June 22, 2009

Monday, June 22, 2009

After realizing riding bikes was a wash again (rain), Lily and I made our way from Woods house (Quantum Solace, omlettes, and Graham's coffee).  We stopped by Jerry's house but nobody was home.  We hung out at Mike's house in Bham for a few (he was actually there).  It sounds like he's going to move in w/ his GF (Rose) in a month or so.  He's pretty stoked to be changing it up a bit (instead of construction he's going to do EMT courses and accupuncture school in the fall).  We busted over to the public market for sushi and ran into Jeff Counts.  He looked a lot different from the last time I saw him (went w/ Jerry to S. America and had a vision quest, etc).  Now he's getting into reflexology and has a client base around Bham.  After a brief chat it's discovered that he's going to a sweat lodge tonight.  Seeing as I've been having a lot of challenges lately making up my mind as to my best course of action I thought it would be a good time to get inside my own head and let out some impurities.  And it was just what the doctor ordered.  Meeting lots of nice people, learning about their intentional community and huge gardens/shared housing.  Then we sweated our asses off!!  Adam, a local native american directed the sweat and did a great job of inspiring song, prayer, and a sense of wellness and connectedness.  It got pretty intense a few times and I had to get as close to the ground as possible a few times (we were squished in the lodge like sardines!!).  Nita, 73,  was the elder in the lodge, and did a much more brave job of taking the heat than myself who had to get out at the optional intermission twice to pour cold water over my throbbing head.  What an incredibly brave woman!!  I put out a lot of intention and prayer into the atmosphere so I hope you all felt it!!  We all went inside Mike's house (owner of 4 loaves pizza in the public market) and had miso soup w/ greens and rice, strawberries, salad, delicious homemade cookies and lots of water!!  I spoke w/ Deena about rolfing as she is starting the program early in July!!  She had a few leads for continuing ed (Mike in Bham and Russ).  I'll try to follow up with those guys, but first things first.  Tomorrow I get to deal with a urinalysis and a pile of paperwork so I can start this travel job in Richland, WA on time next Monday.  Should be fun....stay tuned!!

Yesterday was pretty crazy.  Here are some pics to prove it.  New trail called Sonar....get it....so....gnar!!  Only one good crash (on last move....overshot and landed in soft dirt that tossed me over the bars (OTB).  

Catch up (again!!)

Where to begin?  Rode Glacier and the N. Fork w/ Andy.  We met Woods at Grahams after running into Jerry on the way to the trails who warned me about him.  Andy and I went and played frisbee golf with Woods until near dark.  We stumbled into a BBQ at his neighbors Jidiaa.  Andy took off back to Vancouver and I ended up staying at Woods and Jack's place in Glacier on Check Rd for the past week.  Lily came down last weekend and rode Deadfall for the first time on Sunday.  She really liked the Iron Horse Sunday, and because I banged myself up on Sasquatch she was able to rip on it most of both days.  Jen and Pete from Mammoth bumped into us at the top of 6 mile (how random is that?!!).  We ripped and they ended up hanging out and riding the N. Fork the next day after I took them down Sasquatch at the end of the day.  We had a ripping time at the Fork and ran into Cam from Transition, Jessie Emery (and his Toyota monster truck), Thad,  Brad, Linsey, Sam and his GF, and a couple from Idaho (Britney and John).  Good laps were had by all.  Brad, Sam, and I took a raging fast lap down Deadfall, and Brad followed me into all the new gap jumps before 10%.  We had a raging good time!!  Woods, Andy, and I went and did the Tower of Lies on Lookout Mtn from the T-O-P!!  It required a solid 2 hr bushwhack through gnarly vegetation, plant tunnels, and lots of log clamoring.  Woods bitched a good amount of the time how we were TOTALLY off the trail and how we were going in the wrong direction even after we had the towers in plain sight.  Andy almost tried to turn back since he had his truck at Les Schwab and need to be back before six (yeah right!!).  Luckily for all of us we hung it out and got the goods!!  It was as rad as I had remembered and had the extra top part that we bushwhacked through w/ chainsaws previously.  It turned out great and had a few distinct steepie sections.  Then came the jumps, drops, etc.  What a great trail!!  We pushed back up and did Retarded Awesome, the Snake, and the rad jumps at the bottom.  I even hit Medusa second go (crazy tech woodwork into drop off logride).  I thought I was on a roll, then I stepped up to the 30' hip stepdown over the stump.  First go......funky in the air and had the bike wash out when I landed.  I jumped up and realized I was alright and progressed to hit it 3 more times.    Forgot you had to really hip it out to hit it smoothly.  

