Branden's stoked on his new Nomad in Ferrari red! The climb up Fromme ain't no thang with revised VPP, and a steeper seat angle.
We rode Ladie's Only, and encountered this new bridge. It twists about 6 different dirrections in 2 feet. No problem for Branden on the New rig.
Look at the speed he takes this at. You would think he's good enough to be a bike instructor!
Here's Steve, crossing the boarder. This was a sweet creek crossing on Fromme, on the Leopard trail. It definitely helped make the ride.
7the Secret was the target for this ride. We hadn't been up this high on fromme yet this year. There was some snow in our way getting into the trail, which was a bit annoying, but after that its all gravy.
So apparently the timer setting takes more than one photo... We all tried swapping rides on this ride. Steve was curious of how my Giant Reign compared to his more XC set-up Blur LT. I don't know if he'll admit it to Santa Cruz but he was wowed by my Reign. It was more plush, and slack than his LT which is preferable for Fromme. I think he wants my Fox TALAS 150 QR15 on his LT now. 
Smile or the camera! See we actually got up early in the morning to ride, here's proof. Riding in the morning before work it s great start to the day. You eat a lot more, but feel better all day as long as you keep the engine firing.
Lima is a bustling city of about 8 million and the traffic is quite insane. Aggressive is the key word. Merging is crazy with cars coming from every direction, and vehicles passing on the outside and forcing their way to the front. I can guarantee that a normal Vancouver driver would last about 5 minutes in Lima before his car would be demolished. 
As we headed farther and farther out into the country side, we began to see more and more of the way life used to be. In particular, when we were in the high alpine on our way back to Cusco we saw many of the indigenous people in there local clothing. Of particular interest was the head gear worn by the women which told the story of the woman’s life. 
Cusco itself is bustling with many foreign trekkers; this despite the fact that the world is in an economic downturn. 
In my estimation Peru needs a place on your personal bucket list.
Team green in full effect. Rob and I sharing some 'juice' at the start!
I had to smile as I pinned the climb with everything I had...3 times! The last time was intense, as my legs were full of lactic blood, salty sweat searing my bloodshot eyes. 
Melanie, had an incredible race pulling off 2nd place in elite!
Andy Translin was putting all that off season ski touring fitness to work, laying the beats to the elite category.
Rob Mulder, making his Spinnergy wheels look like turbo props. Poor ol' Robby Rob, snapped his chain early in the race, as he accelerated in and out of every corner. He ended up fixing it up and finishing up regardless! Nice one Shrek!
The Green one, all dressed in green again. Matt Green pinned it on his home terf, coming in 6th in Pro Elite!
Connor, chuggin' and chargin' through the feed zone. Most racers were on super light race bikes, but Connor showed everyone how it was done, on a 28 pound all mountain epic machine!
Scott, realing in the last corner.
Connor, tearing this track a new one.
Scott, accepting the silver medal.
Connor, taking 3rd place on the podium.
The Proof.
Skiing or biking, your choice! Valemount Senior Secondary is hosting the event and they have built a course especially for the event. 
Starting on the edge of town it climbs for 300 m with a variation of single and double track, before peaking with a neat little V trap between two trees. Then the downhill begins back into town with some really technical sandy sidehills and some steep descents into big bermed corners. The kids gave after one loop gave it a 8.9. Not bad for a first try. 
After our pre ride we made a quick trip to Mt. Robson and rode our bikes out to Kinney Lake. Standing beside that mountain makes you feel quite inconsequential. Stay tuned for race day results.
Where else in the world of mountain biking can you start at an elevation of 3500 m., ride 50 km., and end up on the beach of the Pacific Ocean? The shuttle up on the bus was pretty scary with narrow dirt roads, endless switchbacks and some serious exposure over the edge. We finally started to ride only to hear by radio that the driver had managed to get stuck after he dropped us off. 
A quick return to the bus and some very muddy pushing got him unstuck and on his way to the pick up zone. This days ride had it all; rocky technical singletrack, flowy smooth paths through grass fields, steep exposed trails with wicked whoop de dos, and then this really neat kilometer wide flood plain with natural features to jump, drop off, and generally have fun. 
We finished at the beach as the sun set, but it was still warm enough for several of us to jump in and get wet. 
