Wonderful Weekend Winter Wonderland Widing

A wonderful weekend of winter riding :-)

Oh...you want more details? Well..... saturday was a Fromme day - again - but its such good riding how could I not? Little Jonny wasnt been near his bike in a while so we stuck to a solid run up to Seventh then the pedally way down Leopard, Crinkum, Griffin, Natural High etc. The ground was frozen solid so plenty of grip and not too much filth/mud. The wood was still pretty slick but much more ridable than the other night. We ripped down, had a great ride. mmm Fromme....

Sunday was pretty cool too. Derek invited me up to Squampton to ride with Clark (crazy doc) Arthur (talented Frenchy) and Wade (no comment) plus a couple late arrivals. Wade is only 4-5 weeks out of knee surgery so taking it easy but that didnt seem to stop them from doing a crazy pedally ride up and down more mountains than you can shake a stick at!

It was pretty frantic and pretty cold so not many photos today. Here we are just topping out for the last time as the sun set.











We weren't alone up there though - a couple trials riders had beaten us to the top

During the day today we had a snapped XO mech, a snapped fork (Pike), and a busted freehub! Some "easy" ride eh!!







This was the top of the final, final descent - Rampage! Its not ridden much but i think thats mainly because you have to practically rock climb to the top! Its a great trail though - steep, rocky, rooty and some tight corners too. Ahh Squampton! I'll be back. Thanks for the ride guys :-)

Moonight snow....

Having missed tuesday's night ride with the club, I was very keen when Amber text me about riding wed night. Rich, Amber and I met Derek at Fromme about 7.30pm and headed up into the darkness with our lights off. As you can imagine, a rain forest, in november with no lights is pretty dark. Fortunately there is a gravel road all the way up and the moon was out so after a few minutes of mystery riding we began to get used to the light - or more accurately dark!

Obviously, the pictures here are not mine. My phone refused point-blank to take any pictures in the darkness.

Although the moon was bright it didnt really help us in the trees but every time we came into a clearing it was like riding into sunshine. The moonlight shadows were as crisp as a summers day and the moon became hard to look at. Its quite amazing really what the human eye is capable of - given the opportunity!

From about half way up we were riding up frozen snow - it sounded like we were riding through a bowl of corn flakes but it was helping us to see where we were going. It was a slow assent, (maybe 75 minutes) but the moonlight alone was worth it. Seventh Secret had frozen snow on it but was still crunchy so the tires would still bite ok. The log ride was a bit scary. Picture a 100ft long log sloping gently down, a couple feet wide at the start, narrowing to a few inches at the end - now cover it with water, freeze, sprinkle with snow, ride a bike down it then refreeze to solidify the track. Raise the whole thing 6 to 8ft in the air and now try to ride it. No-one fell off but it was pretty sketchy if you ask me!


We finished up with Leopard, Crinkum Crankum and Griffin. We hardly stopped but it seemed to go on for ever!

This is one ride I'll remember for a long time. The magical moonlight assent and the icy wet decent were both very memorable.

Thanks for a great ride guys.

New Wheels! part 2

Got my new bike too the other day. I sold my old Cove Shocker for a good price so was able to get this on the NSRIDE ride leader deal for only a few dollars more - sweet!

Fresh from our freshies at Whister, we (Rich has an new bike identical to mine) took them out the next day - Skiing and biking in some of the best places in the world - in one weekend! Ah, Vancouver ;-)

It rides sooooo well. I was really impressed. Norco has a bit of a crummy image here as the "Raleigh" of Canada so a lot of people turn their noses up but flipin' 'ell it really goes well and just feels so good to jump and flick around on the trail. I like it!


Obviously a first run on a new bike should be steady and run everything in, and check everything is working. The park, the tow-path, something appropriate.......so we did a high-speed five man train down CBC etc (world famous gnarly trail for those that dont know). It was most enjoyable.

We even did our second run down into Neds Atomik Dustbin - a very rough trail that I've always hated - but not anymore - it was actually transformed into a fun-fest by my amazing new bike :-D to say I'm happy with it is like saying Elvis liked to dress up! Its gooood!

Whistler Opening Day!

Whistler opened (a week early) last weekend. It'd be rude not to go so Rich, Shirley and I piled in the Damn Van and headed to the snow...

Even though there was only a part of one mountain open, conditions were great and we had a great day. Shirley is a great boarder and Rich is still super-speedy so we had nothing but fast fun in the snow :-D




....except that is for the monster lift lines! To give you an idea, on the busiest day of the Telus Festival this line would only be half this length!

The lines got better through the day as people spread out but it wasnt that bad - I even saw Jason, D and Trung in line so we shared a chairlift and caught up.



Good times! You should try Whistler, its fun :-D

New Wheels!

