Thout shall never be forgotten.

It is Remembrance Day. Time to remember our war vets and for the Second Annual Remembrance Day Ride on Mt. Fromme.

Dean, Mike, and I met at Seymours Pub bright and early. 6:50am to be exact. We parked my truck at Braemar Park and loaded all the stuff in to Mike's truck and headed up the Mtn. Highway. We parked, geared up and started to ride. If you have never been to Fromme, it is a long climb. The hardest part, however, is the very start. After that it is a pretty level grade. I'd say it's about 5kms bottom to top. I was very proud of myself on this day as I rode about 85% of it. That is the most I have ever rode.

The trail itinerary for the day was 7th Secret to Espresso to Lower Crippler and the ever famous Pimp Coaster.

7th was a blast. There has been a sh*tload of work on that trail recently. It is mint. Some say that CBC is the poster child of North Shore riding. I think, and I discussed this with Dean as well, that 7th in it's current state is easly number 1. A good long flowy blast that we all really enjoyed.

Next up was Espresso. Lot's of fun woodwork on this trail. At the start anyway. About halfway down it turns to mostly natural stuff and gets really fast. There are a few very cool stunts on Espresso. One little section has a very steep rock rolldown to a funky log ride. The log isn't supported at one end so that when you ride to the end of it, it slowly drops down to the trail. It is a very weird feeling as you are wobbling back and forth as well as dropping down. Very cool. I had a pretty nasty spill on Espresso. A stupid mistake really. I rolled up to the end of a ladder, missed the little plank rolldown and Supermaned off and into a dive roll Mary Lou Retton would have been proud of. Good times.

We got to the bottom of Espresso and had to hike a little to Lower Crippler. Mike hates to hike and bitched the whole way. What a wanker. We need to get him out to the Woodlot more and get him conditioned to pushing.

Lower Crippler is fun. It starts with a rock face huck or roll down to a big ladder a-frame to another huck rolldown rock. Cool little sequence. The trail is built really well. The rock/woodwork is very good. We eventually came to the Pimp Coaster. Mike hit it first and didn't carry enough speed to the second hump and had to put a foot down. Dean was next and cleaned it rather easily. Then it was me. Up the first hump, down and oh shit! I get bucked and off I go. It is so compact that it just threw me off of my bike. Oh well, next time. We rode out to the truck and geared down. All in all, a very fun and enjoyable ride.

We hit Seymours Pub for lunch where we all observed a moment of silence at 11am. Everyone remembers in there own way. We chose to take part in a hobby that we all enjoy and may have not been able to do if it wasn't for the men and women that fought so bravely for our freedom.

Lest we forget.