The Life and Times of Mr. Woodlot

Two Rides. Wait. Make that walks.

2007-01-26T08:06:00.000-08:00

The last two rides at the Woodlot haven't been anything to write home about.

A few weeks ago, Dean, Dave, and I decided to hike up Cabin Trail for a snow ride. Well, the snow was brutal. Frozen. Just generally yucky. Unless the trail was pointed almost straight down, we had to walk. Walking all the way up was bad. Walking more than halfway down SUCKED ASS!

Snakes was in good shape so we got to ride most of it, but I wasn't feeling it on this day because of the crappy upper part of the ride. We rode out Shotgun and headed home.

This past weekend Dean and I decided we'd go to the top in search of a trail we know is there, but have never seen. We found 21/2 ft of snow instead. It was deep. The last 400 meters of our climb were tough. We had to carry our bikes. Again, just as the last time we were up there, we had to walk our bikes down. We couldn't ride until we got to Lower Toadstool. Over halfway down the hill. While riding Lower Toadstool, we ran into Denise and Gregg building a nice ladder ride halfway down the trail. It will have a mini drop on the end. They are doing some SWEET work on that trail and have improved it ten fold. We chatted for a bit, then went on our way. Maybe we should have stayed chatting. We got to the bottom of the trail and I noticed my bike was a little squishy. After some fiddling around it was determined that my rear shock was blown. WONDERFUL! A nice $200 expense coming. Wahoooooo!

I nursed her down Shotgun to the truck and headed home. At least Dean had a sweet last half of the ride.

A couple of days later at work, I got a call from Dean. Him and I have been trying for the RCMP over the last little bit. Dean has been going through the BGI and finally got the call on Tuesday. He is set to go to Depot on the 4th of February. Goin' to the Pig Farm. Congratulations buddy!

I will miss my friend.

Who will Mr. Woodlot ride with now?

I need to ride

2007-01-02T14:29:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all of Mr. Woodlot's faithful readers. I love you all!

I need to ride.

Looks like Saturday morning at the Woodlot with Dave and his wif. Good times.

Work. Lots of it.

2006-12-11T08:05:00.000-08:00

So we've had some pretty messed up weather over the last month. Heavy rain. High wind. -15 temeratures with over a foot of snow. Messed up to say the least. It has wreaked havoc on the trails.

Yesterday we took a crew of four up to Snakes to clear it and then go for a ride. We didn't expect the carange that we found. There were probably 20 trees down on the trail. Not just on here or there, but in groups everywhere. It was madness.

With all the trees down though, not one bridge on Snakes was damaged.

So, we(Dave, Dean, Tim and I)hiked up to Snakes. There were even trees down on the road, but we decided to take care of the trail first. We got to the top and saw first hand how bad it was going to be. We stashed the bikes and hiked down the trail. Starting at the bottom, we worked up. The first few trees we cleared went pretty quick. It was nothing too big. We cleared up to the LALR when I spied a new ladder across the forest. There is an old trail over there called SOS that has seen some new work lately. We went to check it out. The work is Ok, but a little ghetto. Not even close to our high standards, but whatever. Not our trail.

Back to the task at hand. We hiked up our trail a bit more to the Jump section. The carnage here was bad. The DJ gap was totally blocked off by about six trees that had fallen. The trail gap had two or three blocking it. Even the squid line had some down on it. With some work, we got it clear. Up around the corner, there was another group of five trees lying across the trail. Dean and Tim worked on clearing this, while Dave and I headed up the trail with our axes to work on some other stuff.

There is now a cool cedar tunnel on Snakes just before the trail up to the rock drop thanks to a croup of around five trees that fell there.

At around 10am I had to leave so I suited up and ripped the trail we just cleared. I forgot my helmet so I was wearing Dave's skid lid. That coupled with the fact that it was my first ride of the year on the hartail made for a cautious ride. Snakes flowed well after all the work we had done, but there are still a lot of trees that need to be cleared on the road out. Shotgun was cool. It still had a bit of snow and there were some trees that were cut and cleared there as well.

There's still a ton of work to be done, and with the forcast calling for winds in excess of 90kmh today, I imagine there will be even more by the weekend.

I found it VERY rewarding yesterday. Working to clear the trail for others to ride, and hanging out with buddies. Seriously. What could be better than that?

L8er Sk8ers.

Eye Candy!!!!

2006-12-08T08:31:00.000-08:00

A little bit of eye Candy from the last year:

Mr. Woodlot at the gaps during the Bear Mountain DH. (below)

Mr. Woodlots now deceased RM-7. BEAUTIFUL custom paint job. She's now hanging on the wall at Rocky Mountain Bikes Research and Development Department.