Our second major ride in Lima had another early start. Wake up was at 0530hr, so we could be on the bus at 0600hr for a long shuttle to a small village. We then had a horse assisted ride to an elevation of 3300m for the start of our ride in the stone forest. 
Once out of Lima and heading into the Andes we were treated to the scariest drive I have ever experienced. We followed a river up its valley, and then eventually switched back and started up the valley wall. Looking out the rear of the bus showed that the rear wheels were inches away from the edge of the road and from there, it was often several thousand feet to the bottom, and the river. The valley walls were surprisingly lush and after traversing up one side of the valley we switched over to the other side as we crossed a natural dam and then could look back and see our route. Many of us were showing a brave face but I have to say that all the windows were open and at least one of us had a hand out the window hanging on to the roof rack to assist in quick evacuation if necessary. Literally from the time we left Lima until we arrived at our destination, we were on one lane potholed dirt roads and meeting traffic presented interesting challenges. A lot of the approaching traffic were local busses packed with people and somebody had to back up. Pretty scary! Once we reached our bus destination we kitted up and shortly later our horses arrived for the last part of our shuttle. The horse that I picked turned out to be pretty skittish. In fact they eventually had to hobble him so that I could get on, Hmmm, perhaps this is not a good sign. 
As we headed out, I was the only one needing a handler connected to the horse by a rope. Was she leading the horse up the trail, noooo, she was holding the horse back. Hmmm, now I am really getting worried. Off we go heading up the trail. So what about our bikes? Well, the fit Canadians get carried up by horse, and the bikes get pushed by the local kids. Amazingly, several of them beat us to the top. As you can imagine anytime you involve a mode of transportation that has a functioning brain, the set up is ripe for some interesting stories. By the time we were half way up; my fat ass, the steepness of the trail, and the altitude had beat a little of the spunk out of Bucko. My handler then bailed and let me lose. Immediately, Bucko decided that he wanted to be off the front of the pack. About the same time, one of the horses ahead carrying Chris Winter moved a tad too close to one of the handlers. The handler whacked him on the ass and the race was on. Chris’s horse took off at a gallop, and promptly so did a bunch of the rest of them. Bucko thought this was too good to be true. Having been on a horse for a grand total of about 20 hrs in my life, I think that at first we were cantering as the trail was still pretty steep and very rocky. As soon as it flattened out just a bit, we were into a full gallop. My stirrups were way to short for me (Peruvians are not very tall) and it was all I could do to stay on the horse. I started planning exit strategies, but thankfully the steepness of the trail and its condition brought Bucko back to earth. Chris was not quite so lucky! As he passed the guys ahead of us he was teetering a little to the left. He blew by them, and the horse decided which way he wanted to go. Off he went down a different trail to a building we could see and eventually the horse stopped and Chris walked the horse the rest of the way to the top. 
Shortly thereafter we reached a really neat natural amphitheatre, and we readied for our ride. It was a short ride out of the amphitheatre to the Stone Forest. It’s kind of interesting rising at this altitude. You start off and feel pretty normal. In about 20 seconds you burn what local oxygen you have at the tissue level and then “bang” you are out of gas. The panting starts and you drop into your granny and spin the rest of the way up. Once up on the plateau we were treated to one of those vistas that just blow your mind. 
You could immediately see why this area was sacred to the Incan empire as a religious site. We slowly made our way over to some ruins taking lot of pictures, and then the downhill began. 
If yesterdays downhill scored a 7 on the difficulty scale a good portion of todays was about a 9.5 and the average was a good 8.5. Portions were relatively easy to ride and one probably could have nailed them at about 30 kph. The ringer was that the trail in places was about 2 to 3 ft wide and off the edge was a good thousand feet of vertical before you might hit the ground. 
Not the sort of place to wash out your front tire. The “fast” sections were interspersed with steep jagged rock gardens that rarely seemed to have the only “good” lines less than 6 inches from the precipitous edge. Add in the fact that you could be ripping along and come around a blind corner and meet locals with a burro train and you quickly get the picture. 
