With the recent snow and my inability to get out on the trails this past weekend I have been itching to ride. Neither Rob or Tim were able to come out and ride so I did a “Who wants to ride?” post on the NSMB.COM ride planning forum. It seems as though I was not the only one itching to get out and ride. From my post we determined that Simon Fraser University (SFU) was likely the best hill to ride on this fine evening and 6 guys and a dog showed up for the festivities. The riders were Dave, Steve, Anthony, Kim (with his dog Golden), Mark and myself.
Once all the introductions were made we started the climb to the top on Joe’s Trail (Trans Canada Trail) . I think all of us were a little surprised to find that there was a total lack of snow on trail up which made the climb really quite easy to climb rather than push. I had just eaten before arriving and my belly was not feeling very good on the climb at all but once we popped out at the bus stop at the top of SFU it was time for the real fun to begin.
Across the campus we went with lights blazing to the top of Naheeno trail. Once we were all armored up and the light running we dropped in on the trails to see what they had in store for us. This evening I was the only one on a hard tail as everyone else was riding 6”x6” bikes, but I did just fine. On Naheeno were several downed trees on the first trail that will need cutting out with a chainsaw.
Once across University Drive East we got onto Mel’s trail and traversed over to Nicole’s. Again there were a few trees down on Mel’s, but overall the trail was in good shape. Nicole’s is rather famous for Nicole’s Pole and with Steve leading and riding it first so easily I thought ‘sweet, no problem’. Well Nicole’s pole is a feature that showcases the laws of physics and the grip that you how your tires have. Steve had some reasonably new sticky tires on his bike. I had a new sticky front tire but an old totally worn rear tire that was sticky a year ago. Down the pole I went but every time I touched my rear brake it would cause my tire to drift off one side or the other. Fortunately I kept cool and rode the log only using my front tire (testing the law of physics and the grip on my tire). One at a safe exit point I wheelie dropped off the side. Later on I heard Mark saying I was not making that log look confidence inspiring.
The rest of Nicole’s was a sweet rip to the bottom and we all stopped to remove one larger branch across the trail. At the gravel road the 6 of us chatted for a good 15 minutes and everyone but Steve and I departed home. Steve and I decided to climb a little more and do Lower Snake. The climb to the top is short and easy and you are rewarded with a nice easy rip on single track to the bottom again. There were several large trees down on the trail and last one about 50M from the end of the trail was a full sized tree uprooted where the root left a 3 foot deep crater in the middle of the trail. In that on spot they will very likely need to do a reroute.
Steve and I then headed to our cars where something really odd occurred. Just as I got onto the paved road, my derailleur hanger decided to break and I had my derailleur in the spokes of my wheel. I guess there really was no better place for it to happen right.
Overall a great ride out this several people I have never met before and zero injuries.
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