That's it, thats all from the Chilcotin, folks. I'll leave you with a couple of highlight shots from the expedition.

Enough of these little roadside attractions, lets go fly someplace. Harley agrees.....



In order to get the bike down to the zone we had picked out, the doors had to come off the machine. If that wasn't wild enough, imagine sitting here with a bike pulling you out the door. I'm literally hanging from the harness here.



Romo thought it was alright too.



We got dumped out across the Fraser from Dog Creek Ranch to clear out this line for Steve to ride. It wasn't a lot of work to open it up, as there was a natural trail already in place here.



Ants.



Oh look, lunch.



Yeah, sandwiches in the middle of nowhere are a good time.



Mitches Moneyshot, or should I say Moneymaker?



We hung out for a while waiting for good light, and I got kind of bored, so enjoy a few artsy pics.



OK, here we go. Time to get things moving. Bjorn! Hail us a cab or something, OK?





Sorry Harley, you'll have to wait this one out.



Random Rock Star image....



This is the end of the run that made the final cut.



After which the heli flew away and left me and Mitch marooned in the canyon for a couple hours. so have another artsy shot.



Mitch, practicing some time lapse....



Harley with a cactus in her lip.



And this would be the owner of the ranch across the river. We stopped in for a visit on the way back to town. You can see the spines we were on in the background, and in the distance the grasslands of the Gang Ranch and the Churn Hills. An incredible landscape and a fantastic day to be out.

Bonus points for anyone who knows what the title of today's post is referring to. I'll give you a hint; it's literary.

OK, so those logs we grabbed off the roadside ended up here. Hows this for a tranny?



The idea was to get this tree in the shot, and send a huge hip over this gully.



The only thing was, it'looked a lot bigger with the ramp in place than it did when the visualization was taking place.



A LOT bigger....



But still, it looks freekin AWESOME from this angle.



Well, it just wasn't meant to be. This pic tells it all....



Oh well, there's other slopes to shred, so we'll just have to let this one go.

Haven't I been here before?

Seems like not much has changed. Wellburn is still figuring out his camera.



James is still going huge.



Romo is too...



Too bad this zone isn't going to work on film. Everyone look sad on three. 1...2....3!



And now for our future ripper segment....



I managed to be standing at the right place at the right time here. Twice a yar you get the setting sun and the moon in the right place for this effect.





Extra cool. The rest of the crew missed it, so they went to roast some weenie over an oil fueled fire. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm......... hydrocarbons. Tasty.



We finished up by grabbing a few logs on the side of the road so we could build some huge ramp someplace.

At this point of the trip, I think Rennie had started to figure out that I was taking the piss the entire week, and was trying to call my bluff. When I said that this wasn't much snow and that the coast had between 15 and 30 feet on the ground right now, well he called "Bullshit."

Seems they figured that you'd drown if it was that deep, and didn't believe me that you could just walk on top of it. Which of course led to a snowball fight.



Ahhh, an excellent time. We finished the trip with a stop in Whistler with our good friends Tyler and Len and a big feast at Sushi Village.


And so this chapter of Kranked 7 comes to a close.....

But don't despair, we've got another week with Romo and Jimbits to cover yet.

Not quite St. Paddy's Day, but with all the great footie in the can from this week we got our goofy on today.

It started with Mitch finding the remains of Mr. Coyote...



Mr. coyote, meet Mr Brycelands helmet....



Then we ran into some kind of street person at the gas station. Oh wait, it's just Romo.



Shortly after that, we started to see some eggs falling from the sky. I guess Romo and James decided to go buy a dozen eggs and pelt us with them. Good idea, but they have lousy aim. We didn't even see the first salvo in town. Out on the highway they missed us a few times when they passed us near the Sheep Creek Bridge. After passing us they set up and ambush. I came around one corner to see Romo running out of the bushes, firing eggs. One of them actually passed between my roofrack and the roof, but never hit anything. For a good rider, he has crap aim.

Of course, everyone in the van was pretty riled up at this point. Whereupon I informed them of the lefotver lasagna in the cooler and the interesting fact that the rear doors of the van open easily from the inside. So everyone is like, "Hit the brakes and we'll get 'em!" but like the old bull says, "Lets walk down and do the lot." So I drove down the gravel road at the annoying speed of 82 km/h, about 2/3's of the way across the road. Really annoying. James finally got sucked in to tailgating me, whereupon I hammered the brakes, the barn doors flew open, and Mitch fired a handful of lasagna at the open window.....



