Vancouver Shredtastic

Last weekend was a delicious feast for the soul. I have been trying for a while to get down to the coast to do some riding but last weekend I was finally able to coerce the schedule into allowing for such a trip, and I dragged the empty bank account along for the ride. This meant an absolutely survivalist budget, but I managed to get a fair bit of riding in and had a blast in the process.
I got down there on Saturday and the weather was decidedly fair, being about 15 degrees and sunny when I arrived which was a bit of a surprise, coming from -2 and cloudy in Kamloops. Once I dropped my bags we proceeded directly to Seymour to sample the local goods. The first trail we hit was CBC, and it was an intriguing little monster indeed. For those who haven't ridden it, it is like riding a raised bridge made completely of rocks... like a mini roman cobblestone road, only for bikes. Strange indeed, but it was nice to have my wheels rolling under me anyways. I was a little tentative about the flat drops on the wrist, but after a little testing I concluded it was good to pin it, so pin it I did. From CBC we headed to Ned's, and it was a blast. I had some pent up not riding aggression to get out, and despite not having ridden the trail before hit it at pretty much full speed. Such fun. Ned’s was fast and pretty tech so I was in my element, and a smile didn’t leave my face. When we got to the bottom we decided to go sample some dirt jumps just up the mountain and they were equally delicious. After a few partial runs through the slightly uneven main 10 pack I felt pretty good and happy to be in the air, finding my dj flow again on my dh. I love dirt jumping.
Sunday we decided to go hit the Woodlot and it was even better than Seymour. The push up was a bit interesting over pretty much a rocky creek bed but it was definitely worth the effort for the long ride down. We met up with a random crew of locals once we got to the top and decided to use their local knowledge to find the best lines. I can’t remember the names of all the trails we hit but they were so much fun it was ridiculous. The trails were tacky, super flowing and tech with tons of corners, so I was pretty much in heaven and got a little rowdy in my excitement. I had a bunch of close calls diving blind into corners with random stumps hiding behind ferns until finally punched a tree hard enough to mangle my knuckles on one side. Ah well. One of the bottom trails had a sweet little line with two opposing hips before a pump turn and a big gap over a fallen tree, with a nice tight corner just after the landing. The first time I overshot by a fair bit and had to pull out a nice slash save into the corner, but after that we sessioned it for a while, getting it super dialed and it was quite amusing. When we got to the bottom we all had perma-grins on our faces and the reggae beat helped us keep the vibe all the way home.
For bang for the buck, my trip last weekend takes it hands down. Despite riding 2 days in a row, eating like a king and going out 1 night, I managed to spend less than 20 bucks the whole weekend and got to spend a lot of quality time with friends and family. Tomorrow I am heading back with 14 bucks to my name, but luckily have a pay cheque on direct deposit for Friday so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Pack up the cooler, another excellent adventure awaits.
Peace, love and respect.
J