Don't go into the woods at night!

2006-12-06T14:42:00.000-08:00

A sweet video thedude and I shot.


Fromme Upper Oil Can Dean and Rob risk it all and ride the infamous Upper Oil Can....in the dark.

Has it been over a year?????

2006-12-06T13:34:00.000-08:00

Wow! I can't believe my last post was over a year ago. What has happend in that year? Lots.

Mr. Woodlot got himself a hardtail. Nothing special, but good enough for me. A Brodie Alpha with ghetto hydros and a 2003 Rock Shox Psylo on the front. I haven't ridden her much, but I will.

I also sold the old Atomik that I had been riding for the last three years. It was my first bike and it was hard to let it go. I picked up a 2005 Santa Cruz Heckler. What a great bike. I have two setups that I ride on it. The park set up. That is for Whistler, Sun Peaks and Silver Star and I have a 7" Super T on the front. Then there is the winter setup. That is for, well, the winter and instead of the 7" Super T's I have a 6" DJII on there.

So those are the two rides in the stable, now the rides.

I can't remember them all, but I'll list a bunch.

Many rides at the Woodlot for sure. A few night rides stand out. Like Cabin Trail/Snakes/Shotgun in the torrential rains of last February with Dean. I had a rather large crash and if the ground wasn't so saturated from the rain, I might still be up there.

A few trips to the Shore worth mentioning. One EARLY morning ride. I rode up Seymour and then down Corkscrew/Salvation/Pingu/Pangor/Empress. All before 7:30am. Another one with Tim where we ripped a secret trail to CBC then down the usual. Second run we did Boogieman and Mr. Woodlot got owned.

Bear Mtn DH was great this year. For Dean and I anyway. Dean placed second and I placed 9th with a decent time. To top it off I hit the huge set of doubles at the bottom. Easily the biggest gap I ever hit. Tim didn't fare so well. He crashed on the same jumps and concussed himself quite bad. He doesn't remember anything from that day.

Two weeks after the race I hit up the Woodlot where I believe I had an epipheny. I was riding Snakes and stopped to do a little work on the trannie to the trail gap. After working on it I hit it up. In the air, the world seemed to stop. It was dead quiet. You could have heard a worm fart at that very moment. Mountain biking bliss. I ripped the rest of the trail, got back to the car and just smiled. It was truly a beautiful moment for me.

After two years of planning, the 2006 Lift Extravaganza went off without a hitch. Well, I shouldn't say that. There were a lot of mechanicals on day 1, but other than that......perfect. Whistler Friday. Sun Peaks Saturday and Silver Star Sunday. We stayed in a beautiful chalet by the golf course from Friday night to Sunday morning. It was a great weekend that will no doubt be even better this year.

The 4th Annual Rememberence Day ride on Fromme took place on Saturday November 11th. We hit 7th Secret/Oil Can/Boundry this year. The ride was good highlighted by Dean blowing up his rear wheel on Boundry.

I've already had three night rides this year. I'm starting to enjoy it more. Tim even brought Dean and I a couple beers one night when he couldn't ride with us. We came down and found them sitting on our bumpers. Nice.

That's it in a nutshell. I will start updating this with my rides a little more often I think.

Until then...............

Lest we forget.

2005-11-11T08:18:00.000-08:00

It is Rememberence Day 2005. Time to remember our war heros and time for the Third Annual Rememberence Day Ride.

TheDude, Greenspringer and I were to hit Fromme for the third straight year. I needed to be home for the ceromonies at the cenetaph so we headed out EARLY. We met at Seymour's pub at 6am. We were parked, and climbing by 6:15. It was a good climb with lots of chatter, joking around, and good times. In the back of all of our minds though, were the vets. Without them, we may not be able to do something as simple as riding bikes. We all love to ride, and we have them to thank for it.

So, we got to the top of Pink Starfish at around 8:15. The plan was to go up to Oilcan, but I was running out of time. I told TD and G to keep going and I headed down PS. This trail is old school. Lot's of dorps to flat and some really cool stunts. A few dumb ones too. Today, riding alone, I was very tentative and avoided most of the big stuff. There are things on there I know I can do, but not until I'm riding with somebody.

After PS, I hit Upper Digger. The first ever trail built on Mt. Fromme. Way back in 1995 by the famous Digger. I enjoyed the trail and all it's natural beauty. There were some cool skinnies which Digger is famous for. They were low level too, so very good for anyone who wants to try them.

