Sometimes you summit, sometimes you plummit!!

Thursday, May 23rd.

Woke up and had coffee w/ Barb, Chiovan, and Smoke.  Had a couple of chores to bang out today.  #1- figure out the loud, high pitched noise coming from the van, and #2 get my brake bled.  We hit up Big O in Kelowna and they were nice enough to tell me that it was just my front brake pads.  Best news I've heard in a long time!!  I buy some pads and head back to Smoke's to do a brake job.  It went smoothly and we headed to the bike shop around 4PM.  We went to Outbound Cycle and they were nice enough to have it banged out in less than a half hour.  Lily and I wandered over to Il Mercato, the locally owned Italian bakery/shop.  The owners were super cool and we chatted our way through the huge selection of fine meats and cheeses.  He grilled them up and fixed them to perfection.  We walked back to the bike shop immersed in the delectable Paninis.  I grabbed the bike, flipped them 15$ and we headed to Postill for a group ride.  Lily and I headed up and met up with Andrew where he was working on finishing a huge section of woodwork.  His trail starts with a small hip to the R, then onto a wood wallride-like entrance onto a ladder that steps down 8'.  Then where he was working will be a huge wall ride then hip up over a boulder onto another ladder that does a steeper step down to step up.  Another 8' drop (still in progress) will lead into a road gap which takes you into an uphill corkscrew that will drop off into a step up wallride.  Just CRAZY!!  We carry some wood for him, then jump on our bikes and rip out of there.  Addiction is just as ripper as I remembered and I actually hit the first step down the smoothest yet.  I railed the ski jump and Lily got a cool video of it.  We had a little difficulty getting back to our cars and a mix of less than stellar dudes left Andrew and I jogging a K and a half to retrieve the vehicles.  French Johnny jumped on board and we did a Technical Difficulty (TD) lap while Lily did a solo Addiction lap.  TD was awesome and they let me jump out in front to get full on-sight value.  Some steep rock moves led to a sweeping wallride L which had mass exposure (as I found when I looked back up), and finished with a 5 stage rock roll to the road.  We hustled back up and did a HOT LAP down Addiction (hitting every move) that left me speechless and out of breath.  Another great day of riding!!!  We took Andrew out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant that loaded us up w/ the dinner for 3.  After dropping him off we went back to Smoke's house.  This is where we made the worst decision of the trip (and overall worst decision in a long time).  We left the bikes on the van (locked up) instead of taking them into Smokes yard/house.  When we woke up the next AM Lily went out to the van to get something and came back in tears.  Our bikes were gone.  The cable lock on the ground next to the van, and two pairs of loppers in the bushes next to the van.  Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!  We looked around the neighborhood and in the woods nearby but no dice.  We put out the APB and filed a police report.  We have a lot of people looking for our bikes, but they are likely gone.  Super bummer.  Won't make that mistake again!!!!  We headed back the next day (after hitting the Italian Bakery again where they gave us some free delectable coffees.  There was some talk of a couple of heli missions this summer on the way out the door which makes me get butterflies just thinking of it!!  Ah the ups and downs of life, EH?!!

Kelowna Round 2

Staying in the states didn't last long.  I got Lily stoked enough to be on the road back to Kelowna by 11:30 the next morning.  We got to Smokes house by 1:30 and hooked up w/ Andy for a couple of laps on Powers.  We hit Big Money (3.5) first and I sessioned the step down to gap right off the bat.  The rest of that trail was mainly natural and had some standing water.  It also had some insane views of the canyon we're riding on the edge of as well as a big waterfall on the opposite side of the canyon.  We ripped the rest of the 2.5KM trail (which was denoted by a really cool bike art mask on the tree).  Lily got the feel for steep wooden wallrides and I sessioned the Shennanigan's road gap.  We ripped another 2.5KM lap and I linked the whole KBR trail (wallrides to step up wallride to Shennanigans).  Wahoo!!  Barb was nice enough to make us dinner and we enjoyed the food w/ great stories of biking heroism by Smoke.  

