James arrived on the Coast to do some mid-winter avalanche field work. And what better way to spend your day off than mountain biking?
We hoped Ned's Atomic Dustbin would be in good condition, but it turned out to be in spectacular condition aside from some very saturated wood. Every shuttler and his dog was out on the trail, taking their bikes out for the first time in months, with much carnage all over the trail. I lent James Freezerburn and thus rode Butter Smooth for the day. She handled the trail beautifully and made me feel guilty that I had negelected her so much that the bottom bracket was almost fully seized at the start of the day.
After the ride I commented what a full experience Ned's is; the long grind up Old Buck trail, the sweet fast downhill thrill of Ned's, and then the long technical cross country escape across Bridal Path to return to the car. James agreed, and suggested we should do another lap. Fuck Revelstoke fitness.
After some lunch, I somehow felt inspired to do a smaller second lap, so we nipped over to Fromme for a lap of Pipeline. My helmet-cam ran out of batteries on a steep rocky technical section and beeped alarmingly to alert me of this fact. Stupidly I started thinking about the camera, rather than how I was going to navigate the u-turn at the end of the steep rocks and took a fun ride over the handlebars. If only the camera had lasted 5 seconds longer there would have been some great footage. Pipeline felt like a meaner winter trail than Ned's, though perhaps that was just my exhaustion.
An excellent day of sunny mid-winter riding through the lush coastal forests in Vancouver. Any loyal blog readers (and you must be loyal to bother to check back for postings) should come visit, borrow a bike, and come out with me for a ride.
