The New Adventures of Martn aka Skip: 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"