Remembrance Day Ride 2006

Today was the 4th Annual Remembrance Day Ride on Mount Fromme. This ride takes place to honour the brave men and women in the Canadian Armed Forces that have fought to ensure that Canada and other countries around the world remain free. Today myself and three others were free to go pursue our passion of riding our bikes on Mount Fromme.

The day started really early, 5:30am I was at Rob's place picking him up to hit the hills. He had been out the night before consuming a few wobbly pops and as soon as he was in the car it smelled like a distillery. We drove to Fromme making one stop at McDonalds for a little breakfast and to settle a rumbly stomach.

Once we parked near Mt. Highway Rob and I climbed to the yellow gate that guards the entrance to Fromme. Waiting at the gate was Tim and a rider I have never met in person before, Connor. We introduced one another and began the climb to the top. Tim brought along a light for his bike because we were starting our climb in the dark, but no more than 10 minutes later the sun started to rise and we were climbing in full light. It was a nice leisurely climb to the top with Connor showing us a couple hidden gems on the climb up.

The original plan was to hit Per Gynt then back up to 7th Secret, Oil Can and Boundary. Because there was a rather significant amount of snow on the ground at the top of 7th Secret it was decided that we would skip Per Gynt. Once we were all suited up we dropped into 7th in the snow. The could be described with one word, SLIPPERY. We were all giggling as we made our way down the armoured and ladder strewn trail taking turns at the front in order to get fresh tracks in the snow.

After a safe run down 7th Secret we climbed a little ways back up the hill to Oil Can. None of us had ever ridden Oil Can before so this was the maiden voyage by all down the trail. Recently the trail had seen some work on it and I must say it was fun. I would call it a fast flowy loamy trail that is perfect for newer riders or those that want to let go of the brakes and ride fast on some sections of loam. There were sections on Oilcan were you had to make a decision to go left or right and each time our decision way to stay right and traverse the hill. It seems as though we made the right decision because we ended up exactly where we expected. We also found the bottom of a trail filled with ladder gaps (either Jerry Rig or Air Supply).

At the aluminium bridge on the Baden Powell trail we did a short hike a bike up the hill to the top of Boundary. I have wanted to ride Boundary for about 6 months now. I had seen a picture of some of the features on the trail and now I was finally getting to ride it. Not too far into the trail was a narrow ladder step section to a steep roll-down. It took me 2 attempts at the run in due to slippery conditions but I finally made it down the steep ladder.


Photo by: Doug Chinnery

My rear wheel however did not survive the ladder. While coming down the last ladder I applied a little rear brake. I had ZERO traction and my rear wheel slid off to the left of the ramp about 3-4 feet in the air. There happened to be a single rock the size of a small watermelon on the ground next to the bottom of the ladder. My wheel met the rock with allot of force but I rode away about 5 feet and came to a stop. Then Tim politely told me that my wheel was........well you know. Amazingly the rim was still straight, but it was now D shaped with 11 Broken spokes but the tire still kept air (ghetto tubeless).



From there on I had to carry my bike down the hill to the road. I only had to opportunity to watch everyone else ride. I must say Tim was on fire cleaning everything in sight on the trail. Rob and Connor we riding almost everything with grins and confidence. At the bottom of the trail I gave Rob the keys to my car and he went off to retrieve it while I waited on the side of the road with a broken bike.

Overall it was a great ride ridden with respect for the brave people in our armed forces. Hopefully next year I will make it down with my bike and body intact.

November Rain and Ryan Leech

Today I had a great day of biking. I rode/built solo early in the morning. I was the first one up the hill at The Woodlot, so I had fresh tracks everywhere I went. There was allot of blown down trees all over the hill after the recent storm we had. On Stove Top I was not able to move them all, but I was able to clear everything on Tsuga. My route was Stove Top up to Tsuga and then down Tsuga to Snakes and finally Shotgun. When I made it to Snakes and Ladders, she was in really good shape. Only one real puddle and that will be taken care of in the near future. A branch seemed to fall off a tree onto one of our bridges and broke a piece of rung clean off. So this was the first part of the trail I needed to work on for the day. Once I made my way down to the tool stash near the rock faces I gathered some tools, found some rung and made my way back up the trail to fix the broken ladder. Once I split, nailed and trimmed the wood there was no way you could tell that anything had happened. Well except that the rung was a nice light brown colour freshly cracked and trimmed.

