Corn Stars – Day 2

How’s this for a surprise on your bike tour? Today we went up to Kamloops to help out with the KBRA trail day on Harper Mtn. A full day of building with a barbeque dinner and campout was in order.

We got there late morning and headed up to the Bridge to Nowhere to fix up some old woodwork that was getting wort of beat.

Most of the big projects were taken, but we recycled some old stuf into an improved a-frame over a stump.

It was quite the all ages gig, and I was surprised to see so many faces I didn’t know and almost none that I did.

Lots of quality work got done.

This place is so popular, the stunts were getting hit efore they were even finished (it was OK, we told them to hit it).

Proud builders watching the first rider over their work.

With a short time left before the end of the day, we built one more jump. It’s got a total crap landing, but hey…youcan take the guy outta the Shore, but you can’t—you know what I mean.

Time to hit the new and improved.

The fun part of this for me is that Barb and I built a lot of the original lines way back in ’99. They’ve been greatly improved since then, but we still feel sort of like parents on this stuff.

Here’s the spiral ramp. It was getting ready to collapse, so it got a full overhaul.

Good lookin’ out with the chainsaw. I think this was part of the KBC crew working on this one.

The flowers are going off at this time of year. I’ve never ridden here when it’s blooming.

..and blooming it was.

A slight damper was put on the BBQ as a light rain started to fall.

I have a hard time calling 5 minutes of mist “rain,” but it was enough to send lots of people home for the night. We kept warm by burning some old stunts.

By the end of the night the Kamloops locals were in the minority, with a couple of Swiss kids, a pair of ‘Mericans, and some joker from Westbank outnumbering the 3 hardy Kamloopsians that stayed put.

Corn Stars

What the hell kind of title is “Corn Stars,” anyway? Well, these happy kids are more of the HickHuckster variety, being from North Carolina and all, but Gary had these cool socks with a little corn husk and stars on ’em, so there you go.

Natasha (or Stash, as she gets called) is just so damn cute that I can’t think of anything to nickname her anyway.

After flying to Spokane, Gary and Stash drove up to be the first folks to experience the new Bush Pilot HQ. We got this party started right with a lap on Builders Only.

Nothing like jumping into it with both feet, eh?

Once the intimidation factor started to wear off, the kids got some flow going.

Blue skies and warm temps didn’t hurt there.

Plus, with the pair of them being in the National Guard back home, it was easy to give ’em orders. “Soldier! Send it!”

“Yessir! Sending it, sir!”

St. George’s KVR Trip – Day 2

Well, we arrived late, so we figured a little sleep in might be in order. Besides, the other group had a huge day today so I had given orders for them to get going early.

By 10:30 I was starting to get a little worried though, even though the guys in our crew said they had some definite slackers in the other crew. The lack of communications and our reliance on the one vehicle between the 2 groups really became apparent here.

Luckily, Andrew showed up with the U-Haul (this is our 3rd one, for those of you keeping track) shortly after 11. Unluckily, he immediately sank it in a ditch. Those trucks are low, and for a guy who normally drives a compact, it’s not a surprise.

No amount of young gun effort wass going to shift a 3 ton cube, so I high tailed it for town while Martin and Monica (one of the Saint’s teachers along for the trip. She’s a gas, more about her later). I took the extra time to hop a lift up to Westbank to grab my truck so we could dispense with the 2 vehicle program.

Here’s an ad for ya. That’s Okanagan Towing if you ever need un-stucking. Even gave us a deal.

Meanwhile…back on the trail….


Conor Lees photo.

A boring section for the first day, and it’s soft and sandy too. Plus, no one (not even the guides) had done it before. Sort of like my first year doing this trip…

Ask Martin. He’ll tell you it was like eatin’ weiners.

At least our camp was a lot nicer this time.


Conor Lees photo.