The Skyride Chronicles

Bike or ski or both?

2010-03-02T04:11:00.000-08:00

So its been a Rad few weeks here in the Okonagan. I have been skiing/riding about 5 days a week, some days I am doing morning park laps up on Silverstar then XC laps in the afternoon down in the lower elevations. I have been getting a chance to go back country sledding/skiing with the Monashee Mulisha, a bunch of friends/rippers who love going to the back country and slaying pow!!! The terrain in the monashee mountiain range is just sick!!! I was like a kid in a candy store out there! The stability of the snow pack has been very sketchy in the past few weeks so we had to be super carefull. A lot of the best looking lines were death traps due to the avalanche potential. RobE managed to pop off a small class 1.5 avi on my second day out. Enough to keep us off anything that looked remotly risky. These are good days for chillin and building booters!! I have to admit, riding a sled was pretty damn fun! Actually it was freakin rad!!! I can't wait to do it again! It's hard on the body if your a newb, I managed to get stuck a dozen times and digging out is pretty hard work. I was sore for days after my excursions.

It's been wet and warm still. Rides have been on the muddy side still, but the trails are really drying out. The snow pack has melted up to near 900 meters now which makes me excited. Only a few more weeks of this and we will be shuttling here. I have to get my new bike and fast!!!! There are only 2 more months left untill race season kicks off. There is still a lot of work to do, but I am happy with how this season is setting up. I have never ridden this much this early in the season so the added fitness will be on my side I hope. Not only in results but in keeping me healthy. Injuries have ruined a few of my seasons before and I blame only myself for a lack of fitness and preparedness to shred. I've only realized this over the past few years and you'll never forget once you've been sidelined due to injury. I missed the last Mt 7 Psychosis ever after having a fractured wrist. Nothing was as discourgaging as sitting at home reading stories of that epic weekend on pinkbike. The rest of the Skyride crew have been gearing up for this season and I am hoping for some good results out of our jr riders. Regan is in his last year of Jr Expert and has an opportunity to have a real breakout season before moving up to the elite class. Noah is going to try racing this year and I am excited to see what he can do on a timed lap after he rocked crankworks last year. The team has some real good talent on board for 2010 and I am expecting good overall results from all riders. From what I have seen the young guns are all solid riders who are very capable of podiums on any givin sunday. I hope the good karma continues and we all stay healthy. But like I said before that requires some had work.

El Nino is Spanish for......The Nino!!!

2010-02-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

Ok seriously!?!!?!?!? The trees in my garden are beginning to sprout leaves and the tulips outside my house are starting to come out the ground!!! The weather is not going to change anytime soon according to our friend El nino. That's what I hear is causing all the warm temperatures. I rallied RobE a good friend out to do a lap yesterday in Kal park. The lack of snow had Rob stokin to get out and ride. We rode the same lap I did a week or so ago. The snow cover was minimal but the mud was very slimy and made climbing "The Wall" very difficult. I managed to clear the whole trail but it was a grunt. Rob had to put down a few times but it was his first ride of the year. It isn't an easy climb in the dry either. Rob brought along his camera and we snapped off a bunch of pics on the way down the Lookout trail which is a super fun downhill.

With spring coming sooner than I think it was time to go and clean up my bike room in the basement. I dug up all the old smashed parts and salvaged what was left from the 2009 season. I also got pretty ambitious and drove my truck up some forest access roads to see if the local downhill trails were good to ride. The shuttle roads are still covered in snow and ice and the trail heads are still under a good foot of snow. But it's melting fast! I hope to be riding downhill again by March. Time to get a move on getting my new bike!

Cold and wet. Lovin it!

2010-02-08T10:56:00.001-08:00

Mud. A lot of mud is the best way to describe the conditions. Not to mention its cold. The temperatures have been hovering just above zero with intermittent fog and rain. It stays this way until June where I'm from so I'm still down with riding. I think the conditions are pretty good considering its February. Saturday I headed out for another ride in Kal park. I headed down to a trail called Sidewinder, its low in the valley so its been nice and dry for the most part. It's only a few K's long but on the way back to the truck it's a highlight of the ride, it's a small grade single track ripper that weaves through small pine trees above Kal lake. A personal fave for me. After I hit the end of sidewinder I climbed up a few hundred meters on a trail called crosstown traffic. Its a nice challenging single track, and I managed to clean the whole climb despite a few patches of snow and low tire pressure. From there I headed through another short trail called Serendipity it's another climb but you end up traversing across a pertty big ridge at the end and the view is sick. I branched off and hit a black trail called Agoraphobia, it was hairy in the few cm's of snow but I had a blast. The snow got deep so I doubled back but hit a trail called No Boats on the way back to the truck. I was covered in mud but I still felt the ride was great.

So I have more news from Terrance! We have a new team Sponsor and are stoked to be rockin Race Face components and apparel for 2010!!!! Thanks to Julian at Race Face for the support! I can't wait to get my hands on those red Atlas cranks and bars. Not to mention the Atlas shifting guide for my AM assault bike. Check out my links to see Race Face products!

First Tracks!

