It's my pardy (and Rich's and Derek's)......

There are three of us with birthdays very close together. Derek on 26th July. Rich on 30th July and mine on 6th August AND we were all born the same year. Quite a coincidence as we ride together all the time. This is probably the first time we're been aware of it in advance so we all thought it'd be good to do something. And so it was that we rolled up to Squamish for a spot of riding






Michele has always been a bit of ripper but since taking a biking course and getting a new bike she is "off da hook!"


















Meg, our wonderful host as always



















me on the unfinished bridge

















and what's this? Could it be ANOTHER picture of me? Wow, it really is my birthday!

















another attempt at the arty picture. Met yet again with a chopping off head! Sorry Rich.

















Meg had a little accident with Derek's fancy test bike - she backed it into this post. Only Derek didnt see the funny side - well it was his birthday ;)










More friends at Meg's for dinner :)













Of course, the best thing about birthdays is cake. We are fortunate enough to have Michele on the team - ace cook and baker to produce SPIDY CAKE! Unfortunately for Michele, Rich insists on chocolate cake and I insist on anything but! So two cakes it was :)















mmmmm, spidy cake!













The next day we were up early and headed across the water to the wonderful Sunshine Coast. Here's Michele yet again but this time just about to have a big crash. This drop was wet, slippery, up hill and on a corner - tricky for sure so full marks to Michele for trying it







We had a great day as always and topped off every run with cake! Perfect :)

Didn't chop Rich's head off this time!



It was a little early but a great triple birthday weekend.
I'm looking forward to next year (kinda) lol!

Bear Mountain BC Cup Race

Bear Mountain is about a hour's drive from the big smoke and literally a stone's throw from Arduum (you may remember Arduum from some of my previous adventures). Anyway, I was looking forward to the Bear Mt race as I'd already checked out the track and done some of the big jumps; it always pumps up the confidence when you know (and are comfortable with) what you're getting into. This was Bear. Bring it on.

Look. A photo of me!











The track is really fun but some of the jumps are pretty big AND unforgiving - a wall of logs if you come up short - not too friendly. Unfortunately Simon (fresh from winning the Canadian National Champs) followed an idiot into of of the biggest ones. The idiot (that's the previous idiot I mentioned - not Simon) stopped on the take off causing Simon to brake, then squeeze past and try to make the jump - he didn't. Instead he piled into the wall of logs and broke his leg. Oouch!


I also had some issues with the jumps. I wasnt "feeling it" all thru pratice so didn't do the biggest jump and for some reason I couldn't jump one of the smallest either. Granted, it was pretty tricky but just something about it got the better of me. Eventually I went for the jump but managed to crash hard into the back of the landing (a wall of rocks in this case). I managed to mangle the fork, giving it less than half the travel it should have. Oops. This of course meant the race didnt go so well but I finished 7th. The crash did linger with me though, I think I must of cracked somethin in my foot cos it REALLY hurt for a few weeks after :( Its better now.

Tim had a great race and finished 2nd in Elite. Nice one mate.

Tour De Gas Town

A slight change of pace today with The Tour De Gas Town!







Lots of roadies in lycra ripping round and round in circles like a pack of dogs. In lycra. With shaved legs!

Squamish Club Ride

My club deal is a great one. In exchange for handsome pricing on bikes and parts all I have to do is show up and lead a bunch of rides. Occasionally I lead the slower groups and it can drag things out a bit but they always turn out to be good rides no matter the group or who turns up.

Today was the turn of Squamish to host the ride. I was paired up with Euan (by Euan as it happens - action shot of him left) for an intermediate/advanced ride.

I dont know Squamish that well but I was happy to take up the rear. Unfortunately Euan knew less than I so I tentatively took pole position.






We did a great trail to start although I rode straight past the entrance as it was too obvious! - I remember the entrance as being subtle and easy to miss so I was thrown a bit by the major junction as we rode past it. Ah well, no matter - it just made for a better warm up!









I'm not entireley sure why I took this shot but here it is anyway in its full fuzzy glory!

















One of the many nice features on this trail is this steep ladder-roll. It used to end with a gnarly off-camber route but this has now been chopped out so its all good!










Rider leaders everywhere!













This rock was quite trecherous - it was covered with gravel and fine dust so despite the appearance of grip there was none to be had. It was just an illusion. Ooo ooo, ah ahh. Illusion.















Yes, they have woodwork in Squampton. Have you seen Shandro's segment in Seasons? "Where is Squampton" I hear you ask. Its what (some of) the locals call Squamish. I think it's kinda cool.
















This one actually feels a little precarious as the fall to rider's left is no inconsiderable and onto rocks

















New bridge almost finished next to decommissioned bridge












My attempts at photography meet with much inconsistency. Here the water in the foreground looks cool but I chopped the rider's head off! Oops. If only for a wide angle lens.

After 3 wonderful laps we called it a day and headed to the pub only to find that most other people had already been and gone. We're pretty hardcore doing 3 laps - I think 1 was the order of the day. Ah well, we had fun :)

Road trip pt VI - Heading Home

We took a couple days to drive back so stopped off in a couple places. The first wasnt too far from Golden







incredible trails very much like the shore - but with loam!













good times :)













The crew - photo by Jenn. She had a broken wrist from a particularly poor landing in Whistler















crap views












stand by for action!













further on during our trek home we stopped off at Crazy Creek to check out a waterfall I'd glimpsed on the way up











pretty impressive - and this was the middle of summer - I'd like to check this baby out in the spring!
















