Racin' Jason

Spring Cleanup (Mar. 22, 2009)

2009-03-23T21:28:00.001-07:00

It is another incredible sunny spring day and I had decided to get out on my new cross country bike and go for a ride up Menzie's trail in Golden Ears Park and do some trail clean up. This was winter has been one of the snowiest on record and fallen trees and snowy winter conditions had kep the park closed to vehicle traffic all winter long. A sudden wind storm hit our area just a couple days ago and I knew there be even more falen debris on the trail. This was also my first ride on my new xc bike and I was stoked to test it out.

Right off the bat thebike proved to be amazing. I was able to sprint up hills that I was barely able to slug my way up on my freeride bike. The light weight and especially light rolling weight made for a very quick and mostly painless climbing bike.

It didnt take long for me to encounter fallen trees on the trail. I manage to drag a couple fallen trees down into the bushes and off of the trail, but others I had to cut with my trusty collapsable saw. I only manage to get out 2.5 km because of the extensive debris. I will definitely have to get out and do some more. Here are some examples of the cleanup:

Before.

After.

Before.

After.

This is what the trail should look like, meandering through the forest with the sun filtering through the canopy.

Of course there is more to this adventure than just biking and pretending to be a lumber jack. I was approaching the lookout and it was a pretty technical ascent so I was looking forward to reaching the top and resting my lungs and have a drink of water and a rest while admiring the view of Allouette Lake. Instead of a view of the lake I got a view of a middle aged man completely butt naked! I suppose he heard me coming up the trail because he had been racing to pull on some pants and sweatshirt. So I simply stopped on the trail just outside of the clearing and had a drink of water before going out to the view point. I wanted to give him a minute to reclothe himself. Now as if being naked wasnt weird enough, he had a tall tripod set up with an slr camera mounted on it! I have no idea what this guy was doing and I didnt ask. I simply commented on the nice weather and he agreed that it was and then I left. You never know what you'll find out on the trail.

Birthday ride 2009. (Mar. 21, 2009)

2009-03-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

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.

New bike.

2009-03-17T21:16:00.001-07:00

"Bisosceles"

I didnt manage to get out riding this past weekend, but I was working for a friend, which scored me some extra cash to purchase an "new" xc bike. I was originally looking at a very intro mountain bike that would suffice for some on/off road riding but for an extra 50 bones I got a sweet xc rig. The bike bike just happened to be another Devinci. A 20" frame Devinci Cameleon, mint condition, plush little 80mm Manitou Splice Comp, Hayes hmx-1 mechanical discs, shimano disc hubs laced to Alex anti-snakebite rims and WTB Weirwolf 2.1" tires (super light wheel combo). Everything on this bike was new, including the tires. SRAM X7 shifters and derailers, shimano cranks, WTB SpeedV seat, Cane Creek headset. I took it for an afternoon rip around some neighbourhood trails, super fast. I can't wait to take this baby out on an epic trail ride, and finally make a serious attempt at the TCT. No more part swapping on my free-ride rig to make it xc-able!

Tsuga in the snow. (Mar. 8, 2009)

2009-03-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

Sunday I headed out for a spur of the moment ride with my dad at the Woodlot. I was nice and sunny out except for a big dark cloud that sat right on Blue mountain and the Woodlot. We hummed and hawed on our way out towards it. "Should we try Bear Mtn instead, or should we just risk the rain and push hard up the mountain and rip down." As we aproached the Woodlot we realised that it wasnt raining at all but snowing and snowing hard.

Old man in the snow storm near Quick Hit.

We pulled our bikes out of the Silverado and trudged up the mountain on fresh crunchy snow. It snowed on us the whole way up and yet the sun was bright and still managed to shine on us at the same time, very weird conditions. We made our way up to Tsuga, a trail I have never ridden in the snow before. With our armor and fullfaced helmets on we descended in tothe trail, tires coated in snow. There was enough snow to cover any possibly frosty rocks or roots and made for a soft and almost silent ride. Snow covered bridges were a trat to ride over. We opted not to attempt the challenging rockfaces that are sketchy enough when dry.

Myself on the snow covered road near Toad.

We blasted our way down the last stretch of Tsuga towards Snakes & Ladders. I love riding all the log rides and ladder bridges on this trail in the snow and this day was perfect with nearly three inches of fresh snow covering everything.

Who's that coming out from the trees? That's my dad at the end of Snakes&Ladders.

The two of us finished of our snow-biking with Shotgun and left our bike tracks in the snow all the way back to the parking lot. Of course the sun was shining and it wasnt snowing anymore, but I have proof that it was snowing that day despite how sunny some people claim it was.

Poco Bike Skills Park (Mar. 7, 2009)

2009-03-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

Friday night a light snow dusting came into town. Saturday awoke windy and sunny and the snow quickly melted away. And with that Cory, Jordank and myself were off to the Poco Bike Skills Park in Port Coquitlam. The park was designed and built by Jay Hoots, of Norco Bicycles and Hoots gear. The plan was to play around on the table top jumps, drops, ladder bridges, log rides, wall rides and other cool stuff, hone our skills and take some pictures.

Jordan practicing one of the ladder drops to a nice dirt transition landing. There were three drops that got succesfully higher.

Cory hitting the first of four table-tops in a row at speed. There were three sets of table-tops to jump. Each set was significantly larger than the next.

Me getting skinny with it. This was a really long log ride section that linked several logs together end to end. There were a couple other really good log rides to practice on that were interrupted by large boulders that you had to negotiate over to get on to the next log.

Cory "the cinematographer" had his sweet home built steady-cam setup to capture Jordan and I on some stunts. Cory also brought along his digital SLR for some sweet still shots.

After a couple wall ride attempts and a couple jumps on the big table tops we decided to pack it in for the day and just in time too. As soon as we left the park driveway onto Shaughnessy street the snow started coming down hard.

Woodlot Snow Ride 2009! (Feb. 28, 2009)

2009-02-28T23:26:00.000-08:00

It is bright and early Saturday morning and Jordan and I headed up to the Woodlot for a ride. It snowed Wednesday and many areas of the valey were hit with a few inches of snow. Maple Ridge really didn't get any snow so I figure there was no way that the snow we recieved th other day would have been enough to penetrate the trees. I was wrong. There was a good 5-6" of fresh snow on the trails. It was gonna a be a fun ride.

We hiked our way up the mounatin as far as the bottom of Crazy Carpenter were we stoppped for a snack and decided to suit up while we discussed what trails we were going to ride. We had decided against hiking up the power lines, so Carpenter was out, and we decided that the rock face on Tsuga wouldn't be wise covered in snow, so it was off to Blood Donor.

Jordan just before we drop in to Blood Donor.

With helmets and jackets on, to guard against the huge clumps of snow falling from the trees, we pushed our bikes up the trail to Blood Donor. There were four other riders on the trail taking turns hitting the 16' gap on the trail, I find that jump scary enough when it is dry out let alone coverd with snow so I opt out. The two of us carved and slid our way down the trail in the snow and rolled our way along the log rides and ladder bridges. I decided to hit the final jump at the end of Blood Donor only to get crooked in the air and come down on my ankle before crashing in the slush. Bad move, I tweaked my ankle pretty good, it hyrt to stand on let alone walk, but fortunately for me it didnt hurt while standing on my pedals, so we kept riding.

Jordan riding a log section on Blood Donor.

The next trail was Giant Killer. We continued our way down the is trail in the snow rding up and over ladder bridges and the occasional log ride. The long log ride section proved to be difficult while covered in snow so I bypassed most of since I didnt want to rist falling off and landing on my already bummed ankle. Live to ride another day.

Myself on a ladder bridge section of Giant Killer.

We popped out of Giant Killer onto the road and dropped back in to Hoots. The upper section thru the clear cut was nicely smoothed out thanks to the snow and didnt seem to hinder traction on the big nasty rockface. We then cruised the rest of the way down and over the last couple jumps and out onto the road again where we made a left and headed back up the hill to Shotgun. We met up with the same four riders as before and chased after them down the trail toward the parking lot. Other than my bunged up ankle, she was a sweet ride out in the snow. Just another winter ride at the Woodlot.

Back in the mountains. (Feb. 21 & 22, 2009)

2009-02-24T20:37:00.000-08:00

The power lines.

Well, its time to retire the cross country components and get ol Bicyclese ready for free-riding season. Swapping components back and forth from XC to FR is getting to hard to do, I will have to invest in a xc specific bike.

Dadman at the powerlines.

The plan was to get up to the Woodlot, finally up in the mountains and out of the lowlands. This will be my first ride in the mountains this year. Saturday, the plan is to meet up at the Woodlot parking lot with my dad and Doug for 10:30am. Unfortunately, mechanical problems kept me from riding until 1:00 pm. I decided to swap out my xc clipless pedals for my platform pedals. I discovered that one of my platform pedals had seized, after a quick disassembly and repacking with new grease the pedals were on. Next the 2.1" tires needed to be swapped out for my 2.5's. My front axle was really sticking to my 20mm hub, so I cleaned it up and lubed it, and then noticed that neither of my tire tubes were holding air. After a quick trip out to get a patch kit I patched to tubes and carfully put the tires back on and pumped them up. Just as I am about to put my front wheel on my front brake pads fall out. They had worn through all the pad material and part of the backing plates. I found a used pair of pads kicking around and shoved them in. Now to switch out the long seat post for my shorter telescoping post, after what seemed like forever looking for it I had replaced the post. Done! I flip bike over onto its wheels and realized I have no pressure in my front brake. Arrg! I ended up having to take my bike in to get a replacement bleeder valve because we couldnt bleed the air out. After hours of frustration we were at the trail and ready to go.

Doug at the powerlines.

