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.

Just so you know, we’re fine, the trails are fine, and only 3 houses were lost.  Here’s some pics courtesy of a local website.  It was quite dramatic…

In this one, you can see how close it came.  About 6 blocks.  Our old place is just off the lower right edge of the pic.

Tons more pics of the fires at http://gallery.castanet.net/albums/WestsideFires/.