Wednesday was Andy's last day in Kelowna and we decided on riding Gillard.  We got dialed in at Kelowna Cycles with Ryan Schnepf (builder).  We ended up doing 4 laps in total (Andrew showed up for the last).  First Andy, Lily, and I hit up Nip and Tuck (fun smaller stunts) to Snakes Back (lots of woodwork) to Fist First (jumps w/ funky wood booter to sniper rock lander; met French Johnny working on logride to stepdown gap) to Dirty Sanchez.  At the bottom we met Jeff (another builder that I met on Sunday at Oliver) and he gave us a ride up in his Dodge 4x4.  He was describing how to hit Dr. No (hard to find entrance) then decided he'd drive up a gnarly 4x4 road (and over fallen trees in his truck) to show us EXACTLY where the trail started.  Super cool dude!!  We rode Yo Mama (jumps)  to Dr. NO (super tech rocky trail w/ some mini-canyons to drop in to as well as some rock rolls w/ ladders in between.  A very unique trail to say the least!!!  Lily really gave the crux a good go, and is starting to come into her own on the steep natural gnar- keep it up girl!!)   

 to Boss Hog (cool roll in to crazy step up feature- used to have a teeter into the move!!!).  Too bad most of the other stunts were wrecked.  Got to see the crazy funky looking drop/stepdown that Brad made famous by overshooting and SOMEHOW not blowing the berm on one of Smoke's videos).  There was a drop to wall ride to gap to step up to step down that still went.  I also rode the rock face next to that silly drop.  Andy  then dropped us on top of Kerplop (tons of woodwork between boulders, some jumps, and rock rolls/drops).  We raged that to Hucking Grasshole (purported to have the biggest move around).  We found the trail (kinda tricky) and rolled down it.....unsure what was going to pop out.  I knew it immediately when I saw it.  A huge wooden structure out in the distance w/ a big jump into it.  The heartbeat quickens.  I ran down and took a look at it.  A big wood to wood double led to a step up onto a platform that was ~12-15' off the deck.  It split and had two lines.  The first rolled steep on wood and went into a ski jump that landed on the same wood tranny as the huge move.  Here's where things kinda got sketchy.  My brakes (specifically the rear) had been acting funky (pulling all the way to the bar without actually slowing me down) for most of the day.  The way I could circumnavigate this was by pumping it up and holding it slightly on.  That way they were there for me and would work.  If I let go though....well then that whole "to the bar" thing applied.  Fast forward back to Hucking Grasshole.  I'm lining up the series of moves in front of me as I always do.  Pedal, pedal, pedal, 12' booter, step up onto 12' tall platform (~40" wide), pedal, pedal, get my shit together, boost huge air (25' + out, 20' down), soak it up, BRAKE hard, flow the fast berm and don't go off into the woods where there are lots of fallen trees, rocks, snakes, etc.  I hit the jump.....smooth, vwoooomp up onto the elevated ladder.....smooth.  "Hey, I better check my brakes."  Nothing.  I get stopped on front brakes alone.  The structure was kinda sketchy and I wanted off of it fast so I rolled in on the ski jump.  I hit it a bit faster than needed and landed on the dirt below the tranny.  I really wanted to hit the big move and I pumped up the brake again at the top.  I dropped in again and was at the moment of reckoning again.  I gave my brake a test and there it was.  I took off pedaling and shot off the end.  Phweeeeeeeeeeeeeewphump!!!!  I soak up the huge concussion and rocket out of the bottom.  When I realize what just happened I let out a long drawn out scream of joy and fear all in one.  I rail the berm and ghost ride my bike, falling back onto the forest floor, laughing and screaming.  H-O-L-Y!!!!  Lily runs down and we share some exuberant laughs and high fives.  I want to hit it again (this time involving the actual landing), but I don't bother.  I railed Dirty Sanchez top to bottom without hesitation, the foreign jumps seeming oh so familiar after surmounting the Hucking Grasshole.  I'm still laughing and way too hyped up when I run into Andrew McIntosh at the bottom.  We load up and rally to the top for one more lap.  I let them decide which trail because I was enjoying a potent cocktail of supercharged adrenaline and figured everything was just a bonus after the last lap.  We did Kerplop (Lily liked the woodwork and rock gnar) to RubHerDown (play on words) which I followed Andrew off a long series of jumps that were fairly sizable.  It was awesome.  We nailed the Three Bears jump line and rally over to Wobbly Pop, a trail that had lots of small-medium sized jumps and stunts.  There was a long stunt that had roller coasters and then finished up high on ladders to a 6'+ drop.  Oh, and there's a tree that will grab your hoody and try to pull you off a high stunt as I learned.  I somehow didn't fall off and still nailed the drop.  Now my favorite hoody has a huge rip on the back of the arm.  Lily and I bail and grab some food to cook up at the house.  We made Barb and Smoke pesto pasta w/ grilled chicken and pinenuts, grilled corn on the cob, and garlic bread.  We drank a bottle of wine and had great stories tossed around the table.  Just another day in heaven........

