brits

Revenge of the Sith – Day 9

Posted on by Smoke

Now that we’re back in the Okanagan, we’d better take the time to ride Powers Creek.

Is that….PAUL? It IS Paul! On a gap no less. He’s been holding out.

Of course, you are spared the endless run-ins, but he seems to be the sleeper hit of the tour.

Oh look, its Paul on another gap. Ho hum, it’s not a surprise now.

…and we already know he could ride ramps.

This is me, not crashing.

This is Barb, also not crashing.

Same girl, same stunt, same result.

Oh Tony…..

Uh oh, that shouldn’t have hurt that much. This stunt shall hereafter be known as the “Jedi Fucker.” Dave likes to give stunts rude names so that little kids can swear at their parents.

Now, while Tony was pretty sore after that crash, he was still in the game for another ride if he throttled back, so that’sw what he did. Unfortunatle, he slipped a pedal shortly after this and caught the backspin right on the sore spot. Which pretty much finished him. Fractured tibia. Bummer. I guess that’s what happens when you stay out all night….

The rest of the crew kept on charging.

Panama managed to catch up to himself on this spiral ramp.

Say hi to Dirty Dave, the architect of this particular zone.

Craig was also out partying with Jedi until the wee hours, but seemed to be handling it a bit better.

Until this miscalculation the wall.

If you look closely you’ll see his tibia. Nothing that a few pieces of tape won’t fix.

That was 13 stitches if you were curious….

Revenge of the Sith – Day 8

Posted on by Smoke

Lat day in Nelson, lets climb!

Yeah, I know….it’s every Englishman’s dream to push your bike up steep mountains in Nelson. We went right by this sign on the way up, and for those of you who don’t know this already, Smilin’ Buddha is Pauls’s nickname (he even looks like the Buddha in the pic).

Me, “Aww, we gotta do this trail. It’s named after Paul.”

Local guy, “Uhhh, it’s not in very good shape.”

Me, “Perfect, neither is Paul!”

These trips are a laugh a minute, I tell ya.

From chuckles to hucks…

This would be the infamous 719 road gap, as seen in some New World Disorder film.

Jedi found something to love here.

Our nameless local guide (if I don’t write it down, it never happened. Anyway, he’s a ripper and good guy. Look him up if your in Nelson).

That was a nice warmup. Back to the push……

OK, the top. Here’s some skinny stuff for you, Paul.

…and a few drops for Tony.

The weather started to get sort of unsettled as we rode. It would sort off cloud over…..

Then get windy and sunny…..

…and then it got dark.

REALLY dark.

Then it poured rain. We’d planned on going to Castlegar to check out some serious new stunt action, but Kootenay wood is not rain riding friendly construction, so we packed up and drove down to the Okanagan.

I think most of us were satisfied with what we’d done anyway.

Plus it gave us a bit of rest before settling in at Salty’s Beach House for some martinis.

Revenge of the Sith – Day 4

Posted on by Smoke

It’s our last day in New Denver, so we’re gonna do a few runs off Idaho. At least 10 000′ of vertical on the menu today.

But first…….

One of the things we ALL do in our daily existence is take advantage of the noobs. It’s universal, preying on the credulous. Especially when they open themselves up to it. The first thing anyone from Europe ever asks about when they get here is bears. What sort of gun do you have, how many have you killed, how many people do they eat in a year, and others in that line.

Typically, we do nothing to assuage fears. For instance, at Johanna and Keiths place we were (as usual) sleeping outside when the usual topic of bears came up. Well, they are pretty common in the Kootenays, and it’s not unusual for them to wander through the yard. We told them that if one comes by in the night to not worry too much about it, as they are pretty well fed at this time of year and “rarely” try to eat anyone.

Jedi thought this was total bullshit (well, it wort of was) but he did mentionthat he heard something nosing around inthe shrubs the night before.

“Oh yeah, that’s the local bear alright,” says Keith.

The next morning?

Yup, that’s a big steamin’ bear shit about 3 feet from Jedi’s head. Well, you can imagine the excitement. A bear! Nearly shit on my head! Look!

Well (and I’m loving this part) let me be the first to tell you something there Jedi…..

Keith put it there with a shovel while you were sleeping. Mr. Bear left it in the corner of the yard before we ever arrived.


Oi! You wouldn’t be takin the piss now would ya Smokey?

Yup, you bet.

OK, on to the riding.

Look out for that bear behind ya, buddy.

Girls…..always gotta show how “equal” they are. Sheesh.

Vintage BC bridge work.

I’m informed reliably that this “is just like Wales, innit?”

We sessioned this steep section for a while. Nothing outrageous, just some fun rooty stuff in the big trees.

Lap 2 took us down the legendary Wakefield trail. It’s an old Mule train route through the old Wakefield mines on the south side of Idaho Peak. Roughly 6000′ of descent.

Burly trail, big mountains, and lots of flowers.

Look, you can see the bottom!

Brochure shot…

Taking a break one a tailings pile. There’s train tracks leading into the old mines here.

That was a brake boiler if there ever was one. Oh, and there WAS a bear at the bottom too.

Since we were now in Silverton, we hit up the Grim Reefer one more time.

Paul needed a skinny fix anyway.

At the bottom of the Reefer, we took advantage of the last rays of sunshine to hit Bannock Point for some cliff jumping. We even got Harley to try one of the smaller ones.

She didn’t seem as keen on the higher ones though.

That’s my pick for shot of the summer, that is. Now, if you thought that the bear shit picture was a story, what do think this one is?