Shock Monkey Okanagan – Day 3

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.

Shock Monkey Okanagan – Day 1

Hope that drive didn’t tire you out.  We’ve got some scary stuff on tap for today.

Clearly the “Sunny” Okanagan is gong to be a lot like the “Sunshine” Coast.

Well, we really do need the rain, and it does make the trails pretty sweet, but I could really do with some hot and sunny days.

Maybe Simon is a Rain God or something.

Anyway, we had a nice inspection run on Builders to get the Monkeys up to speed.  As usual, Karen was dominating, but quietly.

For example, look at these next 3 shots.  Which one is Karen?

Yeah, sending it on the high side.  That’s our girl. 

And here’s Gen, our other girl, on the big rolldown.

Classic shot of the boys sleeping while the girls are rarin’ for another round.

The wood luckily dried up for the afternoon laps on 2.5, so we could charge the wooden berms.

Well, I think I managed to scare them a little bit, but we’ll see how they do when we come back to these trails in a week.

Shock Monkey SSC – Day 4

Rain delay, please stand by.

At least the Gumboot has lots of coffee.  After trying to wait it out, we gave in and went out to get really, really wet.

As I like to say, I don’t mind being wet, I just don’t like getting wet.  However, it made for some interesting conditions for taking pics.

Some pretty sweet effects with the fill flash and long exposures. 

Plus I got to see a bunch of trails I wouldn’t normally ride.

Nice elbows.

This is a line called Up & Over.  Nice old school BC style.

After lunch we went out and pounded some more DH laps. 

Well, at least it’s authentic BC weather.  The Monkeys are getting the full experience.  June-yu-ary style.