Month: May 2009

St. Georges KVR – Day 2

Posted on by Smoke

OK, so today started with rain.  And there’s no showers.  But there’s an A&W in Princeton, so the boys are stoked.

Forget the wondrous beauty of nature, the historical significance of the railway, the achievements of mankind wrought against the grandeur of the natural world….we’ve got trans fats.

Besides, we’re having a pull up contest at the gazebo.

At least they’re impressed by dead things in the water.

From the looks of things, there’s a big cougar around here.

I’m pretty sure that the cougar isn’t scared of you guys.

So many dead things on the trail.  We saw three dead deer and one headless squirrel in one km of the KVR today.

But they still wouldn’t go any faster….

OK, lunch break.  Anyone want to go swimming?

Apparently I’m the only one dumb enough to try that. 

Aki at least was into jumping the fire.  I think he almost got his rear wheel off the ground and everything.

Oh look, another cougar kill.

Granite City in the rain.

Oh, and someone didn’t do a very good job of setting the tent up before it got wet.  Gotta love the organizational skills of the 15 year old male.

 

Danika gets a moto lesson from one of the Coalmont locals.  She hardly came close to hitting the van at all….

No trip to Granite City is complete without a little oral history from the locals on all the ghosts and spirits that haunt the area.

Gotta just let it get a little bit darker….

..and then we can go visit the graveyard.  Evan, look out behind you!

Never mind, I think it’s too cold out for zombies.

St. Georges KVR – Day 1

Posted on by Smoke

Is it that time again?

Sure is…another year, another KVR tour.   Andrew Kay is back again this year, and so are Danika and Coran.  New this year are the lovely Johanna and ….. Alex.

Oh, and of course a fresh batch of Grade 10 boys.

We got the traditional rain on the first night.  Also, since we’re a bit early this year and winter has hung on a bit we’re having to run a single group again.  The high point is still thawing, and while the snow is mostly gone its super muddy up there.

Hey Taylor!  See if you can peg Alex with a rock!

Meet Simon.  He’s our main hipster on this trip.  He bought a vintage bike at the flea market on Saturday for the trip.  Stylin…..

Will the weather clear up for us?

Maybe for a little while.  The weatherman wasn’t very positive.  Calvin didn’t care, so long as he had his man purse.  He rode with that bag on his bars the whole way, and also didn’t actually bring any food.  He managed to score some food from the other boys, so he didn’t go hungry.

There’s Simon’s hipster bike, with Siuchen riding side saddle.  Not sure who’s driving there.  I think he was in the other group and just hung out with us for a bit.

You guys aren’t tired, are you?

So, here we are after almost 9 hours on the trail.

At least it’s not raining….yet.

Well, the first day IS the hardest one.  Tomorrow should be fine, if it’s not raining.

Girls Got Skills – Day 2

Posted on by Smoke

Day 2, and the weatherman was so wrong.  They were calling for a bit of rain today.  Pfffft….hardly. 

The ladies went up to Myra/Bellevue to work on more advanced techniques for today.  Lots of little drops and dealing with the realities of natural terrain.

Stunts may get a lot of the attention, but it’s the natural terrain that’s the hard stuff.

Barb also took the afternoon off, so I got to do a Vapour run with the girls and a chance to do work on some cornering skills.

Oh, and also to take some ultra rad pics.

Some of the other groups got into a bit of trail maintenance.  The aftermath of the big fire of 2003 is still in effect as the standing deadwood begins to rot and fall over.  Here the girls are learning to operate the manual chainsaw.

Holy Top Model, talk about fierce!

Somehow, I doubt that Tyra could handle mountain biking.

A bit of a session here on some tech rock lines.

Nice focus.

You gotta be impressed by Laura.  She’s never been off road before, and is on a demo Kona here just killing everything we sent her way.  Thanks to the Kelowna Cycle guys for setting that one up.

I shouldn’t really single any of the girls out though.  They all rode well beyond any expectations.

Thanks to all the amazing women who came out to take part in this incredible weekend. You can bet that this will be an annual event for some time to come.