What..time to go already? Awww, and we were having such fun.....

Oh well, still time to go for one more lap on Builders Only.









Apart from a little glitch onthe exit of the spiral involving a busted seat, it was all butter today. It was a lot of fun having you two out this way. I can hardly wait until you move up here!

Until then, enjoy this collection of clips from the trip.

That hangover came to full fruition this morning, but I wasn't going to let the kids jam out on this one. I was as alert as a pair of Great Horned Owls this morning, even if our Corn Stars were of the temperment of Weeps today (that's a Farley Mowat reference that you'll just have to look up).



Kobau is one of my favourite hidden gems, and today was as perfect a day as you could ask for.



Gotta love that view from the top, especially as it's a ridiculously long haul to get there. We managed to spot our first bear of hte trip on this one, clowsely followed by the second. They were really shy, so no pics. Sorry, you'll have to be content with those owls.



Teh top of the ride is full on Star Wars quality forest speeder action, and the occasional Shore style log ride.



As this is rarely ridden, old school natural logs are the order of the day.



The lower reaches are all open sage and grassland. Not exactly natural state with all the cattle here, but still unique enough that they will probably be part of a National Park soon.



I can see why.



It's difficult to get the scale of how large this hillside really is.





No matter how long you ride, it seems lilke the valley gets further away.





How many bikes do you see in this pic?



How about here?





As always, Barb is the poster girl.



I still haven't caught the pic that I'm looking for here. One day I'll get it.





This one is close, but not quite it. I guess this means I have to go back again to get the shot I want.



Uh oh.....



Cows. And they're not getting out of the way.



Too stupid to run. Barb didn't care either. The ruts caused by last years heavy rains have filled in with dust, and it's a riot to surf on. As you read this, it's raining here, so the dust should have settled, but 34C on the last day of May is nearly unheard of (*historical temperature records were set all over BC this week).



Moo...



Still going down, but we're almost there.



We finished the day with a barbeque at Rancho Relaxo and a full moon. What a way to kill a hangover.

Now that's what I like to see in the rear view mirror. Yes, it's that time of the week again. Ladies Nite, although this time I stayed out of it except for providing a shuttle. Barb and Jules took the girls for a rip on the Rusty Muffler.



Oh look, it's just like the Shore.



So's this. Just like North Van, the girls outnumber the guys these days.



Artsy shot courtesy of Barb. She's getting pretty good with the camera now.



Hordes of them.



I swear I'll never get tired of views like this.



You getting bored of looking at pristine singletrack yet?



Me neither.





A few minor mechanicals, and it's sunset.



And then it's moonrise.



Ladies Nite is every Tuesday at 5:30 behind Freedom Bikes in Penticton. All abilities and biking persuasions are welcom (even roadies).

We needed a rest day yesterday. BC's a bit overwhelming your first time out.

Today it was time to hit the home turf. No, not the Shore, but the Peat Bog.



A day off and the njuries had stiffened up a bit, so we took some extra time to get the kinks out today. Yeah....right. Straight into teeters and hucks.



Oops...that didn't work out the way it's supposed to.



Luckily we had 'Stash to show us how it's done.



There ya go, Gary. That's better.



Now it's time for the Moneyshot.



Pictchure Purfekt.



A little lower Gary missed his footing on a ladder (he was really slugging rats today. These things happen). It was a near miss on what could have been a bad leg break, as his foot got caught in the rungs and he went over the side. Luckily we got there in time to get him free with nothing worse than a little bit of blood and another set of bruises.



The afternoon was more time off, courtesy of Cap'n Jack at the Black Pearl.



Yeah, those Balck Pearl martini's are pretty good aren't they?



So's the view.



ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH! Could be a hangover in your future, mateys.

What's this? Rain? Nice....



Only the second day of "rain" since I moved inland. If you can call it rain. It was still dusty under the bigger trees. Still, it was wet enough to make the woodwork sort of slick for the first run.



Our new jump was a bit treachourous, as Gary found out to his dismay.



We checked out all the other work that got done yesterday. Here's Gary again on some of the newer lines.



Stash, no tto be outdone, got in on the action.



