Will is also not afraid to pedal up, so we went for a spin up McDougall today.
Hey, what can I tell you? It’s epic. A couple of hours up, a half-hour traverse, and an hour down. Su-wheeeeeeet!
Even an action shot for ya. Honestly, it’s too much trouble to pull out the camera and ruin the flow on a ride like this. Besides, we had our own little private showing of NWD8 last night, and after watching Fabien Barel destroy some Euro singletrack, we were ablsolutely flying today.
Oh wow. Another local ride to add to the inventory. XC riding….weird. I must be getting older or something. What do you think, Barb?
Right. well, the Smith Creek “Gruel” isn’t exactly an inviting name for a ride, but as we found out it’s not really all that grueling. I guess if you tried to mid-ring it all the way up it would be a bit tougher, but overall it’s pretty mellow.
A few views, and 8 km of buff Okanagan singletrack carry you up to the top in about an hour to an hour and a half.
There’s a few short technical sections to push your anaerobic threshold, but mostly its just a spin.
Oh, and the occasional “obstacle” in your way.
Harley finally moved outta the way.
The top has a decent view, and there’s some old decrepit log rides to fall off.
Once again, Harley got outta the way in time.
The descent is fast, open, scenic, and is puntuated by little jumps every few hundred feet.
Oh, and there’s even a few rockfaces to play with.
Throw in a handful of big gaps (20-30 footers) here and there in the woods and you’ve got yet another reason to come up and visit.
And now..the continuing story of a boy and his mug…and his pink hoodie…..and matching Crocs…..and bike with steering wheel and knuckle duster….
Make up your own caption if you think you can do better. Anyway, Derek and I went out to Revelstoke to check out another BC epic, the Keystone Standard Basin. As an added bonus, we’ve managed to abscond with the now famous Mug, whose adventures are being chronicled HERE.
The Keystone is an out and back ride in the alpine near Revy. As you can see, the scenery is pure rubbish and the Mug is a better climber than Derek.
Note also the first snowfall of the season out there. Could this be a sign of things to come this winter (as of today, Oct. 4th, it sure seems to be. freshies galore all over BC)?
Overall, probably the best XC singletrack since the Chilcotin stuff I did last year.
You gotta look close in these next two to see Derek in there, struggling through the scree piles.
Unfortunately, the skies clouded over for the morning, but we still had great visibility in the epic landscape up here.
Looking back, we could see another crew of riders out for a lap today.
Once we got out to the cabin that was our destination, the skies cleared and we got some bonus blue skies at lunch.
A random local meets Mug.
Can’t leave the cabin without a couple of staged shots of Derek riding by the lake.
“This sucks…”
“Totally…”
About halfway back, we ran across a whole stack of locals taking in the views.
Which makes for a good spot for a panorama. Click it to blow ‘er up.
Even more locs showed up as we enjoyed the views.
Mug, Karen…..Karen, Mug. Karen is in charge of season pass sales at the new Revelstoke Mtn Resort. Good person to know.
Look a little closer at this next one. Care to guess how far the drop is off the edge of the trail there? I’d say at least 500′, maybe more.
Looking back towards the end of the ride. Still a goodly distance to go…
“No Snowmobiling” Get the impression that there’s a bit of snow up here in the winter?
Derek enjoys a refreshing dip. Mug says, “Screw that.”
Instead, Mug relaxes by menacing this paraglider.
For you geography geeks out there, I’ve been playing around with Google Maps and have this adventure plotted out :