Mr & Mrs. Marmalade – 3

OK, the rain was nice but lets get back to summer.

Yep, it’s warm out.  Not hot, just warm.  Now you know why I recommend bringing an open face helmet.   Even with modest mid 20C temps, it’s hard to keep the lid on.  We’ll just overlook this particular omission of safety, as it’s on a small warmup climb.

Here’s the top, and it’s all helmets on from here on down.

Yvonne is finding out about drops today.  Quite appropriate, as the next trail is ‘Drops A Lot.’

All on the Coaster gap.

After breaking another G series Canon (god they’re crappy for $600, but there’s nothing else that takes pics as nice that will fit in the pocket), I’m on an ultra compact SD1000.  And I’m sorta rusty on how to nab decent shots with the tiny camera.  So forgive the underexposed, out of focus, and motion blurred stuff here.

Ooooooo…so close. 

OK, we’ll just do a hundred more of these smaller ones and come back to that bigger drop.

Al, nose up on another gap.

Nose down on Jack and Jill.

Super dry out right now.  This dust bowl is a total surf’s up riot.

Al rides like a cat out there, and like a cat, doesn’t like getting wet.  Yvonne is having nothing to do with that…

***barf***

Yes, it’s the summer of couples.  I guess the demographic is changing out there.

Newlywed or….? – Day 2

Awesome, these kids are fit.  And strangely well rested for people on their honeymoon.  Well, they HAVE been together for 7 years, so I guess they’re not as anxious as some might be.

Today, I’m finally going to get to climb up to the top of the Naramata trails.  They didn’t believe me that it’s 1000m up, but then again the Okanagan is totally deceiving in that way.

Yup, all smiles, but we are still at the beginning.

No rain last night, but the heat has yet to kick in.  It was perfect out today for a big climb.  Around 20C and the ground was still a bit moist.

OK, so no more pics of the climb, because it got very difficult and we started to hurt.  It was a bit over 2.5 hours for us to get up to the reservoir.  Here’s Mark on the descent.  No, he’s not smiling…yet.

Louise is always smiling, so that’s not really fair.

By this point, both of them were in total heaven.  Check out that ‘singletrack’.  And this would be one of our more popular lines to ride out here, too.

“The best descent we’ve ever experienced,” was the verdict.  I love hearing comments like that.  After a brief wine tasting at Laughing Stock, we went for a quick swim to cool off.

Another solid day.  Mark and Louise may not have a ton of technical singletrack experience, but they are certainly fit and capable, so tomorrow we’ll tackle Rock Oven before they move on to the Kootenays.

Canada Day

Yay!  It’s gonna rain!

Thanks to Andrew from Brodie for bringing some more wet weather.  Oh well, the end of the rainy season is truly in sight.  There’s only a day or two of wet left

Yeah, it’s July.  I know.  Try to pretend like it’s sunny or something.

OK, it was a totally rad ride.  I’m just playing ya.  I mean, it did pour rain at the end but the conditions were amazing.


© Andrew Summers 2010

Just as the rain hit, we dropped in to Laughing Stock winery, a first for me.  Nice grape juice, and cool vibe.

They are just like us.