Work. Lots of it.

So we've had some pretty messed up weather over the last month. Heavy rain. High wind. -15 temeratures with over a foot of snow. Messed up to say the least. It has wreaked havoc on the trails.

Yesterday we took a crew of four up to Snakes to clear it and then go for a ride. We didn't expect the carange that we found. There were probably 20 trees down on the trail. Not just on here or there, but in groups everywhere. It was madness.

With all the trees down though, not one bridge on Snakes was damaged.

So, we(Dave, Dean, Tim and I)hiked up to Snakes. There were even trees down on the road, but we decided to take care of the trail first. We got to the top and saw first hand how bad it was going to be. We stashed the bikes and hiked down the trail. Starting at the bottom, we worked up. The first few trees we cleared went pretty quick. It was nothing too big. We cleared up to the LALR when I spied a new ladder across the forest. There is an old trail over there called SOS that has seen some new work lately. We went to check it out. The work is Ok, but a little ghetto. Not even close to our high standards, but whatever. Not our trail.

Back to the task at hand. We hiked up our trail a bit more to the Jump section. The carnage here was bad. The DJ gap was totally blocked off by about six trees that had fallen. The trail gap had two or three blocking it. Even the squid line had some down on it. With some work, we got it clear. Up around the corner, there was another group of five trees lying across the trail. Dean and Tim worked on clearing this, while Dave and I headed up the trail with our axes to work on some other stuff.

There is now a cool cedar tunnel on Snakes just before the trail up to the rock drop thanks to a croup of around five trees that fell there.

At around 10am I had to leave so I suited up and ripped the trail we just cleared. I forgot my helmet so I was wearing Dave's skid lid. That coupled with the fact that it was my first ride of the year on the hartail made for a cautious ride. Snakes flowed well after all the work we had done, but there are still a lot of trees that need to be cleared on the road out. Shotgun was cool. It still had a bit of snow and there were some trees that were cut and cleared there as well.

There's still a ton of work to be done, and with the forcast calling for winds in excess of 90kmh today, I imagine there will be even more by the weekend.

I found it VERY rewarding yesterday. Working to clear the trail for others to ride, and hanging out with buddies. Seriously. What could be better than that?

L8er Sk8ers.

Eye Candy!!!!

A little bit of eye Candy from the last year:

Mr. Woodlot at the gaps during the Bear Mountain DH. (below)

Mr. Woodlots now deceased RM-7. BEAUTIFUL custom paint job. She's now hanging on the wall at Rocky Mountain Bikes Research and Development Department.

Don't go into the woods at night!

A sweet video thedude and I shot.

Fromme Upper Oil Can Dean and Rob risk it all and ride the infamous Upper Oil Can....in the dark.

Has it been over a year?????

Wow! I can't believe my last post was over a year ago. What has happend in that year? Lots.

Mr. Woodlot got himself a hardtail. Nothing special, but good enough for me. A Brodie Alpha with ghetto hydros and a 2003 Rock Shox Psylo on the front. I haven't ridden her much, but I will.

I also sold the old Atomik that I had been riding for the last three years. It was my first bike and it was hard to let it go. I picked up a 2005 Santa Cruz Heckler. What a great bike. I have two setups that I ride on it. The park set up. That is for Whistler, Sun Peaks and Silver Star and I have a 7" Super T on the front. Then there is the winter setup. That is for, well, the winter and instead of the 7" Super T's I have a 6" DJII on there.

So those are the two rides in the stable, now the rides.

I can't remember them all, but I'll list a bunch.

Many rides at the Woodlot for sure. A few night rides stand out. Like Cabin Trail/Snakes/Shotgun in the torrential rains of last February with Dean. I had a rather large crash and if the ground wasn't so saturated from the rain, I might still be up there.

A few trips to the Shore worth mentioning. One EARLY morning ride. I rode up Seymour and then down Corkscrew/Salvation/Pingu/Pangor/Empress. All before 7:30am. Another one with Tim where we ripped a secret trail to CBC then down the usual. Second run we did Boogieman and Mr. Woodlot got owned.

Bear Mtn DH was great this year. For Dean and I anyway. Dean placed second and I placed 9th with a decent time. To top it off I hit the huge set of doubles at the bottom. Easily the biggest gap I ever hit. Tim didn't fare so well. He crashed on the same jumps and concussed himself quite bad. He doesn't remember anything from that day.

Two weeks after the race I hit up the Woodlot where I believe I had an epipheny. I was riding Snakes and stopped to do a little work on the trannie to the trail gap. After working on it I hit it up. In the air, the world seemed to stop. It was dead quiet. You could have heard a worm fart at that very moment. Mountain biking bliss. I ripped the rest of the trail, got back to the car and just smiled. It was truly a beautiful moment for me.

After two years of planning, the 2006 Lift Extravaganza went off without a hitch. Well, I shouldn't say that. There were a lot of mechanicals on day 1, but other than that......perfect. Whistler Friday. Sun Peaks Saturday and Silver Star Sunday. We stayed in a beautiful chalet by the golf course from Friday night to Sunday morning. It was a great weekend that will no doubt be even better this year.

The 4th Annual Rememberence Day ride on Fromme took place on Saturday November 11th. We hit 7th Secret/Oil Can/Boundry this year. The ride was good highlighted by Dean blowing up his rear wheel on Boundry.

I've already had three night rides this year. I'm starting to enjoy it more. Tim even brought Dean and I a couple beers one night when he couldn't ride with us. We came down and found them sitting on our bumpers. Nice.

That's it in a nutshell. I will start updating this with my rides a little more often I think.

Until then...............