I then made my way back down to the rock face to continue putting more rock on the trail. I rocked in another 4 feet at the base of the rock face so that there is now about 8 feet of large rocks that will never move out of place. Maybe another 4 feet of BIG stuff I and will be totally happy. I then had to do a little shaping of the land because mud was forming in one spot near the little jump. After that I put in about 8 feet of BIG rocks at a corner that Tim framed in when he was last up there. I piled in a dozen or so large rocks and covered them in gold dirt to cement them together. There still needs to be rock done before and after the section that I rocked, but I filled the majority of the low spot and got a good start on rocking in the whole section. Somewhere in here we will need to engineer a drain to ensure that water has somewhere to escape.

Earlier while I was rocking in the bottom of the rock face a huge group of riders came down the trail. It was a group with the MR cycle group ride. I recognized one of the riders as he was riding down the line and it was Ryan Leech. He stopped and talked with me for a bit. He was amazed by the trail and the rocks I was working with and overall he was stoked. Ryan is a total class act and a genuinely nice guy.





So after I finished all my work for the day I geared up and rode down Snakes and made it to Shotgun. Once again I blasted down Shotgun with reckless abandon out to my car.


Later in the day at 2:00pm I took Norah to Maple Ridge Cycle where Ryan Leech was putting on a trials show for the year end MR Cycle biking club wrap up. I managed to get Ryan Leech to sign a poster for Norah.

Good very good day of biking.

The Foggy Brew

Tonight was a night ride in the rain at The Woodlot with Rob. I was sporting a 50W halogen on the helmet and so was Rob. I also had my HID on the bars of my bike. Our route was far from standard issue ride consisting of Krazy Karpenter, Upper Toadstool, Tsuga, Snakes and Ladders and then finally Shotgun. We both arrived on time and suited up right into our rain gear. It was raining really hard the whole ride.

The climb up to the top was pleasant with no issues at all and when finally at the top we were in the clouds with the mist surrounding us. Once the lights were all fired up we both really noticed that we were in a white out situation from our lights shining too brightly into the fog and blinding us. Therefore the ride down Karpenter was cautious as we could barley see in front of us. After Karpenter it was down to Toadstool there were a couple very tense moments with me on the uber slippery log ride in the pouring rain. The drop near the bottom of the trail was really trippy in the fog as I felt like I was dropping into a grey misty abyss as I went over the edge.

We then headed back up the hill to Tsuga. It is a very short push where we both able to laugh about how blind we were at the top on Karpenter. On Tsuga Rob lead the way entering the trail. About 5 or 6 turns into the trail we both veered completely off the trail as we could hardly see the line in the fog. Further down the trail we finally able to start riding with clear air in front of us and super bright lights gleaming our pathway.

Snakes and Ladders was yet again another hoot. Riding at night is fun, riding your own trail at night is even more fun. Even though I can ride the trail top to bottom in my head and know where to place my tire on every undulation on the trail I will never get tired of riding Snakes and Ladders. Tonight was especially fun popping and railing all the turns. All the rock work and drainage that we had done in the last 10 months was holding up really well and the trail was for the most part running dry. We paused at the rock face to inspect our recent work and then continued on at to the bottom of the trail.

Rob had mentioned that I was running 2 lights and he only had one, so for Shotgun I turned off the HID. I could notice that I had less light, but only running the helmet light made me totally focus on the trail ahead rather than in front of me. It was an absolute hoot. When we got to the cars we noticed that someone had left us some beverages on our cars. Only a true friend leaves you beer on your car as an après ride bevy.


Thanks Timmy.

