We had to hit up Mach Chicken all over again, as Yvonne and Al wanted their pics there.

It took a while, but we finally got Yvonne off (oh damn, there’s another sexually charged ambiguous comment…).

Late on the trigger, but there’s Al on the DnZ connector.

…and again on the last double of the same.

It was also time for a rematch on Cunning Stunts. 

I forgot to mention it yesterday, but I FINALLY cleared that damn swivel totter. The current score sits as: Cunning Stunts – 207 , Me- 2.

Al got it today.

It was a good feeling to clear the whole line today, and I know Al was pretty happy to get that stunt down in a handful of tries.

Well, another epic tour is done.  I’ll leave you with this scenic shot.

Also, unlike earlier in the year, the SSC is living up to it’s namesake.  Hot and sunny.  Which is why Redneck Jeff is doing his best sweaty cantaloupe impression.

Yvonne finally fulfills one of her fantasies on this trip. 

The Flying Cantaloupe.

Followed by some Flying Marmalade.

This is turning out to be a great idea for ending the trip.  Ultra nice conditions, maybe just a little on the dry side but still super rad.

Keep those tips up…

Jeff, at the other extreme.

It’s a funny little log hop, as it’s on an angle. Not large, but the first time you see the thing it sorta messes with your head.  Which is why we stopped and took pics.

So much for the kind and sensitive hippies.  They can mock with the best of them…

The forest fires inland are obscuring our view of Vancouver Island, but no worries.  The water is warm.

Although you wouldn’t know it from the way Al gets in the water.  It’s like he took swimming lessons from Diego (in the pic above, it’s a cat/water reference…oh never mind).

More tourists.  We unfortunately missed the Gray Whale that was hanging around.  It was hanging around this beach the day before.

Arbutus menziesii.

No visit to the SSC is complete without some time at the Gumboot.

Yep, back in the old ‘hood today.  A little lap on Fromme on our way to the Sunshine Coast.

First up is 7th Secret.  Upper Oilcan looks in need of some serious love, and 7th is in great shape, so that was an easy choice.

Mind you, that climb took some doing.  I don’t think you get a lot of practice on the 1800’ climbs back in Bristol.

Yet somehow the Brits manage to slay the log rides.  Go figure.

Random artsy shot of some fungus.

Since we saw Digger, we had to hit Ladies Only.  He’s put about 300 hours into Ladies this year, and it shows.

The old Bart Bridge still stands.  Hi Bart!

One of many new boardwalk sections.

The swamp teeter and the accompanying heron are also still there, over 15 years later.

More uphill…

Natural High was also recently rebuilt.  Here’s a good stunt, a swivel totter.  3 times is the charm, right Al?

Some more Natural High.

The last trail was the Imonator, which has been totally rebuilt recently.  How rad is this?

Genuinely skinny, too.

Ahh, a nice sunset on a warm summers eve.  This was, embarrassingly, the “warmest passage I’ve ever experienced.”  Well, you can figure out what I meant…

This is the famous section of trestles and tunnels that was destroyed by fire back in 2003.

They’ve since restored it, and now it’s a favourite place to ride bikes, walk dogs, train for Ironman, etc.

It’s a nice little diversion, and it’s also a lot cooler up here than the 33C in the valley.

Anyway, it’s very scenic, even if somewhat dull to ride.

At least it’s not uphill.

Of course, it’s not down hill either, but we only did about 16km of it before dropping in to some great singletrack back down to Kelowna.

Yes, there’s plenty of singletrack to access off this section of KVR.

Get a room…

Definitely some epic light today in the Crawford Canyon.

Yes, we’re still on run #1 today.  I think it turned into something like 35km.

Not like it was some kind of death march or anything, but it was pretty long.

ANOTHER viewpoint?  OK, we’ll take another break.

After a hot lunch at the Eldorado (and I mean hot.  35C on the patio), we went to Gillard for a couple more laps.  Yvonne on a teeter…

This was a good warmup for the next few days, as we are heading to the North Shore and the Sunshine Coast for the last part of the tour.

OK, so you can’t hit ‘em all.  I think Yvonne would have hit this if we hadn’t been sorta tired out already.

Al and I cranked off one more fast one on the same lap before calling it quits.

While Yvonne waited for us and managed to snap this pic of doe and fawn.

