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Shocker Express
June 19, 2007Published by bruleLiving in small town Yukon, there isn't much of an option for a person to choose their mountainbiking discipline. There are a lot of XC/AM trails, and 2 good DH runs (more than 2 minutes long), in Whitehorse. In the small town of Teslin, there really is nothing but quad trails and highway. So, Justin and I planned our 2nd annual road trip to Whistler. We loaded up my truck with 2 Cove Shockers, 2 tickle trunks full of armor, spare parts, tools, lube and Anti-Monkey Butt powder for Justin. Also loaded up was tonnes of tunes and a cooler that plugged into the power outlet of my truck. Ready to Rock? You bet!
Justin and I had 2 main goals. Put on the big boy pants (by our standards) and get more comfortable in the air. Plus we figured on this rule: Less beer = more riding. Day 1: Start of an epic drive The plan is to drive to Smithers via the Cassiar Hwy and meet up with Jeff. We left Teslin at 7am, and started east to Watson Lake, where we would turn South and pretty much go straight to Smithers. Now, if you've never driven the Cassiar Hwy, then don't. Why I do it twice a year is the $64k question. We put a Dakine tailgate cover over the back of my truck, and put the bikes in place. What a mistake! The first 3 hours of the trip to Watson Lake was no problem. But after the first 2 hours on the Cassiar, where our bikes rested on the down tube to the tailgate, went through the tailgate cover, and into our bikes. We lost paint, and even had a slight dent in the down tube. Crap! Both bikes are new, and mine has a ‘test paint job' from the Cove (24k gold flakes in the paint, looks amazing in the sun!) Well 12 hours later, minus some paint, and we met up with Jeff in Smithers. We were looking forward to riding Piper Down, Backdoor and their DH track, but too much snow in the mountains prevented us from going too high. Day 2: Riding Smithers After checking out of our hotel, and eating some food, we rode the Bluffs in Smithers. “Let's have a warm up run on Smoothie” says Jeff. It was sunny, few bugs, and 3 buddies with DH rigs ready to rock. Jeff brought his new Devinci Frantic, and was looking to shred with it. We hiked up to the entrance to the majority of the trails. The first bit of Smoothie was steep but no problem. We get to the first stunt where we get some air. Jeff makes me guinea pig it. But we all feed off of each other, and it's no problem. At the bottom of Smoothie, there are 3 different lines. On the small and big options, there are fallen trees so really there is only 1 line. A 5 foot drop. Piece of cake….right? Jeff does it no problem. Now, here's a bit of history, I went to a race in Australia a few months ago, so now my mentality is ‘hit it will some speed!' and that's exactly what I do. I clear the landing, land flat, and my bike goes flying out from under me and I do a baseball slide straight into a stump. Justin sees what I do, and decides to take the drop slow. Only problem, he went too slow, got super nose heavy, and crashed into the same stump as I did, only he went shoulder first. Yah for armor! I couldn't walk because of a Charlie horse in my left calf, Justin couldn't squeeze the rear brakes because he bruised some tendons and Charlie horsed his right forearm. The day is done. Or is it? Let's take a break for lunch. After lunch we decided to try things out. I couldn't walk, but I could hold on to my bicycle. Justin couldn't squeeze his rear brake too much, but that's ok, he could over compensate with his front. Fantastic! We hiked up to Four Horsemen. There is one section called Shot Down in Flames, where last year, Jeff's girlfriend broke her collar bone. Jeff and Justin decided to skip most of this part. I did the two gaps, but opted not to do the first drop. Understandably, Jeff's got a mental block on this part, and Justin can't really hold on to his bike. But they both redeemed themselves. Jeff railed a 18' gap jump near the bottom, and Justin rode out a 100' skinny to drop, to step up, to drop. Wicked Awesome! On the way out, we rode BoulderDash, and somehow or another, all 3 of us managed to hit separate trees. Me because I was having issues standing on my bike, Justin because he couldn't hold on too well, and Jeff because he has a massive beard and was overheating. We managed to hike up to the top once more, and rode The Shining. I was so tired, I don't really remember much on this trail, or it was just uneventful. After a long day of hiking, hurting ourselves, and riding, we drove 4 hours to Prince George.   