On the second lap we hooked up with a few local groms and one of the Swiss boys. Those Swiss kids sure like the air....



We also stepped up the airtime. Here's Gary sending the biggest jump of his life.



Ditto for Stash. She faceplanted her first attempt, then sent her second try at full committment....with her hands inside the brake levers. Best nose wheelie I've ever seen.



Here's the spiral ramp in it's completed state.





The Swiss kid sent this new ramp large from the top. Gary tried the same move but missed the timing and dropped his front wheel offf the edge into the hole before the tranny. Gotta love the full body armor, as aside from some savage bruises he was just fine.



The end of hte day turned into a bit of a session on the "Hurtin' Albertan" hit. A schwack of Stubble Jumpers showed up to put on a bit of a show for us.



Lots of laughs, and lots of bruises, and it's time to go back to the Okanagan.

How's this for a surprise on your bike tour? Today we went up to Kamloops to help out with the KBRA trail day on Harper Mtn. A full day of building with a barbeque dinner and campout was in order.

We got there late morning and headed up to the Bridge to Nowhere to fix up some old woodwork that was getting wort of beat.



Most of the big projects were taken, but we recycled some old stuf into an improved a-frame over a stump.



It was quite the all ages gig, and I was surprised to see so many faces I didn't know and almost none that I did.



Lots of quality work got done.



This place is so popular, the stunts were getting hit efore they were even finished (it was OK, we told them to hit it).



Proud builders watching the first rider over their work.



With a short time left before the end of the day, we built one more jump. It's got a total crap landing, but hey...youcan take the guy outta the Shore, but you can't---you know what I mean.



Time to hit the new and improved.



The fun part of this for me is that Barb and I built a lot of the original lines way back in '99. They've been greatly improved since then, but we still feel sort of like parents on this stuff.



Here's the spiral ramp. It was getting ready to collapse, so it got a full overhaul.



Good lookin' out with the chainsaw. I think this was part of the KBC crew working on this one.



The flowers are going off at this time of year. I've never ridden here when it's blooming.



..and blooming it was.



A slight damper was put on the BBQ as a light rain started to fall.



I have a hard time calling 5 minutes of mist "rain," but it was enough to send lots of people home for the night. We kept warm by burning some old stunts.



By the end of the night the Kamloops locals were in the minority, with a couple of Swiss kids, a pair of 'Mericans, and some joker from Westbank outnumbering the 3 hardy Kamloopsians that stayed put.

What the hell kind of title is "Corn Stars," anyway? Well, these happy kids are more of the HickHuckster variety, being from North Carolina and all, but Gary had these cool socks with a little corn husk and stars on 'em, so there you go.

Natasha (or Stash, as she gets called) is just so damn cute that I can't think of anything to nickname her anyway.



After flying to Spokane, Gary and Stash drove up to be the first folks to experience the new Bush Pilot HQ. We got this party started right with a lap on Builders Only.



Nothing like jumping into it with both feet, eh?



Once the intimidation factor started to wear off, the kids got some flow going.



Blue skies and warm temps didn't hurt there.



Plus, with the pair of them being in the National Guard back home, it was easy to give 'em orders. "Soldier! Send it!"

"Yessir! Sending it, sir!"

Every Tuesday night in Penticton is Ladies Nite, thanks to our friend Jules here. Barb and I went out to assist in any way we thought we could last week and to meet some more of the locals.



Several local ladies showed up, so we loaded a few into the van for an intro to the Peat Bog and an informal session of sorts.



The girls were all pretty keen to try out some tougher terrain than they usually get out on.





Of course, it's not always smooth sailing.



We got a nice sunset while we were out.



Jules shows us how to negotiate a tricky downhill section.



Not everyone could get it as smooth, though.



It was a fun little rip, and to top it off, we lost our spare keys to the van (those Hide-A-Keys don't always work) so we got to hang out and enjoy the last of the sunset for a while longer.



Thanks, BCAA. Ladies Nite is every tuesday at Freedom Bikes. All abilities and all persuasions are welcome.

No festivals, no responsibilities, just ridin' today.

Mitchell decided to try out his new urban trials bike.



Yeah, no footer...



