Month: November 2007

Fix It, Ride It, WOW!!

Posted on by Smoke

We went back to ride the results of our build and fix party today. I think we’re going to have many days like this in the future. Between fire damage and beetle kill, scenes like this are going to be all too common…

I got to ride yet another trail I didn’t know about today. RubHer Down is a quick hit lower down in Gillard that has a bunch of rad and techy airs.

Jules was sending it pretty hard in here, even though the ground was a bit slow today. I’ll only mention the “case” here in passing….

With a bunch of frost on Boss Hog, we stuck to Wobbly Pops. It’s such a nice looking trail, and it’s always fun to charge the easier stuff. Less consequences, eh?

We also had a lap on Kerplop, which as mentioned in a previous post was extrememly hard hit. It was surprisingly rideable considering the level of damage that was incurred. There’s definitely some hard hit areas, and lots of structures are gone, but some of the technical rocky steep sections are now even more fun, as they’ve gotten harder. I thought I was on the Shore at times. Sorry, no pics of that for you. Too busy riding to take the camera out. Instead enjoy these classic Kelowna shots.

That was likely the last bike ride of the year up here. MAYBE one more. I’ll let you know….

Kelowna Carnage

Posted on by Smoke

The first real winter storm of the season that rolled through the Okanagan last week devastated the Gillard trails. Since this area was toasted by a forest fire a few years back, it’s much more prone to wind damage than many other areas. Powers Creek suffered a few trees downed, but nothing like this…..

That’s the exit to Yo Mama. Luckily, the Kelowna Collective got several bodies and saws together and rallied to the rescue. Over 20 peole showed up to put in some serious effort on the part of this area.

Yo Mama probably got some of the least damage of the whole area, and this is what it looked like.

Rob has been out all week clearing the lower stuff like Boss Hog, and here he is next to the repaired jump from that last shot.

This one’s going to take a little more work. It WAS a huge stepdown move, but with a fat rootball on the lander it’s going to be springtime before this line is sendable again.

The hardest hit was Kerplop. Ryan McKenna and a crew of guys (including our buddy Jonathon, brother of our sometime guide and super helper Courtenay) went over to deal with that. What they got looked like the aftermath of Mt St Helens.

We got our lines cleared, and thanks to a huge effort on the part of many others, Kerplop, Cat’s Ass, Snakes Back, and many others were cleared up. We ran out of light, so you’ll have to wait until the next post for some riding shots.

There’s more pics of the carnage and cleanup efforts at:

Rich’s Blog

Ryan’s Pics