Mr & Mrs. Marmalade – 8

Last day in the Okanagan, and the effort of the trip is beginning to tell.  Plus, it’s genuinely hot today.  So let’s do something thoroughly tourist-y and ride the KVR through Myra Canyon.

This is the famous section of trestles and tunnels that was destroyed by fire back in 2003.

They’ve since restored it, and now it’s a favourite place to ride bikes, walk dogs, train for Ironman, etc.

It’s a nice little diversion, and it’s also a lot cooler up here than the 33C in the valley.

Anyway, it’s very scenic, even if somewhat dull to ride.

At least it’s not uphill.

Of course, it’s not down hill either, but we only did about 16km of it before dropping in to some great singletrack back down to Kelowna.

Yes, there’s plenty of singletrack to access off this section of KVR.

Get a room…

Definitely some epic light today in the Crawford Canyon.

Yes, we’re still on run #1 today.  I think it turned into something like 35km.

Not like it was some kind of death march or anything, but it was pretty long.

ANOTHER viewpoint?  OK, we’ll take another break.

After a hot lunch at the Eldorado (and I mean hot.  35C on the patio), we went to Gillard for a couple more laps.  Yvonne on a teeter…

This was a good warmup for the next few days, as we are heading to the North Shore and the Sunshine Coast for the last part of the tour.

OK, so you can’t hit ‘em all.  I think Yvonne would have hit this if we hadn’t been sorta tired out already.

Al and I cranked off one more fast one on the same lap before calling it quits.

While Yvonne waited for us and managed to snap this pic of doe and fawn.

More Banana Bread – Day 3

Or…Happy Birthday Al!  These guys really like the Gillard trails, so that’s where we went.  There’s some new trails up there too.

This one’s called Meeko (whoever that used to be…).

Thanks to Tucker for providing some new singletrack for us.

The way Ken’s been putting in lines, you can run the same trail over and over, but keep mixing it up with all the alternate lines.  Here’s a shot from Ghost Rider.

The birthday boy dropping in to Boss Hog.

A few more faces showed up for the last day, some we’ve had before…

…and some were new.  I’m gapping on names though (sorry, it’s been a brutally long month and I’m a sieve right now).  All I can tell you is that this Aussie is loose, as in nut.

Most stylish on the step up, for sure.  That last shot I was just assuming he was hitting the small line. Glad I caught it.

George, as usual nailing it.

Mark railing it.

Moaty, on his 40th.

Oh, and George has a new girlfriend, who is long on style herself.

He’s jumping for joy, he is.

The Blue Hat goes to…

Yeah, waste three runs on a brake line and that’s what you get.  What a bummer.  We also made him ride a pink bike.

What….more laps?  Yeah, Cat’s Ass to Fist’s First at full tilt.  We only stopped to session this log to gap.

We did our victory dance on the Crawford DH.

George showing us how he made his fortune as a Sears underwear model.

Spot the bikers.  Yes, there’s 2 of them in there someplace.

A very happy 40th to Moaty.  Wish I could have hung around for more Floaties (delish, they involve tequila AND beer), but that’s the price you pay.

Shock Monkey Okanagan – Day 5

Day 5?  really?!  Well, I guess we’d better hit up Gillard then.

We did the usual warmup stuff in Gillard, then it was time to try some steep techgnar.  Dr. No is needing some lovin’.

That got he juices flowin’.   After that we headed down to Boss Hog for a session on some slightly bigger stuff.  Props to Jay for getting the ball rolling, but…

…shot of the day goes to Gen for overshooting the opener on the Hog.

Simon gets an honourable mention for not landing on me.

Jay has got the berms figured out now.  They’re easy when it’s not raining.

Ah, good times.  We banged out a few runs here before we called it a day.  What’s more important is that the rain is holding off.

Junior, learning to ride at Gillard. 

I’m bored of driving.  I think I’ll rake this picture of myself with a very serious expression.  Seriously, don’t piss me off.

Oh wait, here they come. I’ll just run over and play with the macro setting.

…and a little sender down Dirty Sanchez and we’re spent.

Time for some appies at the Eldorado.

This is the creepy dude watching us from the deck above.  Does he have ANY clothes on?

Chevy, don’t look.  Here’ check out the fish instead.

Oh great, it’s his naked girlfriend instead. Gross.  I’m outta here…