Farah and Oli – Day 2

We had a traditional “camp out” at Rancho Relaxo last night. Truly the lap of luxury…

It’s IS a nice room, very high ceilings.

As we stayed in the South Okanagan, we went out to Naramata today. Gary and Stash came along too. There’s Stash, killing it as usual.

The first lap on the Beer Run went as usual. We had a good time sessioning some fun jumps, but mostly just shredded the singletrack to the beach so we could get a swim in.

Where we met up with “Vance Armstrong”, local trailbuilding hero and all around good guy.

Vance took us to his latest creation, “Drops-A-Lot”.

Guess why he calls it that?

It’s basically a crazy flowy line with a ton of 4 – 6 foot drops and gaps.

Here’s the master at work. Note the XC bike, the clipless pedals, and the lack of padding. Yes, this is Canadian XC.

Stash takes a different approach. She IS on a new bike though.

Farah found a different line….

Some parts of this trail aren’t even singletrack. Noughtrack?

There, back to singletrack.

Near the end of the trail there’s a bit of a tech feature with a really steep roll into…

…a bit of a sender.

I think Oli had a good ride.

..and it looks like Farah did too.

So lets do a spot of wine tasting, shall we?

As has become the norm, we took our purchases down to the “tasting room.”

Excellent seating in the tasting room.

Plus, the locals have awesome uniforms. Not sure about that arm deformity though.

We retired to Salty’s for some nourishment and evening entertainment.

Does this rate as a good day?

Farah and Oli – Day 1

Gotta start the new kids off with–uhhhh, kid gloves. So it’s off to The Bog for a couple of shakedown laps.

Wait a sec….this is the easy stuff? There’s freekin’ DINOSAURS on the easy stuff?

Yeah, ain’t it the truth of the Moment.

The kids did good for the first day, but I think the scale sort of wigged ’em out a bit.

Yes, take a deep look into those cold steely eyes and what do you see?

…Bliss.

Which is a good stoke for anyone.

We’ve been charging pretty hard with the last couple of crews, so you might not realize just how much trail we’re hitting in a day. The Bog is almost 4000′ vert. per lap if you run them all the way to the lake. It’s something like 22km. Even if you’re just looping the upper section, it’s 7 or 8 km and a good 1500′ vert per lap.

We pinned an upper lap and ran into a couple of mechanicals, so we had to do a quick turnaround to the valley.

There was plenty of stuff on that first lap to sesh though.

We even got Farah hitting up some small gaps.

After a leisurely lunch break, we checked out the Ellis Ridge trail.

My first lap of hte year on that one. A couple of trees down, but not too bad.

That’s the canyon I got the heli ride through last year. It’s the opener of the Best of 2007 vid.

Time for a portrait.

We did the full pull down the mountain, including railing the big sandpiles on the lower section.

All the way to the lake. Welcome to Canada.

Ruined – Day 3

Penticton and Arawan were on the agenda today. Willy and Shortround tagged along for the session yet again today.

One thing you can always count on up the Bog is some fairly radical skinny action.

We also did a little trail maintenance and cleaned out this oddball little rock line. It’s way harder than it looks.

So is this one.

Willy always has to steal a scene. It’s his way.

Jim getting his fill of skinny stuff.

A little cooling off session for lunch.

After lunch we went up to the Arawana stuff for a lap. A few skinnies, but mostly the “Dorp to Falt” kind of riding there.

Scott and Jim were feeling all kinds of love from the airs on this one.

Jim was even sending road gaps with some style. Broken finger? What broken finger?

Mongo dropping a skinny one shortly before the seperator.

…and he sent it. He also overshot it, smoked one of his nuts on his tire, and still walked away.


Photo: Wyld Willy (slighty engineered with Photoshop)

No worries. He only uses the right one anyway. Willy gave it a miss, but he nailed this funbox combo a few times to make up for it.

Poews! Where are you? Oh, didn’t see you there in that tall grass.

Soaker!

Hey there, blue eyes…

Not exactly a wildlife shot, I know. But check out the beach…

Brits, frenchies, and dogs.

Oh, and I caught this shot of the Ogopogo spouting.

Brad, either put on a shirt or give us all some shades. Yer as pasty as an Englishman.