There's been a lot of mountain biking going on. On Thursday, Paul and I went and scared ourselves on Pink Starfish and Digger trails on Fromme. Lots of wooden things to fall off... fun! Still intact, we met up with Kala and Angie to see Xavier Rudd play. Xavier's didgeridoo, drums, and slide guitar "one man band" had an additional two men... a fantastic drummer and bass player who added a real reggae feel to some of the tunes and long breaks of improvised stuff. They all looked to be having a great time on the stage, and the crowd was pretty happy about it. I got to experience the famous floor bounce of the Commodore. Boing.
Marc and Nikki finished the BC Bike Race yesterday and I went up to see them off on their last stage - Whistler. As I was in Whistler, it seemed like a good chance to get one of my rare days riding in the bike park. Paul was game for it, Angie went on a long road ride from Whistler to Pemberton (and back) and Paul's visiting parents went off sightseeing. With very little waiting around as there were just the two of us, Paul and I rode a whole lot of trails... mostly the steep rooty and rocky things that we like. We also ended up riding a few new (to us) things. We spotted a sign saying "Pro Only" on a trail called D1... so of course we rode it. Does that make me professional? I hope so. Rummaging around in the woods we also found some new-looking trails with great names "Dealer's Choice" and "Samurai Pizza Cat". I want the profession of making up trail names.
Paul on "Rock City"
Paul on "In Deep"
Three of me on the GLC drop
Me on "Schleyer"
More me on "Schleyer"
On the way home we had ice-cream, swam in the lake... then went to the beach for a barbecue with Kala, Meaghan, Rod, Suzanne, Ryan, Paul, Angie, and Paul's parents. We gave Marc the responsibility for fish (he's from Newfoundland after all) and managed a pretty good feast on my collapsing old hibachi.
Today was totally different. Johnny (a kayaking man) wanted to get his new mountain bike dusty, so we headed out south of Vancouver to Mission... where the trucks are big, the road signs have shotgun pellet holes in them, and the wildlife are scared. Our plan was to do a big loop, up the valley from Dewdney and over to Chehalis Lake. Things started off well, but then we met a man with the best job in the world (or maybe worst, I'm not sure). His task was to sit in the middle of the logging road with his truck, some tunes, a tent, a cooler of beer and some cigarettes. I'm not sure if the beer are cigarettes were part of his job, but he seemed to be making good use of them. In short, due to some lawyers we weren't allowed up the road until November. That seemed like a long time to wait, so we turned back and took another road up to a viewpoint looking back up to the Fraser River. We ate sandwiches, took photos and then rattled our way back down to the car. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.
We went up here
Viewpoint, err, view