The three of us chugged our way up the forest access road. The road and the trails were dry, thanks to more than a week without rain, the weather was perfect, no clouds and just cold enough to keep from sweating too much. The power lines however were another story. There was still a good four feet of snow that we had to walk on until we got to the trailhead. We gear up out in the snow and then we enter the forest ready to tackle Crazy Carpenter. The first section was still snowy until the first log ride, then it was nice and dry from then on down. We negotiated our way down Carpenter to Upper toadstool. We cruised our way down Toadstool over the bridges above the creeks. We pop out onto one of the access roads and we decide to ride Heckle and Jeckle, an extremely flowy trail. After bombing Heckle we ride up to Shotgun and race our way back to the parking lot.

My dad riding Toadstool.

Doug riding Toadstool.

Sunday I follow up an amazing Woodlot ride with another, this time with two other riding buddies: Cory and Jordan. I decide to take them on the same ride that I went on the previous day. It had rained a little bit over night but it wasnt enough to penetrate the trees so the trail conditions were still perfect. After making our way down Crazy Carpenter and Toadstool we decided to switch things up a bit and ride Hoots instead of Heckle and Jeckle. We cruised our way down Hoots and then made our way back up to Shotgun to round out the ride.

Myself at the powerlines.

Jordan at the powerlines.

Cory at the powerlines.

Trans Canada Trail (Feb. 15, 2009)

2009-02-24T20:14:00.000-08:00

It was a sunny day and just enough time to head out for a quick ride before I needed to be back to head out to a Canucks game. My plan was to grab the bike which was already in its cross country form and head out onto the Pitt Meadows/ Maple Ridge portion of the Trans Canada Trail from the Pitt river bridge along the dykes all the way back to my home near Kanaka creek.

I started from my parents house in Pitt Meadows and headed east along the paved path parallel to the highway. I crossed the busy highway at the intersection at the bridge and made my way up to the gate at the dykes. I decided this would be a good picture opportunity of the Pitt river bridge construction at the 0km mark of the TCT section. Standing there on the side of the highway, my bike leaning against a sign post, putting away my camera as the cars are whizzing by I am startled by a loud and sudden BANG! A couple walking past me with their dog are staring at me, I ask them "what was that bang? did you see what that was?", but they just keep staring at me as they walk away. I am thinking did someone just throw a firecracker out their car window at me? Another couple is walking over the bridge toward me, and I ask them the same thing. They don't answer. They just look at me puzzled. I ask them again, frustrated by people outright ignoring me. Finally the man answeres as they get closer. "I think your tire blew up. I look down and sure enough my tire sidewall had exploded for no apparent reason. Lucky for me I was not riding it at the time.

Fortunately I had come prepared for any mechanical failure. I really did not feel like walking for five and a half kilometers back to my parents so out came the tools. I removed the old tube and used my Leatherman to cut out a section of the old tube to use a reinforcing material where the sidewall had blown out. I wrapped the new tube with the piece of old tube and then used zap straps (zip ties) around the tire and rim to prevent the tear from bulging out. Voila, some trailside McGyvering and I was on my way back home , at a careful speed, in time to get changed and head out to the 'Nucks game.

Hayward Lake with Manda (Feb. 7, 2009)

2009-02-10T20:22:00.000-08:00

Yay! My little wife Amanda finally had a Saturday that she did not need to spend on homework and she asked if she could come biking with me. "Of course" I said. So we geared up and prepped the bikes for another trip around Hayward Lake. Each time I ride around Hayward there is less and less snow, which has made trip times faster each time. However, although I have been routinely gettting out for a ride, Amanda unfortunately hadnt been riding since a trip down CBC trail on Seymour last spring and was feeling a little rusty.

Amanda riding the now rideable snowy stretch on the west side of Hayward Lake.

The plan of course was to complete the 17.5km course by no later than 3:30 pm. A late start and a casual bike ride pace meant that we would have to alter the game plan, so we decided to ride the 7.5km to the Stave dam and have our lunch and then ride back the same way for a total of 15km (still not a bad ride just to get some fresh air). The weather was nice when we were standing in the sun, but the wind was really chilly once we were riding (sorry Manda).

Amanda riding down the switch backs from one of the steeper sections on our way back to the parking lot.

Although the distance we rode was relatively short, we managed to pack in some scenic bridges to ride across and some fun forested sections amidst some monster douglas firs, and the melting trail conditions left a whole lot of mud splattered over us (a true sign of a great ride).

This is a poorly taken picture of a Peregrine falcon we saw perched near the trail side.

As I said earlier the wind was quite cold so the best way for us to keep warm was to keep up the pace and this is what we did for the last 4.5km back to parking lot. We were also trying to ride the last section fast because we came across a couple who had an ailing german shepherd and we were hoping that if we came across a BC Hydro worker that we could get them to drive down the trail and help the people get their dog back to the parking lot. Unfortunately we didn't come across anyone, I hope they got the old hound out ok.

15 chilly kilometers down and a warm car sure felt nice. Unfortunately next weekend is Valentine's day and I would be unwise to take off riding so I may have to delay my adventures for another week.

Bicyclese Mark II (part I)

2009-02-01T13:41:00.000-08:00

This is a history of my bike Bicyclese Mark II, predecesor of Bicyclese Mark I, and how he came to be what he is.

Bicyclese started out as a 2000 large (19.5") Devinci Magma. The frame includes 6" of suspension travel by way of a four-bar linkage and an asymmetrical swingarm (for added front derailer clearance).

My frame did not remain intact for long. The first thing to go was the swingarm which eventually succombed to brake shear just forward of the reinforcing gusset, which was designed to prevent such an occurance. This design flaw led to a warranteed replacement swingarm which consisted of large aluminum plate on the brake side to replace the insignificant stock gusset.

The next thing to succomb to failure was the upper shock bolt. Again, another design flaw: the shear plane between the shoulder and the threads of the shock bolt was coincident with the rocker arm/ shock reducer shear plane, which meant constantly shearing shock bolts. The cure: longer shoulder on the bolt and drilled out threads so that the bolt shoulder is now slightly inset in the rocker arm.

Numerous harsh landings led to another sheared swingarm which also took out the seatstays. Bicyclese now sports another new swingarm and a set of used seat stays. Bicyclese Mark I was beheaded at Whistler where I sheared the top tube, on a step down jump. A crash replacement front triangle is what you see now with a huge wrap-around gusset at the head tube junction. The previous frame had no gusseting here whatsoever.

The frame originally came equipped with a Rock Shox Deluxe shock with a rebound damping knob and a 500 Lb spring. This did not cut the mustard, the spring was way too soft and I couldn't even pedal. I swapped out the 500 Lb spring for a 750 Lb Eibach spring. I ended up buying this vintage Fox Vanilla RX (that's pre Vanilla RC) which came off of a Rocky Mountain DH Race. The shock was the perfect touch with rebound adjustment and compression adjustment via a shock pump. Pretty sweet for 30$ and still performing after all these years! Look at that pretty blue anodizing.

I actually cracked the top part of the stock headset. My motto early on was to replace any damaged part with the strongestand or most reliable part I could get (within reason). Here is my FSA PIG DH headset with servicable ball bearings. I have never had a problem with this headset yet.

One of the few stock parts left on the bike. This is a Titec Knucklehead stem which has a lifetime warranty (no wonder I still have it). I switched to a FUNN Hedhuncho adjustable stem for a while to raise the cockpit into a more comfortable position. A taller fork and the fact that the FUNN four-piece stem was heavy left me to switch back to my faithful Titec.

Hayward Lake Loop (Jan. 31, 2009)

2009-02-01T12:00:00.001-08:00

Today I decided to ride the Hayward Lake loop again and continue on with my photo every kilometer idea seeing as how my camera died last time. This time however my plan was to complete the loop in less than three hours. Hopefully the ice has melted from the trail and I can actually ride the entire trail.

I parked at the same parking lot as last time, on the west side of the Ruskin Dam and headed out on my bicycling mission. There was a lot less snow this time around thanks to the week of warmer weather (five degrees) and rain, which had also left the trail very wet. There was still one section of trail, approximately a kilometer and a half, that was still snow-covered, and unfortunately the warmer weather had left this section now slushy and unrideable. After trudging through the slush I got back onto solid ground and was pedaling on with much more speed than last week thanks to the lack of ice that had coated almost the entire forested portion of the trail, (which was the majority of the loop).

13 km: There were still some snowy sections but they were now crunchier and not icy and I was actually able to climb some steep grades on the snow.

This was my view to the right at km 13. Tree graveyard with its tombstones sticking out of the ice.

14 km: A neat section of bridges at one of the many creek crossings along the way.

15 km: A nice gradual incline and no more snow.

16 km: Yet another bridge and yet another creek crossing. I can't wait until all the snow is gone and I can cruise the entire trail with more speed.

This is actually at 16.5km mark and it really needed a picture. This is a secluded bay on the lake which as you can see doesn't get much sun and is still frozen.

17.5 km here we are, a full circle right back to the Ruskin Dam. It felt nice to stand in the sunshine here.

The end.

Hayward Lake Loop (Jan. 24, 2009)

2009-01-26T20:08:00.000-08:00

I decided to tryout the Hayward Lake trail once again, hopefully without any difficulties from snow. I have never ridden around Hayward Lake before, which is around 17 km round trip. My plan was to start at the Railroad trail parking lot on the west side of the Ruskin Dam at around 10:30am and make my way around the lake. Unfortunately Friday night I discovered that I had a blown seal on my rear brake caliper and it had spewed fluid all over my rotor and brake pads. Of course none of the bike shops in Maple Ridge were open until 10am so my plan for an early start was shot. By the time I had replaced the seal and re-bled my brake it was noon.

Just like last week I had to be somewhere for dinner that night which meant I had to keep a solid pace. I had just bought a Schwinn bicycle computer from Canadian tire for 25 bucks, it is a pretty decent one too for the money, so now I can keep track of my progress. I gave myself three hours to complete the 17km of trail, I figured I could handle an average speed of 6 km/h. At this pace I decided I would stop every kilometer and take a picture of my ride instead of writing about it. So here goes.

1km: The remains of the old railway bridge sticking out of the frozen lake. My computer also has a thermometer which read a balmy 0'C.

