Great to be on the bike again. I just returned from an 8 day visiting tour, which included 20 hours of driving. Now don't get me wrong, I love to drive, but it doesn't do much for the aerobic system. Anyway, returned in time to catch the Thursday night ride, which is one of my favorites. Techno-Pale-Latte, as I call it, is a combination of three classic trails, Techno Grind, Pale Ale, and Milky Way and finishes with a climb up Green Door.
Techno-Grind is one of the original single-track rides that was ridden frequently in the early days of mountain biking in the Rossland area. They used to hold a trials type race on this trail during the Rubber Head Festival back in the 90's. Riders had to ride the trail quickly but time was added on if you dabbed(touched down with your foot) on certain challenging sections of the trail. Today's bikes have made many of these challenges seem quite simple but the fully rigid bikes and riders of the day found them a test. Maybe we are just better riders now, I think it is the bikes that are better.
Part two of this loop is Pale Ale. This trail has special meaning to Holy Wow Gang members because we built it. We used to truly freeride this slope in the early days(I am sounding old). Riders would just turn off the trail at random spots and descend wherever possible or sometimes impossible ending in the classic endo. One day we decided to plot a specific route down the slope and cut it in as a trail. Pale Ale was born. Named after the smooth drinking Kootenay Pale Ale, it was going to be one of a few more trails in the Beer Garden. Seems we are having too much fun riding to take the time to build another trail. Might be time to brew another beer. Pale Ale is a steepish descent with some rather off camber switch backs that remind me of what riding used to be like(old again) in the old days. Still a ton of fun, and so it was on Thursday night.
Pale Ale leads into Milky Way, affectionately known in our circles as Old Fart's Delight. There's that old theme again, could be that one of the gang members reminded us that he was hitting the magic 55 in a few days. Happy Birthday Antonio. Milky Way is better than ever. The corners are burmed, the brake ruts are all but gone, the old guy jumps are perfect, just a super entertaining trail.
Techno-Pale-Latte is a really great ride, the only bad thing is that the trail came to life and seemed to swallow The Prez. He disappeared part way through the top of the Green Door climb and the Roger's traverse. We were already one refreshment in and he still had not showed up. We sent out an APB, Evan went out to find him. Turns out his GPS needed new batteries and his replacement tubes need to be upgraded. Bikes are better but tubes are still the weak link.
The rain held off. We found the Prez. The fire was good. The refreshments were cold. The sausages were fantastic( thanks Antonio and Debera). LG!!!!!
The Prez had the Go Pro on, but in the euphoria of finding him I forgot to get the SD card from the camera. Will get it and post a video soon.
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