Lat day in Nelson, lets climb!

Yeah, I know….it’s every Englishman’s dream to push your bike up steep mountains in Nelson. We went right by this sign on the way up, and for those of you who don’t know this already, Smilin’ Buddha is Pauls’s nickname (he even looks like the Buddha in the pic).

Me, “Aww, we gotta do this trail. It’s named after Paul.”

Local guy, “Uhhh, it’s not in very good shape.”

Me, “Perfect, neither is Paul!”

These trips are a laugh a minute, I tell ya.

From chuckles to hucks…

This would be the infamous 719 road gap, as seen in some New World Disorder film.

Jedi found something to love here.

Our nameless local guide (if I don’t write it down, it never happened. Anyway, he’s a ripper and good guy. Look him up if your in Nelson).

That was a nice warmup. Back to the push……

OK, the top. Here’s some skinny stuff for you, Paul.

…and a few drops for Tony.

The weather started to get sort of unsettled as we rode. It would sort off cloud over…..

Then get windy and sunny…..

…and then it got dark.

REALLY dark.

Then it poured rain. We’d planned on going to Castlegar to check out some serious new stunt action, but Kootenay wood is not rain riding friendly construction, so we packed up and drove down to the Okanagan.

I think most of us were satisfied with what we’d done anyway.

Plus it gave us a bit of rest before settling in at Salty’s Beach House for some martinis.