After Digger, I hit Boundry. The builder on Boundry is doing a wonderful job. The woodwork is great and the trail is a super fun rip. I bailed pretty good on one of the rolldowns. The wood was slick. I touched my front brake to control my speed and my tires just whipped out from under me. No harm done though. I cruised the rest, giving the big stunts a miss and headed back to the truck and home.

Got home with plenty of time to get cleaned up and go pay my respects to the Vets.

Later at home I called TD to see how their ride went. TD had had an unfortunate accident and really hurt his ankle. That sucks. He's off to Mexico for two weeks now to heal it up though. When he comes back, we build.

Werd.

Woodlot Virgin

2005-10-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

It was a simply glorious day in the lower mainland today. You know what I hate? Is when people say the Pacific Northwest. We don't live in the freaking Pacific Northwest. We aren't American. If anything, we live in the Pacific Southwest. Get it?

Anyway, TheDude and I took my friend John to the Woodlot today. He had just bought a 2004 Norco Six a couple of weeks earlier and wanted to try it out. Today was the day.

John and I got to the parking area around 12:30. TheDude was up on Snakes doing a little bit of dirt works so we started up to meet him. We got there around 12:45 and we all headed up to Goldmine. The push was uneventful with lots of good chatter. We got to the top and suited up for John's virgin decent.

Away we went. TheDude in the lead, me, then John. Not too far in John's chain popped off and got pretty stuck. It took me a few minutes to get it fixed but I did eventually and off we went. Goldmine is a different trail in the wet. There are a lot of roots so the trail becomes instantly harder. We cruised down at a decent pace, not having to wait too long for John. At one point TD pointed out what looked like a trail up the hill. We took a quick look and agreed we'd come back and hike it at a later date to see where it went.

Next up were the fast flowy jumps of Snakes. It has been over two months since I rode it so I was a little rusty. The Snakes jump was cool(John hit it to which was good)as usual. Then we hit the gappers. I went into the first one a little hot and almost augered in the pit, but made it out OK. Cased the landing a tad on the trail gap, but made it through. Normally I'd go back up and do it again, but we were pressed for time. Down we went. Log ride, rock face, rock face, rolldown, bottom. Snakes is good. I love Snakes. I want to marry it.

We pedalled up to the road and headed down to Shotgun. As always, it was a blast. Out of all the trails on the hill, I'd say it is in the best shape. Says a lot about the maintenance seeing as how it is the busiest trail on the hill.

John did well today and enjoyed himself quite a bit. I can't wait to take him out again.

Next up for Mr. Woodlot? The Third Annual Remberence Day Ride on Mt. Fromme. See you then?

Day of Protest for the Teachers.

2005-10-26T08:16:00.000-07:00

So the other day, after I put in a four hour picket shift at Burnaby city hall, Tim and I headed up to Seymore for a ride. Got to the CBC parking lot at around 11am. 14 degrees and sunny. It was magical.

First up was CBC. It had rained quite hard two days before so I figured the trail would be quite wet and tricky. It was in great shape. All the work that has been done on it over the summer has helped the trail out a lot. TheRob's skinny game was on, so I enjoyed the top two thirds of the trail. The bottom third doesn't do much for me though.

After CBC we decided that we would try to find Dirty Diapers. We ventured down TNT to the Cabin Trail where we got semi lost, and I suffered a big crash at the hands of the "Slow Motion Endo". I'm still sore typing this five days later. We did a bit of hiking around and eventually found DD about 45 minutes later. It was worth the wait. This is a fun trail. Some cool ladders. One 5-6ft dorp, and a huge fallen old growth cedar that has been turned into a log ride. Wicked trail.

It dumps you out on to Neds just after the first creek crossing. Us, not knwing how far down Neds in came out, parked at the Old Buck lot. That meant hike-a-bike up Neds. Not fun.
Next up was the new trail Salvation. It isn't done yet, but man are there some fun features on it. 10' high skinnies to a downhill log ride with a 6' gap at the end. Lovely.

On to Pingu/Pangor/Empress to end the day. By the time we got to the bottom the temp. had spiked to 22 degrees. Now you have to remember that this is the end of October. Unreal.
Good ride. Next up; Woodlot on Saturday. Who's coming?

Beer, puke, and Sugar.

2005-09-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Dean and I decided to head up to Sun Peaks and check it out. We left Maple Ridge at around 5pm on Friday and off we went.

We got to Sun Peaks at around 10pm. Checked in to the hotel and got cleaned up a bit. We then hit the local bar scene for a few casuals. There wasn't many people in the village so we chatted with a friendly local girl and found the place to chill. Two hours and six beers each later, we headed back to the hotel. Passed out.