"do something interesting" says Tim - this is what I came up with ;)


We also took a day at the oh-so-brilliant SilverStar Bike Park. Sooooo much fun. I even bumped into Johnny Smoke in the parking lot!

A final day at Whistler closed out our road trip. Wow. It was good. Cheers Tim.

Road Trip pt V - Psychosis, Golden

So. It's been a gazillion years since I last blogged (despite the fact that through a marvel of modern technology the dates don't appear to show it - assuming I remember to doctor them!). It's just that it takes a month of sundays to figure out which pictures to use, upload them (yawn) and rearrange them into something that makes sense. Well, I suppose not quite a month, maybe a fortnight of sundays ;-)

So onto the business in hand. Now....let me cast my mind back.....

So the headline news today - or rather yesterday - or perhaps even a few weeks ago - Is the CRAZY conditions we saw in practice. We thought we'd sneak in another run and maybe it'd rain later. What we didn't realize was that by the time we'd done the half hour drive to the top the clouds were literally busting with rain. "Hmm" we thought "it's starting to rain! Better hurry up and head down". Rich, Tim and I were all done with Dead Dog and didnt want to push our luck too much so we bypassed it and headed down to the singletrack. Dave and Derek wanted more of Dead Dog so dropped into the super-gnarl - in a rain storm! GNARLY!

Unfortunately for Dave, it proved a little too gnarly. A hundred feet or so in, the mountain got the better of the battle and took Dave down - to add injury to insult, it also gave him a serious shark bite - 9 internal and 36 external stitches - OUCH!!


Unfortunately for Dave (to say he was having a bad day doesnt really cover it) he was now seriously injured and 100ft below the summit of a large mountain in torrential rain, thunder and lightning! Fortunately for Dave (at last some luck) there were a number of other riders at the top. It took 14 of them over an hour to drag Dave back up to the waiting ambulance. Good work guys and special thanks to Arthur, Clark, and the Dunbar Cycles crew.



With Dave all patched (stitched) up and a good night's sleep under our belts we headed off for race day.







...the damn van with the Red Bull arch in the background












The race went pretty well for me. I cleaned dead dog and hit most of my lines to come in 8th with a time of 17m 35s. I was just happy to have had a decent run.










After my race we had plenty of time to head up for a spot of spectating - riding in the back of Brian's truck was so much better than the crazy army trucks the organisers were using - I swear there must have been more than one rider to have developed back problems while shuttling Psychosis style!









Here we are at "Wet Dream" - a big jump over and down past some rocks














imagine coming over the lip of this rock right in the centre of the picture and landing out of the bottom of the frame. Oh, and watch out for the tree dead ahead!

If you survived Wet Dream you have only to hang on for another 5 minutes before you get to the road gap.....











The road gap is HUGE. I walked up to the edge but I'm not quite ready to chuck myself off this one just yet! If D was here, she'd hit it. Crazy gal.











Tim













Tim, Tim and Tim








Well done guys. Quality job and thanks to Dave for being totally understanding and accomodating to all of us riding despite his shark bite.

Road Trip pt IV - Kicking Horse, Golden

After a couple days of Psycho action we decided to get away from it all with a day at the Bike Park on the other side of the valley at Kicking Horse.

Brian came with which meant sitting on a cooler in the back of the Element for the ride over there - Brian's a pro so he was cool with it.








one curious thing - to get to the hill all the traffic has to negotiate this narrow, single lane bridge that felt like it was going to wash away at any minute!















Kicking Horse is a small resort but seems to have a pretty big ski area. The Bike Park goes almost as far by using the full length of the main gondola












At almost 8,000ft its pretty high at the top and the view is breathtaking









Unfortunately the bike trails don't extend all the way to the top so each lap starts with a 5 minute descent down a gravel access road - here's Tim and Brian heading out for a lap
























Tim seemed to like it














Further down there's a mixture of trails with some of the now obligatory wooden ladder stunts - this one was actually quite fun - but I'm not so sure I'd want to go there on anything other than a bone dry day!










hey! it's me!!












and here's my version of Tim - this was the first time I noticed Tim doesnt have a head!
















One trail we all enjoyed was "Rock and Roll" - mainly singletrack but with two memorable rock faces - the first was about 75ft long, very steep and a good warm up for number two: about 150ft long and quite a bit steeper. Neither had much of a run-out so control was the name of the game!















Here's Brian dropping in on the second section. The rock is smooth here and not very grippy. Brian was having some bad luck with this - the first lap he crashed half way down - it was a miracle he managed to survive it - and the second lap he got a flat tyre so rode the last third in very wild style!

We had a great day and rode most of the trails - it was good but it wasnt anywhere near to Whistler or Silverstar in terms of quality trails. Gnarly yes, flowy...maybe not.










we didnt have a place to stay the night but Jenn and Brian's host - Cara offered her back yard - perfect.

Here's Brian juggling invisible chainsaws....








Meanwhile, I broke out EZTent - Jenn had heard all about EZTent so grabbed my camera to document the pitching process...
















she almost missed it - its pretty easy to pitch and very quick













This is the bit I forgot the night before - the locking mechanism!! lol





























et voila!











meanwhile, across the valley - a storm was raging....thunder and lightning decended on Mt 7













Next morning was sunny weather in Golden but the forecast didnt look too good. Unperturbed by the impending doom, Cara and Jenn started the day with an impromptu hula session