2km: following a packed down path on the snowy trail takes some serious concentration.

3km: A nice view of the lake with the odd dead tree protruding. You can see frost covering the trees on the other side of the lake.

4km: Some more of the old railway.

5km: No more path to follow, but luckily the snow here is extremely crusty and actually holds the weight of me and Bicyclese. This was actually a lot faster riding on top of the snow than following someone's footstep.

6km: I got under the shelter of the trees here but unfortunately the path was now covered with patches of ice.

7km: The bridge crossing the river between the Stave dam and Hayward Lake.

8km: A view of Stave Lake from the Stave dam.

I had to throw in this pic because I am probly 60-70 feet above the ground riding on this grate material. My wife would hate this part.

9km: A little bit of drainage work.

10km: A nice bridge over a creek, infortunately there were many areas of this side of the dam that I could not ride due to the ice, but I manage to negotiate most of it.

11km: Another nice bridge, it would appear that I was exhaling during this picture.

12km: this would be my last shot before my camera batteries died.

I managed crank out the last five and a half km back to my warm awaiting car where Amanda was waiting to pick me up. The computer, and rear brake worked flawlessly and besides the ice it was a great ride. I am looking forward to trying this again with less snow and ice and hopefully get some pics of the waterfalls and the floating bridge that crosses a section of the lake.

Trans Canada Trail take one. (Jan. 18, 2009)

2009-01-22T20:30:00.000-08:00

Canada Place: the TCT starting point.

Well I finally made my first attempt at riding the Trans Canand Trail (TCT). I figured since the snow was still plentiful on the mountains that I would give the tct a try since the weather was so beautiful.

The floatplanes.

My plan was to swap out my big freeride tires for a couple 2.1" xc tires. Prepping ol Bicyclese for this adventure was more complicated than I thought it would be. I decided to remove my dirty bike wheels from my bike and bring them into the house to thaw out to ease the tire swapping procedure. I litterally took the blow-dryer to my wheels to soften up the rubber in order to get the tires off. Once I had taken the big meats off the rims I put the 2.1" WTB Velociraptor and Tioga Psycho on and pumped them up to 40 psi thanks to the air compressor at the nearest gas station (the deep Mag30 rims make using a hand pump very awkward). Now with the wheels remounted, it was now time to bring the bike inside the house for some more power thawing. My rear derailer pulleys and my front derailer were frozen solid from one of my previous night rides.

A lighthouse at Stanley Park.

Bicyclese is all tuned up, I am all geared up and pedaling my way to the Port Haney train station to catch the West Coast Express bus to Waterfront station downtown. The bus arrived and didnt have a bike rack so I had to stow it away in the luggage hold underneath the bus. My bike route was to follow the sea wall around Stanley Park, into Granville Island, past Science World and along back roads and paved pathways through Vancouver until I meet up with the Burnaby section of the TCT. The Burnaby section would consist of trails on Burnaby Mountain and paved pathway through Port Moody until Coquitlam. Coquitlam would consist of trails through many parks, including Coquitlam River park and Minnekhada and the dikes along Pitt river. The last leg of the journey would include a long looping jaunt along the dikes in Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge before cutting through parks along pathways making it's way toward Kanaka Creek and the Albion Ferry terminal. I would finish my ride by cutting off just before Kanaka and pedaling up the hill to my home. A projected 79km trip overall.

Lions Gate bridge peeking above the fog.

After a lengthy bus ride I arrived at Waterfront close to 12pm. The air was cold but the sun was bright and off I pedaled towards the seawall. I began by zigging around some people who were filming for something, at this time I saw my first TCT sign and followed some people around a construction detour and down three long sets of stairs and out onto the seawall by the float planes, which were firing up. Soon I ended up in the fog and the cruz ships were blaring their fog horn "OOOH CAAA-NA-DAAAAAAAAA!" I was crusin along trying keep a solid pace. I was giving my self 5 hours to get home in time to meet up with Amanda at my parents for dinner, which meant that I need to keep up a pace of atleast 16km/h. Eventually a construction on the seawall detoured my up a switch backed trail to the lookout of Lions Gate bridge, which was just peeking out above the fog.

Bicyclese and Science World.

I stopped for a sandwich and some water at the lookout as well as removing a tshirt since it was getting warmer. I put my long sleeve jersey and Goretex jacket back on and carried on, this time along the road through Stanley park before cutting off on a gravel path and blasting down the hill past other cyclists and those out walking their dogs. Cutting across the grass I plunked overe a little retaining wall and back onto the seawall. The view now was nothing but fog as I made my way along English Bay before ascending the pavement to the Burrard Streeet bridge. Crossing this bridge brought back memories of watching Chris Holmes riding his unicycle along the concrete sides of the bridge in the North Shore Extreme movies. The fog was now behind me and I was pedaling out under the sun onwards to Granville Island. I have been making pretty good time so far. I soon rode past Science World and was now riding through Chinatown. I ended up riding through quiet residential neighborhoods in central Vancouver.

Burnaby trail?

I had been pedaling for quite some time through the neighborhoods until I fanally got to actual dirt trail. " Alright, I'm now on the Burnaby section" I said to myself. I was soon climbing some good grades and then actually climbed up some really steep sections on crusty snow. This must be the big climb up Burnaby Mountain, I thought. Eventually I came out of the forest and onto East Hastings near Willingdon! I just finished the Vancouver section. The last section of trail was four inches of slushy snow and a real chore to even ride at all let alone at a pace of 16km/h. I rode up to the base of Burnaby Mountain and realised my lack of energy and time. This was not going to happen. I would be lucky to make it to Pitt Meadows by cutting out Burnaby Mtn and the entire dikes section in Poco and PM. I chose to take the Barnet Hwy and take the paved paths through Port Moody.

The crusty snow climb (traction wasnt bad)

Of course I forgot to realise the the north side of Burnaby Mtn hasnt seen sunlight in two months and it was literally freezing. I was only shorts, a thin jersey and a my gortex jacket. Luckily I brought my Goretex over-mitts which I wore over top of my full finger bike gloves. The salt from the road was splattering all over my face and sunglasses. My legs would have been burning from the effort I was exerting just to get through this long ugly stretch of highway, but the cold was numbing my legs and I didn't notice the burning. I ended up calling my wife from a pay phone in Port Moody to come and pick me up at a Burger King in Coquitlam near the late Black Dog Bikes. I waited for an hour at BK pounding back hot chocolate to try make my shivering stop. And there she was, my little knight in shining Pontiac, there to save me. I shoved my faithful steed into the back of the Vibe and we drove off into the east, in time for dinner with my parents.

BBBB (January 10, 2009)

2009-01-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

Since my last tour de Fraser valley posting I managed to sneak in a few short early winter rides up at the Woodlot before all the snow hit. Then came December. BAM! Four feet of snow, relentlessly falling for a week, mixed with a long stretch of sub-zero temperatures. The initial snowfalls wouldnt have been a problem, in fact it would have been ideal for some awsome snowbiking, however it was the roads which made getting to any mountains near impossible.

Cory finally coming to a rest after a long run through the slush.

Finally the snow stopped, and the rains came. This is where we begin the first bike adventure of the year. JordanK coined this particular ride the quad "b" or B.B.B.B. which stands for breakfast, beer, biking, beer. The day began with JordanK and I driving out to CoryS's place for breakfast and beer. After a lovely morning meal we loaded the Kantola Van up with bikes and headed out to the Railroad trail at near the Ruskin dam in Mission.

Jordan overlooking the snow-covered Hayward Lake.

It was raining out and the snow was still fairly deep and slushy. I have to say, the riding conditions were quite terrible. There was a packed down path in the middle of the trail that was very slick. The problem was staying on this slippery packed down part of the trail because if you started to slide to eaither side you would get stuck in the deep slush. After the first initially trying section we came to a nice viewpoint of the lake where the trail wasnt so snowy. We continued on along the trail cutting in and out of the forest and back out near the lake. After some time we decided it was best to start heading back before we had left ourselves with too long of a trudge and too little daylight. We decided that a wooden bridge along the shore of the lake under the shelter of a huge fir was as best a place as any for the last "b".

Mountain bike rockstars: Bicyclese Mark II, Bigfoot, & Hoss.

With brews uncapped, we had time to reflect on the awsome creations that we have the luxury to call our playground. Unfortunately the cold beers didnt make our cold wet carcasses any warmer so it was back to work grunting through the snow. Of course on our way back to the van it started to snow again. We made quick work getting back to van and firing up the heat. And thus ends the first adventure of 2009 and the first BBBB. I am looking forward to riding the full Hayward lake trail when the snow melts.

Tour de Fraser Valley Part VI (Nov. 16 & 23, 2008)

2008-11-26T21:11:00.000-08:00

The day after a lengthy ride out in Golden Ears Park I decided at the last minute to squeeze in an afternoon ride since the sun had been out all day and it was just too nice out to pass up. After a quick stop at a shop out in Coquitlam to pick up some inner tubes Jordan and I headed up to Burke Mountain in Port Coquitlam for the next leg of the bike tour.

The gravel road and surrounding parking area near the Burke-Pinecone Provincial Park gate was packed with cars with empty bike racks, apparently others had the same idea. We saddled up our bikes and geared down for the steep gruelling climb up the access road. We pushed ahead at quick pace and an hour later we were at the trail head to Upper Vic's. Vic, for those who don't know, is a man of 70 years who constructed many of the early trails on Burke and used the natural terrain and the surrounding materials and features to create these extremely challenging technical and steep trails.

Jordan and I decided to cut down the mountian on upper and lower Vic's, two of the most technical trails. The dirt offered great traction which is a good thing since the roots were very slick and the terrain was very steep. We managed to conquer upper Vic's and the daylight was fading fast. Next trail: Lower Vic's. This trail isnt as steep but offers some cool rock features to ride and near the end of the trail we follow a fast tight and twisty and narrow line along the edge of a roaring creek: a real rush. The last hoorah, is a narly rooty drop off out into the open and onto an access road. The light was fading to much for another trail so we ended up just booting down the access road to the car. It was a fun ride but it required another ride the following weekend to really appreciate that which is Burke Mountain.

