Iron Mtn

I’ve been sitting on these pics for a while now. We did this trip a while back, but what with Interbike, Rampage, and all that, it took a bit for the hype to die down so that PinkBike could do it justice.

Much like 3 years ago, we have a simple concept: take a bunch of pro riders, give them some co-ordinates, and see how hard we can push the All Mtn. concept. Shuttle access is part of the formula, but the ethos of the trip means that big DH sleds are impractical. I got the call this year to put it together, and this is what we came up with…

We met at our friends the Patterson’s, who live right at the base of Greenstone Mtn. in Kamloops. Only a few of us showed on the first night, but if you remember last time, half the crew got lost on logging roads.

A very restful night actually. The only dark cloud on our first morning was Dingo accidentally losing part of the rear shock on a brand new Specialized S-Workds Enduro. In long grass. Luckily a bunch of the crew was running a little late, and Mark scored the eagle eye award for spotting the offending debris in the long grass.

Our crew consisted of Wade Simmons, Dre Hestler, Reg Mullet, Simon Stevenson, Matt (Dingo) Ryan, Dave Burch and Tyler Maine, all of whom had been on the first edition of this one. Bringing up the fresh meat factor were newcomers Keith Ray, Mark Wood, Mike Jones, Dave Silver, Connor Macleod (from the clan Macleod), Brant Lyon, and some guy named Richie Schley. You can catch more info on this years lineup over at PinkBike.

Firs run? The legendary Greenstone Mountain. But not the little race trail off the front. Nuh-uh. The Full Monty off the back.

It’s got a new entrance, which threw me a bit. I first thought it was a whole new route, but it’s just a short piece of trail that cuts off a bit of hassle at the start. Oh, and it’s steep.

Considering how long it’s been since I last rode this side of the mountain (2007?), I was pretty stoked at how much of it I was able to line up.

Even finding this old skinny across a creek was a bit of a shock, as I haven’t been this particular way in even longer.

Oops…lost. Well, not really. Jusr haven’t been to this spot before. Talk about your happy accidents…

Some more high speed shredding and lap one was done.

Here’s some stats and graphs for you, as is tradition with this trip.

Round two was courtesy of Chris Post in Merritt. Nobody believed me at the bottom when I described the trails on Iron Mtn as “arguably the most progressive place in BC.” Hey, they haven’t ridden there, how could they know?

Shortly after this shot, I think they figured it out. Even though everyone showed up with way heavier duty kits than 2009, they were pretty stressed at times on Iron. And we went down the easiest way. Sorry, not many pics. I was too busy riding.

The highlight of this lap was Brant having some sort of bowel disorder kick in near the end at the high speed part. He was concentrating a bit too much on not crapping his pants, and ended up doing a sideways starfish through the forest at one point. Kept his shorts clean, though…

Here’s your Iron Mtn. stats.

While I went back to the top to retrieve the van, the rest of the gang went for a fast lap on Windy Canyon. Mildly bummed I missed out, but not a big deal. Glad they got to see it, and it beat hanging around a gravel parking lot for an hour.

Alright nerds, quit surfing porn.

We hit the road to Peachland after a quick re-fuel at The Grand, and got ready for another epic in the morning.

Check out the PinkBike version of events, with more pics and commentary over at:

Hurtin’ for Vert 2012 – Part One of Four

Whose favourite colour is red, hmmmm?

Sven and Dorothy called us up last minute to go for a rip in Merritt. We haven’t ridden there in a long time, and it’s only an hour away so we went for it. Merritt has always been a little disappointing to me for riding. It has lots of potential, but with a small community it seems to be under utilized and the trails were always a bit…off.

But it’s been a while, so with an open mind we went up Iron Mtn. for some shuttles with the gang.

Nice looking bike. I like yellow.

Custom route finding. I’m all about the path less traveled.

Well, the north side at least is much better than 5 years ago. It’s had a few years to work the line in, and the section through the canyon at the bottom is much improved. Although some of the options we explored were pretty grown over. Our photographer pal, Dan Barham, managed to scratch part of his eyeball (“Just yell when you’re in focus!”), but he turned out to be fine in the long run.

I also had a spastic phone in the canyon. I couldn’t get reception though. Something about a fire. Meh, I’ve got insurance.

For dessert, Brian, Sven, and myself went to hit Hornet, which is still possibly the best trail up there.

Jeez buddy, what’s with the high beams? You happy to see me or something?

It’s a bit more tech, but a lot less travelled and more scenic.

On the drive home, the phone call about the fire became a bit clearer. A blaze fired up in our old neighborhood in the afternoon, prompting widespread evacuations, power outages, highway closures, and general mayhem all round.