Kelowna!!

Where to start?!!  Last Wednesday we showed up in Tonasket and went climbing on Thursday at Burge Mtn (an area Lily's dad has been developing) and a half day Friday (w/ Dana and Monica as well).  Great times were had by all.  Lily even did her first lead on a 5.7.  I climbed a 2 pitch "cliff dweller" w/ Gary and also got turned back on "Savor the Sweetness," which Gary later made the second ascent of (solid 5.11).  After a half day on Friday I had the uncontrollable urge to head north to beautiful BC (Kelowna).  Johnny Smoke was having an early season bike party since it was a long weekend in Canada (Victoria Day).  There were a LOT of people there when I showed up (20+) with tents sprawled across the nice sized back yard.  I was hoping to have caught a ride, but customs had different plans for me (unkept guy driving a van registered to a Lily going BIKING in BC?!!).  An hour later w/ the van ripped apart they "let" me continue on my way.  Too bad the last shuttle went out before I arrived.  We partied down and BBQ'd (and I got a fast ride to the store in Dan Barham's new VW GTI).  Woke up the next AM and ripped a lap on Builder's Only w/ Colin and John.  Super fun trail w/ 3 stunted zones w/ woodwork in between.  The first had a fast medium sized double then another jump  before stepping up onto a platform (which I almost didn't make the crux corner on) then stepping down then riding a curvy bridge the shot across the road and into a jump over a boulder (table).  The second zone was Crazy Train- steep A frame to wooden table to stepdown to steep A frame to step up to double stepdown.  Great feature (and not stupid big).  The last zone split off R with a fast natural hip stepup to wooden double to drop to L hip (w/ HUGE landing).  We ripped a few laps on that throughout the day (as well as riding at _________ Creek where we had 20+ people pedaling their big bikes UP hill before raging a super fun, smooth, DH peppered w/ smaller jumps).  Good times were had by all.  I got some good shots of Brett Tippie, Smoke, Andy, etc.  Andy tried to get me drunk (as usual) but that didn't work----too determined to shred the gnar.  Sunday was off to Oliver (1 hr away) and I piled into Colin's truck.  The first lap dropped ~4000 ft w/ the top being loamy turns and half sketchy logrides/woodwork.  Then it dropped through fields of sage and Balsams (yellow flowers) before getting "spiny" and skidder trail towards the bottom.  You could even choose your own adventure at one point, raging through the sage.  Unfortunately Sarah, Brett Tippie's partner took a digger and broke/tore the ligaments in her thumb.  I played field doc and splinted her up.  Then we reset the shuttle (and chowed at the bottom in an ant farm).  Second lap was on TKO.  Should have known by the name it was going to be gnarly.  Smoke got the van momentarily stuck, but Ryan Hayes and his jacked up 4 runner pulled him out without complaint.  We trudged up a bit (and held onto the Yota) until we hit solid snow.  We pushed and pedaled as best as we could through the snow before finally hitting the trail head.  It opened up with some fast dreamy loamy turns that I could take for years before turning back R and dropping in steep.  We spaced out a bit and the precession dropped into the gnar.  First move- steep off camber sidehill with a wet rock that you had to ride over into steep chute and HARD L corner.  The dude in front of me froze up and I had to coax him along as I'm trying to negotiate the moves as well as not stop.  I quickly put the pass on him ASAP.  The trail disappeared before my very eyes at every corner.  You had to commit to a move before you could even see what was coming.  IT WAS AWESOME!!!  And it went on for nearly 4000'!!!  There were soooooo many techy sections, lots of loose pointy rocks, and some cliff edge moves to keep you honest (and your eyes on the trail).  At one point I came out of the woods and there was the group checking out a jump.  "Hit it!!" I heard so I charged into it and sent it.  Happy to be out in front i kept charging until I ran into some trail debris (which I cleared).  Still no bike sounds so I kept going.  I finally FORCED myself to stop and take some pics on one steep zone.    After a bit we ran into a road gap that didn't give a lot of pop, but you had to hit it MOVING and then it kept going steep after the landing with moondust into a FAST R hander that went off a 3' drop then back into the steep rock gnar.  Cam stepped up and just sent it at mach 10 (pedaling?!!) and was GONE into a trail of dust.  WOW was the collective thought.  A few more people stepped up and hit it (including Marcie).  I gave it a go and was surprised by just how poor of traction the moondust provides.  I was hauling ass out the bottom with a huge grin on my face.  A few fast corners spat us out into a pasture where we all let out a collective exhale.  Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!  High fives abound we were ALL charged up!!  What a rip!!  We coasted downhill to the winery where we parked the cars.  We all stood around chatting an laughing it up until our stomachs forced us to load up and head for food!!  Back at Smoke's there were fixings for everybody (meat pie, salad, etc) brought by somebody in the group.  Free is for me!!  We hung out and partied down with Ryan, Ja Smith, Marcie, Julie, etc crashing overnight as well.  Great group of people!!  We planned on hitting Postill the next AM before the planned Naramata riding (Airawanna). 

