Yesterday I went to Desous Mtn to hook up w/ some locals. It didn't start off as planned- getting lost, then getting eaten by a swarm of mosquitos at the bottom waiting for someone- anyone to show up!! After a while of getting eaten by the voracious bugs I decided to pedal up the 5.5 KM myself. It was hot and took ~45-60 minutes. I got passed by an older couple on an enduro which only added to my misery. I made it to the top and wandered around looking for the various trails. The "frontside" trails included Sunset Blvd- which I rode first- BIG mistake. The only "double black" it was NOT. Pedaly and torn down stunts everywhere......was this some sort of sick joke?!! I ended up on some random overgrown road and picked my way though some decrepit jumps, around a house on a lake, and FINALLY back to my van. I ate a sandwich stewing for a bit, all the while getting my blood extracted by the vicious bugs. They forced me into the van. Lucky for me I ran into some local kids on DJ's and they were nice enough to drop me off on top again!! I rode Oosue, which had a cool rock drop reminiscent of Tower Of Lies, a "triple black diamond" cliff section w/ a tricky off camber root move (w/ some decent exposure), and some flowy jumps (and of course the obligatory pedal at the bottom on the xc trail). I decided to bail, but ran into a group of bikers pulling in. I turned around and met Cory (and his micro van) and a bunch of locals. They incorporated me into the back (returning from a backside lap on Soo Long) and I got to ride the Original Desous DH. It was fun, but not as good as Oosue in my opinion. I finished there w/ one more lap on Oosue w/ one other guy from up north. Afterwards, a couple of the guys took me and rode Gutterball on Slater Mtn. It was the best trail yet overall for huck factor. It had a 3 pack of jumps to start, some flowy trail, then about 15 more jumps in various configurations. There was a cool downhill log ride to gap jump over a barbed wire fence, a few cool hip jumps (I was the only one to hit the biggest one), a sweet step down to step up that was big, but easy to overshoot, and a blind 20' + step-down over a bunch of foliage. It ended in a gnarly, rocky, tight, loose gully. The dude in front of me took a good digger and scraped up his arm pretty good. Pretty damn cool trail!! Afterwards I was asking where to camp when it was suggested that I cruise out to Mark's House, the owner of Red Shred's. Seeing as I've never met him I felt a little weird, but I was assured that it was fine. I cruised out toward Chimney Lake and accidentally drove past his house (looking for a paddle on the fence). After passing all the houses and hitting dirt road I turned around and asked a couple guys working on their fence if they knew where Mark lived. One of them drove down the road to show me. I rolled up and met Jucinda, Mark's GF (?). Just then, ???? showed up and swept me away to the golf course where Mark and Kailem where swatting balls around a small local course. They were just finishing up and we went back to Mark's. It was super fun hanging out w/ this group.....they had hilarious stories of sledding, boarding, biking, life, etc. We jumped in the hot tub and had a few party appetizers to boot. I had a great chat w/ Maggie from Kimberly who was a holistic practitioner and had a bunch of interesting views on health and natural medicine. Trish had a super happy baby girl floating around the party. I retired to the van and had a good snooze. What a life!!
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