Day 3: Ride Prince George. We started off on Cranbrook Hill. One would drive, while 2 rode. Simple enough. Bible Thumper was fast, and dusty. Then we rode Highway to Hell. This one had more stunts. A ladder bridge about 6' in the air, to a 2' drop (math for the dumb = you're still in the air), a 1' drop, followed by a rollercoaster that would send you back to the ground before going back up to the 6' mark with a drop at the end. Next was ‘Da Rattler' (5' drop) followed by an 8' gap jump. Well now, I've never done a true gap jump before, so I was kind of freaked out. I'm more at home with the steep technical stuff. The logical thing to do, is train Jeff off of it, and it was amazingly smooth! In my opinion I put the big boy pants on! The rest of the trail has a couple of jumps and ends with a steep rocky/rooty section. Justin followed me next, and we did Highway to hell again. This time, after the rollercoaster section of the first stunt, I managed to clip a tree, which sent me sprawling along the ladder bridge, and then down 6' to the ground. I have no idea where my Shocker went. Justin trained me off the Gap Jump, and we were pumped. We did a total of 5 runs each on Cranbrook Hill before moving to Pedernie. Now, I thought the bugs were bad in the Yukon. If you stopped for more than 10 seconds, you were being carried away by the bugs. Wow, they were nasty! Jeff and Justin were up first here. They rode My Dixie Wrecked followed by Ditch Pig. I was waiting at the truck for them at the bottom, and when they ‘finally' got there, Jeff was ecstatic. “You know the 15' wood to wood gap drop! Justin KILLED IT!!!!” So I look at Justin, and he's only wearing leg armor! In Smithers, we all were all armored up from legs to spine protectors! Well, now it's Jeff and my turn. I wasn't ready to let the teacher be passed by the student. My turn…and I only put on my leg armor. What's testosterone? When Jeff and I got to the 15' gap drop I walked down and looked at it. I was going to chicken out, but then 3 kids showed up, and here I am, ready to chicken out, but come on. This is supposed to be a trip where we put on the big boy pants, and I'm ready to freak out over a completely doable drop. So, I take a deep breath, look at Jeff and he says words of encouragement that I'll never forget. “You first.” Thanks Jeff. So I hit it, and it felt like I was in the air forever. But the landing was amazing, and I Killed it! A shout out of profanity that I can't repeat on a family website after I stopped, and I looked back to see Jeff in mid air off the drop. He landed it! High fives! And then it's the kids turn. Well, it was the kids turn to ride around it. Either way, I was pumped! Back to the truck, and back to Jeff's place for a well deserved Steak dinner. I wasn't ready to let the teacher be passed by the student. Day 4: Drive to Squamish Bye Jeff, we're going to miss you. Super uneventful 8 hour drive. But here's some words of wisdom. When you get to your destination, go for a ride. It doesn't have to be hardcore, but just something to get the blood flowing. Also, when remembering a trail that you haven't ridden in 7 years, you forget all the flat boring spots. Once we arrived in Squamish, we went straight to my dad's place (aka our base of operations). Dropped off our clothes, and got my dad to shuttle us up to the top of the Ring Creek Rip. A 7km downhill run (don't forget those flat spots). It's an easy run, but it's followed by old school Squamish stuff, the PowerHouse plunge. We both had a great time, and Justin finally got his first taste of what I grew up with. Day 5: Ride Squamish Again, doing this kind of stuff is a lot easier if you have family in the town you're visiting. We stopped in at Republic Bicycles (www.riderepublic.com), and asked Armand Hurford what some good DH trails are. He pointed us up Diamond Head. Again, we got my dad to shuttle us the 16kms up to the top. We rode Upper Powersmart with a huge log ride, Skookum, Homebrew, and unnamed trail with a wallride that just sucks you in, and finally Deliverance, which at the end is so steep, that if you aren't used to it, you get your photo taken by me when you're walking down. After our 3 hour ride down, we decided to call it a day, and get our bikes ready for tomorrow…Whistler.   