Birthday 2009. It has become an annual event going on four or five years now. My uncle's birthday is two day before mine so we end up having a joint celebration. This years ride consisted of my dad, my uncle Jim and cousin Jesse out from Nelson, and my cousin Jordan who bussed it out from Kamloops.
The group L to R: myself, Jesse, Jim, Dad, JordanO.
The weather on Saturday was perfect, super sunny. We all met up at the Woodlot parking lot and set out up the mountain. Jesse, Jim and Jordan decided to hike Shotgun from the parking lot and see if they could beat my dad and I, hiking up the main trail, to the main road. Well, they won, by a small margin. I'm still not convinced that I would rather hike up Shotgun.
The ride started off a little chilly, but the air was steadily warming as we made our way up the mountain. There was a little bit of snow on the road from the bottom of Crazy Carpenter up. Once we got to the power lines there was several feet of snow! At one point I actually fell through snow well up past my knee! Crazy Carpenter had quite a lot more snow than I had expected and was probably not the best trail to have ridden since there was about four inches of mushy snow covering the trail. Still fun none the less.
The Jesster with his glowing green pants ready to drop in to Blood Donor.
We cut out of Crazy Carpenter and trudged our way up a wet and snowy connector trail to the top of Blood Donor. There was still some snow on the top of Blood Donor which made the berms great for drifting. I managed to slide around a corner and fall and continue sliding for another 10 feet. The rest of the trail was clear and we managed to rip our way down and along the log/ ladder bridge sections and stop for a some photo opportunities on a small gap jump. Finally we ended up out on the Stovetop connector where I successfully landed the jump at the end of the trail this time.
Jesse cruisin one of the log rides on Giant Killer.
At this point Jordan and Jim decided to take B-Line, and Jesse and my dad and I continued on with Giant Killer. My dad ripped on ahead, while Jesse and I took our time to school the log ride sections before riding up the ladder bridges and over the elevated teeter totter. The two of flowed the last section of the trail. I wussed out of launching the seven footer near the end and Jesse and I detoured around and ripped down to the main road.
Uncle Jim finding the perfect line down the rockface on Hoots.
The sun was out in full force now and it was time to weave our way through the clear cut into Hoots. I pummelled the roots and rocks on my way down with Jordan close behind me. We conviened where the trail enters the forest and it was time to play on the jumps and natural obstacles. First up: the big ol rockface. After Jordan and I nailed a sweet line down the rock we in turn coached the others as I snapped the pictures. My dad who initially walked down, climbed back up and then blasted right down the middle of the face. That's a way of redeeming yourself. Jesse then managed to crawl his way down despite his less-than-excellent braking power. And the last man down the rock was my uncle Jim who managed to find the smoothest line down up and over some roots along the right side of the rockface! We than took some time to get some air on the next few jumps and snap some pictures.
Jordan in my grandpa's blue coveralls getting some air on my wife's Kona Stinky Deelux. Unfortunately my camera was not setup to capture a crisp action shot.
My dad getting airborn on Hoots.
The birthday ride of 2009 ended with us racing down Shotgun and hitting the newly rebuffed jump. We exited the forest out into the parking lot and went our separate ways before meeting up that evening for a piece of birthday cake.
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