Kettle Valley Railway — Link Lake to Princeton

** If you are a St. George’s student, E-MAIL ME about pics.

The first full day of riding. a bit grey and cool this morning, and the rain last night had the boys sort of quiet. Can’t say the same about Mr. Kay (Andrew), who likes to chop wood at 5am. Oh well, I can sleep when I’m dead.

Amar “The Hammer”, just before his infamous face plant. He might not know how to ride yet, but he sure knows how to put together a good looking ensemble.

The crew gets ready to ride. That’s the other guide, Marc, on the right.

Henry and Grant ( I hope I got the right name with the face) are setting the pace on the roll out. Henry was really funny this trip. Cody only rode with us one day, as did a few others who had to go to a scouting camp for hockey. Based on this kids stamina and strength, I would think that he’ll go pretty early in the draft if the NHL ever gets its act together. That guy beat the crap outta me all day.

The first 10km or so of this ride kind of sucked. Lots of loose gravel and sand to contend with, and boring scenery. This trestle was where things began to get more interesting.

Even though the ride was still a bit sluggish after the trestle, the scenery improved, and we got a rhythm established. Just past the first tunnel we stopped for food and a little lesson on “trundling.”

Now things got really interesting. The hockey boys kicked up a few more notches. I was having a hard time hanging on. Pretty much all I could do was draft and hope. The 50km/h headwind wasn’t helping.

I started to pick landmarks and making them sprint, sorth of like with the city limits signs. A ha! Competetive little blighters, I see. I sense that I have a tool to control them now. Dance, puppets…..

‘Shanks comes in on the sprint with a gap after the main peleton has rolled through. Nice effort, Jamie.