 I got up at 6:45 AM and rustled Colin and Ryan out of bed.  We headed to Postill and met up with Andrew McIntosh (Inferno builder).  We checked out his trail-in-progress and wow did it impress.  LOTS of well thought out woodwork stunts and a cool trail section down low.  We hit 3 moves that had never been ridden by anyone and got some shots.  I cased the third move pretty bad and called it good (double step up to bowl stepdown).  Ryan and Andrew nailed it pretty smooth w/ some serious body english.  Then we raged on to Addiction, the showpiece of the area.  It stared out mellow enough w/ some up and down to a hike-a-bike.   Then it got into the business.....first moves were:  getting going as fast as you could through a sweeping R w/ embedded rocks into a ~20-25' stepdown to immediate step up (15' out, 6' up) to quick turn and off a 8-10' drop (I overshot it).  Then you gap over a ridge, hit a small hip, then charge onto the woodwork with a step up gap, turn, small stepdown, into the SKI BOOTER.  I was a little nervous and hit it WAY too fast the fist time, landing front tire on flat dirt and my back tire grazed the tranny.  We moved on and hit the Addiction drop (blind 6' drop) into a stepdown table into downhill ramp and into a 120' wallride!!!!!!  It was H-u-g-e!!!  The movies don't do it justice!!  We sessioned it a bit and watched Julie come unglued and launch her bike off the top of the wallride while sliding UP the move.  Her pads got caught and she was dangling by her arm 6-10' off the ground.  Luckily she immediately shouted "I'm OK!!"  and dislodged her arm.  I was up on the ladder behind the wallride and was in awe as to what I just experienced.  What a trooper!!!  She tried to get the nerve up to hit it again but was noticeably spooked.  The last zone on Addiction gets fast and A-line like w/ jumps abound (and the ATV booter) as well as the 25-30 footer off to the R of the trail.  I followed Ryan off the big jump and overshot it by a good bit!!  Nothing quite like a 30' jump to flat I tell ya!!  There was one last techy jump section to finish that had a steep short double into a R hip into a hip stepdown to the road.  Wahoo!!!  Andrew was nice enough to give us one more lift up before he had to go to work.  WICKED!!!  

