Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009
Well, it snowed a solid couple inches here in Nelson yesterday, effectively ending my MTB riding plans. It came down in big heavy flakes that seemed suspended for an inordinate amount of time. I didn't do much yesterday but entertain the house inspector and potential buyers of the home on Cottonwood where we're staying. I managed to head over to Josh's house to see how his shoulder was doing and realized that the yota is driving really rough!! It may have been the cold, wet weather, but she was misfiring and stalled a couple times while idling at lights!! Uh-oh!! Just as we're about to get ready to drive 10 hrs+ over potentially snowy passes!! I also hit up the lovely co-op that they have on Baker St. I won't ever complain about organic prices back in the states!! Everything is so expensive up here and the exchange rate is on par!! The girls showed up from yoga around 6 and they made a tofu steak (on the grill) and rice/veggie dish w/ mayo herb sauce (the French love mayo as I'm told). Then we made some granola before retiring to bed. I emailed Ken Berkes about starting back up at OMC and am waiting to hear back from him. This morning the internet won't work and the other house mate showed back up from his 3 wk trip to Australia. Change is sure on the horizon (in all directions!!). I guess the last few remaining daze will be spent packing, poking around town a bit more (haven't really done much of that!!), working on my dilapidated bike, and check out what's up w/ the truck. There was a chance of boogieing up to Kamloops for some desert riding, but that's in doubt now that the truck is running a bit rough. I feel like I'm in a bit of an in-between zone, not sure where to go for more long-term work/play, how to invest, how to better myself as a PT/human, how to resist the urge for delicious deserts that have been my downfall since leaving Richland (where I was hard-core healthy 98% of the time), and the like.
I do know that I'm glad I checked out Slabalanche on Sunday (25th). I had that "better go before the snow" feel. I went solo (as per usual in Nelson fall riding), and tried to find the B&B that was scribbled onto my map....only there's a TON of them on both sides of the road. Just as I was going to give up I hit "the fast straight away" he used to describe the location. I turned up and parked by the gate. 7 switch backs is what he told me to do. I hit one, then headed Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay across the mountain the other way and began to think the spur road I had passed after the first switchback was possibly the road I needed to take. I turned around (sweaty already, even though it was in the low 40's) and charged up the spur road. I had to cross a few logs and there were some chain ring marks alright!! The spur road dead-ended me into the trail!! Now for the fun part, right. The description said 1-1.5 hr push/bike up the road. I've been at it 20+ min. So I started pushing up the trail. There were a bunch of sweet rock slabs (some steeper than I've seen, but I usually don't WALK up the trail either though!!), and some steepie sections that were especially fun to grunt my way up. Add to that the fact that my front brake was pumping up and not really working (I usually use it to help me up steep spots and on rocks, etc). I wanted to turn around a few times, but each time I'd push through another section, I'd find a sweet log ride, or another rock face, or a sweet flowing DH section that would re-invigorate me and push me to trudge further. Finally I spotted a ladder bridge that looked like it started from a road. Sure enough I had pushed up the whole trail!! The funniest part was that the entrance was VERY well hidden and was NOT where the douche at the bike shop said it would be. It was "supposed" to be at the apex of the 7th switchback, but instead was on a long straight away that I'm not sure was even on the main road!! I hiked in both directions and didn't find any connector roads!! Chuckling to myself that this was probably the only way I would have found it anyways I suited up for battle and turned on the helmet cam (whose batteries died before I even hit the trail.....boohoo!!). The trail felt totally different riding down!! I was amazed by how steep it was overall and I found myself questioning that fact that I had really pushed up it!! There were a few sections that I wasn't SUPER sure of......1. A spine line on the L of this large boulder......had to point it down the chunky, discontinuous ridge and make a soft L at the bottom through some chunky blocks typical of Nelson. I got into a track stand w/ my tire pointing to the L while eyeing the line. Finally I committed and pointed it. Wahooo!!! That is a great feeling to nail a techy move by yourself! Now it was on!! 2. A long, meandering waterfall of a rock line that had some mud in the worst spot possible (before the last roll that shot you into a hard L berm). I just crept along slowly and stuck it just fine. Kind of reminded me of the Snake in a way. 3. A steeeep rock roll that had a small boulder in the run-out then another one a bike and a half away. Didn't want to pile up into the second rock, and didn't. It was just a matter of braking hard, soaking it up, then pushing it down before soaking another hit up......rodeo style!! Those were the cruxes for me....... but I like techy log rides and there were a few of them which I stuck first go!! The trail dumped out onto a dirt road and I thought it was done, but then I poked around and found another section that once I started down (and wasn't hiking back up) had a bunch of No Trespassing signs plastered all over the trees. There were a bunch of broken ladder bridges and I poked through a bunch of boulder fields on faint trail that eventually dumped out onto Hwy 3A. I rode the road back towards town for 5 min and retrieved my truck from the B&B driveway.
The 4th annual Taster's Cup was also going on and I thought I'd try to hit both in one day, so I boogied out to Blewett. I picked up a woman hitch-hiker on the way and she talked me into going the back way to the trails so I could drop her off. No problems!!! It didn't matter anyways b/c nobody was at the trails (3PM by now). I poked around and found a bunch of moto trails that I mistook for bike trails and then headed back to town. I still wanted to ride some more, so I went and hit up the DJ's by the hostel that I stayed at last time I was in town. They were beautifully covered in yellow and red hued leaves and I spent a few minutes kicking them off the lips of the jumps. It was a pretty tight line in a little ravine area. From the start platform you hit a hard R berm then immediately into the first jump that I cased the first time I tried it. Determined to hit the whole line, I began CHARGING the berm and realized that's how hard I need to hit it on my 8.5" travel DH bike. The next jump was a bit of a shooter-style step-down, then into the biggest gap of the line, followed by an all-out charge into a big step-up up the hillside. This turned out to be the hardest jump to hit!! I sessioned the jumps for a while then after hitting them the smoothest yet, I bailed. Good times!! I sure do love the feeling of nailing jumps!! Maybe I can take my jumping to the next level w/ that sweet little TOP sitting in PA!! Hopefully 31 isn't too old to get into DJ'ing!!
Well.....I guess I'm going to eat some granola and go stick my head under the hood of the Yota to see what's up w/ her!! Ciao!!
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