We then hit up the Woodlot the next day.  Woods got a little spooked on the Gate and had to get his flow going on Crazy Carpenter.  He made it through the stump move after the woodwork corkscrew although he couldn't linked the whole move.  Then we went to Blood Donor and I had a look at the road gap.  It looked more do-able then ever and I had a go at it.  From the top of the short trail I pedaled to get my speed going, scooted up onto the platform, then at the moment of truth I gave it another solid pedal stroke and launched off the end of the ramp.....18'ish out and 18'ish down.  It felt bigger once I got into the air!!  Thankfully I landed smoothly and had plenty of time to slow down before the berm that I was worried about.  I ran through the woods to give Woods a high five and fell over a log.  I didn't care......I couldn't stop laughing!!  We progressed onto the next hip jump and Woods went OTB pretty good right in front of me.  He popped up screaming about a torn shoulder but was just talking smack, and pushed back up to hit it again.  He got a sick pic of me on it.  We raged Platinum and Heckle and Jeckyll.  I nailed everything and Woods had a good show as well seeing as it was all new to him.  No getting searched going into the US on the way home (just going into Canada). 

Rest day yet?  Nope.  Just more riding Glacier, partying, and hanging out w/ all the local yocals- Robby and Ben, Dan, Matt-squatch, Jidiaa, Toch, Tucker, Randy, etc.  A constant turnstile of locals rolling through to say wud up and chat for a few.  It was harder than you'd think to drive 3 minutes away and go riding!!  We fell into the nearing biking phase around 12 or 1.  And that was getting up around 9 or so!!  Some days we didn't get to the trails until 5!!  One morning we went over to the blue barn on the property and realized there is one of the sickest skate bowls I've ever seen at a private residence.  We rode Wood's yellow dirt jump bike and it was a HOOT!!  You could get going soooooo fast just by pumping the bike up and down around the berms.  Lily even got in on the madness and before long was raging around the bowl w/ the fooomp foooomp that emanates as a rider gets going fast.  I even built a new jump at the base of Glacier w/ help from Woods and a couple of the local kids who had built the previous structure in its place.  The day before I had hit the step-up to step-down a few times and knew it was rickety.  Then it nearly fell over one of the goes and I promptly pushed it over.  Then I felt compelled to put something back up so I went off piling up logs and dialing in the angles and distances.  The next day we came back thinking that 30-40 min of digging would complete the project.  Try a couple more hours.  We put a LOT of primo dirt on the run in, takeoff, and landing.  It came out sweet if you ask me.  I hit it a bunch of times and walked away happy w/ my work.  

Over the past weekend (13th through the 15th) Lily joined Woods and I in Glacier.  We rallied Glacier on Sat/Sun and N. Fork on Monday.  Lily stepped up her game big time and rode the daunting 6 mile trail in Glacier.  It's basically a free fall of steep loamy trails for a LONG time, with the occasional devious tight corner thrown in for amusement.  Fortunately (or unfortunately) she didn't have a bad wreck the first time, so she felt a bit more confident trying it for a second time with less hesitation.  This meant two things:  1. She's going a LOT faster and 2.  She tried some of my "lines."  I heard a good huh-uhhhhhhhh, thump, thump, groan.  I leap back up the trail to find Lily tangled in her bike face down on the steep "hill" side.  She took a good over the bars (OTB), landed on her chest straight from a steep root ball roll in, and tumbled a couple of times before stopping (thankfully b/c the terrain got a LOT um.......cliffier below).  She shook it off after a few minutes (one tough chick) and we continued down (85% of the trail to go!!).  One more bike skidding sideways over a steep rock wreck and she rode the rest of the trail smooth.  It's tough mentally AND physically to get right back up after a gnarly wreck with pains everywhere and get into the mindset that you're going to try EVEN harder, flow EVEN smoother, and NOT wreck again.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  

Monday was a great day at the Fork.  Lily rode Deadfall a good few times (the top steepest trail there) and Woods followed me off some HUGE jumps.  We rallied Moto a couple of times to finish- including Woods blind descent onsight of Happy Ending, the new jump trail.   We went to the N. Fork Brewery/Pizzaria and threw down on some delicious pie and pints!!  

