Bummer break in a solid season

Well after coming off a very solid Test of Metal finish where I not only just beat the 4 hour mark finally I demolished it with a solid 3:28, I went down in The Gear Jammer and posted a DNF. Coming down a rocky decline to get back to Mamquam road my front tire went flat and I lost control of the bike. Down I went and off to the hospital I go with a decent gash to my knee. 16 stitches later my riding has ended for about 3 weeks. This picture is just over a week after the stitches went in.

Well this past weekend was a time to finally get the Anthem X out to stretch its legs and get some serious climbs in.  One of my favourite loops to get some quad burning action is to ride up the power line trail from Lougheed Hwy to Panorama Drive at the base of Eagle Ridge (470 m of climbing in under 6km) and then up to the lookout on the power line rode on Eagle ridge.  It never ceases to amaze me how much the Anthem wants to climb, this bike is a mountain goat.

After enjoying the view for a few minutes and downing some Gatorade it was time to drop down to Buntzen lake.  If I hit Buntzen on a wet day I can poach the Buntzen lake trail and not have too many hikers on it.  Sunday was definitely not one of those days.  Up to the power lines I go.  The trail is not as flowy but it sure is fast ripping back down to the road.

I could sit all day at the North end of Buntzen Lake.  You don't get crowds of people at that end, the beach is decent and the views are awesome.  With the dread of the climbs on the Lakeview trail there was even more incentive to chill on the beach, oh well another day.  

The Lakeview trail has some really nice sections to it, it also has some lung busting, quad burning climbs.  None of the climbs are really long but they are all steep and loose.  I have cleaned them all individually at one point or another but have yet to come close to putting that entire section of trail together.  After coming out of the Lakeview trail it is very tempting to keep along the road and head back out through the parking lots, but one more climb awaited.  The Saddle Trail.  5 granny gear switch backs later I am at the top, all down hill from here.  The old access road down to Sasamat Lake is fast and treacherous at the same time.  Come over a rock outcropping too quicky and you are barely hanging on through a garden of baby heads.

One of my favourite sections of this loop is the hiking only trail down to Sasamat Lake.  I have yet to see a hiker on it and it is a beautiful ribbon of single track winding through the forest.  It is so much fun.  Once pavement hits I hang a left and head home.  Until next time.

Riding on Galiano Island

I spent the past few days on Galiano Island for a small family vacation.  I had heard there was some decent XC riding on the island so I brought my Anthem X to get a couple of rides in.  This website has some decent maps of the southern part of the island that I brought with me.

My first ride was a pedal from our B&B to the Sturdies Bay Trail.  This trail follows right beside the road as you come out of the ferry terminal. 

 From the end of the Sturdies Bay Trail I headed up to Bluff Park and over to Mt. Galiano.  The trails were a mixture of single track and double track and it was all flowy and smooth.  The views from the Bluffs and from the top of Mt. Galiano were awesome, time it right and you can see the ferries coming through Active Pass.

None of the photos I have are during my XC rides but I did some hikes in the same areas.

The second ride that I did was along Bodega Ridge.  This was a very cool ride.  The entire ride was a ribbon of single track that followed the edge of Bodega Ridge.  The views were incredible.  

There was very little climbing as the road leading to the trail head took you to close to the height of the ridge.  The single track ended on private property and what looked like miles of old double track logging roads.  I wish I had more time to explore.  To get back to your car simply turn around and follow the same route.  

In the summer months I would imagine that 

Bodega Ridge would have a lot of hikers on it.  This could get quite frustrating as the trail is very narrow.  This would definitely be an early morning ride depending on the time of year.

I am sure that there are many more trails that are rideable on the island.  Apparently there is a guy that works at the Bodega Resort that also rides and may be able to point you in the right direction.  There is also a bike rental company that can be found in the brochure on the ferry.  She got me started in the right direction.

I wouldn't necessarily head over to Galiano just for the riding, but if you are going for a vacation then definitely bring your XC bike.