We charged back to Smoke's to try to catch them before they left but were too late.  I broke down the tent as fast as possible and jumped in the van (as did Andy in his van) and we sped off to catch the group outside of Penticton at Naramata.  We missed the first lap which was Airawanna (and had the separator drop) but hung out by the beach w/ Barb and Chiovan until the group got back.  We jumped on for the second lap and had a good rip through a maze of trails that led into the Boneyard (rock garden).  Lots of fun swoopy trail dropped us out on the road and we immediately headed for the closest winery.  Still sweating and permeating funk we meandered into a swanky winery and got lined up for some tasting.  Trying to act interested in the flavors and notes I gulped down 6 different kinds of wine and felt a little buzz coming on before I realized that I had to cross the border in an hour or two.  I bought a bottle of their reserve pinot gris and loaded up for the drive back to the states.  I arrived just in time to have some left over ribs and salad before passing out.  Ahhhhhhh...life IS good!!

Hood River!!

Woke up w/ Ariel's 6" kitten happily snoozing between me and Lily.  That little kitten has some rotten butt (see last post)!!  Looking at the weather again I realized that Hood River was actually going to be rain-free today and I excitedly talked Lily into going.  A couple of bowls of granola and some crappy coffee later we were heading down Hwy 84 towards Hood.  We stopped at Multnomah Falls and took a couple pics/ got pastries.  Beautiful waterfall fo sho!!  After arriving in Hood we immediately went to Post Canyon Drive w/ the hopes of hooking up w/ somebody to trade shuttle runs.  We lucked out.  I parked and saw a guy poke his head out of his car.  I went right over to Paul and introduced myself.  A couple minutes later we were driving the WAY overstuffed Previa up the mountain.  We did the usual lap (for me)- 2 chair 2 to Chorus X to FMX to Egg Hunt (the jump is now decommissioned....boohoo) to 8 track (totally different ending since they clear cut the heck out of that slope.....boohoo) to Frankenstein (why did I take Lily and Paul down this?!!).  Sweet new turtle shell opening stepdown, but the rest of the trail is pretty jacked right now (had to get off my bike 2-3 times).  Lily and Paul had a helluva time scrambling down the hillside w/ their bikes.  For some reason I remembered that trail being more tech (probably b/c I onsighted it last time).  With a little love that trail will be riding superb.  Between laps Paul took me to the Farm Stand- a newly opened health food store that his best friend opened in October.  We met Rob the owner and played w/ a volcano.  We then shot back to Hood to retrieve the Previa.  Paul and Lily were done, but I hit another lap.  How could I resist another lap being ON TOP?!!  I'll admit though....I bonked pretty bad at the bottom (trying to race pace it for too long without any food all afternoon).  Still a great day.  We then met those guys at Full Sail Brewery and ended up meeting another local trailbuilder, Mark.  He was super cool and gave us all kinds of ideas of the possibilities around the area.  I definitely want to get back there and ride w/ this guy!!  After Mark bailed we hung out w/ Paul and Rob and they started buying us beers.  One thing led to another and we closed the place down, then started partying at the Previa (bubbler x 3).  We luckily only had to drive right back up the gravel mountain road and find a flat spot to camp.  We pitched the tent just in time and listened to the sound of heavy rain most of the night.  We were pretty soggy the next AM, and even got snowed on briefly while packing up the van.  After stopping back by the Fruit Stand for a volcano-to-go we headed to Seattle and Lily's G-ma's house.  On to the next adventure!!    

