crawford

Shock Monkey Okanagan – Day 4

Posted on by Smoke

This is better.  It might not be sunny, but it’s not raining either.  Everyone is battered from endless days of riding in the wet, so we took a mellow one today.  Finally, I’ve ridden the trestles in Myra Canyon.

Simon, missing the liquid falling from the sky, takes a giant whizz.

No seriously, it’s 130’ down there.

A nice little pano shot for comparison. 

Kind of a weenie wildlife encounter, but they don’t have chipmunks in Australia.

Please sir, can I have some more?

A millions laughs…

We could just ride a railway grade though, so we trundled on over to the Crawford DH.

And lo and behold, the sun actually came out.

Everything is wicked green right now after all that washing it got.

Our Monkeys didn’t know how to deal with Teddy Bear Junction.

But if I know my Aussies, Simon is thinking that he’d like to treat the Koala bears back home like this (every Australian I’ve ever met tells me Koala’s are fairly disgusting and vicious brutes).

They totally look like Koala’s if you just squint.

Judy-Lynn and Chris – Day 5

Posted on by Smoke

Welcome to yet another day in the Okanagan.  We’re riding in Myra/Bellvue today, and it’s the first time down the Crawford Canyon trail for me in a long, long time.  Andrew and Sheila tagged along for the adventure today.

It’s sort of traditional to get lost out here.  Can you see why?

At least I can always find this spot. 

We killed a good half hour here trundling rocks.  One good thing about all the blowdown; it’s easy to find big rocks to huck these days.

Sheila, with the first of the fall colours.

Ooops, we went the wrong way.  I bet that full face helmet doesn’t seem like such a good idea at this point.

OK, so it’s not much of a wildlife shot.  Chris got stung, and from the looks of it, it was a bee.

Have I ever warned you to NOT click a pic?

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.  The next shot is safer.  Not sure about riding under that big dead tree, but at least you can click on it.

We finished up at my favourite apres ride spot on the Kelowna waterfront, the patio at the Eldorado.  Nice photobomb on the left, lady.

Judy-Lynn’s shiner is sure fading fast.  I can’t believe how quick she’s healing.  Some great appies and a nice sunset to end another great one.

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.