The following week, the riders are assembled. For the second part of this stop on the tour we have myself, Jordan, my dad abourd his Norco Shore, and Mike D on his Specialized P. It is another beautiful day and the four of us head up that same "beautiful" climb up the mountain. The plan for the day is to ride the classic Triple Crown, although we will be subtracting the last crown due to development on the mountain. We grunt up the road to Vic's where we take a left which levels off and we pedal away through the coastal rainforest to the trail head. After amoring up I lead the charge down a muddy upper section. Mike finds a tricky line to try riding down the side of a rock where he apparantly lost his balance and ejected last minute. I gave it a try and barely pulled it out thanks to abundant front wheel travel. The rest of the trail is loaded with root drops to pop some air off on the way down and handfuls of tricky off-camber turns to keep you on your toes.

Myself, Mike and my Dad waited under the power lines for Jordan who had apparently crashed hard somewhere behind us and bruised his hip good but kept pushing on ahead and was ready for more. The next trail was steeper than the first had some good built up rocks to launch off of and we cruised down to the lower access road this time accident free. Triple Crown was over pretty quick so we cut up to the Garbage Trail to end off the ride. The ol Garbage Trail is a great, flowy fun trail with some old school root and rock drops to flat landings as well as a couple small dirt jumps thrown in. Mike and I ended up chasing each other down the final section and off a decent sized rock drop before popping out in the p-lot right at our vehicles.

Tour de Fraser Valley Part V (Nov. 15, 2008)

2008-11-17T18:52:00.001-08:00

For this leg of the tour I decided to mix things up a little and throw in some "all-mountain" type of riding. The destination: Golden Ears Park in Maple Ridge. The riders: myself, Jordan K, Cory S, and Derek H.

We met at the big ol' goat sign then at the entrance to the provincial park then headed to Mike Lake where we dropped off all our gear and one vehicle, then Derek and I drove our vehicles down to Gold Creek to drop off his Ford Ranger as the recovery vehicle. After making the trip back to Mike Lake from Gold creek, we were ready to start the adventure. Cory and Jordan heard from a couple other riders that the forest access road was closed due to some construction which meant we had to make our way up the dreaded Incline trail. The Incline trail, as opposed to the gradual sloped meandering forest access road, is a steep straight line trail right up the side of the mountain. Although the trail is much shorter than the road it requires a lot more exertion and often times isnt any faster because you have to take more breaks. Somehow we perservered and powered our way up the trail in one of the fastest times I can remember ever climbing the Incline.

After a short pow-wow at the top of the Incline we checked our gearing and brakes and dropped into the Eric Dunning trail. Derek's pristine Devinci Magma had only seen a few rides and the brake rotors looked untouched, that will soon change. The four of us booted down the through the switch-backs and jumped any root or rock we came across. As I came to the end of the trail I jumped the log drop at the end and waited at the roadside for the others. Cory wasn't far behind me and he too jumped the log drop. Cory had been on my tail the whole way down Eric Dunning. Not far behind Cory was Derek whose brakes were squealing away as they were breaking-in. We waited a few minutes before Jordan came down the trail walking his bike with a flat rear tire. Time for a trailside lesson in bike repair.

After using up an entire patch kit on both my spare tube, which had hole in it, and Jordan's tube, which had a double snakebite, we were back on our way again. Now we were coasting down a short stretch of the Mike Lake road towards Menzie's trail. The seat posts were raised and the gears were dropped and Derek led the charge up the trail towards the waterfall. I soon ran out of gas after the first steep section and was overtaken by Cory and eventually by Jordan and was left grinding away to keep up with them. The four of us reconvened at the falls to catch our breaths and check out some ancient wooden pipes from back in the logging days. Derek then started off pedaling through the creek and I followed but ended aiming straight for the deeper section and completely soaked my feet. Very cold. A few minutes later we were at the peak of the trail overlooking Alouette Lake and the clouded-shrouded Blue Mountain across the way.

After some food, it was time at for the 7km of gradual downhill towards Gold creek. We steamed ahead, jumping roots, and pedaling through the countless puddles along the way. This section of Menzies is a long green corridor running throught the forest parallel to the main road throught the park, with the odd abrupt creek crossing and rooty section to keep things interesting. After crossing the road and back again, the trail made a short climb up to a branch of Gold creek where, oddly enough, the were three guys with their dog just standing around drinking beer. They quoted "drinking in the forest beats drinking in the city". I suppose. Anyways, we ended up ripping up the last part of the ride which was fast and flowy and ended with a sandy swithback on to the park road right beside Derek's truck. Derek then suprised us with a cold post ride beer each. Wouldnt you know it, those three guys and their dog were right, it was way better out in the forest.

Completely soaked and entirely muddy we loaded up the Ranger and headed back to Mike Lake and our waiting vehicles and so ends another epic instalment of the Tour.

Tour de Fraser Valley part IV (Nov. 8, 2008)

2008-11-09T22:53:00.000-08:00

(Fraser Valley )

( Some GPS map of the trail.)

The ol bike blog may get confusing this time because I was riding with two Jordans. Usual suspect Jordan K along for this part of the bike tour along with my Kamloopian cousin Jordan O (yet another hardtail hero). The forecast called for intensely rainy and crappy biking conditions, which will not be the norm for the next several months, so I decided that we should ride somewhere that has always seemed to have good drainage. Destination: Bear Mountain in Mission.

Jordan K and I drove out to Whonnock to pick up Jordan O who was staying with our grandparents for the weekend. Apparently he forgot to bring biking attire, (ie shorts, bike jersey, etc.) and instead was borrowing a pair of grandpa's coveralls! I wish I had a camera for this this ride, he looked like a pit-crew member with coveralls and a fullface helmet on.

The initial plan was to try out the Arduum downhill course on Red Mountain, which none of us had ridden yet, then across the street to the Bear Mountain dh course. Seeing as how the trails would be extremely wet we decided to play it safe and to just ride Bear Mountain, which neither of the Jordans had ridden yet. Despite the negative weather forecast we lucked out again and had perfect weather, no rain and the sun even peeked out for a while.

The three of us hoofed our way up the hill while checking out the specific lines we were going to take on the way down. There had been a significant amount of work put into the course this past year and it looked even smoother than I had remembered. After a quick snack and armouring up at the top of the mountain we launched off the starting gate and tore into the course. I could hear yelling behind me as the Jordans both splashed through the same huge puddle that had just soaked me. We raced down through the brighter upper section just below the clear cut before making the hard left then flying down the exposed rock section that had become a series of water falls.

There was a short section of trail that was wide and level where we could pick up speed just in time to grab some brakes to maintain barely enough control down the steep rocky upper section that eventually ended with a nice banked right turn which prepared us for the sweet smooth high speed turns to come. We spent some time sessioning a beautifully berm laden section which culminated with a big tabletop jump. After we had our fill of that section we tore on down the course until we got to the rock drop where JordanO and I proceded to launch off of it. Jordan K opted to take the racer's line and shoot over the root drop in a narrow section adjacent to the rock drop. The final section left s with a lot of mud and some very sketchy wet leaves all over the trail which hid many a root. Exhilerated and entirely mud-soaked we rolled into the parking lot at the ol Mill Pond.

Surprising enough Jordan O's coveralls managed to actually shed a lot of the mud and was a lot cleaner thatn the rest of us, he may be on to something with that. Where will the next destination be?... Who knows, that is part of the adventure.

Tour de Fraser Valley part III (Nov.1, 2008)

2008-11-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

(Old school Blue Mountain trail map)

This part of the tour we moved onto a new destination, although technically it is still the same mountain as the Woodlot. In this leg of the tour the biking crew consisted again of myself and Jordan K. I figure if we continue the bike tour in a westerly direction then the next destination would be Blue Mountain. We drove out to east Maple Ridge along Dewdney Trunk Road and turned up McNutt road until we got to a small parking area near the gate. The weather forecast had called for 15-20mm of rain so we had come prepared with jackets and garbage bags for our gear. Luckily for us we had another perfect riding day and it didnt rain on us at all and the trails were fairly dry. There were even the odd surprisingly warm breezes which were both nice and very unusual.

The plan was to ride out to a trail called The Chute. This particular ride was a favorite back in the days prior to the Woodlot. Active logging in recent years had required the main road up the mountain to be regraded which made for a much easier climb than in the past. We made our way up the mountain to the "parking lot" just above the power lines where the main connector road would take us west toward The Chute. The connector road unlike most mountains is an enjoyable part of the ride, there is no real change in elevation along this trail so we were able to keep riding along at a good pace and there were some technical rocky sections as well some nice exposed rock sections to try to master and then add in a few creek crossings for good measure.

Eventually we made it to the trail head of The Chute. We had noticed a lot of nice signs that clearly marked each trail. Looks like Blue Mountain Motorcycle Club put some good work into keeping the trail system alive. Jordan and I suited up at the trail head and ready for the descent. The Chute was just how I had remembered it: wide, and fast! We bombed down the trail and managed to pedal through the huge mud bogs along the way, one of them the famed "Colonel Sanders". I do not remember why we had named this particular mud pit that.

After negotiating our way through some rocky sections and across the remains of some old skid roads we came upon Upper Muzz. This trail was a sweet tight twisty single track that snaked its way through the forest until it came to a "t" in the trail. From here we could right on Muzz, which look really gnarly with rocks and fallen trees strewn about, or left on Lower Muzz which looked much more ridden and "maintained". We figured that Lower Muzz since it was designated "lower" would actually take us lower down the mountain, turns out it kept going uphill, so we turned around and took Muzz.

Muzz ended up being a decent trail and we took this for quite a ways until we found a smaller trail that would take out to the power lines again. Somewhere in the mix Jordan managed to crash on the trail and had his bike land right on him, other that being even muddier he was ok.