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Ramble into Bellingham from my stay in Glacier.  Life is good.  Things are simple.  Then I call my recruiter to try to work out a new traveling position in the Seattle area (which has been ongoing for the last few months).  With a smoothie in my hand and a smile on my face I'm told that I was mistaken about the location and that I'm ACTUALLY 5 hrs east of Seattle in the middle of the desert!!  No wonder nobody wants to take a permanent position there!!  As I speak to her about the miscommunication she starts getting all emotional and basically gives me the ultimatum that I have to take that position or we can no longer work together and that the company would black list me.  Not one to be threatened I calmly make my case to undoubtedly blind ears.  I know she's under a ton of pressure to fulfill her duties, but I got the bait and switch-arooni!!  I said screw it and went and rode one of my favorite trails of all time- the Snake!!  Woods and I charged up to the towers and rode from the top down!!  We rallied the trail and took a couple of schweet pics!!  Then we got all Retarded Awesome and Woods followed me down the vaunted Wood-rock-wood move that rolls STEEP and you have to thread the proverbial needle in order to ride away in one piece.  We both rolled the steep stump roll into the 25' road gap.  Woods was jumping up and down and hugging me after we stopped!!  What a line!!  Then came the Snake proper and we got all wild on the steep, sometimes off camber rock rolls.  I nailed the Headwall (my nemesis on the Snake) again w/o too much terror.  Then we rallied the Ridge trail and both Woods and I hit the Chief....a 60' rock face that ends into a steep runout, then a jump, fast berm, and onto a woodork stunt that has some skinnies on it.  Ace move overall!!  We rallied into the 30'+ hip stepdown and I rolled in.  Too bad I turned my bar the wrong way in the air because I got all out of balance and ended up sticking my R foot into the ground straight and away, then to my R side for the rest of the energy dissipation.  Worst part was that I slammed my shin again (deep bone bruise), and scuffed up my R side.  We kept going then I tried Medusa the silly techy woodwork stunt that distorts reality.  I fell off mid-way and my bike ended up in some 8' deep hole hidden in the bushes.  And I jacked my shin again.  I got kind of pissed, stormed back up to the trail and rolled down the trail.  The last trail is just an amazingly flowy jump trail w/ jumps into and out of huge berms, hips, whips, step ups, downs, and a creek gap to boot at the end.  It goes by effortlessly (a nice change seeing as how the last couples zones went) and we're pedaling back to the van before we know it.  That's the way freeride mountain biking compares eerily to life- a fury of commotion then it's over- left wondering if that just happened!!  We get back to the van at 9 PM (started at 4).  We hit up the grocery, make some food at my old house on J Street, and I crash out happily as Woods and Meredith chat it up until 3 am.  

Wed, June 17th, 2009

First good night of sleep in a while.  It rained last night and I sunk into deeper sleep than I've had in a while.  Riding the Snake the day before probably didn't hurt....or the couple Sierra Nevadas.  I call Ardor Health to straighten out the whole "starting work on Monday in EBF" gig.  Got Craig (my agents boss) and he turned out to be an incredibly understanding brother who agreed the mix up was fair and we should find a way to CONSTRUCTIVELY work it out (not get all emotional).  That left me with a sense of fulfillment again and no imminent life decisions need to be made today.  I cleaned up the van (which reeks of sweaty bike gear) and caught up writing (hence this jibber jabber).  Time to rouse Woods from the couch (now 4:17 PM) and make something of this day.  