I wanted to get another car - I was looking at '03 Honda Element's but then I noticed you could buy an '07 for the same money from south of the border - so thats where I went!

Here she is - my almost brand new Honda Elephant SC - weird grey/brown paint, 7 speaker stereo, a/c, 18in wheels.......sweeeeet!







she came to me from Seattle - which gave me a chance to see Seattle for the first time :-)


















This is the Science Fiction Museum - crazy architecture but way cool!












Stay tuned for a users guide to importing a US vehicle to Canada!

The Puddle

My first visit to Williams Lake (otherwise know as 'the puddle') was in 2004 on our first Canada tour. The riding is super swoopy and fun and it's only a mere 6 hours drive! Still, the weather was pretty amazing for November!









Megan (teacher, not doctor) invited us to spend the weekend at her cabin at 100 mile, not too far from the puddle. Its a proper log cabin, situated on its own 80 acre peninsular on a lake















its pretty big. there's room for 8 people or more













the heating is basic but keeps you warm in more ways than one - as Derek found out




























and the heating was needed - the lake froze over every night











but onto the main event - the riding. There are a lot of shuttle-able trails here so we made the most of them. Unfortunately Des Soux is quite a gnarly road and was covered in snow (up to 3 inches) so requires a truck to drive up it - OR - a Ford Aerostar all-wheel drive! Rich's (damn) van did an amazing job of casually driving up the mountain - even up the snow and ice - Awesome!













a rare pic of me taking off (thanks Shirley for taking the photo)













Rich













Its was pretty cold at the top in the howling wind













....but the trails were well worth it - "God Speed" was amazing - even though it was too blocked to ride the creek gully they rest of it was sooooo much fun, really fast swoopy turns, small jumps and rolling terrain - but all downhill. Dude, it was awsome!

Here's Rich on God Speed just at the top of the steep bit - this is where he noticed his front brake wasnt working! Didnt seem to slow him much!



Megan with here guy Guy













What a guy! Before heading back home there were chores to be done and Guy was volunteered to move the dock round ready for the winter ice flows. After clearing the place up and chopping some wood we headed back on the long road home








we didnt get far - the wind had been a bit stronger than we'd realised and taken down a few trees - luckily we had just the guy to get us through - Guy! On the way out there must have been 50 trees down, most of which were hanging on the power lines - it looked like a scene from "Twister"







the tranquility of the lake wasn't so tranquil today!

Thanks to everyone for a great weekend! :-)

as if it doesnt rain enough in Vancouver....

We were wandering down to the premier of New World Disorder VIII (its a bike movie) when we bumped into the Smallville crew filming with a massive crane that resembled a watering can! The movie was good but I'm not sure I'll buy it.

Thanksgiving weekend - Rossland & Nelson Oct 10th

Sorry folks, it's been a while since I've blogged but here's the first of my updates - this was over a month ago now so it's a bit dim in my memory.

Rossland is small town nestling in the crater of an extinct volcano at 4000ft in the East of British Columbia

A load of us headed to Rossland for the long weekend to enjoy their legendary trails





being at the back of beyond some of the bikes are a bit basic ;-)











but the Fall (known as Autumn in the old country) colours are amazing - photos just dont do them justice but it was pretty, well pretty!












down to the serious business of riding

















this was a crazy new stunt that has to be seen on the flesh to be believed - a ladder bridge to side/hip drop to huuuuuuge steeeeeeep wooden landing ramp.
















the ring-leader, Megan. A cool rider and generally all round good gal. She knows the trails here like the back of her hand

















Rich finding the damp mossy rocks a little damp and mossy - to be fair, this was a gnarly line and was the scene of Megan's dislocated shoulder last year
















Over in Nelson, there were some great slabs to ride - always fun and kinda like riding on the moon but basically very easy

















unfortunately we were also accompanied by the worlds worst trail dog. Zoe (or was it Cloe, or perhaps Lucifer!?) insisted on being at the front but only by 3ft - dumb animal didnt make too many friends today!









more slabbage














This is Rick. Rick is almost blind but doesnt let it stop him from riding all the trails. Inspiring.

















Dave on one of the high bridge crossings




















Shhhhh, Derek had a hard day
















Wildlife












This was funny - we were sitting in a coffee shop having lunch and three bears appeared outside the window - it was just like being in a zoo - EXCEPT we were the ones behind the glass!!!











Rich on one of the bigger drops about 8 or 9 feet high


















Derek on the same drop. I felt happy that I did this drop on my little bike until....

















...Dave did it on his hardtail (no suspension on the back)


















Rich on the final stunt of the weekend






and before we knew what was happening we were off on the 7 hour drive home again












lots of pretty scenery to watch wiz by