penticton

Achtung, Baby

Posted on by Smoke

So I just got back from the Okanagan. Condolences go out to the Kelowna riders. However, the trails you see below are still OK for now, and they are within driving distance. Talk to Kurt at Freedom for directions and local beta.

Here’s Ralf eyeing up the skinnies on 7 Up at Arawana.

Leandro really started to find his rhythm here. This is not a very big drop, but the landing is tuff.

This, on the other hand, is pretty big. Over ten feet with a super short tranny. MOnsters make this really cool KLACK noise when you hit.

Barb REALLY stepped it up a notch. This is the Bud Height Air, me, and a Newfie.

Here’s the lame blurry shot of Barb actually doing it.

Here’s the NASA engineered computer simulation from another angle.

I know, it’s not proof, but that Konica camera really sucked ass. I missed pretty much every shot I tried with it. Excuses, excuses……

I did feel inadequate at this point and tried for some redemption. It IS kinda skinny and it seems a lot higher in real life.

…and this one is sorta tricky, too.

I know, I’m a wuss. I’m thinking of everyone else’s safety, ya dig?

Check out my sunglasses line. It was a little dusty (that’s a 300 foot drop right behind Thorsten).

Mmmmmmm. Fresh fruit.

Ewwww. Rotten lycra.

As you can see, another crappy day in the Okanagan. I think we sat there for a while and drank beer.

Wouldn’t you?

Interior Freeride

Posted on by Smoke

OK,so I’ve been ignoring my updates for a while.

After the Cypress ride we got cleaned up, loaded our gear, picked up the Germans from the airport, and went to Penticton.

Some of these shots are a little sad because currently the area is on fire and some of these trails may disappear.

That’s still in the future at this point.

Here’s what we woke up to in Summerland.

Everyone was a little worn out by all the travel, so we had a bit of a slow start. The sun was well up by the time we hit Penticton.

When we were getting ready, we met a couple of young punks from Nelson getting dropped in the woods by their Mom. Feeling that I owe a debt to anyone from the Kootenays just for being from there, I offered to bring them the good way through.

Kevin and Geoff showed early that the Kootenay kids get the job done.

They made up for riding good by proceeding to blow every tube we had. Well, maybe I got a couple too.

Back to more stellar Peat Bog trail.

The thing about the Okanagan rides is the sheer size. Here we are approaching the end of the third hour of the FIRST run of the day.

If the trail seems easy, remember that you keep getting distracted by all the killer scenery.

On our second lap we did a little exploring and found this cool little sand drop. You buried your wheels up to the axles on impact, but it was prett cool.

It’s the end of the day which always makes it for me.

Oh….so THAT’S why they call me “meat.”

Dinner. Ever notice the correlation of off center pictures and empty beer bottles on the table?

…and finally, this is how you look at the end of a day with the Bush Pilot. So tired even Harry Potter can’t keep your eyes open.

Next update I will have some pics of the Arawana trails plus some news about whether they have survived the fires.

Mountain Biking with the Bush Pilot

Posted on by Smoke

Day 2 of the Florida Crew was Arawana.

A bit of a slower start today. Big breakfast and a 10:00 rollout. We drove out the other side of the lake to Naramata to hit the Arawana trails.

Ho hum, lots of skinnies and lots of air. It’s killer.

Here’s Donny about to turtle the landing. I still can’t figure out how he landed on his head from here.

This is the ramp that you see from the landing of Donny’s bail.

…and here’s Demolition Dave rippin’ the steeps on the lower sections.

These are a couple of shots from last year, but what the hell.

Barb hucking it out.

Me and Barb ripping some of the epic singletrack of the Okanagan.

For lap two we did the second half of the trail while Gary and Donny took a break on the beach. On the way back down we ran into Chuck at FreeRideTours. Pretty funny to see all those extended vans on that road.

Anyway, beers on the beach and steaks on the bar-b-que. Killer day once again.