Once under the power we were left to figure out where exactly we were in relation to the way out of date map I had. After some hiking up and down the power lines we ended up taking an old logging road down the mountain that was very rocky in sections and included some nice slick rock sections to ride. After a few minutes of thudding our way down this rocky route we came upon a gem of a trail called Black Flies. Except for the occasional deep muddy rut, which is typical of the dirtbike trails of Blue Mountain, this trail was sweet. Black Flies ended up taking us most of the way back and it was a fun trail with some nice flowy twisty sections and several bridges built over creeks and fast wide turns hub deep with watery mud.

All good things must come to an end at some time and we ended up popping out on the lower logging just when a lady and her golden retriever were jogging by, startling both of them. After a quick chat with the woman and her golden dog, they jogged off out of site and we then set out in the same direction towards the waiting vehicle. Entirely muddy and entirely satisfied with ride we successfully completed part III of the Tour de Fraser Valley.

Tour de Fraser Valley Part II (Oct. 18, 2008)

2008-10-18T16:59:00.000-07:00

For Part II of the Tour I decided to hit up the Woodlot again since there are so many great trails we could easily make another great ride of all new trails. The group was smaller this time, consisting of just myself and Jordan K, and we met at the Woodlot parking lot once more.

It had been raining pretty much all week and my 10 year old IRC Kujo front tire with duct tape holding the sidewall together just wasnt giving me much confidence so I opted for a 2.5" Kenda Nevegal. The sticky rubber of this tire should give me some extra traction on the wet roots.

After suiting up in the parking lot we decided to head up to the power lines. The weather today was perfect, sun and cloud and in the low teens kept us from getting too hot. At the p-lines I decided to add our choice of trails for the day to the "wheel of trails" mounted to the stump. We started off the ride on Crazy Carpenter once more. The builders had done some very nice work to the logride on upper Carpenter and the traction wasnt even an issue on the wet logs. The new tire had definitely helped with added traction.

(Me versus the ugly climb up the power lines.)

(The wheel of trails!)

(I'm suited up and ready for downhill.)

(Jordan and his Norco ready to go.)

(I'm testing out the traction on the wet logs on upper Crazy Carpenter.)

(The traction was fine, better keep coasting though.)

(Jordan on some of the well built bridges on Crazy Carpenter.)

Jordan and I cut out of Carpenter early to hike up to Blood Donor. We met up with three other riders and a border collie out for a ride aswell. We cruised down the berms and smooth upper section of Blood Donor and decided to spend some time taking some pics on the log/ bridge section midway down the trail. We continued down the trail and eventually parted ways with the other riders and dog as we continued on to Giant Killer.

(Jordan cruisin the log/ bridge sections on Blood Donor.)

Jordan and I spent some time trying to conquer the long log section on the upper part of the trail. I managed to clean the whole thing first shot then kept falling off when I tried it again. Jordan gave the log ride a shot and got a ways down before slipping off, just another thing to conquer in the future. I have not ridden this trail in a while and there were some major changes: new slats on the teeter totter platform and the lower logride section was taken out completely! The lower logride section was one of the obstacles that this trail was known for. All for the best I guess since it was rotting away and previous wind fall had landed on it. Not wanting to risk re-injuring an already injured thumb and wrist I decided to play it safe and bypass the final drop and gap jump since I have a Judo tournament next weekend.

We popped out of the trail into the warm sun on the road above the clear cut and dropped back into Hoots. I introduced Jordan to a nice big rockface to try out. The rock always has great traction even in the wet weather. We hit a couple jumps on our way down and cut back up the road again to finish off the ride on Shotgun. Shotgun was in great condition and we rode it fast.

(Jordan at the top of the rockface on Hoots.)

(Jordan carfully picking his line down the rockface as opposed to picking his face on the rockline.)

Other than losing my balance slightly off a drop on Carpenter and skidding into a tree, the Kenda Nevegal performed flawlessly on this typical wet fall trail conditions. It was only 3 o'clock and it was warm and sunny out, I wish I had time to go hit up another mountain but the old stomach was empty, so until another weekend for part III or the Tour de Fraser Valley.

Tour de Fraser Valley Part I (Oct. 11, 2008)

2008-10-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

Okay so Mike D and I decided to plan out a Tour de Fraser Valley , by mountain biking on a different mountain or a atleast a different set of trails each weekend as Mike and other buddies of mine have not expereienced riding on many of the other mountains in our area. So it was planned, this Saturday, the 11th of October at 10 am we were to meet at the Woodlot in Maple Ridge, stop number one on the Tour. The innaugural ride was to consist of myself, Mike D and Derek H (from the ol work place), and Jason C (biking buddy who had not been out riding in forever), and Jordan K and Cory S (two newbies stoked to go check out some new trails).

(Map is courtesy of http://www.gutsploder.com/)

Come Saturday morning it was only Jason, Jordan and I at the Woodlot parking lot. As they say, "you snooze, you lose", and the three of us started of the tour on an absolutely perfect riding day. The weather had been dry for a few days and the trail conditions were mint, the roots and logs were dry and there was traction to spare.

We trekked up the logging road to the power lines and armoured up for the descent down Crazy Carpenter, We made out way down the log rides and bridges back down to the main road again and hiked back up a little ways and dropped into Tsuga which is a sweet flowing trail with a couple big rock faces and some beautiful bridgework over some formerly boggy sections. We linked up Tsuga with Snakes 'n Ladders. At one point Jason was chasing me down as we trained a long elevated ladder bridge and log ride section. After Snakes 'n Ladders we hiked back up the road a little more to finish off the ride with Heckle Jeckle. Again the wood was perfectly dry and I was able to ride out the elevated platform to log ride section with is normally quite treacherous with a minimal amount of moisture. We cruised along the huge sweeping berms on our way back to the lower logging road. We cut in to Shotgun halfway and boogied back to the parking lot. Wow, a lot of trails packed into just a few hours, cant wait for part 2 of the Tour.

Operation East Canyon Part III (Sept. 27, 2008)

2008-10-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

This time around I brought along Mike , a buddy from work, who was keen on tagging along on the adventure that was operation East Canyon Cleanup. It was a perfect day out, the weather was beautiful, and we cruised along the first 5 km to the single track portion of the trail. The leaves and bushes were still very damp from the overnight rains in the mountains and we were soon soaking wet from the overgrown portions of the trail. Luckily the weather was nice and warm and we managed to dry off eventually. We pushed on for quite a ways moving logs and fallen trees that we could until we got to a large area that was covered with wind fallen trees, some of which were 4 foot diameter firs. This was past the 10 km mark and we decided to leave to leave the bkes behind and hike the trail to the supposed creek crossing at the 11 km mark.

After walking from fallen log to fallen log ,suspended many feet above the forest floor, we managed to cross the jungle of fallen logs and continue along the trail. Eventually we got to the "11 km" creek crossing although we believe the distance to be a very conservative 11 km. It was warm and sunny out and the water of Gold Creek was perfectly clear and was very inviting but decided against crossing the creek and to save it for another day.

After the amount of trees we had to move and the countless others we didnt and couldnt move at the time, we deemed that it would be necessary to come back another time without bikes and dedicate our time solely to clearing the trail. Along our now long and exhausting ride back to the parking lot, a conversation about starting a mountain biking tour of the Fraser Valley would be fun. To go out and ride a new Mountain or an entirely different set of trails each weekend. And so starts another continuing biking adventure.

Operation East Canyon Part II (Sept. 13, 2008)

2008-10-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I managed to cleanup the East Canyon Trail pretty good all the way up to the 8 km mark last ride. This time I managed to continue my trail cleanup to about the 10 km range. There are however still several large logs past the 8 km mark that will have be power-sawed but I took care of the rest. During my toils of sawing and moving fallen logs I happened across a salamander under one rotten log I moved, I had been trying to find one during a summer camp trip at Rolley Lake to no avail and now when I find one when I have no one around.

After bush-wacking for a bit at the 9.5 km mark I got back onto the main trail again and was able to ride for a little while before I had to dismount and break out the saw again for three large trees that had fallen across the trail. I had been out in the woods now for 4+ hours and hadn't seen a single person or animal and was just dragging a cut tree off the trail when I turn around to see a golden retriever looking at me curiously. I dropped the tree and the dog ran off barking. Now coming down the trail were four women who had been up the trail camping ( one of them being the owner of the dog). They applauded me for my trail work and said that they had been up as far as the 11km where they had camped. I asked them how far the trail went and if they knew where it led to. At last my questions had been answered. They gave me a map of the trail and told me the trail led to Hector Ferguson Lake and it was a 14km trip to the lake. I thanked them for the map and they went on their way.

I decided to ditch my bike after cutting and moving one of the large trees and to hike up the trail and see how it looked. The trail up ahead looked promising but also needed a lot of work. I decided to leave it for another and got on the ol Devinci and headed back along the 10 km of trail to the parking lot.

Operation: "East Canyon" Part I (Sept. 6, 2008)

2008-09-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a long time since I have posted anything on my bike blog. I have been on many a great bike adventure since my last posting, including an entire summer of riding in Kamloops. My new bike-related goal is to ressurect the East Canyon trail in Golden Ears park (which is already open to mountain bikers) in a more mountain bike friendly trail and eliminate the need for any hike-a-biking.

I began this quest back in the fall of 2007 when I went out for a cross country ride on Menzie's trail (also in Golden Ears park) which is an 8 or 9 km trail from Mike Lake to Gold Creek. However I spent a large portion of my ride dragging branches and fallen trees off the trail, which was apparently too daunting a task for hikers which are content to just walk around it all! The following weekend I returned to Menzie's trail armed with a plain old handsaw and went to work on some 8" diameter fallen cedars that were much too big for me to drag off the trail. After a couple weeks I had managed to single handedly clear away all the large branches and trees that had fallen due to wind storms that fall.