Good ride in the fog and great beer at the end.

Trust Your Instincts

Today I snuck out for what is likely the last ride I will have before my lovely wife has our second child. She is ready to pop. I arrived at the woodlot around 12:30pm and made my way to the top on the Devinci. On the way up I passed a few people making decent time to the top 'pushing' my bike most of the way. I was going to ride Platinum, but I decided on the way up that it would be best to ride that trail with others, just in case...... JUST IN CASE.

Once at the top of the power lines I geared up and rode Krazy Karpenter. It was the first time in a month that I had ridden the Ollie but the bike felt good. The first few drops and skinnies on the trail are always a good barometer for how a ride is going to progress and things felt good. A little further down the trail I was about to hit a small drop on the trail when BAM!!!, my front tire hit a rock, stopped me and I go flying over the bars. Huddled on the ground in the fetal position with my bike on top of me and my head down hill I think to myself, "What the heck just happened there?!". I have ridden this trail countless times and never an issue, but today I went flying. I should have trusted my instincts and mellowed out the ride from there.

Further down the trail I finally did a drop to tranny off a log ride that I have just never bothered doing in the past and all went well. I then linked up to the trail that goes to the Blood Donor trail head and walked up to the start. I then rode down the few switch back berms and above the first big gap/hip I decided I was going to hit it. So I entered the last turn with good speed, pedaled out of the corner (for some unknown reason in my head I was thinking...well I have my phone with me if something goes wrong and there is bound to be more riders today) and approached the lip of the jump. My instincts were telling me, "SKIP IT TODAY......RIDE ON". I should have trusted my instincts. I do not know why or how I ended up like I did in the air, but I nosed in on the landing REALLY hard. So hard that I washed out on the hip landing and went over the bars and superman landed the tranny. I had the speed, I had the distance, but my angle of attack on the landing was way off. You know your impact is hard when you lose your shoes on landing and I tie my shoes on tight with double knots!!!!! I checked my body and all was well on initial examination. I go to stand up to get my shoe and I cannot bend my left knee without excruciating pain. My knees had both seen very hard impacts on landing but my left knee was horribly swollen. At this point I was now figuring out how to get home under my own steam. Once I had my shoe back on I decided to check out the bike. When I landed on the nose of the bike I heard a ping.......Deemax wheel losing a spoke out the hub. Apart from the now slightly warped wheel my bike was good to go.

I boarded my limping steed with my left leg dangling off the side and coasted down the rest of Blood Donor and down Giant Killer then down the road to the car. At this point my left knee was throbbing and I was completely unable to bend my leg......not good. At the car I hopped around getting my bike on my car and then drove home, painfully shifting my 5 speed manual.

Fortunately left knee was not broken and there was no ligament or cartilage damage. My knee saw a massive impact on my lower quad and the joint and surrounding muscles and tissue are swollen and extremely sore. I consider myself very lucky as this crash could have been MUCH worse. I will likely be out for a few weeks. Next time I will trust my instincts.

SUPER Ride

I had an absolutely wicked ride today at The Woodlot. It was a solo ride on the Heckler with my burlier Mavic 729 wheels and Michelin 2.5s rather than the 2.35 High Rollers I have been riding on lately. I just thought I would ride different wheels for a change and a little more cush.

The climb was a nice pedal up the logging road then a left turn to head up Stove Top to the road up and then the push up the power lines. Recently I have started to enjoy the pedal climb up and stovetop really fills the need for a pedalable climb at least part of the way to the top. Once at the top I rode Krazy Karpenter which was a great ride and then up the trail to Blood Donor. I had a pretty bad spill on the bigger gap on Blood Donor a few months ago and my wrists are still hurting from it so I decided to skip the one big gap but hit the rest of them with reckless abandon. At the canoe log drop on Blood Donor about 2/3 of the way down the trail I ran into 3 guys on the side of the trail. One of these guys was Super T (Tyler Klassen) on a Yeti ASX giving some guys what look like a Tour de Woodlot. Super T was limping around due to a broken femur 12 weeks earlier so there were no drops or jumps in the books for him today. He was just out flowing the dirt.

