Return of the Jedi Council — Part VI

Ahhh yes. Harper Mtn. My faaaaaaaavourite. The best flow is here, and it’s a bonus when you camp half way up the mountian in that youget to ride out of camp first thing in the morning.

There’s a couple of new additions this year, mostly wood to wood moves.

Ed

They really make nice ladders around here.

Barb

Barb’s new pedals are working really well. She’s always smiling.

Barb’s shin

Some of the newer lines are multi use. Skinnies and hucks…..

Look out Mark! I think you made him angry.

Skip

Barb

Tysun (the Mini-Pig)

Sunset Roncil. What’s a Ron-Cil? Well, all I know is that it does exactly what it says on the tin, and Canada seems to have a lot of them.

Ed

With everyone riding Specialized on this tour, it was only fitting that we rode the spiral.

Pierre

Now, why couldn’t we run into these gnarly birds yesterday? Heartbreaker…..indeed.

Gnarly birds

Return of the Jedi Council — Part V

Time to head out of the sunny Okanagan. The bugs were freaking the boys out a little too much anyway.

Up to Kamloops for the crew. We went to the Ranch after fixing up the bikes. The Ranch is the first municipal bike park in the world. It’s pretty rad. A bit more hardtail oriented than A-Line, but you get the idea. Once the trannies get beat down, it will be better. they’re kind of short. We didin’t spend much time there as it was just too hot for mad-dogs and Englishmen.

Instead we went to Rose Hill for a few laps of the famous gully.

So much fun stuff here, like wall rides.

Skip

In case you were wondering, there were a few more riders on the tour than what you’ve been seeing in the pics. Here’s Pierre, who rode virtually no stunts last year, dropping the Diving Board.

Pierre

Mark has an injured shoulder, so he’s been taking it pretty easy, but Rose was just too much temptation.

Mark

…and this stylish devil is the man usually behind the camera.

Smoke

We sessioned this hip until nearly sunset. It was awesome.

Stu

Even Paul got in on the action, and he never jumps.

Paul

Ed, riding the pony.

Ed

Finally, Jedi had to throw down the Rose road gap.

Jedi

Which got the ball rolling for Stu to hit it.

Stu

Stu landed in a forty foot manual. Sweet.

Stu

Jedi’s tire mark

Then it was up to Harper for a campout, fire, and S’mores.

Harper Heaven

It really is a favourite. So much flow.

Last night we had tons of dry lightning. Luckily we didn’t catch fire, but there was so much smoke in the air today we could hardly see the ‘Loops.

Here’s the breakfast scene.

A quick walk to the top of the mountain helped clear the hangover.

On to the bridges.

Trask goes off.

As usual, Barb ruled it.

“Hey there, little dude!”

O’Dea continued to step it up on the skinnies.

Hi-Ho!

Trask again. What you can’t see are the three huge flails on the approach to this shot.

Lap two got a bit more serious.

There’s a bunch of these hits in a row.

O’Dea spirals in.

What was that?

Oh, THIS…