The traditional gratuitious bear shot.



Another rad day of shredding today. As it was an extended play session, it was also a day to get the gear dialled in. Had a quick visit with Tyler over at SRAM to change out a rear spring. For anyone thinking of doing a Vivid on a Knolly, consider going down about 50lbs on your usual spring. I'm on a 400lb now and it's awesome. Plus I got to hang with Tyler and check out his wicked Chromag he was buffing out.

Thanks Tyler.

Also hung out at FanatykCo and got the ride dialled in by Len. He went above and beyond on the service. A huge thanks to Scott, Sara, Len, Kev, and everyone else down at the shop. They should be your first stop if you ever need your bike fixed in Whistler.

So I had a great day of riding. Kind of rough to start, but I stayed out until about 7:30 and finally had that run I was looking for. I've been struggling with the speed, and I've still got some healthy fear associated with a potentially fatal crash Ihad inthe park a couple of years ago. But as the park emptied out late in the day I managed to clear my head a bit and had that 'click' finally happen. I think I'm just so used to being on trails with no other riders around that I needed some quiet time out there to get my ride on.

I don't know if this guy got his ride on, but he did manage to get his face on a pizza.





Ah Whistler.....

Took a bunch of the locals that met through the club to Whistler for the weekend. first off, it was time to set a new record for throwing money into the van....



Our Kelowna vibe was immediately identifiable on arrival. Here's Jack and some of the Venture Gear guys wowing a crowd of Euro Trash with their amazing bike unloading skills.



No pics of riding in Whistler. It's just too hard to stop when you could be getting another lap in.

Jack in his finest Fat Bald Men shirt, is ready for an evening of adventure in the village.



Lance took advantage of an absence of a Maitre'D to work his magical reservation skills. "Sir will enjoy table 9 this evening?"



We'll get you a booster seat in a minute, Jack.







Yes, this evening ended badly. Good food, but far too much alcohol.

Ah... Whistler.

From MTBco.ca

The second trail cleanup day of 2008 proved to be a huge success. MTBco would like to thank every one of you who turned out to help, you guys were just awesome. Also our thanks to Eve-Lyn Wolters at RDCO for your ongoing help and support.

An awesome turnout of 35 volunteers worked on Gillard Forest Service Road on access trails to remove a huge amount of garbage. The photos speak for themselves, and MTBco would like to thank everyone who turned out to help on what turned out to be a beautiful sunny Okanagan blue-sky day. You guys rocked the bush today !

This is how we do it Central Okanagan style. We had a quick clean up of all accumulated debris from the shuttle parking lot and removal of nails from the parking area.

Start of the day, and we’re just getting into it:



Garbage pile at Rubber Down AKA Camp Dumpalot:



Unloading at the shuttle area:



The second huge garbage pile at the shuttle area:



Not just hard work, there was play too ! Free shuttles courtesy of Bush Pilot Biking:



Ryan gets down to ground level to check out the pure butteryness of this freshly buffed section of Yo Moma:

Stay tuned for more clean ups in the future-come lend a hand!

All good things must come to pass, and wee're finally outta cake. How ironic that I have no pics of all the cakes we consumed. I swear, there were at least two cakes a day on this event. We had our cake AND we ate it too.

Hence the title.

Alright, today was Ken's day. He slept in pretty late this morning, and when he finally did get up, I got this wicked vibe coming off him.



Really, it should have been Sven's day, as he bucked up and purchased the Angry Bumblebee. Yes, he got a "Smokin'" deal. Yes, he deserves it. Fly free, brave Bumble.....



Noel was managing to stay upright, except when he was on the wallrides. where you don't want to stay upright. The streak is broken, Noel had a clean ride today.



Sven is studying the instructions. Ken isn't worried at all.



Redneck in a burnt forest....



Hey Jeff....need any help with that flat tire? I think everyone has some advice for you....



Shot of the day. Ken lays it out on Boss Hog.



Great day. Great weekend, and the last May Two Four for us as non-parental type units.

tick...tock.....the child approacheth....

Today would be the big day. The middle of the Long Weekend means we go to Naramata to check out the Beer Run. Tis is when we found out that the upper part of Arawana has been logged.

Bummer......

Oh well, it needed work anyway. The lower section is still buff.



Also in the crew today is our pal Peenut from the Puddle. it's good having the young guns throw down. It really brings the group vibe together.



Colin also showed up with his lovely wife. Colin also pushed the envelope (as per usual). Colin only knows two speeds: flat out and crashing halt. Lucky for him, he stuck to flat out almost all day.



