Just when things are looking a bit slow out there, the phone rings.  It seems that Sacred Rides, the venerable outfit based in Fernie, had gone and double booked a couple of tours which left them a bit short on guides.  No problem, I can help. 

Even though I haven’t ridden any of the trails up there, or even been to Fernie in 10 years, or worked for this company before.  Oh, and it’s also the wettest June in recorded history with flash flooding all around.  With all the mayhem that occurred and the high percentage of Aussies on the trip, I was going to call this one HTFU (not exactly safe for work, that link, but it’s still funny).  In my mind, I think it always will be…

After dealing with lost bikes, mixed up rooms, rental bike confusion and the like, we finally got to riding around midday.

This is Richard.  He’s reasonably hard, actually.  He just needs to pull his pants up.

Just say no to crack, kids.

As you can tell, it’s a bit wet out there.  It’s just a bit of extra incentive to try to stay on the wood.  The swampland around can swallow you whole.

Well, you can tell from the early impressions who the aggressive riders are.  Doug…

..and Richard.

This turtle is hard enough already.

Day one is a pretty mellow affair.  Lets see how the crew fares tomorrow, eh?