I decide to continue my trail cleanup on East Canyon trail which continues on from Gold Creek parking lot and follows Gold Creek itsef up the valley. I havent been able to get a firm answer yet on the total length of this trail but one source claims it is 15 km one way. I had heard from another source that it is over 20km! I guess there is only one way to find out.

Now armed with a new collapsable saw shoved into my camelbak I headed up the trail from Gold Creek. The main gravel road was in perfect condition for the 5 km until the actual trail starts at Viewpoint beach. From the beach I headed into the denser forrest where I began clearing away big rotton logs lying across the trail and any fallen trees under 10" in diameter. Some sections of the trail were really overgrown and will need to be cut back, I will wait until late fall to due that when there are less leaves. I managed to make it to the 8km mark before the fallen trees were well over 12" in diameter and will need to be powersawed, (I'll have to talk with the park rangers about this). I continued riding and clearing the trail as I went for another kilometer until I got to 9 km beach. Here the trail was not much more than marking tape to follow as I left my bike to bush wack through the foliage until I found the continuing trail. And Wow, the rest of the trail looks like fun, now snaking its way through dark forest with no underbrush excpt the odd fern. I wanted to continue the exploration as this was the farthest I had ever been on this trail, nearly 9.5 km out, the farthest I had been before was only 8 km.

It was now 1:18pm and I had been riding now for 5 hours and I had to get back. It took me less than 2 hours to get back to the Gold Creek parking lot now that I had cleared the trail. There is still a lot of work to be done on this trail and I hope to keep it up and get other groups to help in this quest of building an epic biking trail here in Maple Ridge.

Longtime no Seymour (April 21, 2007)

2007-05-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

Finally managed to hook up with another riding buddy: Cory "bag-a-cheese" Biagi, or just C-bag for short. Anyways it's been way too long since we rode together and it's been over a year since I've been riding at Seymour so finally I can journal about a ride somewhere other thatn the Woodlot. Of if we're going to Seymour we have to ride CBC, which we did, and the trail work was unreal. I didn't manage to get a picture of the rockwork on the upper portion of the trail but it was like riding a wave of paving stones! The bridgework aswell was second to non, which can be seen in the photos.

Myself flowing the bridgework on upper CBC

C-bag riding the roller coaster of bridgework on CBC aboard his Ryan Leach edition Norco Team Trials.

C-bag and I managed to flow the whole trail without coming across another rider, which is very unusual for CBC. Cory even managed to clean the skinny zig-zag section ( I wish I took more pictures). We continued on down the mountain and made our way to Boogieman which had just recently been worked on by NSMBA and cleaned up from the fallen trees of the winter wind storms. I havent ridden Boogieman in years and it was cool to ride it again and be scared of the same sections again. We came across Kim Steed and a friend of his riding some huge rockfaces and the end of Boogieman. I'll admit I was scared of those rock faces and chose the ride around route, which was not easy but less daunting. Finally we continued on down ol' Baden Powel back towards the parking lot. On the way to the parking lot we came across some people filming an add or something on the trail for what looked to be Sleeman's. There were two girls dressed up as german barmaids hodling bottles of Sleeman's. Talk about the perfect ending to an epic ride on the shore right? Well, they didn't actually give us beer but it was a pretty funny sight (again, why didn't I take a picture?!). Now what's missing from this latest installment of Jason's ride journal? Snow! Well wouldn't you know it once we got back to the top parking lot to get my car it was starting to snow. The end.

Old bike new owner. (Mar. 31, 2007)

2007-04-09T13:38:00.000-07:00

The last ride of March. Uncle Jim was out here from Nelson and has newly aquired the Big Red Sled Norco Team DH from my dad. This will be Uncle Jim's innaugural full suspension ride. The ride consisted of myself, my dad and uncle Jim. We met at the Woodlot, of course, and decided to head up to Tsuga.

Uncle Jim and his new freeride machine.

L-R: Me, Dadman(he's not a midget he's hunched over), Unkie Jim

Tsuga in the gloomy rainforest.

Uncle Jim making the turn.

Uncle Jim at the bottom of the turn and approaching the bridge.

Uncle Jim riding the bridge.

Dadman hitting the turn with speed

A wider shot of Tsuga and all its mossy-ness with dad and Jimbo in the background.

Me riding the ugly lower rockface on Tsuga. The photographer forgot the flash on this one.

After riding Tsuga we follwed it up with Snakes N Ladders we didn't get any pictures though. Snakes was in awsome condition and we flew down it and finished off the ride with Shotgun.

Uncle Jim poppin up the front wheel on Shotgun

My dad gettin both wheels in the air

Me airing out the same section on Shotgun from another angle

Birthday ride 2007! (Mar. 17, 2007)

2007-03-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

A few years back my uncle and I have started a tradition of the Birthday bike ride. Since my birthday and my uncle Jim's are only a couple days apart. In the past all the cousins would come down to Maple Ridge from Kamloops and or Nelson to ride the Woodlot. This particular year Jordan, Justin, and Jared had to work and couldn't make it down. But unkie Jim and Jesse were joined by myself and my dad for a ride. My little Manda unfortunately did not come out this time. :(

Jesse gearing up for the climb up the mountain

The four of us decided to head up to Tsuga. It had been pouring rain the day before and the forest was wet and foggy. Jesse (my youngest cousin) has been improving a lot and it was cool to see him conquer new things on the trail. We got to Tsuga and armored up for the descent. I led the chase down the trail so I could stop and take some pics. The trail was well packed down and not muddy or greasy at all (by my standards). My old man rode down the big rock face again unfortunately the fog made picture taking difficult with a flash and the pics would blur without it!

Unkie Jim cruisin over the longest cedar bridge on Tsuga

Jesse crusin over the same bridge, this time the fog was in the way.

Jesse again, this time I didn't use the flash. You can see some of the rock work and another bridge in the background.

The Brentman riding down the first rock face on Tsuga, the fog returned again for this shot.

After Tsuga we continued on with Snakes N Ladders. The Jesster rode the entire log ride/ladder bridge section for the first time! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture. There was a bunch of new construction done on Snakes, including a new bridge on top of the ol log ride that required you to hop off the side and some rock work around the big rock face and an entirely new bridge that eliminates riding through the goopy mud just before the steep ride-down.

Finally we finished off in classic fashion by racing down Shotgun. I led the pack with Jesse right behind me, who later was passed by my dad, and followed by uncle Jim. No wipe outs, and only minor mechanical problems made for another classic Birthday ride.

My first Norco ride (Feb. 23, 2007)

2007-02-28T15:01:00.000-08:00

Last weekend it was sunny and warm out and it looked like winter had finally come to an end. But nature had its own plans, it has snowed the last couple days. I was off work early and so was my dad so we decided to go hit up the woodlot for a ride. It was a cloudy day with the odd sunny break and there was fresh snow on the trail. I came straight from Vancouver so I didn't have my bike with me so I had to borrow the old man's 2002 Norco Team DH, and he rode his 2005 Norco Shore 1. This will be my first time riding a Norco ( and one size too small at that).

We decided to head up to upper Toadstool and then hook up with B-line since there has been some new work done on B-line, then finish off the ride with Hoots then Shotgun. There was a nice dusting of snow on the forest access road on the way up.

Dad and his '05 Shore ready to descend Toadstool.

My loaner bike for the day : medium '02 Team DH.

Upper Toadstool had about 5mm of snow on it which left the roots a little slick but other than that the trail was in fine condition. Surprisingly the medium Norco didn't feel too small for me once I got the feel for it on the downhill. The suspension action of the Team DH felt much nicer than my Devinci Magma and pedalling performance was noticeably better on the Norco. The two of us cruised down to B-line. I hadn't ridden B-line for some time and the snow made it difficult to actually see where the trail lay whereas dadman just had to follow my tracks which meant I had to ride even faster to keep him off my tail. I managed to navigate the trail just fine up to the steep middle section which was slick and rooty with tight bend at the bottom. I managed to cruise down the steep and just narrowly avoided crashing in the tight turn at the bottom when I heard a loud crash behind me. My dad had had endoed just before the turn at the bottom and actually slid head first past the turn. End result: charlie horse and a broken visor.

My dad's new "batman" visor.

After a short crash recovery we kept on. I guess with the layer of snow on the trail we missed the new section of B-line. The original trail however is always a blast at the end.

The main line on Hoots was free of snow which made for some good speed through the clear cut. The VPS rode flawlessly over the rough and pedalled fast out of every turn. We exited Hoots and were too lazy to climb back up to the top of Shotgun so we just cut in at the bottom half. We decided not to race down to the parking lot this time but had some fun hittin' some of the obstacles an practicing some high speed turns.

Me puttin' some high speed into a turn on Shotgun.

Me exiting the turn in racing form.

Riding over the ol' rock.

Dadman showin' how it's done!

My first experience riding a Norco VPS was definitely a good one. Maybe one day I will try out a Norco in my size and really put it to the test either way there's no better way to spend a Friday afternoon than to go for a ride, and yet another snow ride at that.

Balmy February (Feb. 10, 2007)

2007-02-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

It's a balmy 15 degrees C, super sunny and blue skies. Once again meeting at the faithful woodlot always ready for riders. This time Amanda is not riding but she came along to drop me off. I was meting up with Brian and my dad. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so no pictures this time :(

The three of us geared up and headed up the hill in the perfect weather. We weren't sure what to ride so we just kept going up. No more snow below the power lines and the ditches and creeks were flowing with run-off. We decided since there was no snow at the powerlines that we should attempt Goldmine. The access road was cleared of fallen trees and there was no snow so the trip up was looking good. We got about halfway from the p-lines to the trailhead when we hit about two and a half feet of snow! The snow was deep but it was melting fast and we had to watch out for stepping thru the snow and into water underneath. It was weird, being in in that much snow, the air was obviously cold at that elevation but every now and then there would be this blast of warm air like a mini chinook.

