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Cycleactive Returns

Posted on by Smoke

The owner of Cycleactive came by today for a little R&D. We did a trip for his company back in 2005, but we’ve never met before.

He didn’t have a lot of time, but we managed a little rip out on the Mice near Naramata. The usual crap weather and scenery ensued…

Oh, and his charming wife came along for the adventure as well.

No need to hide fromthe paparazzi, it’s just me. We thought we’d try another winery at the end of the ride, as there’s so many to choose from. This time it’s the Red Rooster.

Good thing her name’s Siobhan, not Art….

I don’t think she likes Pirates either.

Only a couple of months old and already she’s thrown up in a restaurant. That’s my girl…..

Bonus map today:


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Fel Ci Efo Dau Gynffon – Day 12

Posted on by Smoke

What’s this, another big smile?

Ah…we must be in Squamish then.

My old stomping grounds. there are few places better for XC riding than Squamish.

Plus all that coastal rainforest and surrounding peaks with glaciers looks so much like Wales…

Well, we even managed a few bits of bridgework today.

This is part of my super secret endless loop out in Squamish. Right here we’re on Dead End Loop, but we can do many hours of various levels of singletrack out here.

We spent some time on the slightly more advanced bridges of “Don’t Tell Jude.”

I’m alwasys amused by how intimidated people are by the woodwork. In most respects, it’s easier than regular riding.

It’s just a little bit up in the air…

Here’s a random local showing how it’s done.

Actually, our Brits did remarkably well on this section, once they put their fears away.

They had a bit more trouble with this one. So it’s long, it’s flat, wide and straight. A little yelling and Holly got this one nailed. Sorry to scream at you, but you’d hate yourself later for not doing this one.

Lunchtime and a view. These are hard to come by in the rain forest, consider yourselves lucky.

We were pretty thrashed by the new experiences of wet and slippery bridges, so we opted for the guilty pleasures of shredding the Alice Lakes trails. They re-open to the public after September 16th, and they are truly awesome. Nothing tech, just loamy and flowy goodness for several slightly downhill kilometers.

Which is why there’s no pics of that part. Too busy going fast.

Here, try the map instead.


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Fel Ci Efo Dau Gynffon – Day 9b

Posted on by Smoke

We now return to our regularly scheduled programme, already in progress.

Meanwhile, back at Spruce we were dodging some mounted Germans.

And some stoner Canadians. At least they were nice enough to offer to share (we politely declined, but the sentiment was appreciated).

Around this point we started to hear some info on the radio from Martin. We didn’t get a really clear signal, so it wasn’t especially easy to understand, but the words “hand” and “sore” were coming through.

Well, that wasn’t going to affect OUR ride.

Ah. That kind of sore hand. If I had to guess, I’d say broken. Might only be a gnarly dislocation/sprain, but I’m not a doctor.

Hey, we offered to fly him back out from Spruce. Rob, tough guy that he is, actually rode out 25km on what would turn out to be a fractured driving finger (the part of it that runs through the middle of your hand was spiral fractured. I’ll show you next post). A bit of a rough break for Rob, but an impressive display of fortitude. Hats off, good sir.

I think you can see why he chose to keep riding. You don’t get too many days like this.

Hey, I know that dude….

Graham hangin’ it out on some Chilcotin goodness.

Is that a smile or a grimace? I’m going with smile.

Two weeks straight of bluebird weather in September. Incredible.

Oh wait…I may have spoken too soon. That sky is hazing over.

Well, it’s still pretty damn colourful out.

There’s that dude again. I KNOW that guy…

Yep, those are horsetails up there. And we’ve got real horses just behind us too. Better get crackin’…

Well, that was seriously impressive. Once Rob decided to ride out, we made record time. It wasn’t until this last few km that he really found it painful and slowed down, but we did the final 25km in about 3 hours. For those of you who haven’t ridden in the zone, that’s about an hour and a half faster than normal.

Yeah, we’re going slow now. Time for some candid on the bike shots.

YEAH! We made it.

Oh no, look what the cat dragged in.
And I quote, “Do you think you can stash this beer for us so we can have it waiting for us in three days?”

Sure boys, no problem.

A nice evening spent in comfortable confines of the Tyax Lodge, and we had a gorgeous chalet at our disposal for the next few days.

Life is good.

Now this is a map:


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