Fall De"Light"Full Downhill

Wow what a blast and long too! Nine riders braved the cold of late October and tested their lighting systems on a 2 hour downhill cross-coffee ride. Lights lost batteries, batteries lost charge but the smiles on the riders faces turned out to be all the light we really needed.

We eased our way up to the top of Red Mt. arriving there in freezing cold blustery weather. Lights were repaired, clothing and pads we donned, and children were rounded up. The downhill ride finally got started. Red Top was in wonderful shape, no dust and not too slippery. Then came the Coffee Run (I swear the rocks grow out there) with it's usual tests of pedaling skill but we all made it fairly gracefully. Lots of things get hidden in the dark. Now for a blast down Milky Way, lights beginning to fade, night starting to get colder. Soon we arrived at Warfield Hall, load up the trucks and head to Greener's basement for a beer. It might be our last ride for the season, there is snow in the forecast, but if it is possible to RIDE, the HOLY WOW GANG WILL RIDE.

Thursday Night Ride(Oct 22)

When: Thursday Oct 22, @6:00PM

Where: Greener's

Ride: Easy way to Red Top then ride Red Top to Coffee Run to Milky Way to Warfield. Maybe an annual Fall Off The Mountain In The Dark Downhill. I believe Norm(injured) has offered to drive the shuttle for us. See you there.

Tuesday Night Was Big

There really are some riders out there. Eight of the good old boys showed up for some high speed, artificial light induced downhill. We had a ton of fun and put on an awesome light show for the traffic on the Rossland hill. Greener gave us one more campfire and the evening was perfect. Got the interest flowing again. Looking forward to Red Top on Thursday.

Tuesday Night Ride (Oct 20)

When: Tuesday Oct 20 @ 6:00PM

Where: Greener's

Ride: KC to Cemetery to Bones to Wagon Road. We start that way, why not finish that way. Wagon road should be easy now that we are in shape. Let's ride.

Thursday Night Ride Report

Oh yes we did ride on Thursday, I just did not get to this until now. Spent the weekend in Spokane with some of my work compatriots. Good time but NO riding just eating and drinking. Anyway, back to the Thursday ride report. Four of the gang (I am wondering where the rest are at) rode a ride that we haven't done yet this year. We rode out Mo's down Larry's through Oflanagan's connector to the Coffee Run back up the KC Saddle to the Water Tower and home to Dave's shop for a beer. Another great ride. See you Tuesday.

Thursday Night Ride(Oct 15)

When: Thursday, Oct 15 @ 6:00PM

Where: Rick Greene's House

Ride: Thinking about a car drop. Maybe we should give Milky Way another try now that the dust should be settled. Open to suggestions. Let me know what you think.

And Then There Were Three(Oct 13)

Tuesday night ride was attended by Don Bowie, Murray Gilchrist, and Dave Nutini. These guys are real hard core mountain bikers. The temperature was about 2°C at Rick Greene's house and it was snowing lightly. They set out on a ride up Dale's Trail to Red Top intersection and descended Red Top on about .25 inches of snow. The trail surface was tacky and hard. The visibility was clear with snow falling and visible in the headlights. What a glorious evening! Sure missed the rest of the gang. Hope to get a few more rides in before real winter sets in. Maybe a trip to the Top of Red.

Tuesday Night Ride (Oct 13)

Our riding days are numbered so let's make the best of it while we have decent weather.

When: Tuesday, Oct 13 @ 6:00 PM

Where: Rick Greene's House

Ride: Maybe Red Head. Should be thinking about Red from the Top one of these days.

Refreshments from the fund if I can still find it.

Tour de View

The Tour de View started at Greener's on Thursday Oct 8 @ 6:00PM. It must be late in the season because interest seems to be waning. Only four lucky riders showed up for the tour, but they were in for a real treat. We wound our way up a familiar route to the top of KC and were treated to an early fall view of the City of Rossland and the mountains glowing in the fading light. Looked like snow towards Record Ridge. From KC we opted for a full descent of Pale Ale, the rains and dew had done their thing and the trail surface was very good(little dust if any). The new section at the bottom was great and we popped out on the road at the bottom wishing for more, perhaps connecting to Milky Way, maybe some day. On up the road towards Green Door with a stop to check out the view up the river. It is very dark by now and the lights of Rivervale, Gennelle, and perhaps even Castlegar are in the view screen. Down the road to Green Door and over to the bench on Roger's to take in a view of Trail, Warfield and today's vein of gold for the area Big Daddy Tech. Too many lights at Tech was the conclusion. The trip along Roger's was challenging but rewarding and soon we were climbing through the old Cemetery (good thing it was not Halloween yet) and making our way out of Happy Valley to Kim's house for a cold one. Super tour. Thanks Kim. We also picked up our refund cheque from Holy Wow 18 so make sure you get to see Kim and pick up your cheque if you were on the trip.

Thursday Night Ride(Oct 8)

When: Thursday Oct 8 @ 6:00PM

Where: Rick Greene's House

Ride: Top of KC , KC Ridge or Pale Ale, Mining School, Green Door to Roger's to Cemetery to Happy Valley and back to Greener's, OR Riders choice. Definitely lights required.

Hopefully refreshments from the fund @ Greener's.

And Then There Were Five

It was a warmish evening in comparison to the last couple of rides. Five of us ventured on a XCish ride around the bottom of Red Mt. We saw Larry's, Miner's, Mo's, Curly's, Gasline, Oflanagan's and the Centennial Trail. Good night ride. It kept the heart rate up but not red-lined. Nice!!!

Tuesday Night Ride (Oct 6)

When: Tuesday Oct 6 @ 6:00PM

Where: Rick Greene's House

Ride: Mo's to Larry's to Miner's Forest to Gasline to Camp Do Be(sp) to Larry's to Oflanagan's to Centennial to Larry's to Curly's to Greener's OR whatever the guys who show up want to do.

Refreshments from the fund @ Greener's.

Tamarack Dukabor in the Dark was Enlightening

Seven riders who were NOT afraid of the rain and wanted to climb Malde Creek road set out on a wonderful adventure at about 6:15PM on Thursday Oct 1. The ride up the road was as painful as usual although the temperature was cool enough that it cut down the perspiration level a bit. They have graded and re-contoured the road and now it feels like it is all uphill whereas before it used to has some flatter resting sections.

The ride down was glorious and long. What a wonderful piece of single track, a premiere night ride. Beers were in the basement again, it is just too cold out.