After the horror of losing our FR bikes in Kelowna we headed back to Tonasket and spent a couple of days climbing w/ Pablo, and company.  I nearly had a mid 10 onsight but blew a clip and had to briefly grab a quickdraw.  I think that I need to get back into climbing because it definitely pushes you in ways that not many other endeavors do.  We packed up our stuff and headed back to Bellingham.  Nate and a very pregnant Tanya let us crash at their place the first night.  The next day we went to Glacier and had at the steep gnarly trails.  6 mile was soupy and scary and I was thankful when 3 mile was dry and you could actually ride the lines without flapping one of your legs around for balance/kicking off stuff to stay up.  Nate took a couple diggers and I waited for a short period of time before pinning it to the bottom.  Lily was surprised when I showed up so quickly.  We went back up and did a new trail called Sasquatch.  It started out similar to other trails at Glacier.....namely steep and gnarly w/ tons of exposure.  They did an amazing job of chopping out enough roots to make it doable but not much more than that.  I got bounced around a bit but seemed to find the flow.  Next zone was the stunted zone that Ben showed us last year- roll to double to hip stepdown to roller coaster (which HAD gaps last year, but got changed), to the crazy step up onto the platform.  I took a look at that move and nailed it pretty clean first go.  It was kind of funky because you have to scrub all of your speed and basically crawl off a 8+' drop.  I nailed it and was surprised by how much speed I picked up immediately.  The next move was riding across a 60' log that was shaved on top.  I freaked out when my brakes kicked me sideways.  I jumped off the bike and tumbled through the forest, but not to bad all things considered.  I got back on the bike and rode (not out of control this time) across the log and hit the stepdown blindly.  I could tell you had to go L off it, but I still drifted too far R and landed on (thankfully) a cut out stump.  It then went into 3 bigger doubles (20ish ft).  Next came an uphill skinny logride that fanned out and ended with a 8' slow-tech wheelie drop.  I scoped it and sent it.  SUPER COOL move!!  Next was a X shaped move that had two different sized drops that crossed each other before take-off.  I sent the big one onsight.  Next move claimed Nate Jorgenesen.  Short steepish wood roll into a long, high logride (6' +).  I nailed it onsight and waited for Nate to catch up.  He came into it, stopped above the roll in, then decided to give it a go, rolled in too fast, grabbed a ton of back brake, and promptly slid his back tire off the log.  Before he could say "oh crap" he flew towards the ground and landed HARD onto two logs on the ground with little nubbins- right to the RIBS.  He was writhing for a good 30 seconds before coming to his feet.  Besides the obvious guttoral sounds he was able to muster a FUCK!!  Then more moans.  After a few minutes he says "lets go."  He walks and somehow rides down the rest of the trail.  We rush him to the ER.  He ends us w/ good bruised ribs, but got the full work-up (CT scan, etc).  An expensive 12 Percocets is his take on the whole ordeal.  

The next day, Lily borrowed Nate's bike and we rode the Fork.  Things worked out perfectly.  Right as we were loading up the 2 bikes we met John one of the builders (10%, and now.....Happy Ending).  I didn't know this and started expounding how I'm itching to hit the new trails.  Then he breaks me the news.  We're going to rip it THIS LAP!!  Yeeeeeehaw!!  We rage Deadfall and Widowmaker.  Neck in neck.  Sweet.  Then we peel off and make it over to his trail.  Immediate step up onto a logride that's planked.  Then into a BUNCH of big jumps that I follow him off of.  What a blur of radness!!  It culminated in a 30+' roadgap called the fortune cookie.  So rad!!  John bailed and I ran into Spencer, Colin, PB, Pat, Thad, and EB.  We ripped another Deadfall and did a bunch of work armoring some of the soup pits that form.  We moved some HUGE rocks (2 men grunting to ROLL them).  Then we went and worked on a still yet to be completed trail called Shake and Bake.  We rode the top part- flowy loam and natural terrain.  Then we worked on a ladder section that circumnavigated an impassable zone.  We lugged some slats and stringers up the mountain (hard work and lots of sweat!!).  Lily even threw down?!!  After getting a couple hours in we blazed down the rest of the trail and Lily shuttled me up to do Dirt Renyolds- Todd's pride and joy.  I even ran into him coming down off of it.  He has put even MORE work into the already SICK trail.  A few more jumps were added, and they hit really well.  One came out of a berm and looked very challenging but proved to hit really smoothly.  I hit it a couple times since it was soooo cool.  Then I sessioned the drop to stepdown and nailed the hip afterwards at FULL speed (first time I cleared it smoothly- although it was re-shaped since the last time I tried it).  WHAT  A DAY!!!  We all went to Casa and had less than amazing burritos.  Lily and I crashed at Mike's house (who doesn't live there anymore due to his new woman friend Rose).  We knocked lightly since there were lights on and Meredith came to the door.  She was stoked to see us and we chatted for a bit before pulling the twin mattress out of the van and putting it on mikes wooden platform (he took his mattress).  The next day we re-arranged the truck and van to accommodate me bailing like a crazy kid to go ride my bike in Canada.  It took a solid 90 minutes.  I jumped in the van and headed to Vancouver (Leslie and John's house).  I've never went through the Peace Arch, and made it through w/o any problems.  Then I got lost and ended up 2 cities away in Burnaby.  DOH!!  I called Leslie and got directions.  Finally I showed up and of course Sterling is still working on his bike.  I flip him some grief and then we went and rode Cypress Mtn.  We hit up Sexgirl to SOB, to Tall Can.  Then we got a ride back up and hit up Wild Cherry.  I was stoked to see the opening moves again b/c last time I looked at it I thought it was one of the craziest things ever!!  I hit two different lines and was super stoked.  John also hit the riders L line (I dropped off a 5+' rock and he gracefully placed his tire in the right spot and rolled it).  What a hoot!!  We go back to the resort-de-Leslie and I whip up my famous organic turkey burgers w/ pesto.  Life is good!!

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!!