We actually had one close call as Bob Faulkner nicked a rock with his front wheel and then did a sort of summersault corkscrew as he went off the trail. Being a smart guy and understanding the 1st rule of mountain biking (live to ride another day) he grabbed for the first available piece of vegetation to slow his fall and let the bike go. Thankfully it was on one of the less “muy empinado (very steep)” pieces of trail, but it still took a good twenty minutes to find his bike farther down the slope. By the time I reached the bottom, I was pretty tired and although I hate to admit it I bailed on the last technical section and took the 10 minute road ride back to the bus. A few beverages for recovery and we were on our way back to home base in Lima. Tomorrow we are off the airport (again at 0600 hrs) for our flight to Cusco and our high altitude experience,
Danu lead the way down Grannies, to Lower Crippler on his very own HUKK bike. Old School was in session. A lot of us are used the smooth trails constructed today, but the Old School is a real treat. It sharpens your skills that you can sometimes loose over the winter.
Jordan was the 2nd aboard the Tuesday night special. He, the mechanic, was having some mechanical issues with the bike he's riding right now, so he gave our Giant Reign X1 demo a go. He was putting his trials skill to use on the old tech trails today. The Reign X was a good choice of bike for today.
I took my Giant Reign 1 out which handles the Fromme trails well. It wasn't the easiest ride on the old tech stuff, but if they could do it in the old days of the 90's then it shouldn't be a problem now. I didn't slay all the lines, but felt comfortable on the trails. I was sporting some fresh Dakine Step-up gloves which might have given me the upper hand today. 
Nice backdrop, I don't know about the forefont though...jokes!
DOD is a blur on this Pipeline log ride.
After the usual “Hey anyone have an extra brake bolt, I forgot mine?” the bikes were built and we headed out for a quick lunch at a local restaurant. While eating some of the local delicacies we were treated to a mass protest right outside the window as several thousand women expressed their displeasure with the cancellation of a local “milk for kids” program. 
The streets quickly deteriorated into gridlock and it seemed that we might miss the afternoon ride at a local trail called “Pachacamac”. We quickly learned that our driver could get us through anything. The drive out to the trail head was probably as scary as any of the riding afterwards. It started in what seemed like a barren moonscape. We were actually riding down the floodplain of a small creek that occasionally gets a flash flood and spreads debris across a large area. The riding was a great introduction to Peru and way for us to get our legs. 
Because of our late start it was dark when we finished, and we still had to negotiate Lima traffic back to the hotel. Early start, late finish; could be a long trip.
The cover story of this month’s Bike Magazine is about an unfolding saga typical to much of North America’s trail riding communities…of governments and competing user groups fighting to restrict more and more trails from bikers…this developing situation in Montana could have implications around the United States and it’s causing panic and fear in mountain bike communities nation-wide.
Stories like these remind us of the reality of the trail access situation in most of the developed world and probably make us in the Vancouver area feel lucky for our deeply entrenched mountain bike and trail use culture…While we definitely are fortunate to have such a presence in the mainstream sporting culture of the region, it’s dangerous to become complacent about where we ride and forget about the importance of maintenance and advocating for our own trail systems.
NSMBA Trail Day is an important way to keep this relationship with the beautiful rocky and rooty brown veins that run through the world-famous woods of the North Shore.
Over 40 volunteers risked the wrath of mom and passed up one of the nicest riding days yet of the season on Sunday to give back some TLC to the Crinkum Crankum trail on Fromme Mountain, sponsored by Steed Cycles.
“I’m really pleased with the crew that’s out,” said Chris Barker, NSMBA Trail Day Coordinator. “We’re getting a lot of good work done.”
Volunteer Adam Llewelyn, accompanied by his three-year-old son Nashua, enjoyed the exercise and some golden dirt under the fingernails. “I heard about NSMBA and Trail Day and thought it was a good to put back in. I’ve been riding these trails for years. It’s also good to see how the trails are built,” said Llewelyn. Another volunteer called the monthly Sunday event “Church”…important homage to the God of Dirt.
NSMBA President Matt Bond expressed his pleasure with the great work done on Crinkum Crankum and the dedicated crew of volunteers. “We’ve got a lot of leaders here and a lot of new people too, which is great.” Chuckling, he added, “I hope all these people took their mothers out last night so they could build trails today.”
Simon Hayter
