Oliver

Return of ANOTHER Stag

Posted on by Smoke

These guys came out a few years ago for the grand occasion of one of their crew getting married, and low and behold another soldier has fallen.

Bush Pilot Biking - Kobau Stag Ride

It’s Aaron’s turn this time, and since last time we rode we cracked off 8 runs on the Sunshine Coast I figured we should probably do a big vert day on Kobau.

Bush Pilot Biking - Kobau Stag Ride

As always, it’s dry as a bone out here.  So much so that I managed a pretty decent crash in my first run when I missed a small ramp at speed and flipped over some logs.  Good thing I had padding on for a change.

Bush Pilot Biking - Kobau Stag Ride

All crashing aside, it was a solid session of brown pow today.

Bush Pilot Biking - Kobau Stag Ride

My old coach and current boss at the Ski club was our driver today.  He’s never really been exposed to the reality of mountain biking before.  He was a bit shocked to say the least when he saw us shredding through the sage at high speed.  I think we may have a convert.

Bush Pilot Biking - Kobau Stag Ride

Round two got me yet another crash, and this time I got it good.  Forgot my pads for one, and also it was one of those ones when you tag your bars off a tree at high speed.  I got a gnarly hemaetoma on my right thigh, and lost a bunch of skin on my left knee and arm.  Crap.  At least I could still ride, but I did cry a little when nobody was looking.  That one hurt.

At least I’ve got conditions like this to keep my mind off the pain.

Bush Pilot Biking - Kobau Stag Ride

After two laps on Cawston Creek it was time for the finishing run on TKO.  I was thinking that with how dry it was that it was going to be ultra gnar and loose, but it was actually as good as I’ve ever seen it.  Truly an epic lap.  Even managed to forget how much the leg hurt.

Bush Pilot Biking - Kobau Stag Ride

Here’s the crew (minus one casualty from the first two.  Tired and beat up from the weekend).  I think we all crashed out pretty hard at one point today, but it was the sort of day for pushing limits.

Bush Pilot Biking - Kobau Stag Ride

Managed to get lost down lower too.  This run was way longer than it needed to be, but it was still pretty nice cruising game trails in the desert.

Bush Pilot Biking - Kobau Stag Ride

A final group shot at Hester Creek before bugging out.

Bush Pilot Biking - Kobau Stag Ride

Oh, and if you see this little BBQ hut in Oliver, you gotta drop in.  Unreal eats for cheap.  Can’t believe I’ve never stopped there before.

Bush Pilot Biking - Kobau Stag Ride

Way more pics here in this slideshow.  Enjoy…

[ngslideshow id=201 w=640 h=480]

Salad Doggers – 9

Posted on by Smoke

Last day, and summer has once again given up the ghost.  We had a good run…

Yeah, we’re off to Kobau again today.   At least it’s only high overcast, so we can still benefit from a bit of a view.  Also, the wood was mostly dry ( a few retardedly slick sections, but overall not too bad), so we could hit up a few choice lines.

A few locals came with us today too, like Jason, Sheila, Andrew, and French Johnny.  Here’s Jason on one of the big log rides.  Ewan blew a few fuses on this one.  Not only was it big, but it was still wet enough to be very exciting.

The foresty part only lasts a little while, and then we’re out in the sage for the rest of the descent.

Conditions were, as usual on Cawston Ck., prime.  Only a little bit of dust, and very fast and very grippy.

Then Andrew got a little too excited.  Don’t worry, it’s only a flesh wound.  Actually, it was not a big deal.  We covered it up with some bandages, but it’s really only a scratch.  Nice and clean, cause it was his top cap.

Proof for the boys that we really are in a desert.

Little tiny riders.

More little tiny riders.  I like how the sage messes with digital cameras.  They seem to struggle with the detail, giving you this cool texture in the pics.

Yay Chevy!  Our shuttle driver in training.

Round two and … DOH!  OK, there goes the perfect season.  We’ve gone all year without going to the hospital (well, I did, but it was on a day off so I don’t count it), and then Steve wrecked it.

Bummer.  It’s not even that big, but it went deep.  He caught a random stick on a flat part of the trail at the very beginning, and it wedged one end into the ground and the other end into his shin.  The worst luck.

Oh well, we were close enough to the top that we were able to send him back with Barb and bundle him off to the hospital.  See?  There’s Steve…way down there.

We miss you Steve.

Not really.  TKO keeps you damn busy.  Not much time to think about other people.  You’re busy enough dodging gnarly boulders and such.

Jason on one of the steepest lines in the whole valley. Nice riding.  That part is tricky.

Dude…

Wanna see a gross close up of the wound?

Click here…

Well, that was another really fun trip.  Hope to see these kids again.

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.