Another trip to Revelstoke, and this time we visited the Train Museum and did some alpine singletrack!

 

What A great year for mountain biking! I get to go riding in MOUNTAINS once or twice a week and at this rate I think I might actually wear out a pair of tires for the first time in a lot of years. Yeah, that’s right, I haven’t been riding very much for the last few years. Well, actually about the last 10 years, but really, who’s counting.  One of my main reasons for moving back home to BC was mountains, and I don’t just want to look at them!!!

Being closer to the mountains and my family really makes life seem like an endless vacation. Sure there’s never enough daylight to get everything done, but we still get to do a lot! No epic rides, but spending time on my bike with my family and friends really adds up to greatness. I’m also re-visiting the trails of my youth, trails I haven’t ridden for 10 or more years! These trails shaped me into the cyclist I am today, my childhood stomping grounds.

So here’s a few pictures! Thimble mountain was one of my favorite rides when I was about 13, and TNT came a little too late for me. The trail has some technical climbs and was built right around the time we were “free riding” so, ya, hard tails with slammed seats and fat tires, they didn’t climb so well (2000-2002). After that I got into downhill bikes until about 2010ish when the all-mountain scene caught my eye in Montreal.

May Long 2015 I was finally reunited with one of my longest lasting friends, David. Our friendship goes back to my courier days in Calgary, and I’ve basically followed him around ever since. Him being from Quebec, he moved back east not long after I met him. You guessed it, I followed him east, and he got me both of my jobs in Montreal. First as a Bicycle messenger and next as a mechanic at Le Yeti. Like me, David has a thirst for the mountains so he moved back west and ended up in Revelstoke. Now that I am back west and settled in, it was about time I went for a visit.

The best thing in life is doing what you love with your friends!

Not only is David in Revelstoke, but so is probably my best riding partner, Piel (as we call him). We have had a lot of good rides together, and even if he is more into the “epic ride” (80km of getting lost is his idea of fun) we have always found a good rhythm riding together.  So all in all, you can gather that we obviously had a good time in Revy!

So there’s a little mountain about 900m high behind our house… sounds like the perfect place for after work rides! We went and explored and found at least one good, well maintained trail, and another which needs a little tune up. Seeing as its right there, I’m sure we’ll be back!

 

We had two of my good pals and favorite riding buddies come down for a visit! Alex (the Russian) and PL. What fun it was! I need a “quick grab” camera setup for mountain biking so I can take more photos. It sure was fun, and PL and I did some classic exploring which included 45 minutes of hiking in the snow! What fun to be had!

So we went to the Fest of Ale in Penticton with Zak this year. What good fun that was! doors at 12:00 and 2$ for a little beer from breweries from near and far (mostly near). It was a long hard day of drinking, and we pretty much only drank IPA! yikes! It ended at 6, we went for vegetarian food and then wondered around the town for a while until we were all ready to admit defeat. It was bedtime and it was only 10PM.

On sunday we went to a local coffee roasters/cafe and did some big city shopping. Couldnt help but be tourists on the way home and got attacked by Le Yeti! Ha.

Well we got Zak out again for another ride! He’s liking getting back into biking with us! Yahoo! My pops came out too.

This time we did Deer Point Trail. Only 4-5 trees to climb over, not so bad.

For the first time in what was probably over 10 years, my family has been together for Christmas! What great fun it was, with food provided by Pascale and I. We decided to make a nice Gluten Roast and a Christmas Log for dessert. All vegan obviously and all extremely delicious. It was tough cooking for the 9 people that were present but I think we handled it pretty well!!

On December 22nd we needed some sunshine and fresh air so we decided to go for a hike. We went to the top of the little mountain in the middle of Grand Forks, Observation. It was pretty steep going up, and cold enough for patches of icy, frozen mud. We were blessed with an awesome view from the top though so that made it all worth while. We thought we would go down the service road instead of the trail on the way back, but little did we know it would be MORE sketchy and way longer. Oh well, that’s what a journey is eh?

Here is some of our first adventures!

Here we have an old Phoenix mine. Apparently Phoenix was a pretty booming city back in the day, and now it doesn’t even exist!

Next we went to check out the Kettle Falls. I don’t really know my way around there so we explored a bit. It was kind of icy and dangerous so we didn’t stay too long.

And today we went for a drive up the North Fork. Some 40km later we found a bunch of snow and some nice views.