A new ride!

Gone are the days of lugging a 33 lb bike through multi-day epics and marathon races.  I just got myself a new XC machine - a Giant Anthem X2.  Thanks to Kim, Scott, Steve and the rest of the boys at Steed Cycles for the wicked service and for introducing me to my new friend.

In my first week with my new ride I was bed ridden with the flu and the lower mainland went through 2 more snow flurries so riding has been limited.  I was able to squeeze in a nice light ride on the Poco trail though.  I always enjoy the views up the Pitt River.

On the to do list this year are the Ore Crusher, Test of Metal, NS XC Marathon, Gear Jammer and Cheakamus Challenge.  Hopefully a Northern or Southern Chilcotins trip as well as 7 Summits can make it into the cards this year.

-Graham

Cheakamus Challenge

Well the Cheakamus Challenge went off on Saturday.  The day started great in Squamish (after a slow drive through contstruction on the Sea to Sky), it was fairly warm and a very light rain was starting to fall.  Great conditions for riding.  This day called for shorts and a bright green Steed Cycles jersey with Steed arm warmers.

Last year I did not put a big ring on my bike and rode 

with a bash guard.  That was a mistake as the opening rode section was fast and I basically spun out and was left nearly at the back of the pack before we even hit the trail.  I did not make the same mistake this year and what a difference it made.  I was able to hold about middle of the pack (that is good for me) all the way through the rode section.

As you start climbing up above the Cheakamus Canyon I get reminded of why I love this race.  The views are awesome.  The race pretty much follows the Cheakamus Canyon from Squamish to just before Whistler and you get to see some views that you would never see from the car ride up.  For the 2nd year in a row I even got to see the Whistler Mountaineer come up through the canyon (maybe they plan it this way, I am not sure).

About half way through the race the rain picked up and it got colder with the elevation gain.  The trails were in great shape though.  The Sea to Sky trail is starting to come together and there was a new section that had just opened prior to this race.  The nice smooth single track felt great and was a pleasure to ride, it really flowed as the trail rolled between Brandy Wine and Loggers Lake.  At this point I am feeling great and am well ahead of my last year's pace.  I push until the 2nd feed station where I chow down on bananas, coo

kies and Coke.  Less than an hour to go and 2 big climbs left.

Up the Cheakamus, up the microwave tower road to Tunnel Vision and then back up Kadenwood to finally come ripping down into Creekside.  I am wet, cold and loving it.  30 minutes faster than last year and the burgers and beer are waiting.  

Chilko Challenge Day 3

It was cold the night before day 3. We woke up with a good layer of frost on our tents and grass. There was a dog that had followed a group of riders through all of day 2 (someone had to take a 2 hour car ride to return this dog to its home ranch) and it barked half the night.

Day 3 was supposed to be the short day, 4-5 hours. We were to ride down the rode to the lake and follow a trail that circumnavigated the lake. There were 3 significant river crossings and we were told to be prepared to get our feet wet. In fact we were told to be prepared to get wet up to our chests.

After a hearty breakfast put on by the fantastic hostesses of Bracewell's Lodge we were on our way. Steve, one of the organizers, went off first because he said he had a surprise for us. When we got to the lake, instead of having to walk through a rushing glacier fed creek they had arranged for a barge to take us all about 1 km up the lake. There was even time to do some fishing.

Back on the trail we rode up a forest access rode to a ribbon of freshly cut single track. The trail popped us up on the Whale Back which gave us a great view down to the north end of Tatlayoko Lake, and a glimpse of how far we had to ride that day. Back down into the single track and we popped out again at the biggest river crossing of the day. A chest deep outflow river that we had to go through twice, once to carry our bike and again to carry our gear. The day was the warmest we had during the entire trip so the conditions were perfect.