Day 6: Whistler Finally, the destination of our dreams. Whistler. Just a quick little history. Last year Justin and I came here, Justin was 40lbs heavier, and I was…well still the same as I am now. We rode Whistler twice last year, and only managed 6 runs in a day. We were both so badly out of shape. We both worked hard on getting in better shape over the long Yukon winter (obviously Justin worked a lot harder than I did). The morning was amazing, sunny, with some minor clouds. We started with Crank it up as a warm up run. Twice, cause it's so fun. Then over to my favorite trail of all time, Dirt Merchant for 2. I love everything about this trail. Then we hit Schleyer for 2. Took our time, got some photos. And then the heavens opened up. We decided to break for lunch at the GLC, and wait out the rain. Turns out it was just time to bust out the waterproof jackets. I was very happy that I brought my Sombrio Vapor jacket and Sombrio Wildcard shorts. Both are waterproof and worked so well. I stayed warm, dry, and able to pin it. After lunch we rode Karate Monkey, followed by an A-Line. Once at the bottom, our day ended short because my headset was giving me grief, and my rear shock was blown. Dammit, we only got to ride from 10am – 4pm! Day 7: North Shore Well, today was more of a shopping day than anything. Because Justin's lost so much weight, he was under orders from his wife to buy new jeans. We got new tires put on my rig, and dropped the bicycles off at the Cove. I would like to give a special shout out to Gabe Fox and Stuart Kerr who took care of us. They lent me a team shock while mine got sent out for warranty work, and Stuart got me a new Pink Chris King headset so that I could turn. Justin was in desperate need of a new rear wheel and hub. Again, without Gabe and Stuarts help, we wouldn't have been able to ride that day…which might not have been a bad thing. Stuart, Grant (from Scotland, ‘what did he just say?'), The Fonz, Brian, Justin and myself headed out to ride Cypress' Mr. DH and Family Guy. Wow, with the Vancouver rain, those trails were so greasy. Justin ended up crashing 6 times on Mr. DH, and off a little jump on Family guy, my left wrist decided it didn't want to hold on anymore. After that one run, I called it a day , and preformed shuttle duties. Justin and the boys rode Mr. DH, and Lumpy Pheasant. Justin was complaining about hitting his knee on a rock. I thought nothing of it, so we went back to base camp in Squamish. Day 8: Supposed to be Whistler I get up, ready to go hit Whistler again. It's pouring down rain, and I'm antsy. Finally Justin gets up, and comes out in jeans and a t-shirt. What's up buddy? He says that his knee is so sore that he couldn't even get himself up off the toilet. Looks like we get a greasy breakfast today. After breakfast we went back up Diamond head and hiked around the bush, looking at trails and whatnot. Finally I said to Justin, “well, you can shuttle me.” So we went back to base camp and I got ready to ride. I get out of changing, and Justin is in riding gear “I'm coming to.” Way to suck it up friend! We took it easy, hiked up to Made in the Shade, Rob's and Cliff's Corners, Don't tell Jude and finished off with Rollercoaster. After our riding, we volunteered for a SORCA toonie race, giving directions. You want to see something funny, watch a bunch of XCer's try and take a tight U-turn corner in loose gravel while still clipped in to their bikes! I swear when they started off it looked like a snake wearing lycra going up the trail. After all the riders were done, Armand held an after party at Republic Bicycles. It was a lot of fun, and all the XCer's were done early, leaving Armand, Justin and myself to watch over the campfire….and beer. Day 9: Chilliwack with Tyler Because of the night before, we ended up getting a late start. We met up with my buddy Tyler (who happens to work at this website). He showed us some fun trails before he had to leave us. First we rode Mongoloid, to Mexican Ninja. It was super fun. Oh, I forgot to mention that we had Nikole (aka Hot Chick) shuttling us. Once we were done, Nikole drove us back up so we could ride Skidder (gap jumps, drops and bermed corners) and Dilemma (gaps, skinnies, step ups to drops and drops). Man alive does that trail ROCK! Unfortunately, Tyler left us, but Nikole stayed (sorry Tyler, I would rather have Nikole with us than you). Editor's Note-yes Nikole smelled/looked way better than us riders did, but really Jimmy, quit smelling her hair when she wasn't looking. After that, we rode Skidder and Dilemma 3 more times. We got some video footage (helmet cam), and again I put on the big boy pants first and hit the gap jumps, step ups, while Justin was busy being the Skinny King. I love riding Chilliwack, and I can't wait to go back for more. And again, we got to eat a well deserved Steak Dinner. I love eating dead animals. Day 10: Whistler…the final day. The day started gloomy, with rain threatening. Justin's knee was still hurting, both our bodies had taken a beating riding the past 8 days straight. Time to suck up the pain, and go back to what we came for. We started late, 11am. But throughout the day, we managed to suck up all the