Blackrock Round 2

Stayed 2 nights at Lily's folks house in N. Bend, OR.  Rallied in around 2:30 AM after deciding to take our time in Ashland (Brewery for dinner....yum, and checking out the fire dancing going on in the town square....complete w/ a DJ bumping it at around 8/10.  Pretty wild scene and cool vibe in Ashland.......lots of parks, public parking.....just a well though out green town).  Slept in to 10:30 when the neighbor started banging on the door.....excited to see someone I guess.  We hung out and played house, complete w/ lawn mowing and weed whipping.  Then we drank some ESB's and watched the Cavs whoop up on Atlanta (again)....3-0 good guys.  The next day we get all loaded up and the van won't start....of course.  I lost my cool and gave the van a good round-house kick to the gut.  Then I realized I was probably being watched by the whole neighborhood.  Finally she started and we roared off to Black Rock, taking the mellow way.....101 along the Oregon coast.  Tons of beaches and neat little nooks along the way.  We got to BR at around 4:30 and raged a couple of laps.  We climbed up then split up.....I rode Granny's Kitchen.....logride to wallride and cheese grater, to Granny's doubles.  Couldn't get the right flow for 2 doubles on the trail.  The first is a short gap but super vert and a hip.  I knew I could hit that one, but then it set you up for a 20+' hip double that had more case marks on it than just about any other jump I've seen in years.  The first time I thought I had enough speed I washed my back tire in some slick mud mid-berm.  Undeterred I rallied back up for another couple goes, but something in the back of my head wouldn't let me pull the trigger.  No worries.  I raged the ET Booter and ended up between Basic Training (BT) and the Brake Check Jumps.  I climbed back up to the top and ran into a couple dudes getting safe.  Nice.  They peeled and did Bonzai.  I of course had to charge down Grannies.  The top of that trail is rad.  Some rock tech, a couple drops, and a gap followed by the huge wallride (starts w/ a downhill logride....soooo rad).  There was a trail building day the day before and they surely put in some cool new features on Bonzai DH.  Nothing monstrous but super cool.  I also heard they're building another huge wallride and some jumps deep in the woods somewhere.  From Grannies I pushed back up from the roadgap and charged Sunday Stroll to Brake Check.  There were a couple of trees down and I couldn't understand why they weren't chopped out the day before?!!  Nothing like hitting 15' jumps then skidding to a stop when there's a tree on the next takeoff/landing.  I went across the street and nailed the skinny feature 2nd go.  I kept on Stickter Gnar which basically side-hilled for a while xc style before dumping me out at BT (tons of logrides and skinnies to practice on).  I ran into a father son group that was going out for a night ride (way under gunned if you ask me) and we rapped for a bit (waiting for Lily).  They split and I went up and sessioned the drop to stepdown move called "Showtime" because Cam McCaul did a backflip off the stepdown in a flick this past year.  Probably one of my favorite moves at Blackrock.  I decided to head to the car since it was almost dark, even though there was no Lily yet.  I started to get a little worried when she wasn't there and it was rapidly getting dark.  Just at the point of rescue initiation she comes out of the woods.  She had been practicing drops and took a good ol' face plant.  Banged up but not too bad (she's tough!!) we loaded up the bikes and headed for some much deserved food.  We ended up crashing at my friend Ariel's house (OU girl) in Portland.  She had 3 dogs and a small kitten that we had the pleasure of sleeping with (kinda).  It took the nastiest dump in the middle of the night and we had a hard time getting back to sleep/fending it off the bed.  I think I slept.......maybe!!

Truckee after thoughts

We finally pulled out of Truckee after two more days of Martis.  We crashed at Nate and Natalie's house for a couple of nights after calling it good at 14926 S. Shore Drive.  What a experience!!  I feel like I've grown a lot, especially in the mountains during the winter.  What a good group of rippers.......Kevin, Charlie, Peolie, Brian Bozak and Emily, Tommy, Rob Anthony, Noah, Jessie Whitecap, Warren, Nicole, Sarah, Glen Paulsen, and the list goes on.  It went by soooo fast.  5 months.  Done and gone.  It snowed, then it cleared off and became sunny.  There were long stretches of sun without snow.  It taught patience, and the fact that there are LOTS of things to do, even if the conditions aren't perfect.  You just have to make the extra effort.  Get up early.  Fight through sore muscles and doubt.  Get out of the warm bed and put on the same clothes you know so well.  Get the coffee going, even if it 4:30 AM.  Some of the days we probably should have got up earliier......Pyramid Peak comes to mind with the death slog and thin coverage down low which slowed us to a crawl.  Then there were the multiple Desolation trips.  And Bridgeport with the Hulk Couloirs still smirking at the ass whooping it delivered to me multiple times.  But it also taught me that anything less than SIX hours of skinning on firm sidehill conditions isn't to be complained about.  Perspectives shift, and boy did they this winter.  What is too steep or gnarly on a snowboard?  40 degrees?  50?  Bulletproof ice or breakable crust?  

Now we've stowed away the boards amidst the pile of gear packed carefully into the Toyota Previa (which still has a blown head gasket).  

