"Do You Smell That…?"

“…That gasoline smell?”

“Smells like……Disneyland.”

Give you three guesses what we did today.

We had to push the flight back a day because of weather, but it was well worth the wait.

What’s that white stuff on the mountains?

That’s Angel shit, honey.

Today we had Paul, Burton, Josh, Javed, Jack. and uhhh….Dave? And Harley the evil Hound from Hell.

Only 70 shopping days till Christmas…

It was as cold as it looks up there, too.

Surprisingly though, the rocks had really good traction.

These boys have been doing this trip every fall with me for a few years now. It’s an annual event. Funny how you forget just how steep it is.

A little respite from the gradient.

First trip this summer we were walking on the ice halfway out onto this lake. Just around the corner I decided to to a Superman onto some rocks and bruise the hell outta my ribs. Javed had a spectacular endo as well. Sure the rocks were grippy, but the roots were instant carnage today.

Josh drops into one of about a thousand rock faces.

Paul getting the hang of his new V-10

Burton in the trees.

Artsy shot of Jack (I think) in the Playground.

Cheezit. The cops are here.

Ho hum, more brochure shots.

“How do you know you’re taking a break?”

“Cause I’m having a Kit-Kat.”

“Think about it.”

Burton on the rocks. Careful, too many of those will make ya ill.

Ahh yes, the bill is now due. That’s a hundred foot drop behind that guardrail.

Payback.

In more ways than one. Good thing Paul wasn’t too seriously injured, but his bike was.

Nothing that a few zip ties and a Kokanee couldn’t take care of though.

Happy Birthday JJ!

…and a bigger band of heathens you couldn’t ask for to share it with.

Actually, you might have thought it was Wade’s birthday from how excited he was today (it’s actually September 20th as I write this. Hapyy Birthday Wade!).

In attendance today, besides yours truly, was Richie, Wade, Schwarzie, LeJerk, Danue, Arthur, P-Dub, and of course JJ.

…and a lot of rain.

We hit up three huge lines on the Shore. Here’s Schwarzie getting his freak on.

Catching our breath.

HUGE trees, and a little tiny biker dude.

Man, I took a lot of dark, crappy, blurry shots today.

Arthur, pretending it’s not slippery on that log.

JJ “I got something in my eye” Desmoreaux.

Step on it! He’s closer than he appears!


Once More Around the Shore and Home

Jiimy blew his knee so me, Jack and JIm are going to make him by our shuttle bitch for the last day on Seymour.

.

Hey, everybody misses one sooner or later.

The cool thing about Jack is that he always goes back for more. Here, he made it on the next try.

A little gap we played with at the end of the Roach.

For dessert, we hit Family Guy a couple of times. These are the first pics I’ve ever taken on this trail. Usually we’re going too fast to bother, but with a couple of runs we were able to take a slow run and a fast one.

The epic opening rock face.

Another one further down.

Jack, dropping in.

Jim, on the down low. This is one of my favourite pics of the year.

So we got the boys back to their B&B in time for them to fly out, which left me a little less time to ride than I thought for another run. Luckily, the Cove Bikes Bus was just pulling out so I got one more in.

‘ooligans.

Rare shot of Chaz railing the new proto DH bike.

We hammered that one off at record pace, and got to the bottom just at dusk. Five runs in a day. Good thing it’s JJ’s birthday tomorrow…