ReReturn of the Jedi – Day 9

Posted on July 14, 2007 by Smoke

***We now return to our regularly scheduled programming, already in progress…***

Travel day…time for some hanging out on the water. Nice thing about this tour is that all our travel days involved some nice coastal cruising courtesy of BC Ferries.

I think we may have even spotted a Gray whale at a distance, but still, we’re here to ride so after several hours of loafing it was time to find our way to the trails of the Sunshine Coast.

They build ’em nice out this way, and for guys interested in riding structures, it’s pretty much heaven on earth.

Everywhere you look it’s planks and bridges, and the sheer volume of 6-8 foot drops is immense.

All the boys were stoked on the first taste of the week to come.

For the big kids, there were a few bigger hits too. This is Chaos on a sizeable stepdown in Janet’s Jungle.

Our old pal Skip showed up for today as well. You can tell Skip apart by that red jersey.

As usual, the young punks were chewing up the goods in fine style.

What’s this? Rain? Could this be some kind of foreshadowing?

Time will tell…..

ReReturn of the Jedi – Day 8

Posted on July 13, 2007 by Smoke

**This might be the last update on the tripLog for a bit, as I’m just about to step out on the Wade Tour. Be patient, there’s plenty more to come**

Hmmmm….Friday the 13th and we’ve got 13th guys here. I think we should just stay one more day, don’t you?

Chaos agrees, and shall go ride more logs.

So does Ed, and hurries off after him.

Great day to play with various camera effects in low light. This would be a long exposure with a tripod and fill flash.

Same drill, different result.

Now it’s time to talk about Flash and the Bear Repellent. See, some people are sort of unsure about bears and are afraid of them. This can lead to an excellent opportunity to “wind up” someone. In this case, Flash was led down the path of smothering onne’s body parts with a mixture of rotten pears, garlic, vodka, and pretty much anything else that was destined for the compost heap. Good times….

Whattya expect with a guy named “Chaos” on the tour?

How about some old school British punks showing up at a reggae show in Cumberland?

Yup, that’s our crew in the front of the stage.

Yeah, mosh it up in a irie style mon.

“Buy my CD, please”

“Whassa matta, you no like the Itals?”

The verdict on the evening? Two thumbs up from the random stoner in the crowd.

ReReturn of the Jedi – Day 7

Posted on July 12, 2007 by Smoke

What… a week gone by already? That explains why Stophe is so tie-tie.

We may have needed the rest for today’s adventure into the wild places of the interior of Vancouver Island. I’m not going to even tell you where this is, suffice to say that it’s old growth and magical.

Those of you who watch lots of bike vids will be able to figure it out anyway, but it’s quite a spot. This particular gap is about 40 feet long and close to 20 feet up in the trees. No-one hit it today, but not because they didn’t want to. They just didn’t feel like warming up on something that huge. I think if we’d spent another day there at least three of our crew would have nailed it.

Instead, we opted to warm up on something smaller and get our collective crap together.

So much for the small stuff. Everything else was bigger than that little bridge. This particular move was a suspension bridge to teeter drop. Epic (you’ll h ave to wait for the vid to see it in all her glory).

The crew was in heaven on this trail, especially Tony who declared this to be, “the best trail we’ve ridden in the four years of coming here.”

Of course, endless high skinnies to gap exits aren’t for everyone, but for the Jedi Council it kind of defines mountain biking. You can just make out a transparent, blurry Jedi in this shot if you look closely.

Another angle of another try at this move.

What was really wild about this zone was how the builders put flat gaps off the end of all the logs and bridges. Usually you get a 1:1 stepdown off of skinny stuff, but here it was pretty much 4:1 or flatter.

It was enough to get Phil right bent.

Of course Lairy Nick couldn’t shut up about it.

Tony continued to have the ride of his life.

Even Smilin’ Andy cracked a grin over this stuff.

Not all of the log rides were death defying. This one was just unnaturally long.

Must have been a couple hundred meters of interconnected natural log riding.

Oooooooo….artsy.

Oh….fartsy.

The deep moss was so green and made the forest really quiet. Nice to spend a day in real forest, instead of the usual industrial wasteland of second growth.