Mission Creek Skills Park Nearly Open

Went for a walkthrough of the new bike skills park in Kelowna recently.  It’s about the last thing to do before we get official sanctioning on this project.  Check out the easy line.

Now check out John Cowan sending it on the big line.   There’s everything in between here.

The thinking is that by providing a real set of jumps, we can avoid the high maintenance factor of people ripping apart the smaller lines in order to make bigger ones.  Hopefully these are big enough to keep the groms happy for a few weeks anyway.

JC also did an amazing demo on how to maintain the jumps.  I wish I‘d videoed it, as it was incredibly educational.  Maybe I’ll be able to trick him into doing one another time.

Ahhh…this must be a City gig.  Lots of oversight.

The snakes like the park too.

Alright, the park is open.  Here’s the rules.  Learn them, know them, live them.

May Long – Day 3

The Vancouver guys all went home and look what happens…the sun comes out!

Just went for a little rip on Smith Creek with Jonny, Brant, and Jasmine today. I haven’t seen the upgrades this year, so it was cool to check out what’s been done.  Pretty rad set of teeters here.

Just a pleasant day for a climb.  That new Altitude I got sure goes uphill well.

Lots of other folks out today taking advantage of the nice weather.

Before you freak out, she has a helmet, but it’s a full face and without a pack she got Jonny to carry it for her.  The climb is pretty relentless, so it’s fine to take it off on this one.

All that rain sure greened the place up.

Brant borrowed a bike that was a bit much for the full climb.  That’s OK, buddy.  None of us are getting any younger.

Jonny sold his bike last night at midnight, and bought this one at 10 am today.  Nice timing.

And Jasmine survived her first Smith Creek climb.

After the full pull climb, it’s a fast descent.  On the way out, I saw this guy on the road.  Sorta blew it getting the camera out (wrong setting altogether) but I managed to get a pic and a half of this young coyote.

 

Now to get the DH bike built.  Hopefully the parts will show up finally…a month late, but finally.

May Long – Day 2

 

Do you think we’ll need a chainsaw?  Nahhh, leave it at the bottom…

Oops.

Well, it’s only an extra 40 minutes of driving to go get it.  What have we learned, Dorothy?

John gets excited when he sees big wood.  There were some random tourists watching this scenario unfold, too.  Good times.

Oh right.  The May Long Weekend.  Fresh snow, should have brought the boards.

I P’d a frog…

I didn’t run the first lap down the Cawston side.  It was Barb’s turn, so I drove.  I got to ride lap 2 on TKO.  Unfortunately, winter was hard this year (contrary to what you hear on the news).  Lots of trees down, and lots of snow.  We had to hike down a considerable distance.

At least the lower part was in prime shape.

This zone is super sketchy when it’s dry, so a bit of moisture made it ultra tacky.

As usual, I get the best shots of French Jonny.

We ran into some of the Penticton locals on the 1st lap, and Kurt jumped in for lap 2 with us, showing us how to do it on light gear.  Then again, I was on my Altitude so I guess that made for two of us idjits running big mountains on little bikes.

Smile!

Even with lots of snow and downed trees, that ride is still one of the best. And spring storms make for epic light.

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