!!