The rest of the ride was on fairly fresh single track. The organizers spent 30 man days clearing this trail in time for the adventure, and I must say they did an excellent job. We spent more time on the bike on day 3 than on any other day and most of the trail was smooth with gentle climbs and descents for almost 40 km. 8 hours later (so much for a 4-5 hour day) we finished with a 1 km walk along the north beach to the finish line. The finish line consisted of a creek that we had to cross. We waited for the 4 of us to regroup and crossed together.

24 hours of riding in 3 days, some of the worst conditions I have ridden on a bike, some of the worst weather I have been out in and some of the best single track I have seen in my life. The 3 days were absolutely epic and I can't wait for next year.

Chilko Challenge Day 2

Day 2 was our long day. It would consist of huge climbs, long alpine meadow rides and fantastic views. The initial weather forecast called for sun and clound, but the day started with beautiful sunny skies. Looking at the weather at the start of the day I re-evaluated what I was going to bring - neoprene gloves, nope don't need those. Goretex pants, gone. Wow could I have made any worse decisions.

The peak that you can see to the right in the picture above is Tullin Mountain. This is about 1/3 of the way that we would be travelling today. The day started with a 12 km road ride to get to the trail head. From here it was almost instantaneous hike-a-bike for over an hour.

Shortly after we started climbing the clouds opened up and it started pouring rain. By the time we all stopped to put our jackets on we were all soaking wet and as we were soon to find out, jackets on top of wet clothes is not the best way to stay warm. We got to the top of the first ridge and got blasted with the wind. We hunkered down as best we could and grabbed a bite to eat. After some deliberation with the other 12 riders that made it this far we decided that it was best to turn back. There was about 27 km to go at much higher and more exposed elevations.

About 5 minutes into our decent back to the start line things started to go our way. The sun came out and dried up all the rain (and the itsy bitsy spider....), so we figured what the hell, we're already up here, let's go back up. We had even heard talk of a fire up on the ridge. We climb back up over the ridge and down a small descent into an alpine meadow and we smell smoke. Our hands and feet are freezing , our clothes are soaking wet and we could not get to the fire fast enough. I paused to take a photo of an epic view of Chilko Lake and then ran over to the fire.

That fire ended up being one of the biggest highlights of the entire trip. Shortly after we left and started into another 400m climb the rains got worse, the wind was worse and the temperature dropped. We opened up into an open range cow pasture and 2100m and into 50-60 km/h winds. It started snowing and we could not find the trail across this meadow. At this point my hands did not move, I could not feel my feet and I was really starting to get cold. Me and Brandon could not keep up with Kim and Steve, but we put our heads down and hiked our bikes for over and hour across the open alpine. As it turned out, losing sight of Kim and Steve was one of the best things that could have happened. It forced me to get out my GPS and get us back on track. Up here somewhere was a small lake and a cabin with a fire burning. It was torture on my hands just trying to get my GPS out of my pocket and turn it on, I literally could not bend my fingers.

We grouped up with 4 other riders and worked out way to where this cabin was supposed to be. Finding this small cabin in the woods was one of the best sights I have seen in a long time. Back to Kim and Steve though, we got to the cabin and they were not there. I was able to get them on the radio and find out that they went down over the wrong ridge line. They were now 20 minutes behind us, and were freezing cold.

We all survived that adventure and decided that we were going to take the emergency route down from the cabin to the lodge. This consisted of a now wet cow path full of sloppy cow patties - dinner anyone. When we stepped outside, there was not a cloud to be seen, son of a bitch. We had come this far and were now somewhat dry and warm so we soldiered on. We only had another 200m of evevation gain and about 3 hours of riding to get back to the lodge. It was one of the best decisions we could have made.

The views were absolutely epic and the single track was awesome. We finished the ride with almost 1000m descent down perfect single track. It was close to 45 minutes of descending.

Back at the lodge most of the group was ahead of us as they all decided to take the emergency route down. We tried not to gloat too much about the epic single track and views, but we had to rub it in just a little bit.