Like yesterday, we started off on the Bog, but today we had a fuller house with the rest of the Devinci LogJam crew coming out and a few more of the local Pron Star Posse (that's not a typo). Besides myself, there was Barb Gnarly, Chuck D. Railer, Dirt Dropout, Gnarl Charger, Mini Moola, Manuel Stuntcock, and Flatty O Tool. Plus a supporting cast of thousands.



Here's some more of those trail improvements that DAx put in over the spring.



If you look close, you'll see something that is seldom experienced in this zone.



That's right, a tranny. The Okanagan sure has changed. Barb is lovin' it, as without a tranny she'd be doing the ride-around with the hardtail.



Here's Flatty O'Tool getting some action.



Who wants a beer?



Alright, back to the riding. Here's StuntCock. He's like a regular cock, only more stunted.



I don't even know who this is, but he's got the teeter dialed.



A couple of laps and DUDES later, and the new kids are getting a bit tie-tie.



The dessert lap today was to be a full length Beer Run to Rusty Muffler. as we like to say, it's "Mostly downhill, almost all the time." But of course it starts by going uphill.



Gaber put on a clinic for the mostly downhill part.



Once we got out of the flatter stunts and into Bud Height, it was time for Flatty and StuntCock to really throw down.





Kinradical also got into the fray with some huge whips.







After the boys put a few dents in the landing ramp, Gaber sent this massive lawn dart right onto the busted slat. Nice style, in timing if not in form.



Hey dude, yougot something on your back there.



Nearing the end of our 2 hour oddysey, we get a little break and a view.



We also started losing members of the group from here to the end. I guess that's why it's also called "3 Blind Mice."





More crap singletrack, Okanagan style.



We finally made it back out of the woods, to find our shuttle drivers mildy wrecked on the local grape juice.



There you go, what 3 days of hardtailin' the South Okanagan does to you.



Thans to everyone that made it out, and special shouts to my favourite riding buddies, Kurt and Mootchell (you owe me ten bucks, Steve). Check out the PinkBike version of events OVER HERE. I think Kinrade made me cry...

For the first time in years, I'm not doing the Greyballs birthday tour on the May long weekend. He was invited up, but without the catalyst I guess it's just too far to the Okanagan.

So Saturday I was left to my own devices. Not much to report. I went and hooked up a Powers lap on 2.5 with some locals that I went and bummed a ride off of. Nice guys. I've ridden with Kurt Froese before a few times. No pics, but we had a good rip and some cold ones after.

Sunday I had a committment in Penticton with the Festival of Bike being put on by Freedom Bikes and the City of Penticton. A very low key event designed to get bikers out and enjoying the immense variety of cycling in the area. Shuttles on the KVR for the less experienced, some group road rides around town, and some hardcore freeride shuttle drops courtesy of the Bush Pilot.

While I was offering rides, I ran into Mike Kinrade and Fiona Taylor from the Devinci/PinkBike team. A few other locals soon shoewd up and we headed up to the Bog for a few laps.

You may note that the average Okanagan ripper sports a bit more X in their chromosomes.



I love this town. Those girls aren't just pretty faces, either. They rock the singletrack pretty hard.

Most of the Code 4 line has been buffed out htis spring by Dax. It's in better shape this year than I've seen it in many a moon.



Not that it helped Kinrade out much. He was suffering the usual woes of the pro rider with too much riding and not enough maintenance. Still, that's a 9" travel bike that weighs only 38 pounds. Look for that at your Devinci dealer in 2008.



Fiona is a new acquiantance. Another Island girl that slays gnarly trails. I don't know what's in the water over there, but whatever it is, it's working.



She's a lot like Courtenay (our guide from last year). See it......hit it.



Step up, step down, all good.



Meanwhile, back at Chuck D. Railers, it was time for a gin-and-tonic break.



We had one more run to do, but of course I took NO shots. A Rusty Muffler at full throttle is a great way to finish a day, and when you can be chasing the BirdMan, so much the better.

(yo...click o this, roll over it, whatever you gotta do)


There was a nice wildlife moment on the shuttle return with Barb when we came across these two moose (or is it meese?).




After the ride, there was still time for a cruiser ride.



