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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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!