Most of it DIDN'T hit the window, but instead got Romo on the face. Good times....

OK, Back to work. Headcam time....



Oh, another tick....great.





So, we got a few shots just in case we needed some more footage, but today was all about the party. Who's gonna teach this whippersnapper to two step?



Giddyup.....



Rennie, well he doesn't need to be taught.

Everybody cut...everybody cut.....FOOTLOOSE!



Meanwhile, Romo celebrated by slaying some dragons of his own.

Wait, isn't that in February? Well, this is more like the movie. Every day seems just like the one before.

Even the hotel room never changes, but it's sure full of some nice gear.



Ah yes, the comedy setup.



Now Romo smokes 'em put. You can see Josh's coffee in mid-arc if you look close. They got smoked again by the heli right after this.



The film crew in the aftermath. It was even funnier live.



More laps in the heli.



Oh, and that Romo is such a dick....

Finally, some bluebird warmth. I think Nathan is over it though. Must be a bit of a shock coming from the height of summer in Australia to this.



The director, directing....



The talent, reacting (why do I have so many pics of Rennie relieving himself?).



More direction.



Our pilot, Jay, and the crew loading up.



The Force is strong in this one...



Hellburn working...



Achtung, baby...



The chopper picking the boys up for another take.



Chasing the talent along the ridgelines.



Maybe winter is over after all. John felt something crawling in his crotch..



..and look what he found!



So much for my lifetime record of no ticks. I pulled 10 of me this week. At least these ones aren't super aggressive. Pretty gross though....

Pretty typical. Get up, eat, hang out and watch guys ride way too fast, eat some more, go back to town.



Nice sunset though.



These racers are such primadonnas, they gotta wear gloves to eat chicken.



I'm just kidding. We hung out overnight in the canyon this night, and it got killer cold out. Luckily we had lots of beer to keep us company. Here's how we really felt about it.

We did some location scouting today for Kranked 7. A little expedition to scope the lines that Rennie and Bryceland were going to hit. I kind of knew ahead of time what was in store for us, as I've spent a little time in this canyon before.

Here's Rennie being menaced by Harley. He shold have taken that as a warning.



Josh on recon...



Nathan tests the line.



So, the line took about 30 seconds to ride. Then the hike out started.



Pics never do it justice, but suffice to say, this line was EXPOSED. A solid 45 degree pitch of unstable clay and sand that you were constantly slipping oon. The bottom dropped off about 60 feet into a shallow glacier fed river. Suffice to say, if you fell you were done. Coming from the industrila heartland of England, Josh has never done anything like this. He did pretty well considering.



While I was helping Josh with one of the gnarlier parts of the traverse, Nathan got WAYYYY ahead and tried to make a shortcut. He got within 20 feet of it, but had to turn back. Here he is on the verge of falling into the icewater....



If you look cole at this shot, you'll see Nathan returning from his "shortcut." We'd already scaled another hill to get around the cliffs.



Hanging out and waiting for Rennie...



Josh and the "MoHo" back at camp in the background.



Sunset in the canyon, and we're still over an hour out from camp.



Typical Canadian adventure. 21 minutes of riding, and 3-1/2 hours of hiking. Good times....good times.

Head North! Really.....

So I've been a little tardy onthe updates, I know. What can I say, I've been outta town. I got a random call from my old pal Bjorn over at Radical Films. He needed a little assistance with a shoot for his latest vid, Kranked 7: The Cackle Factor. So I got to go down to Vangroovy and pick up the talent.

I'd like to introduce you to Nathan Rennie.....


jSmoke/Kranked 7

...and Josh Bryceland.


jSmoke/Kranked 7

You may have heard of them before, as they apparently are some kind of racer types with a squad known as The Syndicate.

I hadn't, so you're excused if you don't know who they are. They can sure ride good though.


jSmoke/Kranked 7

Honestly, with terrain and conditions like this in March to play with, who wouldn't?


jSmoke/Kranked 7

We drove up to the Chilcotin from Vancouver and spent the first day just shuttling the boys so that they could shake down their gear and get used to the terrain.


jSmoke/Kranked 7

Apparently it's a short road to familiarity with this crew.


jSmoke/Kranked 7

Bjorn checks the shot angles here while Nathan checks his flightplan.


jSmoke/Kranked 7

Now, if you're some kind of Australian DH camp, or maybe some kind of Manchester up and comer, maybe you've never walked on a frozen pond before. Well, don't let me stop you from experiencing something new....


jSmoke/Kranked 7

The video is even better....