At the trail head of Giant Killer (the end of Blood Donor) I ran into a guy that was riding The Woodlot for the first time on an XC Klein. He wanted to know if he was near the top. When I told him he was not quite half way to the top he requested directions down the hill so explained how to get down via Lower Toad Stool and Hoots.

So I then rode Giant Killer having ripping the trail on all the stunts that were open and then made my way over to Snakes and Ladders. Once at Snakes and Ladders I the trail non stop to the last big rock face. The trail is in great shape right now but I know where it needs some TLC, however nothing can be done on the trail until it rains again. At top of the big rock face I have started to stack rock that will be used to fill in the black nasty mud that accumulates at the top. So I left me bike at the top and proceeded over to the rock quarry gather some rock. I ended up stacking 2 big buckets worth of rock and one really BIG rock that I hauled up to the top of the rock face. I then geared up and rode out the rest of the trail to Shotgun. While passing by the bottom of Quick Hit I nearly ran over the biggest garter snake I have ever seen. Any ways I rolled down into Shotgun and let go of the brakes riding it as fast a my tires would let me go. Out to the car and homeward bound.

Bear Mountain Downhill 2006

Bear Mountain Downhill 2006, the 10th year and from what the organizers have told us, the last year of the race. This is the 3rd time I have raced the Downhill race at Bear Mountain in Mission B.C. Each year I have walked away from the race learning something and yearning to ride my bikes faster and faster.

The atmosphere at the race this year was not as jived as it was in years past. I think this is main due to the fact that people were saddened by the fact that this is the last year of the race. The weather this year could not be any better. I was dry and hot but with just enough moisture in the early morning air to leave the course damp with dew until the riding started at 10am. The course could not have been any better. There were new jumps added and allot of the chunder at the top had been worked to make the course substantially faster and a few more lines opened to keep the flow in some tight spots.

I arrived relatively early in the morning geared up, met with Tim and Rob and our mandatory pre-ride if the course was complete. During this re-ride of the course I decided that I really wanted to hit a gap at the top of the course that would help trim a few seconds off my time. So I hung out on the jump for a few minutes to watch others hit this gap jump and I determined how much speed was needed to make the gap. So up I went, pedalled in and clean as a whistle. A couple more times and I was 98% confident that I would be doing it in my race run. The 3 of us continued down course to finish our run and line up for another lift up the hill in the back of a cube van. Yup, we get shuttled up the hill in the back of a moving truck. 15 or so guys and their bikes at a time. So after 2 runs we were ready for the race. Tim's bike needed a little TLC with the rear wheel but once this was taken care of we just chilled until it was our turn to go up to the top for our race runs.

Both Tim's and Rob's wives and kids were there to wish them good luck as we headed off up the hill in the trucks. Nicole was far too pregnant (9 months) to attend the race and little Norah isn't even 2 years old yet so she would be way too much of a handful. So up in the trucks we went the 30-39 Masters sport men and the over 40 guys. One can only imagine of totally different the conversations are in our truck as compared to the U-17 racers.

At the top of the course we all picked our spots in the shade waiting for the race marshals to call out our names and numbers. For a few of us it was time to crack the RedBull to get the juices flowing and jived for our turn on the course. Last year I placed 2nd, 1.5 seconds behind the winner and this year he was riding last down the course in our class. In my head it was up to me to do the best that I could. I knew that I was a faster rider this year than I was last year, the course is faster and the conditions were mint. As I said, it was up to me. All I wanted was to improve on my overall time and accept where ever that put me in the standings.

Both Rob and Tim were ahead of me in the start order so in the line I was able to wish both of them luck in the race before they started. I believe there was one rider between each of us and there was one minute between each rider. When I was in the start gate waiting for the race marshal to give me the 5 second count down to go there was an announcement on the radio that ripped through the air...."RIDER DOWN, SEND THE MEDICS!!!". This statement was repeated several times and that the rider was off course and the race could continue however each time you could hear more and more concern in the voice of the corner worker. Then I heard the number plate of the fallen rider #601......Tim was down. I now had to try and keep the thought of a fallen buddy out of my head and concentrate on task at hand, The Race. So my count down started and down the course I went.