Up at 8am for a decent breakfast and then off to the lift for 10. We both felt like crap and had NASTY hangovers. Our first run from the top we hit Cat Trax and the much talked about Route 66. Cat Trax was fun, but Route 66 was nothing special. In my mind anyway. Second run we trekked over to the famous "Sugar" trail. This is a fun flowy not so steep trail with a lot of stunts on it. Before we can ride it though, Dean decides that some of the beer in his tummy needs to come out. He stopped on the side of the trail and went number 2. Needless to say, he felt better after. We rode the rest of Sugar and hit Arm Pump at the bottom.

About three runs later, we are heading back up. It's quiet so we both kind of fall asleep. ABout halfway up, my eyes pop open. Apparently it was my turn to get rid of some of the beer from the previous night. Except, it wasn't coming out the bottom. Off came the helmet and up went the chair bubble. Dean looked at me with a surprsied expression and couldn't believe what happend next. BLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I let her fly over the side of the chair. It was a big one. Luckily there was no one underneath the chair or anyone behind us to see what I was doing. As soon as I was done, I felt wicked. We got to the top, had lunch, resuced a kid and his bike from a bear, and continued on with our day.

Sweet One(so fun), Kaboom(cool), Smitty's Steeps(so steep), Insanity One(too steep), Honeydrop(crazy)are all SUPER fun trails. I can't wait to get back there next year. The only thing the place needs is a little more stunts. Not many, but a few.

No accidents to report and after the pukefest, the day was great.

Digger does good.

2005-09-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

Dean, Tim, and I hit Cypress today. Not the old school Cypress steeps, but the new Bike Park.

We got there for the evening ride. 5pm to 8pm. Up we went. There isn't much there, but they are doing pretty good. In a few years they will be pretty sweet and will be a great alternative to Whistler and perfect for an after work ride. Lift access on the North Shore. You gotta love it!

No trail names except for two. The Trail with No Name which was so fun, and Old School. Tim ate it hard on Old School. Some sweet tables near the bottom that we all aird nicely. Good times at Cypress.

<- Here is me on the teeter on The Trail with No Name.

CrankWorx!

2005-08-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

Today Dean and I hit Whistler for the CrankWorx festival. We rode our bags off up on Garbonzo. We hardly even rode any of the bottom trails. Captain Safety, Original Sin, No Joke, Goats Gully, Freight Train, and my personal favorite line, Fatcrobat/Too Tight. So sweet.

On one of the runs down to the lower trails, we hit Upper Joyride. There is a raock face here that I have never hit before. Today I thought I'd try it. I started Ok, but didn't brake on the way down. At the bottom I got bucked and airborne. In the air my feet came off the pedals. At that point, I was just a passanger. I fly off the bike and land on the trail. I roll about 20ft and narrowly miss cracking my helmet on a rock jutting out of the dirt. Some serious damage done to the hands and head, but mostly, the pride. A

After about ten minutes of checking and regaining my breath, we head off again. Dean hit Clown Shoes and I went to the National DH course. Halfway down I decided that my head wasn't in good shape and I should walk a bit. I think I may have had a mikld concussion.

We stopped for a bit to watch the Slopestyle qualifying. Some things people do on bicycles these days is pretty incredible. We watched for an hour and started to ride again. I felt better at this point, but not great.

We ended the day at about 4:30 and hit the truck to tidy up. We went for dinner at the GLC, and then up the hil a bit to watch the 4Cross finals. There were some brilliant racers there with Steve Peat grabbing some SERIOUS air off the second to last table.

This was my last trip to Whistler for the year. I only rode it twice this summer. Hopefully more next year.

Quick HIt Ressurected.......Sort of.

2005-05-12T08:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day. Dean and I had planned on meeting at the Woodlot at around 5pmish to go up and do some work on Quick Hit. It was the first trail Dean built, but recently it had been logged and the trail was totally covered and un-ridable. Dean had cleared some stuff earlier but not the entire trail.

As I said, it was a beautiful day so I left work a little early. Well, a lot early. ;-) I got there around 2:15 and headed up. I went in at the top of Quick Hit and rode it slowly to see what we have to do. There is a lot of work to be done. None can be done, with the exception of some woodwork and clearing, until it rains. The dirt up there is too dry for any dirtwork. When I got there I decided to start doing some clearing on the lower part of the trail. It turned out to be a bit of a chore but it has to be done.

Dean arrived at around 5:15. Many hands make light work and aside from a few big trees across the trail, we got it all cleared up. One more evening with a chainsaw, and she'll be ridable.

When we were done we decided to push up to Tsuga and ride it, Snakes and Ladders and Shotgun. I normally hate Tsuga, but last tonight I enjoyed it a little more than usual. I even rode the first rock face for the first time. Don't know what took me so long. It was easy.