Oh, and ANOTHER celebrity joined the ranks for this one. The inimitable Cory LeClerc threw down this giant SH-CACK! for us. Ironically, I think that was the smoothest I've ever seen it done.



Unfortuntately I don't have any pics of his fabulous lady friend that he brought up. Karen rode with us last year, and she's gotten faster than ever. I love how this country makes chicks such rad riders.

Oh, and this next one would be former Canadian DH champ Brant Lyon. He's been off the bike for a couple of years, so he's just getting it back together. Which means that he's still riding at a superhuman level compared to the rest of us.



Peenut gets the biggest air of the week. A solid 50' from lip to lander.



Colin wasn't too far off that mark.



Tippie was happy to just be alive. He managed to come down with a cold that he proceeded to give to everyone else.



Uh oh. Bridge out.





While we're dropping names, Noel was along for another adventure. Here he is swearing at me for taking pictures instead of helping with bikes.



OK, time for a beer and a swim.



And a gopher snake.



Lap two was the Rusty Muffler. Check out this sequence of Colin trying out his other gear.







Tippie was amused.



Dan was freaking out. He's a pro shooter from the UK who moved out here to make his fortune. He couldn't believe that the Okanagan hasn't been shot yet, and was running hither and yon snapping epic panoramas at every turn. I fully expect him to be back soon. Actually, I can hardly wait to see his shots from this trip.



In his words, "I only need five or six good shots for a story, and I must have shot a hundred in the past two days."



Gratuitious bike porn.



We had a little impromtu shower for the fat chick--uhh, I mean the pregnant ladies in the crew. Barb and Sarah got some serious goodies. The hit of the night was the moose hide moccasins from a friend of ours in the NWT. We have to do some checking, but they may be fromt he same village as Bretts grandmother. Pretty cool.



Laura has had enough. She's only been riding for something like 8 weeks, and somehow she's fallen in with a fast crowd of riders that have been at it for decades. Welcome to the family....

It's after midnite, and Brett Tippie is at my house. See how excited he is? Well, of course there's a story. That t-shirt goes back to the first time we met. I was working at the old Cove shop and had gotten my mitts on one of the very first Kona full suspension bikes. Tippie walked in looking for a ride and although I'd never met him, I lent him the Kona. Tihs was just something I thought of as professional courtesy. He came with good credentials, but this was still before Kranked, before Fro-Riders, before all that.

Several weeks later I got this cool hand painted t-shirt as a thank you. I mean, what are you gonna do, throw the thing out? It's only been worn once.

I thought he was gonna explode when I pulled the shirt out on this night.



Well, the celebrations worked the men over pretty hard, but the womenfolk got up early and got to work in the kitchen.



I did hide their shoes.....



Oh right...riding. Well over a dozen people showed up last night, and more today.



Sarah still can't find her shoes, but she managed to get outta the kitchen.



OK, another Builders Only day. Sven, Shore builder, has a go on the Jedi F*cker.





That boy was on fire. I think he missed it up here. Tippie had a brand spanking new Flatline he was breaking in, and was also a bit rusty after being off the bike for a few years. He was remembering pretty quickly.



Although he gets tired more easily than before.



See one, do one.....



Maja, making friends...



Not to be outdone, Barb got out for a short lap at the end of the day. Her first ride of the year.



Oh,and that's a 7 months pregnant woman hucking herself there. Remember that next time you roll that sucker.



I was kind of hoping to get a MuddBunnies Calendar worthy shot here, but the light wasn't co-operating and then my camera crapped out....... again. Any Canon reps reading this? One seriously unsatisfied customer over here.



More fun tomorrow, when even more riders show up.

Yes, the theme of this years May Two Four long weekend would have to be cake. Don't ask me why, it just was.

Things started early on Friday, with the arrival of the crew from the Collective and our pal Radek from Pinkbike.



Most of these guys haven't ridden up here yet, and they got a supremem day for it. Winter is finally over.



Radek goes big. Or Radek IS big. Take your pick.





Here's some fun with macro. Yes, and action shot on macro. It actually worked.



This one didn't. As Dan Barham tells me, push the ISO as afar as it will go, make it black and white, and call it art.



Big Radek again.



..and one of the Collective minions showing him up. Sorry, I totally spaced your name. It was a LONG weekend.





The price Radek paid for his "going bigness."