I had ridden the course about 10 times now in the last week. I had helmet cam filmed the course and watched sections over and over and over again. One could say I knew the course really well and knew what to expect at speed. The top sections for me were good. This course has a few spots in it where you can really blow up and have nothing left for the rest of the race and the first 400m or so it one of those spots. I basically just concentrated on staying off the brakes and railing turns. Though the rough stuff and through "The Abortion Corner" (After the race we found out the name of this particular corner. It is a 180° turn that has lots of chunder and holes all over the place). From the abortion corner it is a few hard pedal strokes to the gap that I had worked on earlier in the day and I nailed it smooth as silk and continued down the course at a good pace. There is a really fast section that leads into the biggest gap on the hill, the spot were in training last year I went down hard casing the jump and hurting my knee. I decided long before the race that I would skip the jump and I just railed on past with tons of speed. Down the course to a small step-up and then a few corners more to the fist big doubles. I didn't rail the corners before the double jumps and knew I would not have enough speed to make the 2nd big one so I pedalled through them as fast as I could.

From this point down I can say that I rode the course perfectly. For my abilities I could not have had a better race and was not upset with myself in the least. So after the doubles up top it was 2 more corners then the small doubles that when hit just right pop you to the next and a few pedal stokes to the step-down shot between the trees. The next 4 corners by far my favourite 4 turns on the course which include 2 berms that you can rail like none other. These all lead you to the table top jump where you can just send it. Surprisingly there weren't and spectators of years past at any of the jumps except for the corner workers, everyone was at the new double section by the rock.

Next is what I refer to as the fast single track section where you don't pedal, just rail the all dirt slightly banked corners of the track. The gap on the left of the trail is really easy to clear with all the speed carried from the corners before and then there was a new jump that send you straight down the trail to some descending bermed corners. There are 4 corners in total that I nailed perfectly. And considering how dry and dusty slick it was I even surprised myself with the speed I maintained through this section. There were even a few people clapping and cheering at that corner which helped to keep me focused on keeping up my speed. My memory of the course really helped in this next section as there is only one FAST line and all other lines waste a lot of time.

It almost seems like the section leading up to the up down depression in the course is the rest spot for "The Big Show". When I say "The Big Show" I am talking about the rock drop, the announcer, the crowds and this year two gaps that offer lots of jump style and photo opportunities. At the depression I heard a spotter calling out my number to the announcer Brad Ewen, likely the best announcer out there for the sport of mountain biking. In fact I think that guy could inject excitement into calling a play by play for a game of chess. Once again this year I was sporting my red and white stripped soccer jersey that I also wore last year as did Rob and Tim. Brad the announcer recognized me from last year and I could hear him call out my name as well stating that I was another candy stipper rippin the course. So rather than dropping the rock, I shot the gap on the side of the rock which is MUCH faster than dropping the rock and then railed the berm and began pedalling to hit the new 18 foot gap on the course. I basically has tunnel vision but could see all the spectators that were missing up course down here watching people send it on a beautiful set of jumps. As I said the first one is an 18 footer that launches you perfectly and places you gently on the tranny to allow you to coast to a 10 foot hip to the left and back onto the single track course. Lights camera action. I saw several flashes while in the air and then my focus was turned back to railing turns and carrying speed for the rest of the course.



I knew I was having a good race, I was tired but had the energy to keep pushing. Right after the new jumps there is a tight left hand turn and then you need to pedal to maintain speed. This is where I met up with the racer ahead of me. Yup, I knew I was having a good race when I realized I made up the 1 minute gap between me and the racer in front. I really would not have wanted to be this guy because I could hear people yelling at him then as I was 10 meters behind him I started screaming at him to get off the line and let me pass. Fortunately he pulled off and I ripped by without incident and I made sure to thank him as I went by.