We blasted down to Snakes. We flew down to the wooden berm and stopped for a second. It is so dry up there right now, I couldn't ride closely behind Dean. The dust he was kicking up was brutal and blinding me. We hit the new jump section and I have to say, we do some fine work. Big jump, to lip, to berm, to gap, to roller, to berm, to gap, to berm, to berm. Very fast. Very nice. We stopped and gabbed about how sweet it was and thought about heading up to do it again. We just kept going however and blasted to the bottom. I love Snakes.

Shotgun was the usual hoot. The upper part of it is so dialed right now. Such a fun ride. They have been working on gettng the bottom dialed up as well and it's running pretty wicked right now.

Down to the parking lot and headed for home. Another good productive night at the Woodlot.

Team Pagan. Ohhhhhhh, scary.

2005-05-10T14:19:00.000-07:00

It's May. It's daylight savings time. That can only mean one thing. After work rides at the Woodlot.

Dean and I hit it today. We hooked up at around 5pm and decided that we would head all the way up to try to find a new trail we had heard about. It was a mellow push up, with a lot conversation. Dean and I did a lot of chatting on this day.

We eventually found this "new" trail after a little searching around. We geared up and hit it. It really was quite fun. There are a few little drops sort of notched out of the trail as it used to be a dirt bike trail. There is some potential for some pretty cool stuff up there. The other builders have been working on it and there are a couple of nice bridges at the end. It would appear they are working from the bottom up. Aside from a minor mishap at the bottom, I'd say this trail is pretty sweet.

After this trail we headed over to Goldmine. There was a time when Dean would have to wait soooo long for me it isn't even funny. Not anymore. I've gotten quite a bit better and on this ride I was starting to show it. We ripped Goldmine pretty good and got to Snakes. Obviously we both love Snakes. We headed on down. Dean veared to the right to hit the rock drop. I stayed left on the main trail. We crusied down to the corner before the Snakes jump. Stopped and chatted for a bit. We took off and ripped the Snakes jump and the new section of hits. Four all together. The new gap built over the old line is sweet. I almost killed myself on it the first time I hit it, but I've done it succesfully three times now. So fun. We stopped at the end of the new section, discussed some future building options and decided to go back up and hit it again. Good times. Down the jumps, down the log ride, down the first rock face, and to the next one. I stopped at the top and tried to decide which line to take. The usual "valley" line, the steep rock face line or the squid line. After some encouragement from Dean"do it bitch" I hit the steep rock face line. Felt good. Off we went down the rolldown to the lower section that Tim had buffed the day previous. Um, it was fast. Real fast.

After this we chatted a bit at the bottom and headed over to Shotgun. Tim and Dean usually play a little cat and mouse type thing here. Tonight, it was my turn. We flew into Shotgun narrowly missing two young kids with there dog. Around the corner, over the two drops, across a bridge and over a newly worked jump. Big air, and guess what. I am not far behind Dean at all. He senses me though and starts to pull away. At a corner where he always loses Tim, he lost me. Bastard. I tried to follow his line to keep up, but I washed out and he got away from me. We stopped at the logging road and chatted for a few minutes huge smiles on our face. What a rip. We headed on down the rest of the trail to the cars. Had a beer and headed home.

There are reasons I ride. Cypress isn't one of them, but today was. It was awsome. It has me hungry for more. Can't wait for tomorrow.

Friday, April 08, 2005. The last time I ever ride Cypress

2005-05-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

It's Friday. We're having a garage sale tomorrow. Why do I mention this? Because I'd rather be at home getting ready for it than riding Cypress. How gay is that?

We got there at around 5pm. Chris and I were the first there so we got ready slowly and waited for Dean and Mike. Once everyone was there we headed up for our first of what would be two shuttles. Mike is the resident Cypress guru so he was in charge of the trail selection. He should have researched a bit more. We couldn't find the trailhead at the start and did a lot of seaching around. We finally found it and the ass kicking of Mr. Woodlot began. I don't know what trails we were on but they were steep, rooty, rocky, and deadly. I got the snot kicked out of me. Dean and Mike seemed to have fun, but me? Nope. I've always said a bad day riding is better than a good day working. That theory was put to the test tonight. As we neared the bottom of our first run we came to a simple ladder roll down. This thing wasn't very steep and the ladder was HUGE. I couldn't even hit it. My confidence at the time was absolutely shot. I stood atop the stunt I would eventually walk around and I shouted at Mike "See what you have done to me?!?!" Of course it wasn't him, but someone had to take the brunt of my frustration.

