Kobau

Mr & Mrs. Marmalade – 6

Posted on by Smoke

Those Swiss kids are so much fun, I think we’ll keep them around for another day.  Besides, it’s a Kobau day and the more the merrier on that one.

Hey Barb!  Whatcha’ doin’ over there?

The first time out in the high elevation sage meadows for everyone means lots of photo ops.

OK, enough of that.  Lets go do some shredding.  It’s trying to rain a little bit, but it’s still pretty dusty out there.

Part of the reason it takes so long to descend this trail is the over-abundance of Kodak moments like this.

Whoa! Speedy Suisse in effect!

That’ll learn ya…

This is a much more civilised approach…

Yvonne has it figured out too.

More Kodak moments. 

Nic on the hoodoo near the end.

Nice and cool out, and that rain made this line a lot more forgiving than it can be.

Which is good, as it made it a lot more fun for Yvonne.

Barb, of course, wouldn’t care either way.  She just rides stuff.

Momma bear.  I missed the cubs, but there were three little bears here.

For round 2, I took the Swiss down TKO.  It’s a shitty trail.

Of course I’m joking, but we didn’t take many pics of round 2.  Having too much fun ripping it.  Just a couple of shots of this little road gap.

Barb, Al, and Yvonne took another lap on Cawston Creek, which is always a good idea.

Cheers!  Dirtbags…

“Hey you kids, look at me!  I’m running!”

Our crew, and our loyal shuttle driver (thanks Dad!).

Shock Monkey Okanagan – Day 3

Posted on by Smoke

Welcome to Canada’s only desert. 

Sure is green…

Yeah, June-uary keeps on giving around here.  Although we have been snowed on in July on this ride, so torrential rain is not that big of a deal, right? 

Andrew and Brant came out with the saws today, so we did a bit of refurb on Cawston Creek Trail.  It really needed it.

Besides clearing some major deadfall, we also rebuilt this jump.

Note the size of that saw.  That’s no farm saw.  That’s over 100cc’s of Husky on there.

Kind of forced Jay to work for this one.

We also fixed the entrance to this log.

One plank, coming right up.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to outwit the weather with our good deeds.

It just socked right in while we were building. 

Not that the riding was bad or anything.

Actually, it doesn’t really get any better than this.

It also meant that for round 2 on TKO, that we were looking for some serious wet.  It was only about +3 at the top, and windy.  I wasn’t sure, but I had a hunch that the conditions were going to be prime, and I wasn’t disappointed.  The best run down the top half of TKO for myself, and Brant, AND Andrew that we’ve ever had.

Even the 2nd half, which can be a nasty sketchfest, was pretty damn good.

The Aussies were definitely feeling the steep though.  It was a bit of a stretch for them at times.  Here’s Jay trying to stretch out over the back wheel.

..and Gen stretches her legs.

A big bummer to report in that some friends of ours lost their home in a mudslide in Oliver this week.  I’ll be heading down to help them muck out in July, so I’ll post up some pics when I get a chance.

On the happier side, Happy Anniversary to my parents!  Now quit spending my inheritance.

May Long – Day 2

Posted on by Smoke

 

Do you think we’ll need a chainsaw?  Nahhh, leave it at the bottom…

Oops.

Well, it’s only an extra 40 minutes of driving to go get it.  What have we learned, Dorothy?

John gets excited when he sees big wood.  There were some random tourists watching this scenario unfold, too.  Good times.

Oh right.  The May Long Weekend.  Fresh snow, should have brought the boards.

I P’d a frog…

I didn’t run the first lap down the Cawston side.  It was Barb’s turn, so I drove.  I got to ride lap 2 on TKO.  Unfortunately, winter was hard this year (contrary to what you hear on the news).  Lots of trees down, and lots of snow.  We had to hike down a considerable distance.

At least the lower part was in prime shape.

This zone is super sketchy when it’s dry, so a bit of moisture made it ultra tacky.

As usual, I get the best shots of French Jonny.

We ran into some of the Penticton locals on the 1st lap, and Kurt jumped in for lap 2 with us, showing us how to do it on light gear.  Then again, I was on my Altitude so I guess that made for two of us idjits running big mountains on little bikes.

Smile!

Even with lots of snow and downed trees, that ride is still one of the best. And spring storms make for epic light.

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