Roughies – Day 2

Posted on August 4, 2009 by Smoke

OK, that’s enough XC for this crew. The heat finally broke last night (it was close to 40C on yesterday’s last run), so we slept in a bit and hit up Powers Creek today.

It was a good day to step it up a level. Jeff is new to the FR world, and there’s fewer places better than Builders Only to get your gap on. He was a bit intimidated at first, but moves like this one really help you to get over that fear. It’s so fun, how can you resist?

Besides, it sets you up to nail moves like this later.

Gary had no problems with any of it.

Which just made Jeff all the more stoked.

For some later laps, our buddy Steven latched on. He just moved to Kamloops to raise a family, and was down for a short visit. We’re getting the baby invasion again for a day or two.

It’s always good when the crew get’s larger out there. I think maybe it helped Patty get this one down. That’s her first gap jump, and it was good.

A full 5 laps today. That’s right….5. Another 10000 foot day in the life.

Merritt

Posted on July 18, 2009August 1, 2009 by Smoke

Whose favourite colour is red, hmmmm?

Sven and Dorothy called us up last minute to go for a rip in Merritt. We haven’t ridden there in a long time, and it’s only an hour away so we went for it. Merritt has always been a little disappointing to me for riding. It has lots of potential, but with a small community it seems to be under utilized and the trails were always a bit…off.

But it’s been a while, so with an open mind we went up Iron Mtn. for some shuttles with the gang.

Nice looking bike. I like yellow.

Custom route finding. I’m all about the path less traveled.

Well, the north side at least is much better than 5 years ago. It’s had a few years to work the line in, and the section through the canyon at the bottom is much improved. Although some of the options we explored were pretty grown over. Our photographer pal, Dan Barham, managed to scratch part of his eyeball (“Just yell when you’re in focus!”), but he turned out to be fine in the long run.

I also had a spastic phone in the canyon. I couldn’t get reception though. Something about a fire. Meh, I’ve got insurance.

For dessert, Brian, Sven, and myself went to hit Hornet, which is still possibly the best trail up there.

Jeez buddy, what’s with the high beams? You happy to see me or something?

It’s a bit more tech, but a lot less travelled and more scenic.

On the drive home, the phone call about the fire became a bit clearer. A blaze fired up in our old neighborhood in the afternoon, prompting widespread evacuations, power outages, highway closures, and general mayhem all round.