Our second run was much better. We hit the Roaches and Cherry Bomb. Trails I am familiar with. It was a much funner blast down these. Much better time. The lower section of this before the road is a blast.

We all chatted a bit at the cars and Dean headed home. Mike Chris and I went for a quick pint. Then home for me to do what I should have done in the first place. Get ready for the garage sale.

Last time I ride Cypress until the bike park opens. Count on it.

Boxing Day Blowout!

2004-12-29T08:10:00.000-08:00

Nothing like a apres Chirstmas ride to make the holidays that much nicer. Mr. Woodlot, thedude, Tim, and my bother in-law hit the Woodlot for a quickie on the 26th. We had decided on Gold, Blood Donor, Giant Killer, and Snakes and Ladders.

Up we went. I was riding thedude's Shore Stiffee for the ride as my Bor in-law was on my Atomik. I must say, riding up it was sweet and when we started down Gold I sure noticed a difference. All in all though it was nice. I think I should buy one.

Gold - Same old same old. Ride the first ten feet of the skinnies at the start and walk the rest. I've only actually ridden them once so I know I can. I just don't have the patience to sit there and try over and over again. Kelly(Bro in-law)walked the whole skinny section. He is a relative nOOb so it wasn't a big surprise to see him walk the "skybridge" either. I rode it as per usual and then the next big ladder stunt that was open. Lot's of closed stuff on Gold these days. It is in dire need of some work.

Blood Donor - Fun fun fun. Kelly seemed to really enjoy Donor. We cruised down it pretty good and I hit most of the stunts along the way on Deans bike. I was starting to get pretty comfortable on it at this point. Kelly was doing well and kept up quite nicely. When we got to the gap at the bottom, not wanting to break Deans bike, I switched with Kelly and rode mine so I could hit the gap. It was sweet. Very sweet.

Giant Killer - Well, it started out well. Again, we cruised down it nicely. Kelly kept up alright. We got to the log ride about half way down when things took a turn for the worse. I started down it, got about 40 feet and lost my balance. I had to jump off the log and derailuer got caught on a knot sticking out of the log. SNAP!!!! The bracket holding the derailuer to the frame snapped off. My first thought is Dean is going to kill me. Turns out, it wasn't that big a deal and Dean had the spare parts at home. Needless to say though the ride kind of sucked the rest of the way seeing as how I couldn't pedal.

Snakes - It was ok all things considered. Kelly even tried the last rock face. He managed to tripod most of the way down it and did quite well. I was proud of him.

All in all it wasn't the greatest ride in the world but it was really good to get out with the boys for a Christmas cruise.

Mr. Woodlot is now going away for ten days starting on the 30th. Hopefully my next ride will be a week or so after I get back. See you all then, and Happy New Year!

31 Days.

2004-12-13T07:44:00.000-08:00

That's how long it's been since I last rode. Can you believe it?

Today I hit, you guessed it, the Woodlot. I started up around 1:45pm. I managed to ride all the way to where the trail starts to get really rocky. It felt great. Mr. Woodlot is in probably the best shape of his life right now. So from there I pushed up to Blood Donor. I had a good quick rip down it and love the new work that the Woodlot builders have done at the top. I avoided the gaps today though. I was riding alone and haven't been on my bike for a month. Better to be safe than sorry.

Giant Killer was next. It's always fun for a good quick ride. No matter what they do to the other trails GK is and probably always will be one of my favorites on the mountain. Again, I avoided the drops and jumps that I normally do.

At the bottom I decided that I would head over to Snakes instead of going down Hoots. So over I went. On the way up, I was pretty discouraged to see SIX dirt bikes coming down. Definitely not a good thing for the Woodlot. They were all pretty nice in getting out of the way and saying hello, so I didn't rip into them.

I got to Snakes and headed down. Bruiser, my faithfull lab, was with me today. By the time we got to Snakes though, he was prety tired. I cruised down Snakes nice and easy. I actually didn't even hit the Snakes jump. Something I've hit a hundred times. Down I went. I hit the log ride and then down the rolldown to the first rock face. I actually flew through this section for the first time ever. It was uber smoothe. It felt great to actually do something so smoothe that I have never done before. I stopped at the bottom, looked up and let out a "Woooohoooo!" Very nice. So I cruised down the rest and headed down the skidder to the car.

All in all, it was a pretty fun ride, and it was great to be back on my bike. This will likely be my last entry until the New Year. So on that note, Happy Holidays to all of my faithful readers! (rolling eyes here)

Mr. Woodlot

Thout shall never be forgotten.

2004-11-12T09:43:00.000-08:00

It is Remembrance Day. Time to remember our war vets and for the Second Annual Remembrance Day Ride on Mt. Fromme.

