Hey, it’s been a while since we’ve seen any of them Southern types up in here. Chad last came out with his bro wayyyyyy back in ‘02, so I don’t even have any old pics to look up to remind me about what he’s all about. Actually, I had almost forgotten the episode altogether. All I remembered was that him and his bro parked a truck and camper in the lane at our old pad in the Cove and hung out for a while.
Considering their background, though, I’m sure they shred.
We’re in Squamish today. Checking out a new route into the Highlands via the top of Powersmart called Galactic/Plastic Schiesse. It’s got a bit of a technical approach.
Not for very far though. Although far enough it looked like a major bummer when Chad snapped his dropout at the top. Game OVER?
Nope. Ethan pulled out a replacement from his pack. Do you believe that? Serious karma points for that move. Especially considering how epic today’s ride turned out to be. Kristian took over the repairs and we were on our way in no time.
OK, so the ‘trail’ is actually an old road that’s mostly grown over and a bit too steep. It’s actually kind of gnarly in that you want to go fast, but it’s not really open enough to do. You’re on the brakes most of the way. I think it would be a better climb than a descent, but maybe some more singletrack will start to grow off the sides over time. There area a couple of nice viewpoints on the way, like this one where Chad found out his rear brake wasn’t working that hot on the new dropout.
That’s a bit more pro…
There’s also a random stash of skiis out there. I’ve got a pair of those bad boys I still use (Volkl G4 188’s). That’s a real shame leaving serious weapons like that out in the bush. Ethan wanted to take a run right here and now.
Well, one thing that route does is get us into the top of the garibaldi Highlands, which is not a bad thing. Here’s Allan on “Don’t Tell Jude.”
It was one of those real greasy fall days in Squamish. So fun, and the Hicks love the tech riding so we were all in a bit o’ heaven today.
At this point, we’d hit:
- Galactic Scheisse
- Plastic Scheisse
- Ed’s Bypass
- Rob’s Corners
- Cliff’s Corners
- Don’t Tell Jude
- Tracks From Hell
- Mike’s Loop
Now we were on to Entrails.
From there we hit up the End-Hole Connector, and stopped to take some pics in this Lord of the Rings sort of zone.
After that we got into a new trail called A Room With A View. Which was so fun that we skipped any pics. Thanks to our old pal Christian Begin for stylin’ out the new trail. It leads into another great little trail called Gouranga, which is very similar to ARWAV. So you get the idea…
Lots of rock faces, and open enough to see the valley below.
Now we were down a ways, so we traversed across on Lumberjack and climbed back to Alice Lake via Jack’s trail, and then up Debeck’s Hill for the final couple of trails. That climb is tough, but always worth the effort. Just ask Kristian as he rides the edge on Rigs of Zen.
Rigs has gotten even tougher over the past couple of years (read: she needs some lovin’ yo). On a lightweight rig like an Altitude, this was the gnarliest ride I’ve been on all year. Plus the grease factor, and the day was wearing on, and the logs were sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick!
After some more punishment we finally exited via Crouching Monkey, Hidden Squirrel and the Brackentrail. Ethan finally hit the wall in the final 3 minutes of riding, so that was a good call on the ride plan. Just long enough to slay one of the crew.
On exit, we ran into some kind of vintage Ford rally.
Yeah…awesome. The end of an epic day, on the couch. And this guy didn’t even come on the ride.
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