2010-02-05T23:30:00.000-08:00

I've never ridden in January, or February as a matter of fact. It's been warm here in the Okonagan and real wet for over a month. No better time than now to start riding! A lot of people won't be on the bike until the snow is all gone but I have decided to take advantage of shredable dirt. I put a few fenders on my AM bike got and got out the wet weather gear that's been sitting in my closet since I moved here. I headed out to Kal park in the rain the past few days and pounded out some vert both up and down. The snow that fell during the early winter has been packed into ice on most of the walking trails in the park but still offered up enough traction if I remained in the saddle. It's like your riding on a uber long wet root and if you stand up you'll start to spin so you have to stay low on the bike and keep the weight centered over the wheels to keep you from spinning out. On any sun baked terrain it was semi dry to soaking wet. At 300 to 600 meters the trails were much more exposed and there was very little snow. Today I was running a lower tire pressure than normal so climbing in the mud with low PSI was a bit of a slug but I managed. the lower PSI increases your traction on the slippery ice. A granny gear would have been nice!!
I did a trail called Coming around the mountain first which has a relative low grade and was easy enough considering I have been off the bike for a while. I then did a trail called the wall, it climbs from around 300M up to 700M it's pretty steep and not too much of a problem in the dry. In snow its a different story. I had to push a few times but nothing serious. As I got closer to 700M it got more and more slippery. Once I got to the top the plateau over the top was exposed again by the sun. There were no other tracks up there so I call freshies!!!!!
The first 150M of the decent were soooooo sketchy....I have never ever had such little control on my bike.... but it was awesome!!!! Riding on such instable terrain are great for balance and learning to keep the bike upright in the wet slick stuff. A couple of times I found myself in a 2 wheel lock up with one foot out to counter the drift...it was so loose!!!! Once I got through that the trail was primo!! I ripped down to the truck and called it a day. I was pretty bagged as I was skiing all morning..... life is rough. Can't wait to do it all again tomorrow!!!!!

2010! Here we come!

2010-01-25T02:08:00.000-08:00

OK I know it's been a while! I was riding up until early December, but the itch to ski took over and there was too much snow in town. Not to mention a few weeks of minus 20 daily temperatures. To date I have 22 days of alpine skiing in but no killer POW days... bummer.

The weather has been getting warmer in the lower valley and I have been hiking and scoping the trails for places to ride. Only a few more days of this warm weather and I will be out on 2 wheels again! With Febuary fast approaching It's time to get training!! I have a lot of work to do, but I feel like this year I will have a good jump on getting fit as I have only been off the bike for a little over a month.

So getting on with the 2010 news. Team Skyride will be shreddin on the new RMB's flatline. Personally I am super stoked to see what these things will do. I will be on the World Cup model with head to tail Shimano Saint and Fox suspension. As soon as I get it I will do a write up.

Also on board for 2010 are Troylee Designs apparel and Oakley Optics thanks to Alex!!!!! We had a chance to look at all the new gear including the new D3 helmets!!! For the race team the Kit colors were inspired but the shop logo colors, so if you see riders rippin in black, white and red TLD kits at SilverStar this year you know its us!

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

2009-10-22T11:38:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-10-14T01:57:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-10-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-10-08T19:42:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-10-05T03:46:00.000-07:00

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.

Sept 22nd Group ride!!!!!

2009-09-25T20:30:00.001-07:00

So the first group ride of the fall had a weak turnout. I think I didn't get the word out early enough. There were only 2 rippers and myself out. Lesson learned: Riding with 3 people is just as fun as riding with 30! Me, Scott, and Luke had a blast! We ripped 2 laps of the Falkland trail, the first lap we sessioned the features on the trail, the second lap was a top to bottom ripper with Luke in the dark. Having only a few of us around was a good thing as there were less onlookers which only increased Scotts and lukes confidence! The boys were killin it, unfortunately scott went down in the loose dirt and tweaked his shoulder. Props to him for sticking around to shuttle me and Luke for one more run in the dark. The trail was in sickter condition as noone has been on it all summer, so most of the loose dirt had a chance to pack in. It was super drifty still and there was roost flying everywhere! There were loads of laughs, hoots and hollas as we were shreading! I cannot wait to go back there! Next time it will be on a weekend so there is more daylight to ride in!!

Next week we will be hitting Spankys! A local Vernon trail.

Sept 19th Build day!

2009-09-21T23:41:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Sept 19th I had the opportunity to go give some love back to the trails in Kal Park so needless to say I was in faster than one toothed hippy in a corn eating contest! The trail day was organized by the Membership is only 20 bones and it goes a long way. The more people that join, the more likely new trails will be built and the better the existing ones become!! Their website is http://okcycling.com/. Kal Park is located in Coldstream BC and has some of the best trails I have ever been on in the 15 years I have been mountain biking. This place has it all, sweet fast XC rippers, to super gnar DH. The amount of trails makes an endless amount of fun to ride as you can mix it up every day and never take the same route twice. On the big bike you can do a trial called Big Ed. It's one of the best trails I have ever ripped. Super skinnys, sick steeps and rock gardens, loamy berms, and red rot roost!!!!

The beginning......

2009-09-18T03:05:00.000-07:00

So here we go! The virgin post. Its been a hell of a year so far and we it could'nt have been done without the help of Terrance and Mike at Skyride Cycle!! For those of you who are just visiting this blog, Skyride Cycle is a LBS in beautiful Vernon British Columbia, smack in the middle of Gods country. Hopefully we can update the blog weekly to document our travels to new trails, races, and slopestyle comps! At Skyride it's all about havin fun and stokin others to go out and ride! This spring we started putting off tuesday night group rides. To say the least they were a huge success. We saw up to 35 riders on one occasion!!!! Everything settled down once SilverStar resort opened up and there was more vert to be pounded. Now that the fall is here and the resorts are closing it's time to rally the troops and get out and enjoy our local trails again!!!! So keep your eyes peeled for updates on up and comming group rides!!! First group rip of the fall will be in Falkland this tuesday Sept 22.