Pro Snow Riding

Of course I was stoked when Tyler Maine from Pinkbike called on his way down to Oregon with plans to stop and ride for a bit. Unfortunately, the bottom fell out of the sky and dumped A LOT of wet, heavy snow unexpectedly. At first I thought it was all over for the day, then I came to my senses when I heard Geoff Gulevich was in on the tour too. I've always wanted to meet this guy, and I figured there was no way I could let him roll through town without sampling the goods. Tyler, Gully, and James Splinter met myself and Kyle Young from Transition Bikes for a little splish-splash down the mountain.

making the most of it

It was quite the hike up. Not a single bit of road was pedalable. The above photo was taken about 1/2 way up, so needless to say it got deeper. I really should have taken more photos, but we were kinda in a hurry due to the usual Canadian time zone difference (can't be in a hurry to cross the border on a Saturday!) and we also had a bowling tournament scheduled for 2 hours later. The hike-a-bike to the trail was hilarious! You'd think that the people in the back would take note of the slide tracks from where the front guys had busted our asses, but no, everyone had to try it for themselves! We all wrecked on the same feature (first steep part of the trail). It was not reassuring whatsoever when Kyle went first and hit his nuts really hard, but again, everyone had to try it for themselves. Man, it was really fun!

Gully taking the high and dry line

The middle part of trail was hairball. Very few jumps were rideable, and the ones that were sent us out of control on landing. Basically, there was lots of slip sliding down the mountain. It was Gully's first ride on his Rocky Mountain bike since signing with them for '08 last month. He says he likes it on the virgin ride, but we probably could've been riding Huffy's with similar results for this ride. Splinter, hailing from the Yukon, had his first snow ride ever today. What a way to start the season!

Tyler testing the waters

All in all a great time. And the bowling tournament, well, maybe you'll see pics of that later. Thanks to the WHIMPS mountain bike crew for putting together a fun social event! No thanks to myself for the hangover afterwards. I'm sure Tyler will have a great story written up on Pinkbike next week when they return from Post Canyon, Blackrock, and Port Angeles. Good luck boys!