The rest of the course was fast downhill single track with lots of opportunity to pedal, which I did as much as I could but by this point I was pretty much spent. Across the line and basically rolled up a small hill and threw my bike on the ground to catch my breath. 00:04:16.23 was my time. Second place, but as I said I wanted to improve over last year and I would say 25 seconds off your time is a pretty good improvement.


Yours truely on the right.

It turned out that Tim crashed in the new jump section, he cased the second jump and incurred a concussion. He has no recollection of what went wrong but I have heard from witnesses that it was really ugly and he is lucky to only have a grade 2/3 concussion and a bloody nose. Rob finished the race in the top 10 and achieved a personal goal of hitting the new jump section to the roar of the crowd and finishing the race under a certain time.

I stayed around for the medal ceremonies and a wicked jump contest into the lake. Overall I am ecstatic about my result and time in the race. I cannot wait to get out on my bike each day and ride a little faster every time I board my bike.

2006 Lift Extravaganza - Day 3: Silverstar

Well after last nights drinkfest at Sunpeaks we were down 3 men. Mike, Steve and Wilby couldn't get up early enough for the next leg of our travels after the drinking we did last night. Those light weights had to drive home with their tails between their legs.....well not really. Mike and Wilby golfed last night after riding and rose out of bed late today to stay and ride Sunpeaks again today rather than driving to Silverstar.

By 8am Rob, Tim and I were packed up and on our way to Silverstar and arrived by mid morning. Tim was feeling a little rough, Rob was...okay but I felt great. None of us had ridden Silverstar before but we had heard a lot of good things: wall rides, short lift lines, friendly people and wicked flowy trails.

I had an absolute hoot riding non stop on every trail I could find. Flow, jumps, root, rocks, it has everything.

The one trail that stuck in my head was the World Cup Trail. It had a HUGE wallride. UNFREAKINGBELIEVEABLE!!! It was simply amazing hearing the buzz of your tires and getting rocketed off the end screaming down the trail. If you stand at the beginning of the trail you can hear the hoots of riders as they ride the wallrides.

I plan to hopefully come back in the future to enjoy the wicked trails of Silverstar.

Hopefully next year we can get the boys out again.

2006 Lift Extravaganza - Day 2: Sunpeaks

Day 2 of the Extravaganza..........

Lets go back to last night. 6 rowdy drunk mountain bikers getting re-hydrated with beer on the drive up and in the bar last night.

Lets just say we weren't exactly in great shape for riding today. The festivities ended at 3am with a late night porch BBQ and the few beers to put us all to sleep in a Chalet.

In the morning there was bacon 'n eggs and lots of Gatorade. We all made our way to the lifts in the morning and rode our asses off.

Later in the day Tim, Rob and I were the last men standing/riding and decided to shoot a few photos in the upper sub-alpine of Sunpeaks.

The photos below are the shots we took.

Rob

Tim

Me (Dean)

2006 Lift Extravaganza - Day 1: Whistler

The 2006 Lift Extravaganza

What is this you might be thinking? 6 guys 3 days 3 mountain and non stop riding.

Our adventure started on July 21 when we departed from Seymour's Pub in North Vancouver to head to Whistler. 2 trucks loaded to the rafters with bikes, bike gear, clothes and BEER.

It was a hot day in the Holy Land of lift access mountain biking. The lines were pretty clear as well so we were able to get in as many runs as we possibly could. Garbanzo was open all day so several trips of the higher alpine trails were had by all.

There were a few hiccups though......6 flats in the group and one front brake replacement. I was dubbed the mechanic for the trip so I helped with most repairs...the flats and I did the brake replacement at the truck with Rob where we needed to MacGyver the grip off his bike.

Overall Whistler rocked! We arrived at lift opening and stayed until a half hour before closing. We hit the road for a long drive on Duffy Lake Highway to Kamloops to ride Sun Peaks the next day.

