Independence Day Travels

Long time no update, which means nothing truly unique has happened in awhile. To celebrate our American Independence Day, we headed up to Canada.

The plan was to drop in and see my ol pal Johnny Smoke of BushPilotBiking on the way to Silverstar bike park. Drop in we did- as soon as we got there, we headed up for a quick lap in Johnny's backyard trails, and off the bat Lyndsey hit what is probably the biggest gap she's hit yet. Not bad for the first 50 feet of trail since we left Bellingham!

Then Johnny's tour showed up. Some Brits from the UK, whose bikes didn't make it onto the plane. One guy flew out a day early so his bike showed up. The evening was spent watching Jim build his bike while we drank keg beer.

After searching for bikes most of the morning, Scott finally found a Giant Faith, with a blown Drop Off Triple fork. It was a rickety shitpile, and I was curious as to how he'd take it. I tried to get to know this quiet fellow on the way to the trails, but couldn't really get any idea of how good of a rider he was. It's difficult to tell, especially inter-continentally. Poews was another fellow on the trip and he fit right on Barb's bike after we flip-flopped the brake levers for euro-style.

who's the jovial lass? That's Barb, due with sometype of offspring here soon

Dropping in on Gillard, Seth shows the chicks how it's done

And they follow right along

Lyndsey launching some wood

Cheri hitting a gap

Then things got steep. Lyndsey figured it out

And Cheri right behind

Jim took a bit of a tumble, and here he looks a bit confused

A rare shot of the Bush Pilot

And in action:

Cheri reaching for it

Johnny took a shot of me riding Lyndsey's bike down a crevice on Dr. No

Lyndsey dropping into a coulair on Dr No

Scott getting techgnar with it

And then getting horizontal on the walls

Back to Powers Creek, Scott drops in on some wood:

Lyndsey bridging the gap on Builder's Only

And Scott

We went to Silverstar, but all we got was a sweatshirt, and a photo of Seth wearing it. It was much cooler than expected, though I think he really liked the shirt and would've bought it anyways.

We got an end of the day beer shot too, but were too busy riding to take any pics. If you like berms, Silverstar is your place. I think there are over 10,000 of them there.

After ride campsite drinking session. The BushPilot tour was at Silverstar too, so afterwards we had a few post-ride refreshments. Poews celebrated his love for Canada:



Jim: "They've got a tele in there, it's quite mad isn't it?"



Not bad reception for camping, and nice couch too.


Day 4- Johnny showing off his secret tech line on the Penticton trails

Scott giving it a go

Oh there's that fat chick again! Thanks for the shuttles Barb!

Scott dropping in on his POS rental bike

What's that in the bushes?

Just this guy:

Jim sending it with a busted wheel

And then Scott had to go and hit this thing on that POS rental.

That's the end of all excuses. Seriously, if you're reading this, you know now that I will never accept any excuses based on the quality of your bike. I wouldn't ride that bike to the grocery store and back, and here's Scotty sending it HUGE. He overshot it a bit and the front tire blew out, but he was okay. No thanks to Giant for spec'ing Presta valve rims. Luckily we had a 4" long patch to fix the giant anaconda-size snakebite on Scott's tube. Wow, I can't wait to check the BushPilot blog next week to see what Scott rides once his own bike arrives.