Al Box, rocking the Eurobeats on the Orange Crate.



What a day. End it with a heap of beers and ribs at Piggys for a job well done.



To read up on the PinkBike version of events, check out THIS LINK.

It's the final day of the trip and Monica has had enough of us. We argue, we fart, we're rude, and we have cameras on us when it's too early to be decent.



The last day is an informal race around the lake, which is just another way of saying that we make the little shrubs more motivated to get outta here. My group kicked some serious ass, and riley of course walked away witht he overall win. Danika, Mike, and me rode sweep behind everyone, and took a little break to hit this sweet, sweet rope swing into Otter Lake.



That would be Danika about to get very cold there. Lots of fun, I tells ya.

This next shot is good fun. Talk about your lineup at the gas pumps.



Yes Pally, we did "Throw Down Mighty" on the KVR. Have a good year, boys.

The canyon day is always the best day. This is a pretty cool ride, even if it's still completely flat. Lots of tunnels and bridges and old stuff lying around.



When you leave Princeton, you go through a tunnel underneath the highway to Vancouver, and on the other side you cross a bridge right away, immediately entering back into the "wilderness."



There's also this ochre deposit, which gave Princeton it's original name of Vermilion Forks. Apparently the local indigenous types used to trade this stuff far and wide as it made the best paint in this part of North America. William looks impressed...



Riley in his Sears underwear model pose...



At he gazebo, it was time for life lessons. Here' we're discussing women's anatomy, but in a purely scientific manner.


Conor Lees photo

Game on. I scared the CRAP outta Ethan inthe tunnel a few seconds after this shot. Your eyes are totally dazzled from the sunlight, so you can't see anything in there. Well, except for the whites of Ethan's eyes. It's the little things that make life worth living....



Giddyap. Local cowboy and his pony (that almost took Pally's head off. I guess the locals aren't that used to gangs of bikers around here).



Some more wildlife. Frogs were easy to find this year. Maybe they're actually on the rebound. This guy is about an inch long. Pretty sure he's a Great Basin Spadefoot.



I was the only swimmer this year, although Pally did a little dancing in the water. David got his feet wet, too.



Yes, Jonathon, this means you.



Another indigenous species, the Greater Shoe Tree (piedaprotectus giganticus). Some of the fruit from last year is still there.



Even though we rode much further than the other group, we caught up to them in Tulameen, and beat them to camp by a considerable margin. Nice and hot out, so we had a nice late afternoon at Otter Lake, and enjoyed our last night out by staying up late by the fire with the guitar.

OK, I think we've finished with the mayhem for this trip. Wel, before I say that, aI should tell you that after we unstuck the 3 ton yesterday, Andrew managed to have the trailer unhook itself on the dirt road back to camp.

Lucky guy.

Speaking of lucky guys....meet Dave, Riley, and Shai. They could have been in math class all week but no......they're on a bike ride with me.



Today started mildly lame, but got way better as the day went on (as this stage always does). The occasional sandy section was a good place to get the slower riders up to speed.

This trestle marks the start of the good stuff. It's also the place for the ceremonial "Trundling Of The Big Ass Boulder" whereby we really get things rolling. Tis particular T.O.T.B.A.B. got a lucky bounce and sent a 400lb rock right into one of the steel supports of hte bridge.

It was pretty cool.



Shortly after we broke for lunch at the tunnel and set up the rules for the "primes" (that's pronounced "Preemes"). For those of you who don't know, a prime is a sprint section in a longer stage that is worth some kind of bonus. We just used the honour system for ours, but anytime there was a worthwhile feature in sight, it was race time.



Here's the boys racing for the gazebo at the top of the hill.



Travis was a bit too stylish to race, but he's looking good so we'll give him some arbitraty points anyway.



The "descent" into Princeton with the Hozameens in the background. That's Mt Frosty in Manning Park back there.



Riley and a Ponderosa Pine.



OK, it was a long day. So long, in fact, that Quinn didn't notice me taking this pic.



While Quinn caught up on some much needed beauty sleep, the rest of us sessioned some chunks of wood that Martin set up for us to play on.