Daron, Lily and I rode Animal, Lloyd's, and even Martis before we bailed.  Jessie Whitecap took us around to the snow-free trails- mainly Pinworm and Bear Market.  He even showed us Coudegrais which had a techy uphill climb over rock to a hard R corner with seemingly strategically placed rocks in the worst spots possible.  Then there was a snow patch which shut me down (until I sent it when the snow melted a few days later) to a steep rock chute, a L corner, then up onto an off-camber rock to diving board drop.  The trail got a little wild after that with some blind jumps over rocks and logs.  They needed some work and later that week ran into a guy fixing and cleaning the line (I was able to hit the step down to 2 new berms).  Lily started throwing down on the creek gaps one day and had some ups and downs in her quest for airtime.  Way to go girl!!  Nate Dawg thought about some of the jumps more than Lily!!  On Wed we rode with Nate again and had a funny string of events lead to us riding w/ Cameron Zink, the super badass biker.  Nate's Jeep broke down, we ran into town to close the PO box, and then to Nate's for lunch.  When we hit the top of the shuttle we ran into Jim (Hacksaw), Zink, and a buddy on a Sunday.  We had a beer and bubbler and started to ride.  I tried to get out ahead and get a few pics of the group and ended up munching my deraileur into my spokes off a 2' drop (WTF?!!!).  Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!  I knew what to do.  Go chainless.  I actually rode really fast and hit all the jumps on the trail each lap.  It was a great experience to run into those guys.  I gave Cam a good amount of PT ideas for his knee (which has had 5 surgeries) and even did some MET in the parking lot.  We swapped numbers and I'd be stoked to work with him more in the future.  We hit the road on Thursday morning-ish and drove to Ashland, OR after gaping at Mt Shasta (next time).  We stopped by a shop that was really helpful and got lost momentarily before parking on Park St and riding up the paved/gravel road.  Luckily we ran into Cliff who came up behind us.  I caught up to him after eating a Gu, and was lucky enough to get a lot of good beta from him.  We hit up Toothpick and climbed up Catwalk (pretty brutal singletrack climb) to Four Corners where we met Fish who was doing some trail work.  We raged down Marty's trail which had a few nice jumps on it (I hit the last stepdown on my xc bike) then cut over to Catwalk, to Toothpick, then Caterpillar, and White Rabbit (which we skirted up to the fence trail).  There was a HUGE sinkhole and a couple of gap jumps over it (b-i-g) which looked like they hadn't been hit in years.  We grabbed some delicious dinner at the Standing Stone Brewery and drove back up the shuttle road to camp for the night.  Today (Fri) we traded shuttles (I went first and hit Jabberwalkee), then went by the bike shop and fixed my rear der (w/ a used xo for 100$).  On the way to the skatepark to meet up w/ the shuttle driver we pulled up next to Shawn D who had a cruiser bike on the back of a jacked up Jeep.  We exchanged some glances then chatted a little while driving.  He offered to shuttle us up in 20-30 minutes.  We met up w/ him and Chase, Jason, and John and did a lap on the usual, but did BMI at the bottom.  We packed up the rig, said some goodbyes, and went to the brewery for one last grub session.  To North Bend, OR and Lily's folks house, then possibly to Blackrock or Post Canyon, then Marblemount, and up to Tonasket.  THEN possibly to kamloops/Kelowna for some FR before that dreaded "W" word.  Stay tuned.......

Pic descriptions:

1. Mt Shasta

2. Lily and Cam Zink

3. The Crib

4.  Some of the fine beverages enjoyed this winter

5.  Fireworks over our house courtesy of Kevin and Charle

Freeriding BIKES (not boards!!)

Some of the first mountain BIKE freeriding of the year......Lily decided to step up her game and start hitting gap jumps (most of them over creeks).  Fun was had by all and we charged the trails three days in a row.  Nathan Arnold (Nate Dawg) stepped it up and showed us the pufferfish look over the gap(s).  Nice job Dawg.  The second pic is a alternate techy rock line that I got second day of trying.  Uphill rocky tech climb....had to place front wheel on chair seat sized rock....hop back wheel onto funky placement, then pedal kick over the roll.  Nobody else even tried it.