HW TRAIL RIDE: ROCK CUT NEVER DISAPPOINTS

Thursday was going to be a repeat of a trail ride that we do quite often. Always a great ride, Red Top from Dale's Trail to the Old Back Road to Red Mountain and up to the Joy Ride Trail for a scoot down the berms and bridges of this short but very enjoyable trail.  Too bad they couldn't build this kind of trail from the top of  Granite all the way down.

Ten riders showed up for the evening ride. Some had lights others did not, but they all had a little money burning a hole in their pockets. Money, why did they need money? Ahh you might already be able to guess based on the title of this post, but if not, just keep reading.

Headed up Mo's to Larry's and promptly lost half the crew.  Turns out they knew about a couple of big trees that are down on the old route and so they took a short cut and ended up at the top ahead of us. Reunited we dusted our way down Red Top. Very fun but a little dusty. Amazingly dry even after all the rain that fell in the late spring and early summer. Good drainage I guess.

On to the Old Road and across the T-Bar. You can hardly see off of the trail because the buck brush is so high.  We are going to need a real ton of snow to get ski season started this year, unless they start doing some cutting real soon. Back to the riding. Up to the Top of the Old Silverload and over to a lower entrance to JoyRide and the JOY begins. Man that section of trail is fun.

Down to the day lodge and up the back road to the O'Flanagan connector, and the money in our pockets is beginning to scorch the riding shorts. Rock Cut here we come. WOW, the parking lots are full. Oh yeah, WING NIGHT. Oh well, let's give it a try anyway. We managed to get a table outside on the deck. Sent in a couple of scouts to order beer and wings. We ended up with a good portion of beer and copious amounts of wings. Ummm goood.

We sat and ate and drank until; dark started to creep in and a full moon poked it's beautiful round head into the night sky. Time to go home. Now, if you have never been at the Rock Cut with the Holy Wow Gang, you may not be aware of a long standing tradition that is usually motivated by a couple of beers.  There is a set of stairs, three lengths of maybe 20 stairs separated by two landings. Very rideable. So we ride them. The first time down is quite scary. Watching Norm ride them is very scary. He comes out of the bottom moving like a rocket. Brakes don't seem to be an option for Norm. Laughter rings through the night air.

The ride home on Centennial trail is lighted with the candle power of the moon and the lighting systems of the riders. Just a perfect ending to another great outing. YES, the ROCK CUT NEVER DISAPPOINTS!!!!

HW TRAIL RIDE: LAPS ON MONTE COLA

WOW, the promise of a cold one, out of the back of a pickup, on a forest road, motivated a large number of riders to show up on this warm August night.  The riding was not too bad either.

Larch Trail is such a pleasure to ride, even though it is up. The reward is Monte Cola, with its woops and berms. Always a blast.

Then with an easy 1km ride back up to the PR intersection, you can lap the bottom part of the Monte Cola Trail. Lap it we did. Each lap getting braver and more inventive.

Fantastic evening. The scene after the ride was that of a teenage bush party. I would have said twelve year olds but they couldn't have driven out there unless they stole Dad's truck. Humm maybe.

HW TRAIL RIDE: CROWN POINT

First post for August. Just got back from a magical mystery tour of the Okanagan, Lower Mainland, Bellingham, Seattle and Spokane. No riding involved, mostly family business, so I was ready for a ride.

Where to boys? Ahh Crown Point Trail. Used to be a favorite. Heard it had suffered some damage during the rainy season, so we didn't expect much but the KCTS has done it again. Trail condition excellent.

We rode up Malde Creek Road for the fourth Thursday in a row according to the new guy (Scott), but hey there are some really good trails that are accessed from Malde Creek Road. On to Birch Main logging road and up to the new Crown Point connector called Crown Royal.  Crown Royal was an old school trail, from the early days of mountain biking in the region.  It had lots of steep skid trails and pretty much went straight down and then continued as it's own entity until it merged with Crown Point at the bottom. Crown Royal is now a wonderful windy traverse that takes you to the top of Crown Point Trail.  Once again a great addition provided by the KCTS.

Crown Point was it's usual self, rocky to silky smooth, rooty to long skinnies, just too much fun. The bottom portion has been rerouted due to some water damage.  The new route is actually way more fun and the trail was just a blast as usual.

On to the Old Rubberhead access to the Rail Grade and a swoopy scoot  to the waiting trucks in Warfield and the first ride for me in August was done. It was great. Beer at Norm's was good too. Got to love mountain biking. I get to ride two more times next week before the next Magical Mystery Tour. Humm summer.