Dean, Mike, and I met at Seymours Pub bright and early. 6:50am to be exact. We parked my truck at Braemar Park and loaded all the stuff in to Mike's truck and headed up the Mtn. Highway. We parked, geared up and started to ride. If you have never been to Fromme, it is a long climb. The hardest part, however, is the very start. After that it is a pretty level grade. I'd say it's about 5kms bottom to top. I was very proud of myself on this day as I rode about 85% of it. That is the most I have ever rode.

The trail itinerary for the day was 7th Secret to Espresso to Lower Crippler and the ever famous Pimp Coaster.

7th was a blast. There has been a sh*tload of work on that trail recently. It is mint. Some say that CBC is the poster child of North Shore riding. I think, and I discussed this with Dean as well, that 7th in it's current state is easly number 1. A good long flowy blast that we all really enjoyed.

Next up was Espresso. Lot's of fun woodwork on this trail. At the start anyway. About halfway down it turns to mostly natural stuff and gets really fast. There are a few very cool stunts on Espresso. One little section has a very steep rock rolldown to a funky log ride. The log isn't supported at one end so that when you ride to the end of it, it slowly drops down to the trail. It is a very weird feeling as you are wobbling back and forth as well as dropping down. Very cool. I had a pretty nasty spill on Espresso. A stupid mistake really. I rolled up to the end of a ladder, missed the little plank rolldown and Supermaned off and into a dive roll Mary Lou Retton would have been proud of. Good times.

We got to the bottom of Espresso and had to hike a little to Lower Crippler. Mike hates to hike and bitched the whole way. What a wanker. We need to get him out to the Woodlot more and get him conditioned to pushing.

Lower Crippler is fun. It starts with a rock face huck or roll down to a big ladder a-frame to another huck rolldown rock. Cool little sequence. The trail is built really well. The rock/woodwork is very good. We eventually came to the Pimp Coaster. Mike hit it first and didn't carry enough speed to the second hump and had to put a foot down. Dean was next and cleaned it rather easily. Then it was me. Up the first hump, down and oh shit! I get bucked and off I go. It is so compact that it just threw me off of my bike. Oh well, next time. We rode out to the truck and geared down. All in all, a very fun and enjoyable ride.

We hit Seymours Pub for lunch where we all observed a moment of silence at 11am. Everyone remembers in there own way. We chose to take part in a hobby that we all enjoy and may have not been able to do if it wasn't for the men and women that fought so bravely for our freedom.

Lest we forget.

Mmmmmm..................Gate.

2004-11-03T11:06:00.000-08:00

So it's Saturday morning(Oct. 30th)and Tim, Dean and I decided that it was a good day to ride. Of course, when isn't a good day to ride? We all met in the parking area around 7:30 and started to push. We decided to hit The Gate for a warmup, and then we'd go over to Platinum.

The Gate isn't what I would call a good "warmup"trail. It is tough. Skinny after skinny after skinny. It has seen a lot of maintenence in the last few weeks though and that is the reason we decided to hit it. It started out good. There is a new gap section in there so Dean and Tim sessioned that while I watched. They're too big for me right now. Then on to another skinny section with a drop on the end. The drop is about 5ft and I was wanting to try it today. Well, Tim walked on the plank to have a look and one of the stringers holding the planks up broke. Guess I won't be trying the drop today. Oh well. We closed the stunt and then rode out.

Up to Platinum we went. I was hell bent on trying a bunch of sh*t today. I did, but let's just say I paid for it. The first gap after the rock face is one I think I can hit. I tried the run up to it twice but didn't feel comfortable either time so I rode around. On to the next one. Also one I can make. The run up is a little sketchy but I thought I'd have a go. Just before the launch my tire slips on the trail and sort of throws me at a small stump sticking out. I hit the stump and am off my bike flying through the air before my bike has even left the launch. I whacked my leg on the tranning and rolled to a stop. I believe Tim has a picture of this. It hurt. A lot, but I plugged on. Shaken now, but not stirred. I watched Dean and Tim do all the huge stunts until we came to the gap that I had hit a couple of weeks earlier. Off I went to hit it again. Faster this time than last. I hit the launch a little left and in mid air my arm hit a tree. Thankfully it wasn't a big hit and didn't throw me off balance or anything. I had too much speed and missed the trannie all together, but landed Ok and didn't crash. I then watched Dean and Tim do the Six Pack and the Roller Coaster drop and we headed off to Giant Killer.

Dean had to get home so he took off on Tim and I. Jerk.