Eventually the three "wise" men made it to the Goldmine trail head. We suited up and began yet another snow ride. Upper Goldmine was in decent condition, the snow really didn't affect our speed. Brian, who was complaining about not being out riding in a while and needed to ease back into it was flying when it came to downhill, dad and I on the other hand were suffering from the lack of lunch fatigue. Fatigue and all, Goldmine was yet another classic downhill rip and still kept me smiling on the way down.

We arrived at the trail head to Snakes and Ladders and one by one we dove into the trail and began rippin it up. Everything was smooth and traction was great, even down the big rock face there was no hint of loss of traction. Then we come to the ol' steep ladder bridge. Just past the end of the ladder bridge is a small tree, maybe 4 or 5" in diameter. This tree has been struck by many upon many of riders who could not make the high speed off camber turn. I for one have been victim of this tree way back in the beginning. It has been years and I mean like 7 years since I have hit this tree! And wouldn't you know it on a day when fatigue was taking over I thought I could still ride like any other day. Wham! Over the bars I go, sliding down the hill. I regained my composure, got on my bike and kept going. I don't even remember how we rode out Shotgun. I was tired, the ride was good, the sky was sunny. The end.

Another team member returns! (Feb. 3, 2007)

2007-02-05T14:59:00.000-08:00

It is official, my old man now owns the 2005 Norco Shore! Farewell ol' red 2001 Norco Team DH. The weather was promising so a ride was organized and we were to meet at the Woodlot as per usual. The group comprised of myself (Jason), my dad (Brent), my wife (Amanda), Brian, and long lost team awsome member Doug! The plan was to head up to Goldmine with the hope that the snow would have melted enough for us to get a good run with some speed. The apparent "promising weather" had other ideas. The overcast skies turned to light rain, which had turned to full out snowing at the power lines and we decided to ride Crazy Carpenter instead.

Amanda pushing through the snow at the power lines.

(notice the snow in the air aswell)

After gearing up in the forest, in the shelter from the snow, we began our descent. Brian led the way followed by my dad and Doug and myself with Manda picking up the rear. The three in the lead chose not to ride the first log ride but ride beside it instead due to the ladder bridge that was broken. My dad ended up endo-ing after a root drop when his tire jammed against a rock. I decided to ride the logride then hop off to the side just before the broken ladder bridge. Instead my rear tire slipped off the log about halfway along so I was forced to continue on along the same route my dad took and ended flying over my handlebars at the same stupid rock he hit. My little trail builder Manda dug the rock out and filled it in with a flat rock to prevent any future crashes. We scooted down the rest of the trail smoothly and problem free.

Amanda riding out the end of Crazy Carpenter

The group steamed on ahead with Toadstool followed by lower toadstool. We noticed that B-line has undergone and is still undergoing renovations and the two trails now merge together at the end. I will have to check out B-line next time.

L-R: Brian, Dadman, Doug, Manda the weirdo at the top of lower Toadstool

Now at a lower elevation the snow is just plain old rain which made it nearly impossible to keep our eyes open during the ride down the access road to Shotgun due to water and dirt spraying off our tires and into our faces. We assumed our regular race tradition and flew down Shotgun to the parking lot. Brian led the way followed by my dad then me and Doug and Amanda charging right behind. It was another awsome ride and we were completely soaked and our faces completely mud-freckled.

Ride of 2007! (Jan. 27, 2007)

2007-01-31T16:05:00.000-08:00

New year, old rider (just kidding), new bike? Finally managed to get out on my first ride of 2007. Pops and I decided to go hit up the woodlot just to get some sun and laugh at those who were stuck in the fog down in the valley. Unfortunately my camera batteries were dead so no pictures :( I get out of my car in the parking lot and as I am unloading all my gear my dad rides up to me on a mint 2005 Norco Shore thanks to Maple Ridge Cycle. We tractored our way up the mountain with the intention of riding Goldmine but there was still a good 10" of snow at the power lines and fallen trees were still all over the acces road past the power lines so we opted for Tsuga instead. We scooted down Tsuga, and my dad had some new found confidence thanks to the Marzocchi 888 and rode the steep rockface for the first time! We continued on to Snakes & Ladders. A string of sunny days had finally dried up the Woodlot a bit and the trails were in perfect condition. We cruised down to Shotgun for our traditional race to the parking lot.

It's been a while (Dec. 28, 2006)

2007-01-07T08:56:00.000-08:00

It's been a while but two team awsome members have returned for ride. Finally my wife, Amanda, has made it out again for a ride, last time was before thanksgiving and I didnt have my camera with me. And Brian has returned from injury, which occurred in Whistler in the summer. Myself, my dad, Amanda and Brian decided, since two of us have been off the bike for awhile, to go for an easy ride to get back into the feel of things again. We met at the Woodlot and decided to ride Toadstool (both upper and lower) followed by Shotgun right back to the parking lot.

The mountain was cold, freezing cold actually, and there was frost everywhere. Manda's shifter wasnt working and she was stuck in 6th gear and no granny ring but she stood up and powered her way up the hill to the Shotgun trail head inspite of the gearing. Tough girl. About halfway up the mountain who should catch up and pass us? Andrew, my friend from highschool who we had ridden with the other day. Andrew and his brother apparently couldnt get enough fill of the Woodlot and had to get some more riding in while he was out here from the shore for the holidays.

We got to the trailhead of Toadstool and started to suit up for the descent. Since it was freezing out we actually didnt sweat and our jerseys were still dry which is always nice. The weather was beautiful and sunny and the trails were in good shape, not too muddy or frozen and dry. We stopped for some pictures on the way down.

At the Toadstool trailhead ready to descend. L-R: Brian, Amanda, my dad.

Amanda descending the last section of upper Toadstool on her Kona Stinky Dee-lux.

My pops given me the "put away the camera and lets ride!" look on the connector trail.

My dad flyin' across the bridge over the creek on lower Toadstool on his Norco team DH

Amanda crossing the bridge in hot pursuit.

My little biker girl approves of the ride so far.

Brian touching down after a drop on lower Toadstool on his 2006 team DH

After exiting Toadstool we cruised down the access road towards Shotgun and decided to hit an old dirtbike jump on our way down.

Me gettin a little airtime between trails.

Keeping with tradition we switched to race mode for Shotgun. I took the lead, followed by Brian, dad, and Amanda. I stopped at the halway point in the clearcut to get some pictures. The sun was out and was thawing out the frozen stumps which were now steaming in the sunshine. A very cool sight.

Amanda approaching the clear cut, you can see the stumps thawing in the sun.

Amanda coasting through the clearcut, stumps a steaming everywhere.

Amanda on Shotgun riding a very frosty bridge in the shade of the trees.

And to end off this biking blog I close with a picture of Amanda biking off towards the warm sunshine awaiting at the parking lot at the bottom of Shotgun. Great weather, great friends and family, great ride.

Amanda crossing the final bridge of the mountain and heading for some sun to warm up after a frosty ride at the Woodlot.

Bixing Day! (Dec. 26, 2006)

2006-12-27T23:31:00.000-08:00

Boxing day 2006. My wife had too many Christmas goodies and was not feeling upto riding and my old man had some suspension issues to deal with but the rest of the cousins were ready to ride this time.

Heavy with turkey uncle Jim, Jordan, Justin, Jared, Jesse and I opted to go as high up the mountain as the connector trail below Krazy Karpenter and ride upper and lower Toadstool down to Hoots and finish off with the usual race down Shotgun to the parking lot. I had tire valve difficulties and was forced to ride with a half flat rear tire with made for amazing traction but was a little sluggish. I led the charge down upper Toadstool with Jared and Jordan following close. Jared managed to pass me halfway down but I caught up to him and passed him on the drop near the bottom. Jesse was the only one of us to attempt the ancient logride (one of the original stunts on one the woodlots original trails) in the slimey conditions and conquered it.

We continued on with lower Toadstool, which is one of the flowiest natural trails on the mountain. Jared led the way again and again I passed him on a drop halfway down with Jordan buzzing my tire the whole way down.

We scooted up the service road to Hoots. Jared led the way with me, Jordan, Justin, Jesse and Jim in tow. We stopped for some photo ops on the big rockface (somehow Justin managed to elude the camera) before hitting the little gaps and jumps down the rest of the trail.

Jordan riding the rockface on the Sasquatch.

Uncle Jim preparing to bail out!

Uncle Jim riding the rockface on the ol Hammer.

Jesse crusin down the rockface on his Kona dirtjumper.

Jared flying down the rockface on the Giant AC

Finally we ended up at the top of Shotgun readdy to race down to the parking lot. Before I could stomp the pedals Jared was off. I gave Jared a few seconds lead before heading off in hot pursuit to catch him and again Jordan shadowed me the whole way off of every jump and every drop. I I built up a good lead on Jordan and managed to catch up to Jared by the halway mark but started to tire and thats when Jordan pounced and passed me. I dont know if he caught upto Jared but I was sure tired at the parking lot. Those Kamloops kids can really ride.

L-R: Jordan, Jesse, Jared, Jim, Justin and bikes strewn about the p-lot.

Christmas Eve Ride. (Dec. 24, 2006)

2006-12-27T09:58:00.000-08:00

My Nelsonite and Kamloopian cousins are in town for Christmas and of brought their bikes to get their fix of coastal riding while they were here. My uncle Jim and youngest cousin Jesse and my dad and I decided to hit up the Woodlot. As we were getting our bikes and gear ready for the climb Andrew (an old riding buddy of mine from back in my highschool days) showed up with his girlfriend Daleth and his brother Kevin. They decided to join us for the ride.

It was decided that we would ride Tsuga followed by Snakes & Ladders and end with Shotgun. There had been word that the trailbuilders had been up the mountain with saws to clear these trails clear of all the fallen trees from the recent windstorms.

This time there was snow on the mountain (compared to the 8-10 inches of the stuff last ride) so the climb was pretty quick. As everyone was suiting up for the descent on Tsuga I decided to hike up The Gate with my bike to try a gap jump that I hadnt done in a while. The jump is a step down and the gap is between 12-15 feet. The landing is perfect on this jump but the approach is a little short and I could've used the next harder gear because I came up a little short and cased the landing! Fortunately I had cleared the gap just enough to ride it out without disaster. Note to self: use 7th gear!

