A great start to a tour. Sun Peaks in the rain. Oh, and bears…
As it turns out, Mrs. Marmalade (I think we can call her Yvonne for short) is just fine at riding bikes. Especially twisty steep stuff in the wet. Which is lucky as that’s what Sun Peaks has a lot of.
Oh, and she also likes riding slippery wood and the occasional double entendre. I sense a loooooong trip ahead.
Gratuitous Freeride Godfather shot.
Yes, he really does eat those things for breakfast.
Hey Hylands! Get a helmet on that kid! I can’t believe how rad Kainoa is on a runbike and he’s not even 2 yet. I’m jealous.
OK, back to rad girlies on mountain bikes. I took Sarah, Nicole, and Tippie (he’s sorta girly…) down some of the classic Naramata All Mtn. lines this morning. Sarah needed to reset on some mellower terrain after yesterday’s scorpion, and this is the place.
This rock face is about the gnarliest thing on the trail, and it was perfect for getting that monkey off her back. Although I did have to turn the camera off for it.
Brett-gnar dropping to flat.
Sarah and Nicole again. Nicole had a brand spanking new Trek for this ride, and she giggled the whole way down.
Sweet views. The landscape is nice too.
Last drop on Jack and Jill. The pic doesn’t show much, but this is a totally rad line. Steep, then steeper, then gap, then berm. You’ll just have to come out yourself sometime to see it.
Whoa! I look good in orange.
Brett would have too, but he went with green today.
The girls ripping the gully walls.
Oh no, we have to pedal 7 kms on the KVR, and there’s rain coming.
The view from the RaceFace cockpit as we drop into the final part of the ride.
Round two and we met up with Andrew, Brant, Sheila, and some more Kelowna locals for a Beer Run in the rain. Sarah just needed some wet weather to get her back on track (reminded her of home I guess), because we all had a SICK lap. The wood was ultra slick, and there were some sketchy sideways moments. Especially when we got kicked off the cannon fade away jump and got the sick unintentional whips laid out.
Here’s Sheila dropping in to Ivy League.
Ooooh…a good one of Brett, Tipping into a turn.
The crew…
The view…
And a few… Rocky Mtns. that is.
Good fun with the families. We’ll be doing this again soon.
Finally…a new quiver. It took a while, but it’s been worth the wait. I’m back on Rocky Mtn. Bikes, and it looks like there’s been big changes since last time I was on their gear. I guess that’s what a couple of years of hitting World Cup podiums gets you.
Besides that awesome Flatline WC, I also get to use this Altitude for the pedally bits. So far, so good (although I’d really like a chance to try out that new Slayer soon).
Here’s another look at the Flatline. I did a custom build on it, with all kinds of sweet goodies courtesy of Chromag. Also I raided Wade’s Shimano stash, and Kurt at Freedom Bike Shop helped out a ton with gathering up all the shiny bits. Probably will do up some kind of review a bit later, but the first rides are in and they’re both great bikes.