Giant Killer was good and I finally did that drop about halfway down. It really was rather easy and I can't believe it took me so long to do it. That phsycological wall is always the hardest one to get by.

Hoots was good. I finally cleaned the rock face on it. I've been trying for a year. Dean showed me the line on the way up and I hit exactly where he told me to go. I rule. After the rock I decided to hit the small gap up next. I've never done it so this would be the first time. I went in with not even close to enough speed and crashed big time. My second huge crash of the day. Tim explained that it is a good thing as it means that I'm actually trying sh*t. I suppose, but man does it hurt.

We got out of Hoots and decided to avoid Shotgun today and headed down the skidder. On the way down we saw Rich and Ewan heading up. We stopped and chatted for a bit. It was my first meeting with Ewan and it went Ok. He didn't seem like such a bad guy. Hopefully I'll get a chance to talk to him in the future a little bit more.

Tim offered me a Coke in the parking area, but seeing as how I'm cleansing, I had to decline. I look forward to my next ride which should be in about two weeks time. I can't wait!

Total Eclipse of the Heart.

2004-11-03T10:54:00.000-08:00

Tonight, we ride.

Mr. Woodlot's first night ride couldn't come on a finer evening. The Boston Red Sox are in the midst of securing their first World Series championship since 1918. There is a total Lunar Eclipse, and Dean has some new lights for me to use. Life is grand.

Up we go. Slow go in the dark. Seeing as how the full moon was being blocked out by the earths shadow, Dean had to use one of his lights the whole way up. Earlier I said that the push up Hoots was annoying. Try it in the dark. Instead of Lower Toadstool again, Dean and I pushed up Giant Killer. Not too difficult, but again, annoying. I have been cleansing and fasting for the last couple of days too so my energy levels were WAY down. This push was much tougher than it should have been. Then out to the road and up to the top of Blood Donor.

So we suit up, allign the lights and away we go.

The lights light up the trail quite well so it is a lot like riding in the day. Dean is an experienced night rider so he was quite a ways a head of me. As I said, my energy was way down so I was really rather slow. We got to one of the ladder sections that I have ridden probably 100 times. I got up the first little rise, and oops! My tire wavers and falls off the ladder. Away I go. It's only about 5ft to the ground, but any fall sucks. Luckily it didn't hurt. I jumped back on and decided to try again. Too tired. Didn't make it up the rise so I had to push. From this point on I kind of just coasted down the trails. I didn't do many of the stunts, but I seriously enjoyed my first night ride, and I can't wait for the next one.

Thanks to Dean for fixxng me up with lights and dragging me out tonight. Good times.

Sick Day

2004-11-03T10:41:00.000-08:00

Today (October 15th) I was sick. So Tim and I decided to head up to the Woodlot and hit the trails for a cruise. Now, there is active logging at the Woodlot these days so in order to get up the hill you need to push up the trails. At the bottom there is only one choice; Hoots. So up Hoots we go. It is a pretty easy climb until you get to the clearcut. In there it is more annoying than tough but whatever. At the top of Hoots there are several choices. On this day we chose Lower Toadstool. Bad choice. It is steep in a few spots and VERY tough to push a 50lbs bike up.

On the way up we were chatting about where to go. I hadn't hit Platinum in a while so we decided on it, Giant Killer, Hoots, and Shotgun.

We got to the top and suited up. Tim is a very good rider so Platinum is a blast for him. Me? I'm advanced but not Platinum advanced. Away we go. Tim was on fire. He had an all around great run down Platinum. I did Ok. I hit one of the gaps lower down the trail and was rather impressed with myself. I've just started to hit gaps so this is/was a big step. A Platinum gap. Wow!

On the connector trail from Platinum to Giant Killer (it's called Stovetop) we ran in to Rich and Cory. It's the first time I met Rich and he isn't that bad of a guy. He coined my new nickname which I rather like. I'll need to buy him a pint for that one of these days.

On to Giant Killer. I'm really liking GK these days. It is a turning out to be a fun flowy trail. There is a drop on it about halfway down that I really want to hit. It is about 4ft. On this day, I just rode by. Down the trail, over the teeter, down a few rolldowns and out to the top of Hoots.

I'm rediscovering my love for Hoots these days. I think it is because I am getting better as a rider and can do almost everything on the trail.

Shotgun was Shotgun and we ended the day.

Tim and I had a Coke in the parking area and then headed on our way. I guess I should get home and take some cold medication for this nasty cold that I have. :-)

The begining of the end...............

2004-11-03T10:39:00.000-08:00

Everyone else has a blog, so why can't I? I am after all the un-official spokesman of the Woodlot. It's true. It's true.

So, right then. Away we go.