pain, the hurt, and pending depression that we were leaving, and made the most of our day. The rain held off, and we put together 14 runs. The natural start was Crank it up x2. Then we tried Crabapple Hits. We hit it slow the first time because we didn't know what to expect and got to the bottom. That's where we are standing in line and hear “Yukoners suck” Cool! It's our friends, Paul and Casey. Lets go back to Crabapple Hits, and see what it's all about following two people. I think that this was the first time I went over a jump and simultaneously thought “I can see my house from here” and crapped my pants. My dear lord, what have I done! I have never been so scared until that moment. I thought I was going to die, but the Shocker rocks, and so do my World Cups. I lived, and my confidence grew. Then we went to Dirt Merchant. I followed Paul, and was amazed by all the moto whips he was doing. We got to the bottom, and I couldn't figure out how he was doing it, but damnit I was going to try. Justin and I said our good-byes to Paul and Casey, and went back and rode Crabapple Hits 4 more times. Photos? You bet! After that, and becoming more and more comfortable in the air, we did our last 5 runs on Dirt Merchant. We were doing 6 minute runs, and I started doing my moto whips. I knew it when I heard Justin yell “You almost hit me in the face!” Well, don't ride so close to me. All runs ended on A-Line/the GLC drop. It was cold, but the rain held off. Our last run, Justin went all Chauchy and pulled out the sleeveless jersey. Props to Justin to be able to pull it off. And to make things that much better, we didn't have one problem with our bikes. If I ever get married, I feel sorry for the poor lady. On the wedding day she's going to say “James, this is the best day of my life.” And my response will be “yeah, I've been to Whistler 4 times, so this is #5”    Day 11: The drive home. It was a somber 2 day drive home in the rain. Neither of us talked much. I think we both were pouting that we were leaving such rad biking behind us. A trip like this makes or breaks friends. Justin, Jeff and I, are great friends, and are our friendship is stronger now, because of our love for biking, and the positive energy that we feed each other. Each of us are confident in each other's abilities, and sometimes have to coax it out of one another. I'm afraid for next year, when Jeff is coming for the whole trip…. Best road trip ever (until next year). Again, I would like to give special thanks to the following: -Gabe Fox and Stuart Kerr at Cove Bikes (www.covebike.com) for lending me the parts to continue the trip. -Armand Hurford at Republic Bicycles (www.riderepublic.com) for taking the time to fix our bikes when we need it, and the great party after the toonie race. -Tyler Maine at pinkbike (www.pinkbike.com) for showing us around Chilliwack. -Nikole Dunmall (aka Hot Chick) for shuttling us up and down Vedder Mountain all day. -Paul Kalisch at Sombrio for teaching me how to do a moto whip without knowing it and for the stickers. -My dad, Bob Splinter, for putting up with two dirtbags for a week and doing our laundry (how cool is that?) -Krystle Zimmer, for hanging out with us in Whistler, so we could hang out with a total hot babe and not look like complete losers. -And Jeff Shore for being a kick ass friend and pushing us to our limits. Next year, one of us is going to the hospital. (knock on wood-as I tap my skull with my knuckles)  |
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jaydawg69
(June 20, 2007 at 3:10)
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great article !
This article makes me want to plan my own bike trip out to BC. Keep it up and keep the dream alive.
Outstanding work Splinter...
James, it was good riding with you guys in CHilliwack even if it was only a few runs. Hope the weekends stag went ok!
Thanks Ty, the weekend was wicked fun. Did some riding in the town where the sun never sets (in the summer) and played some golf. Looking forward to riding with you in Sept again (I'll bring Nikole out again!)
sounds like you might of had just a little bit of fun. now i know what to expect when i come over lots of riding!! funny how you failed to tell me about all the times you crashed. looks like you need to come back over to the land down under for some more practice. ill have to teach you to pin it like an aussie!!
great article and a good read good stuff james
great article and a good read good stuff james
where was bowen island in this trip? lol
T'was fun posting you up in PG, and even better ripping with you again! Good article, don't forget to send me the pics and vids!
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