Group Shot near the top of Garbanzo at Whistler:
Back Row Tim, Dean, Mike, Steve
Front Row Wilby, Rob

The drive from Whistler to Kamloops was long and HOT!! In fact during the weekend of the Extravaganza there were several temperature records set across the province. While at Whistler we saw 37.3 °C, at Sun Peaks 38.7°C and Silverstar was 37°C.

The 3 Amigos on Eagle Mountain

Well, it has bad been quite a while since I had last ridden Eagle and tonight the trails on Eagle kind of beat me up.

By some crazy coincidence we (Rob, Tim and I) decided to ride on the first rainy day in a month. The trails we rode were the 4 Lost Souls, The Dentist and Randy's.

The push up was,.......well steep, but that it Eagle. At the top of 4 Lost Souls we geared up and proceeded down the hill. This trail is so freaking fast that it can be over before you even know it. Hit after hit after hit. It is a trail where the saying "Commit or eat shit!!" comes into play. A cool step up to platform to a 5 footer to a 7 foot step-down........then a bigger drop to a hip to a big step-down to a bigger step down to another then another then another then wooden berm/wall ride to a HUGE wall-ride with 12 foot long planks of cedar which I launch off the end of 5 feet in the air and proceed straight across the trail and into the bushes where I get a stick wedged in my helmet cutting my forehead. It was so much fun that we went up again for another run. Hit after hit after hit, non stop fun.

After 4 lost souls we proceeded down The Dentist. On the push up we looked at a few new features that were on the trail since we had last ridden there. A huge 12x12 foot step down / drop to tranny. We eyed it up on push and though....ummm not today. Well by the time we made our way down the trail we were still on fire from 4LS so what the hell right. First Tim hit it and it was butter, so I hit it with a little table tweak and stomped it....butter, absolute butter smooth landing. That drop was PERFECT. Then the wall ride. My first run at it was really good. Rode it high and exited off about 4 feet in the air to the tranny. Second time with Rob and Tim watching I hit it a little vertical, slid down and wiped out. I dusted off the dirt on my bike and my ego and went back up to hit her again. This time popping and railing the wall. So much fun.

We made our way down to the gap to wooden step-up to platform to drop. Once again...sweet. The drop is a little bigger than I thought, but that is likely because I was going a little fast.

So by this time the clouds had rolled in on the hill and visibility was getting poor. There was one last little drop to a tranny made of rock. I rolled up blind but was told by Rob and Tim who were ahead of me that it was 5 feet to the tranny 6 foot drop. I got to the end of the ladder but popped of the end about 5 inches too late. I basically didn't see the end of the drop. Somehow I managed to hold on to a nose wheelie hard landing onto rocks, big rocks. In the air I was thinking this is really going to hurt. But god blessed my 888's this evening and I was able to ride it out without incident. My nuts did get scrubbed by my rear tire and my inner thighs were raw from hitting the back of my seat, but I was alright. A few deep breaths later and we were on our way.

We then went up the road to Randy's. A nice old school trail with a few drops and tight sections to make it fun. Well I was riding far too close to Tim and got to the end of a 3 foot drop and found myself in trouble going WAY TOO SLOW. I could not pull up in time. I nose off the end and had to abort and go flying without my bike. My bike then proceeded to cartwheel down the hill about 40 feet narrowly missing Tim who was oblivious to the Ollie hurtling towards him. I was shaken but unhurt. More of an ego thing as I could do that little drop with my eyes closed, but I was not paying close enough attention on a trail I had only ridden once before. So I went down the hill to get my bike and smartened up. No more stupid moves on a trail I don't know.

We then made our way to the backyard trail that makes its way behind the houses on the hill. It is a nice little flowing rip where you need to keep an eye out for hikers and dogs (I am not even sure if bikes are allowed to be on this trail, but it sure is fun). Back to the cars and we were done our ride. 2 1/2 hours of Eagle Mountain fun.

I tip my hat to the guys that build and maintain Eagle and hope to get out there again soon, only next time in the dry.