Thursday, July 8, 2010

A busy couple of weeks

After the trip to Banff i was keen for some more site seeing while ants was keen to get a job so the next road trip was going to be a solo

On saturday, two saturdays ago i headed off to golden for a bit of mountain biking at kicking horse. the boys followed later in the day. i got there at opening, did a run, saw the grizzly, did another run (second run is always faster and way better then the first) and was feeling confident enough to take on adouble black on the third run of the day (double blacks are hard). this particular double black invloved rolling down a very steep, very fast rock face. did the first section which involves a smaller rock face followed by a drop. little sketchy and took the drop with the mind set it can't go to bad. nailed it but had second thoughts about the longer rock face. almost chickened out but decided i hadn't fallen off in a while so can't be improving. started rock face, things going well, a bit to the left, over the steepest part, bit too much speed on, out of control, off the track, over the front of the bike, rolling down hill, bike crashing into me, flatten out and stop, watch bike smash itsself to the bottom.

Result, full face helmets are awesome. bike had a bent disc rotor. bike shop had no spares and bike shop into town was closed due to wedding. dissapointed i went and took some frustration out on some firewood and set up camp waiting for the boys to return.

A can do attitude is a great thing at times. after setting up camp it wasn't long till i was smashing the rotor straight with the back of a toma hawk. a bit of tweeking on the bike and i had a rideable solution. Spent the next day wearing out brake pads at kicking horse, camped again and then suttled the boys up mt seven before heading to jasper for the night. the weather wasn't to awesome so decided to go all the way to jasper and work my way back over the next to days. took some photos on the way up.

Stayed in wapiti camp ground just out of jasper. Quite a few sites but you wouldn't know it. drove into jasper for food. very touisty.

Woke up early the next day to try and beat the crowds. five minutes out of jasper heading north and saw an elk stag on side of road, just chilling. Further down more elk and then either a wolf or a cyotie. very quick so could go either way but i'm claiming wolf.

Lots of site seeing but not a lot more wildlife, more elk and some sheep. it is amazing how many tourists were around and how quickly things can go from screnity (when you spot some wildlife) to crazy when every one else spots it. Saw some elk cross a river. was mean.

stayed the night the columbia ice fields. very high up and at about a km away from the glacier. snowed over night (crazy for summer). woke early once again to beat the crowds. checked out the sights. peyto lake was a highlight. back to golden by 2 p.m. and managed to get in six runs before setting up camp at ceddar lake.

Spent Canada day mountain biking at kicking horse. Start slow, doing some of the more technical tracks while arms wern't too sore, at about 4 runs i thought i might try and get 10 in in a day. Made it a bit more of a race and i started hitting tracks faster - no stopping from top to bottom, quite difficult. at about 8 runs i thought i could do 12, mayber 13. run 9 and i got a puncture, 13 is still on the cards, just go fast over the next 3 runs i said, run 11 and my rare breaks are gone, i choose the slowest way down, fail, rush to the van, grab breaks and do a change in the gondie on the way up, speed down the mountain to finish run 12 but eight minutes short of getting in a 13th. stocked to have made 12 i drove back to revelstoke.

chilled in revelstocke over the weekend then went to silver star for monday and tuesday mountian biking. Silver star has a lot shorter runs then kicking horse but better bigger berms and corners, better progression of jumps too, both parks have there plus and minus. progressed quite a bit and silver star. loved it. have decided to put the mountain bike away for the rest of the trip and rest my leg. it has gotten quite sore.

back to revelstoke to chill before the stampede in calgary then home to nz. went to the hot pools again last night and then up mt revlestoke to day

Boom

Boom

andy

BOOM

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