We got sorta lost today.  Thought I’d try out the middle zone, and it was a classic morning of “technical traversing.”  I wasn’t lost…

See?  I found the place I was looking for.

Eventually, anyways.

Kept things more on track for subsequent runs though.  One flail per trip, that’s all I’ll allow.

Surfs up!

Yvonne has improved leaps and bounds this tour.  Yes, that is technically a step up.

Some more blue skies and big smiles.

OK, another sappy lovers shot and we’re out.

Hey Barb!  Whatcha’ doin’ over there?

The first time out in the high elevation sage meadows for everyone means lots of photo ops.

OK, enough of that.  Lets go do some shredding.  It’s trying to rain a little bit, but it’s still pretty dusty out there.

Part of the reason it takes so long to descend this trail is the over-abundance of Kodak moments like this.

Whoa! Speedy Suisse in effect!

That’ll learn ya…

This is a much more civilised approach…

Yvonne has it figured out too.

More Kodak moments. 

Nic on the hoodoo near the end.

Nice and cool out, and that rain made this line a lot more forgiving than it can be.

Which is good, as it made it a lot more fun for Yvonne.

Barb, of course, wouldn’t care either way.  She just rides stuff.

Momma bear.  I missed the cubs, but there were three little bears here.

For round 2, I took the Swiss down TKO.  It’s a shitty trail.

Of course I’m joking, but we didn’t take many pics of round 2.  Having too much fun ripping it.  Just a couple of shots of this little road gap.

Barb, Al, and Yvonne took another lap on Cawston Creek, which is always a good idea.

Cheers!  Dirtbags…

“Hey you kids, look at me!  I’m running!”

Our crew, and our loyal shuttle driver (thanks Dad!).

My past has come back to haunt me.  The Suisse Piraten have arrived.

This is David, who came out a few years back with a tour from a shady German outfit.  He won the trip by doing some outrageously stupid things on a bike, like:

He’s ridden here before, but this time he brought a few friends.

They’re all as crazy as he is.

Yeah, fun times with the Swiss.  Wish I had a bit more time to abuse them, but maybe next trip.  They should have seen Postill and Gillard, but were on their way to Whistler and didn’t realize what we had for them.

Where the trails were epic, thanks to Mother Nature, the Silverstar Trail Crew, and their ‘Trailboni.’

Here’s the new entrance to the Jedi Phucker.  You should be warned that the tranny at the end is very short, and you need to go pretty slow to avoid nose diving into the turf at the end.

This works…

Yvonne is getting really comfortable with the small drops now.  Maybe it’s time to try a few small gaps.

Here’s another of the many, many stunts that Dirty Dave is building these days.

A couple of low angle perspectives of the rock face on Builders.  Makes it look pretty gnar, eh?

One of the notorious A-frames on Builders.

Oh look, Yvonne’s first gap.  She even admitted to me that it was sort of anti-climactic.  Gaps are easy.

Immediately followed by a step-down gap too.  Nice flow.

Another lap, and back to the old school.

Yvonne was feeling good after that first run, and chased her tail all the way down the hill.

Al, nose down for a change.

Oh..that’s better.

Time for everyone’s favourite, the big wood berms on Powers.  Hard not to like these.

Of course, it’s also good to hit Crazy Train…

…repeatedly.

Yep, it’s warm out.  Not hot, just warm.  Now you know why I recommend bringing an open face helmet.   Even with modest mid 20C temps, it’s hard to keep the lid on.  We’ll just overlook this particular omission of safety, as it’s on a small warmup climb.

Here’s the top, and it’s all helmets on from here on down.

Yvonne is finding out about drops today.  Quite appropriate, as the next trail is ‘Drops A Lot.’

All on the Coaster gap.

After breaking another G series Canon (god they’re crappy for $600, but there’s nothing else that takes pics as nice that will fit in the pocket), I’m on an ultra compact SD1000.  And I’m sorta rusty on how to nab decent shots with the tiny camera.  So forgive the underexposed, out of focus, and motion blurred stuff here.

Ooooooo…so close. 

OK, we’ll just do a hundred more of these smaller ones and come back to that bigger drop.

Al, nose up on another gap.

Nose down on Jack and Jill.

Super dry out right now.  This dust bowl is a total surf’s up riot.