We crammed a couple of good runs in before sundown. It was awesome with allthe heat and flowers and goodness out there.



We finished off with the Kelowna premiere of Seasons, and the assembled crowd loved every second. It would be after midnite before I returned home, and I wondered what I might find there....

The snow keeps melting, and Justin keeps cutting. This winter just keeps on giving.



The bears don't seem to mind. Here's a black bear track, but we're reasonably sure that we've seen a grizzly cub running around.

Something I've wanted to do for a while is clean up the crap that all the rednecks leave behind after the winter at the trail head. Which is xactly what we got up to here. Well, Rich doesn't look quite like he's gotten up yet, but you know what I mean.....



Dave got a new microwave.



I like this one. "Environmentally friendly lawn care..." Like you couldn't dispose of it in like fashion. You know, if you're gonna have a grow-op, no-one is going to catch you by hanging out at the dump. They figured it out when you bought all that fertilizer at the local head shop.



There were also a few trees down that needed clearing. This one in particular....





So there you go. 4 tons of crap in just over an hour.





Of course, we had to celebrate our efforts with some laps. Justin seemed pretty stoked on the results.



A few other random locals showed up as well.



That was just a warmup for the main event. May 25th up at Gillard we're doing the BIG CLEANUP. See you there.....

Ahhh, the end is in sight. The boys are feeling a bit better about the trip now.



There was some local stunts built in the ghost town of Granite City, so we investigated.



I don't know if the old miners could have possibly imagined this kind of behaviour.







Oh well, the world keeps on turning. We took the boys up the hill to meet some of the original residents of town after this.





Hi Lucie...



Rader was pretty impressed by the local flavour at the crossroads.



Oh yeah, it was also race day. With us running both groups together, we had a pretty big relay race to run.



What was amazing was how close it was right to the end.





My group had a couple fewer riders, so our fastest guys went twice.


Which was just as well as we had some seriously slow guys that evened the odds out.



I don't think it really mattered anyway.



These guys are pretty competetive in nature to begin with.



Of course, it came down to me and Danika on the last lap, and I at least managed to get the hole shot on her.



But her racing background came into play. I pretty much suck at racing, and she elbowed me out on a berm about 3/4's of the way through.



Then we bought the whole crew some cans of coke. I'd call it a success.

Oh, and then Rader stepped in some goose crap. His new name is "Poo Toe."



Our last night of the trip, so we engaged in a few fire related shenanigans.



See ya on the next tour...

Good morning campers! How's the bum feeling this morning?



Oh, and I'd better say Happy Birthday to me sister. So.... Happy Birthday!

Mellow ride up the canyon today. I love this part of the ride. It's pretty cool with the tunnels and trestles.





Lunch time. A whopping 12 km down the trail. I told you it was an easy day.



"This place sucks" I kid you not, these guys were trying to tell me that they weren't having fun. Yeah....right.





No other swimmers but me today. That water is even colder this year. Yikes.

Unlike last year, things seem to be going suspiciously smoothly. We've had to join both groups into one flailing mess this year due to weather and a lot of downed trees on the Summerland end of the trail. It should be interesting. Looks like a good group of boys this time around though.



Yo, Philly! These guys have no idea what they're in for....



The question here is "How much further?" as some of these guys start to figure out that it's not as easy as they'd hoped. This is at km 7 of 45 for today. We call that a warmup around here....



Halfway, and we're waiting.



and waiting...



..and waiting...



Well, I'm bored. Lets roll some rocks.





Hey, on the spectrum of senseless acts of violence, rolling rocks has got to be about the only acceptable form. I enjoyed it at any rate.

Shortly after that we got into the home stretch for the day and hit the "downhill". Downhill for a train isn't really saying much.





Nice day out at least.



Funny how much energy these guys have left after the hardest day of their lives (their words, not mine).

Yup, it's that time again. Another year, another group of guys that will never ride a bike again.

Good thing I went for a little pre-ride checkup on the route this year. Spring has been playing hard to get, the trip is a week early this year, and there seems to be a few new hazards around Princeton. I think we're going to have to check this zone out a little more in depth soon...

Cascade Environmental is a company that has been hired by the City of Kelowna to help formulate the trails strategy for the region. In my capacity with the MTBco (the new central Okanagan bike association), I took them out for a little familiarization ride today.



We just had time for a single lap up on Gillard, but that's good enough for one day. Still a small amount of snow up top, but it's no big deal. Plus, I got to ride a trail I've never seen before. This would be "Ghost Rider".