I told you that I had another epic lined up.  And what birthday ride would be complete without a little late night fire and beers?  I don’t think our neighbours at the campsite appreciated it, but hey…it’s my birthday!  I’m turning 40 and I’m still getting in trouble from old dudes about the loud music.  Sweet.

Hey Brant!  When did you show up?  I like how he made the girlfriend sleep in the truck.

Another crap day.  Happy Birthday to me!

The start of the climb.  Big thanks to the Lower Similkameen Indian Band for the shuttle and the permission to ride in their traditional lands.

Oh, and their land is something else.  Look at that peak.

We hopped out of the truck at around 6400’ or so.  No need to drive this far next time though.  The road gets pretty rough a few km back, and it would be no problem to ride in.  Actually, there’s so many options in here for rides, I don’t know how many times I’ll be able to repeat any adventures.

Nice helmet, dude.

After a hike a bike of about an hour, this is our intro to the alpine.  High elevation grassland.

Andrew was next…

…and then Kurt.

Some BC singletrack for you.

There’s a bunch of these hunter cabins out here.  Might be possible to do a little hut-to-hut action out this way…

Yeah, next time.

A nice panoramic shot of the area.

There’s the summit up there.  I guess we should see if we can get to it.

It’s rideable most of the way too.  Although at this elevation little climbs are a lot tougher.

There we are…7900’.

Get off the phones, ya geeks!

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Some more views.  Looking north [^] and south [v].

Well, seems as good a time as any.

Brant has a beer and chocolate shotgun.

The first descent was wide open.  There’s almost no traffic up here, so it’s more of a route than a trail.

We’re going over there.

Another look around…

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Another look at the high point in the area.  That peak is at 8500’

West towards Cathedral Park.

Now that we’re lower, the trail is more defined.  It changed character a lot.  It would be really tough for a ways (horses beat the crap outta singletrack), but just when it got to be a bit too much, it would change up and become ultra smooth again.  Of course, you could always just stop and enjoy the view too.

As we got into the sub-alpine, it was this incredible zone of Mtn Pine and White Pine, but still with lots of grassland and open tundra.

We got into an old burned over area, and that was a lot tougher riding.  Had to take a break to rest, eh?

Hmmm…this looks like it’s about to get really good.

Looking back at the high point and the burn.

This grassland here was unbelievable.

Not only were the colours off the scale, but the speeds we were carrying were insane.  According to the GPS I was going just under 40mph here, and Brant rode away from me like I was on a tricycle.

Kurt, all lit up with the fall colours.

It’s too bad my camera died.   Thankfully Brant had his iPhone with him or we wouldn’t have had any of these pics.   Here’s another cabin.

Thowin’ the horns.

This is an old research station set up by UBC to study the local sheep and other aspects of this cool ecosystem.  I felt like I’d stepped into an old Walt Disney movie or something.

Another video view of the top of the South Slope.

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More video from the bottom of the slope looking up.  There were BIG rocks hiding in the grass all over the place.  Couldn’t go as fast as the last pitch, but it was still super cool.  A couple hours with a rake out here would make a huge difference, and I would think the horsemen would appreciate it too.

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It was still quite a ways to the end of the trail from here, but our last camera quit at this point.  Mainly flat sidehill style riding, but very fast with lots of technical rock gardens to shred.

AWESOME birthday.  I’ll be getting out on this one again.