The forecast today called for highs of about 30°c so in order to avoid the blazing heat I decided to go early in the morning for a spin up Seymour. I arrived at about 7am, parked my car on the street in front of the Old Buck parking lot (I'm not paying $5 to use a Provincial Park) and started my climb to the top of the hill. My trusty steed today was my Cove Stiffee which for the most part has been a dependable do everything bike. I had my leg, arm and full face helmet strapped to my hydration pack and up the hill I went.
Surprisingly the climb up the road is not as steep as one might think so the use of a granny gear is not needed. I pedaled all the way to the top in 32 front and 24 in the rear for the gears. Along the first traverse I encountered my first of 2 other riders that were pedaling up the hill. He was a roadie on a nice light bike and such skinny tires. I asked him if we could trade bikes and he just laughed saying I was going to have allot more fun than him on the way down, which is quite true.
There really weren't allot of shuttlers early in my climb. Only one truck with 2 bikes went past me on the climb between the bottom and the Mushroom parking lot. It was after the Mushroom parking lot (about half way up) that the shuttlers started buzzing by. I guess there were about 5 more truck loads of bikes that I saw cruise on by. On the first traverse after the Mushroom parking lot some guy on a XC Giant Mtn bike with slicks passed me. But the dude was what I would call rude. Normally you turn your head to make eye contact and at least say hi. I was a beautiful day and it is normally correct social etiquette to at least say hello, but no, this guy passes me on the opposite side of the road (2 lanes over). I looked over to motion hello but he just stared straight ahead not even acknowledging my existence. Jerk.
Well at the switchback there is a outhouse and water fountain and guess who it there having a drink......the anti social rider. I just cruised on by and continued up the hill at a little higher pace knowing that he was going to try and pass me again so I dropped the hammer and put the hurt on.......dreaming of the Tour and winning the Alpe D'Huez stage. He passed me. Again.
Now this is where a good ride suddenly became a great ride that I will not soon forget. About a 100m from the trail head of CBC and the end of my climbing for the day I heard a car approaching coming up the hill. I could then hear it gradually slow down and come to a complete stop beside me on the road. I looked over and to my surprise were 2 very good looking ladies in their early 20's in a shinny silver Mini. My first thought is that these girls are lost and are just stopping to get directions but rather the passenger smiled and said to me, "You look a little tired, would you like a Red Bull?". I hesitated slightly before my response as I was confused and surprised until I looked at the side of the car these girls were driving in. It had the Red Bull logo plastered all over it. It turns out these girls drive all over town looking for active people and offer them Red Bull. I must say that their timing could not have been better. They gave me a can of ice cold Red Bull, I thanked them for it and they were on their way.
So up to the beginning of the trail I went and geared up for the ride down and drank my can of Red Bull. I did of course call the wife to check in and tell her of the Red Bull girls and she just laughed. CBC is one of the very legendary trails on the Shore and has recently seen allot of armour work and upgrades to keep up with the increasing traffic that the trail is encountering. I must say I really like that trail an on a hard tail bike it make line choice a very important thing. I passed a group of 3 people on bike full suspension bikes that were taking a break at one of the stunt areas but I really find that doing that trail non stop and riding smoothly with unbroken continuity
is so much more fun than that stopping and starting all the time. I role pretty much all the wood work without any issues today, I just avoided the drop and the few new launches that have recently been built.
Over the Corkscrew is was after the exit off CBC. At that point I say 2 more guys with dogs that I had seen shuttling. They were sidelined with a flat but were fixing it so I just cruised on past. Corkscrew is a fun trail that has quite a challenging skinny section near the top. One thing I find hard to believe is the last time I rode that section reasonably clean was during a wet night ride with Tim, Graham and Marco. It is hard enough in the dry in the daylight. I made my way down corkscrew to the new connector trail that I believe is called Salvation. It is a brand new hand cut and wood ladened trail that gives riders of most abilities nice well built trail to ride. The trial is about 70% complete with a few of the larger signature stunts yet to be completed. There is one particular z shaped teeter totter that will be really interesting to ride once it is completed.
After Salvation it was Pingu which is a flowing trail with solid woodwork and lots of roots to ride over. Then over to Pangor which is like an extension of Pingu but just not directly connected. The thing I really like about Seymour is that the trails are real Mountain Bike trail. I say Mountain Bike because so many trails nowadays are being smoothed to the point where they become like BMX tracks with jumps on the paths. Seymour mountain where real Mountain Bikes are needed to have a proper ride.
After riding Pangor I rode a short trail called Slash which I love because of its steepness and the exposed rock areas and overall technical aspect. From Slash it is a short climb over and up to Empress and the nice steep rock sections. Every time I ride Empress I see a new way down the rock faces but I always seem to go the same route whether I am on the hard tail or the full suspension. So after the rock sections it down the uber armored bermed corners and out to my car.
I had an absolutely faultless ride. The only thing that could have made it better was if I have a riding buddy with me to share the experience.