Al rides like a cat out there, and like a cat, doesn’t like getting wet.  Yvonne is having nothing to do with that…

***barf***

Yes, it’s the summer of couples.  I guess the demographic is changing out there.

As it turns out, Mrs. Marmalade (I think we can call her Yvonne for short) is just fine at riding bikes.  Especially twisty steep stuff in the wet.  Which is lucky as that’s what Sun Peaks has a lot of.

Oh, and she also likes riding slippery wood and the occasional double entendre.  I sense a loooooong trip ahead.

Gratuitous Freeride Godfather shot.

She seemed pleased that one of the first people she met on the trip was Wade Simmons…in a towel.

I think Nicole surprised herself here.  It’s not like you find drops like this on the Shore.  While locals around here don’t put too much emphasis on the difficulty of the stuff up at Powers, when you’re used to clinging to slippery wet roots and moss on the coast the wide open Interior style is a bit daunting.

Then, when you get to the tighter, more technical parts that freak out the locals, the Shore types slay it on sight.

Diff’rent Strokes, eh?

At any rate, they were suitably impressed and sent the majority of the stunts.

The older classic line was more their speed. 

Coming from the Shore, it’s hard not to like this move.

Or this one.  Still, it took a couple of tries to get this one nailed.

Ahhh, everyone’s favourite, the wooden berms.

We also did another speed run on some old school stuff, but no pics.  Too busy ripping it.  A fun, full day of dirt and dust.  Lots of riding ahead, the season is only half done at this point.

Another first was the Le Mans start.  Thank Mike for that brainwave.

Although the route wasn’t all that clear.  “Do we go over here?”

Nope, it’s this way…

Hey, wait for me!

The evil genius that is our leader…

OK, how about some action photos of racers?

That would be Brian, the new Rocky Mtn. Bikes rep that showed up to represent.

Here’s a few more….

Check out the swag you’re missing out on.  That’s a ti railed saddle there.

The first place woman get’s her prize from our podium girl.  Even better than the Tour de France ones in my book.

Yeah, that’s the prize you want. There’s cold beer in those bags.

Big thanks to Union Cycle for providing the GIANT burgers.  They look like 29’rs from this angle.

The Le Mans start seems to have worked.  A new course record again (the clock started when the leaders crossed the start on the bikes), and everyone seems to have clocked a quicker time today.

Meh, still a good ride. 

A much more casual affair this time.  He decided to forego the expense of a church or anything like that, and just had the party in an alley.

OK, there’s a story behind it.  Seems like he and Lisa spent several months scurrying around in the alley to avoid the gossip of the neighbours.  It didn’t really work, but hey…if I was in his shoes I wouldn’t care what the neighbours said.  She’s pretty darn cute, eh?

Wow…these vows are long.

Finally.

Lots of friends from the coast came up, including the whole Frampton tribe.  Geneva and Jade are looking all growed up.

Finally, later on, our pal Mark showed up to ask Joe about his “Swalls”.  At least he waited until after the actual ceremony.  Joe…take note.

Anyway, congratulations you two.  That was the best Joe’s wedding ever.

Haven’t seen much of Wa since he moved to Canada.  Funny how that happens when they move closer.  Too busy with all the distractions that Canada has to offer I guess.

He’s finding out about German cars and Canadian bugs, for instance.

We just did a quick couple of laps on the local trails, and checked out a new stunt on Builders Only.  Dave’s been busy.

Still tough to top the Crazy Train for fun. 

Always a treat when Wa comes to visit.  Gotta get that guy up here more often.

There was also a great turnout for a blazing hot summer day.  We hit 36C in the park by noon, and all these rippers were still throwing down.

Deputy Mayor Angela Gutzman did the honours.

Now THAT’S how you cut a ribbon.  The dude is the head of the parks dept. in town.

Had to do a few more runs to cut the ribbon, but that first one was the best one.

Local superstar Casey Groves put in an appearance and gave a couple of great interviews to the local media.

Graham Agassiz also showed up.

…and our own Andrew McIntosh went old school and broke the helmet rule on his vintage Rocky Mtn. Equipe.

Looking forward to many more years of good times at the park.

Nice job.

It’s a big rock face.

Total grunt of a climb, but worth it.

After the story comes out, I’ll put a few more pics up.  Give you something cool to look at over the winter, eh?

Yup, that’s a big rock alright.