Jonathon (above) was trying pretty hard there. He picked up the bunnyhop pretty quickly, but the skinnies were a bit tougher for him

Riley (below) practically lives on his bike, so he was trying to bunnyhop ONTO the skinnies.



Andrew isn't an avid rider, but he was nailing everything. One of those naturally balanced guys. Check out that nice forward balance point. Textbook.



Shai just yelled louder until he got it.



Monica, meanwhile, continued to amuse us with many enjoyable anecdotes of Swingin' London. She's a great lady, and fun to be around. Plus the guys are all scared of her (god knows why, she's tiny). I learned more about grownup beverages off of her this week than I've picked up in many a moon, I tells ya. If you're nice, I'll let you know about her tea recipe.

Well, we arrived late, so we figured a little sleep in might be in order. Besides, the other group had a huge day today so I had given orders for them to get going early.



By 10:30 I was starting to get a little worried though, even though the guys in our crew said they had some definite slackers in the other crew. The lack of communications and our reliance on the one vehicle between the 2 groups really became apparent here.



Luckily, Andrew showed up with the U-Haul (this is our 3rd one, for those of you keeping track) shortly after 11. Unluckily, he immediately sank it in a ditch. Those trucks are low, and for a guy who normally drives a compact, it's not a surprise.



No amount of young gun effort wass going to shift a 3 ton cube, so I high tailed it for town while Martin and Monica (one of the Saint's teachers along for the trip. She's a gas, more about her later). I took the extra time to hop a lift up to Westbank to grab my truck so we could dispense with the 2 vehicle program.

Here's an ad for ya. That's Okanagan Towing if you ever need un-stucking. Even gave us a deal.



Meanwhile...back on the trail....


Conor Lees photo.

A boring section for the first day, and it's soft and sandy too. Plus, no one (not even the guides) had done it before. Sort of like my first year doing this trip...

Ask Martin. He'll tell you it was like eatin' weiners.



At least our camp was a lot nicer this time.


Conor Lees photo.

Yes, it's that time of year again. A whole new crop of grade 10 guys from St. Georges to expose to the outdoors. These guys look ready.



Not exactly a smooth start to this year's trip. What with the move to the Okanagan and Mitch pulling out at short notice, I was really scrambling to find guides this year. Mike Pro from Cypress was in again, and Danika Schroeter (former Canadian DH mega star and all around hot chick) signed up and Martin from Extreme Sports Camps check in at the last minute to save the day.

Unfortunately, the U-Haul we were issued as support failed the safety test in the driveway so we were delayed for an hour right off the start. The second truck blew a motor in Abottsford, so it was even later by the time the THIRD truck showed up.

You can see how amused Mike is by this.



My marmot didn't care. We got to camp at 8 pm, and Mike and Danika's group had to set up in the dark. Ahhhhh, the joys of the outdoors.

Our last trail day for the NSMBA. It's a little bit sad, really. Ahhh.....maybe we'll throw down on another some time. They are really fun events.

They also wouldn't be possible without sponsors. Kelly Smith is the owner of the new IGA down on Esplanade, and he's a great guy. Look at all that food.



We also need lots of help on the trail, and although we didn't get the HUGE turnout like last time, we still had 55 motivated diggers show up.



I think that with the Rat Race on the Sunshine Coast, the Vancouver Marathon wrecking traffic, and a bit of rain it was still a great turnout. That rain made it great to see how to cut the drainage.



Oh look....girls. Awwwww, they're hikers. Oh well, they're in some pretty short shorts.



Franco likes them like that.



OK Franco. Back to work.



You too, Dieter.



As always, Barb made a great lunch of drunken salmon burgers, and no trail day is complete without Karen's delicious cookies or Brewhaha's cold brewskis.



Thanks to everyone that came out, and if you didn't make it, there's still 5 more chances to give back to the Shore.

Had to go back to Vangroovy for the NSMBA Trail Day we were sponsoring, and I was smart enough to bring my bike in for a quick ride.



I happened to run into the same group of guys in a few spots onthe way down, so I snapped a few shots.



As luck would have it, I rode withone of these dudes a couple of years ago on the St. George's KVR trip.



Which is sort of funny considering that I'm going to be heading out on that trip in a few days.