On to Tsuga! I led the charge with Andrew followed by my dad then the rest closely after that. We cruised our way down Tsuga and most of us manage to slip on a nasty root section and uncle Jim managed to crash and send his water bottle rolling down the trail.

On to Snakes & Ladders! We cruised down the trail in a long train and stopped at the ladder/logride section to challenge each other. I coasted my way along the lengthy elevated ladder section while the others found the conditions too slippery and opted for the safer ladder section. Andrew was committed however to test his newly refined logriding skills and after a couple attempts at the roller coaster section he managed to clean the whole section in one try! He was pumped!

Me riding the roller on Snakes & Ladders

Andrew on his adrenaline pumping run of the elevated logride section

Dad going so fast he was a blur across the ladder sections

After exiting Snakes & Ladders we raced our way down Shotgun since it hads started to rain. I was in the lead with Dadman in hot pursuit followed by Andrew. Jesse had fun woking on his hucks on all the little root drops. A great ride followed by Christmas eve dinner at the parents. Cant beat that!

Snow Biking! (Nov. 28, 2006)

2006-11-28T20:42:00.000-08:00

One of my alltime favorite riding times: Snow Riding! It is usually onlya small window in time that there is enough snow for the riding to really be considered snow biking! In this case we got a dump of about 2 feet of it in a few days. So my dad and I decided to head out to the Woodlot in search of untouched snow covered downhill single track.

Here's Bicyclese, my old man and his truck at the parking lot pre-ride.

There was about 6" of snow down in the p-lot, there were a couple cars there, no doubt others had the same idea as us. I guess with all the rain and wind storms preceding the snow storm the forest had been undergoin some stress. We could see and here the occasional tree cracking apart and crashing through the forest as we made our way up the mountain.

Here we stopped for a rest just below the exit of Goldmine.

As soon as we passed the exit of the Goldmine trail we could see that all the small trees and large bushes were drooped across the trail under the heavy snow, this would take us forever to navigate our way up the mountain pushing through all the branches so we decided head up Goldmine from the bottom then ride back down and continue with Snakes and Ladders.The power lines. Snows gettin deep.

We pushed our way up the trail just past the entrance to "Snakes and Ladders" to find ...untouched snow! Goldmine apparently been to far of a hike for most and was therefore unridden since the snow fall. The snow was particularly deep under the power lines, roughly 2 feet of the stuff. The the droopy snow covered branches made it hard to find where upper Goldmine came out onto the p-lines. After some bushwacking and stumbling through the snow we managed to find the trail again only to have to stop after a few hundred meters due to fallen trees all over the trail. There were too many fallen trees to make the hike worth it, so we decided to stop and suit up for the descent. The loud cracking of trees falling all around us was enough to suited up and get our helmets on as fast as we could when there was a huge cracking and crashing noise. We dropped everything and sprinted for our lives to a small clear area, having no idea where the falling tree was around us. The tree ended up falling right where we were standing. We decided right then and there to get the hell outta there.

Escaped by inches.

We pedalled our way down goldmine in the 8-10 inches of snow (not easy), till we got to Snakes and ladders.

Snakes and Ladders.

Closeup of the sign. Can you read that?

The ladder bridges were fun in the snow, I managed to hit a couple jumps in the snow: the launch off the stump, and the little step down. The bridges on the lower section were sweet, all covered with snow, still had decent traction. And lucky for me no one had attempted the elevated log rides and ladders yet so I had first dibs on them covered with fresh snow. Woohoo!

Dad on the first ladder bridge.

Dad on the lower bridge sections. Doesnt it look fun?

Unfortunately, the photographer's hand was too close to the cold camera and it fogged up, but you can kinda make out me riding down one of the elevated log sections covered in snow.

We ended up finishing the ride with Shotgun, it was a blast sprinting down that trail in the snow! I went a little too fast on the bridge in the clearcut and drifted right off and into the snow. A minute later I was down at the parking lot and loadin up the truck. What an adventure!

Gregor bikers reunite! (Oct. 22, 2006)

2006-10-27T23:26:00.000-07:00

Another bicycle adventure update. Two weeks ago, the ol thanksgiving turkey ride, the little one (Manda) and I went for a bicycle adventure up at the ol woodlot unfortunately the camera batteries were dead and we didnt not get any pictures. :( Although the ride was great. Last week I had a camera ready but no one to help document the ride. This time I managed to convince the ol beardo himself to join me: my dad. Destination: the Woodlot...again.

We decided to make the long trek up to the power lines of Blue Mountain ,where the Woodlot resides, and start the descent on "Crazy Carpenter". Ironically, my dad is a crazy capenter so I think he is just naturally drawn to this trail whether he likes it or not. Well we huffed and puffed our way up to the top of the mountain pushing our near 50 pound rigs up the rocky forest road and began suiting up in our protective armor preparing for battle against the trail.

We begin riding along some elevated planks once we enter the forest before riding off a small drop and then onto a long sloped logride before coming to a combination of steep technical trail and amazingly handcrafted bridges all cut from fallen cedar on the forest floor.

Here is a picture of the obstacle that made the Woodlot famous. It is a large old growth stump that has a bridge spiralling down it from the top and then goes thru it! The stump has been hollowed out. It is an amazing feature. Here my dad is taking the route on the left, which bypasses the tricky section.

Here is a view of the same section from another angle, now I am actually standing on the ol stump.

After "Crazy Carpenter" we continued on with "Toad Stool" an oldie but thanks to the hard work of the trail builders is still a goodie. Once a the bottom of upper T.S. we had planned to move on to "Giant Killer" but we noticed some new trail work on lower "Toad Stool" and decided to check it out. A new line had been cut, bypassing a very erroded section, and a few little gaps and hip jumps thrown in for good measure. I got a little overzealous and over shot the gap jump but no harm done. Near the bottom of the trail we came a nice creek crossing that had been renovated just a couple years back.

Toad Stool manages to stay out of the way of major biking traffic and much of its features tend to stay great riding condition. Here's my ol man flyin across the bridge!

After blasting down T.S. we hit up "Heckle and Jeckle" a once killer trail that was shut down due to logging and was reborn just a year ago into probably the finest trail on the mountain. I hit the first little step up gap a couple times then we moved on to a wooden platform up in the trees that descended down a log ride and ending in a kicker into a banked turn. I had a little too much speed doen the log ride and launched the kicker into the corner! Luckily I stopped just short of flying over the bars and into the bushes however the sudden impact did do a number on my ankles, but not enough keep me from finishing the ride! The two of us raced on through huge smooth bank turn after bank turn, carving our way through the forest. What an unbelievable feeling to move like that through the trees.

Finally the two of us finished off the bicycle adventure with the lower half of "Shotgun" and popping out of the forest into the parking lot. Another great ride in my ol stompin grounds.

Solo ride (Oct. 15, 2006)

2006-10-27T19:45:00.000-07:00

Today my little ridin partner (my wife) Manda was feelin under the weather and couldn't go biking. Considering the short notice to find others join in on a bicycle adventure I decided to go about the adventure on my own. Destination: the Woodlot.

Here's the Vibe and my bike "Bicyclese Mark II" (Bicyclese Mark I died unfortunately at Whistler on Dirt Merchant) ready to be unloaded.

I decided to hoof it up to "Blood Donor" and rip my way down to the parking lot. I decided to take some shots of the scenery of the hike up.

I thought the contrast of those bright red maple leaves looked amazing against the dark cedar forest in the background. If you look closely you can see Bicyclese posing against a stump in the center of the photo just below the red. "Bicyclese you are such a ham!"

Here is Bicyclese posing again at the ol' log resting spot. There is normally a small stream running across the road here but the long dry summer has drunk it all up. These quiet resting spots in the forest are one of the things I love the most about mountain biking. So peaceful!

Bicyclese and I at our final rest/water break before we head up the connector trail between "Crazy Carpenter" and "Blood Donor". As lazy as I may look at the moment it is no "stroll in the woods" making your way up the maountain at the pace that I go. The sooner I get up the mountain the sooner I can get to the good stuff: the downhill.

Here we are finally at the entrance to " Blood Donor". I didn't see a single other human being on my trek up the mountain, which is a rarity now that the Woodlot has become such a huge destination. Just above the yellow trail builders sign you can still see the remnants of a black and yellow birthday hat from nearly three years ago when my cousins, uncle Jim, dad and Manda and I came up here for my birthday ride.

I managed to catch up to some riders on "Blood Donor" who were visiting from the shore. They were very courteous riders and made way for me to attempt the 6-7 foot drop into the "dip" however I caught my shorts on my upper fork crown in mid pedal stroke while I was up on the elevated ladder bridge and nearly fell off. Lucky for me I reacted quickly and did not fall, so I took another run at it and landed smoothly and caught up to the "shoresies" near the ol canoe drop. The canoe drop is not very big, maybe 5 feet if you really launch it but it used to be made of a hollowed out log ,like a canoe, and if you werent careful you would catch your pedals on the sides of the canoe!

I proceded to "Giant killer" next, one of my all time favorite trails, I will have many more stories to tell of that trail, which I raced down and sped on to "Shotgun" a fun and flowy trail that takes you right back to the parking lot. Total E.T. from parking lot to top and back: 1 hour and 15 minutes. Phew! Pretty good time considering picture breaks and one crash on "shotgun" oops! Hopefully next time I can share a bike adventure with someone.

2004-12-10T17:34:00.000-08:00

huge air at eagle mountain

My Riding Crew

2004-12-10T16:10:00.000-08:00

The Usual Suspects in my MountainBiking crew include:
Me
Amanda
My dad
Brian
Doug
Tyler
Justin
and Bill
and Jordy
My crazy cousins often come down from "the 'loops" ride the Woodlot