"Oh, God" I thought as I got into the car. "I hope that my legs havn't
gotten -too- weak". I had bought Dave's Qu-ax trials a few weeks
before and had been riding the 20 inch rim constantly as the 24 inch
muni sat around and gathered dust. It was time to bring the muni out
again though. My family was taking a vacation to New Denver, British
Columbia, a beutifull old mining town on the shore of Lake Slocan.
There are lots of awesome mountain bike trails that follow along the
old railroads that used to come and go from the old, now mostly
abondoned mines, there.
Once we got going, I couldn't wait! We climbed into the
spectacular
mountains of lower B.C.. I've been through here many times but the
scenery never fails to amaze me. It didn't take long untill we began
winding down into the Slocan Valley, in the middle was Lake Slocan and
New Denver!
20169
After we set up our tent, me and my brother went across the park to
check out the bike park. it's really cool. Since freeriding here is
what skateboarding is to the city, the city built a sweet little stunt
park. We fooled around the park for about a half an hour and then
decided to hit the trails.
20168
The first trail would be a hike/ride. That is, I would ride my muni
down the trail while my family would hike behind me. The trail follows
a bit of the railbed of the, now defunked, Kaslo & Slocan Railway.
It's really cool cuz it goes by quite a few abondoned mines as well as
having spectacular views of the mountains. When we got to the
trailhead, I was ready to ride. I shouldered my bag, hopped onto my
muni and after taking a few hops, getting used to the bigger wheel
again, I was off.
My dad shot a pic of me crossing a bridge by a small waterfall
right at the start of the trail but after that I was on my own and
would take my own pictures.
20170
I was pleased to see that it didn't take long for my leg muscles to
kick back in and I started to get some speed going. Knowing that during
this season, mother bears were out with their cubs, I was carefull to
make my presence known to any bears that might be in the area and began
singing Pete Seeger songs. Before very long at all, I rode past the
enterance to an old mine. The enterance was almost burried in a
mountain of tailings and the office was all in shambles. There were
trees starting to grow around the crumbling building. Nature was
taking it all back.
20171
After cruising down the old railbed for about a mile or so, the trail
broke off from the railbed and went into a sweet curving singletrack
with really fun ups and downs. every so often, a mountain stream
waterfall would cross the trail. on the larger streams a small bridge
was put up. You ride across the smaller ones.
20173
Once in a while you would come into the railbed again and then break
off again. Whenever you joined the railbed you would get grand views
off the mountains and glaciers and you would ride by long pieces of
rusted track, rotting tyes and other railroad and mine equipment.
20172
When you got back on the singletrack, you would ride through a
wonderful dense forrest. It was awesome! I couldn't say how long it
took but before long, I had to turn off to get to my "station", the
trailhead to another mountain trail. I turned off of the railbed onto
yet another singletrack which turned out to have a fair amount of
downhill as well as XC in it. It was constantly making steep, sharp
switchbacks down the mountain, occasionaly going into a straight down
descent and then coming back to more switchbacks. It was a blast! It
spitted me out on the highway, a few hundred feet above the trailhead
to the Galena Trail. Another Railroad trail. This trail is more
devoloped but in no way less fun. After the rest of my family got to
the trailhead (the lazy slackers ;p), they got on their bikes and we
were off. I was feeling really good about my legs now and kept up with
my family for the first two kilometers.
after the first two kilometers, in leu of a bridge, there's a really
cool cable-car that ferries you across Carpanter Creek. My dad went
across first, and then me but my little brother couldn't get his bike
onto the rack so I had to come across and help him. It would be very
unwise for two people to take the cable-car at the same time so he went
across first, took off his
bike and then he and dad were off. I chilled out at the cable-car for
a while.
It's right below the mining boom ghost-town (spooky!) of Alamo. It's a
crazy total wreck now!
After that I crossed the creek, got on my muni and started riding
again. It was peacefull and very relaxing. Riding in the shade of the
forrest, listening to the sound of the creek to my side. After afew
minutes I could see my family stopped on a bridge with their bikes. I
was thinking "Why the hell would they be waiting for me??"
They weren't. When they saw me they rode up to me and told me that
when they were coming down a section of trail, they saw what they
thought was a dog. When my dad put on his brakes, the "dog" heard it
and turned around. It was a bear cub. Not knowing where the mother
was, they backtracked a safe distance and waited for me while the
mother and cub shipped out. We went through the section, making sure
to let the bears know where we were.
"We're sorry, Bears. We're just a bunch of stupid Americans. You
understand, don't you?"
After this incident, nothing else happened. we flowed through the woods
where decades ago trains hauled and silver and galena ore to smelters.
there was an occasional bridge or boardwalk.
before long, we found ourselves back in New Denver. We went to chillax
by the beatiful lake later in the evening.
I hope that you all enjoyed the write-up! it's hard to put those trails
to words.
'here's a little XC vid that we filmed on the first trail.'
(
) hope you enjoy it!
I'll catch you all later! Peace, Jackie
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Filename: anewdenver 014.JPG |
|Download: http://www.unicyclist.com/attachment/20173 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
--
Goats_On_Unicycles
If time and space are naturally curved, where do all the
straight people come from??
'MY -GROOVY- GALLERY'
(http://tinyurl.com/yeceup) '*
Unicycle For Goats!!!!!*' (http://tinyurl.com/2vghk6)
'PM me if you want in!!'
(http://tinyurl.com/2hbmhn)
-Homophobia is a social disease.-
Stop bigotry now!
*R.I.P Kurt Vonnegut*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goats_On_Unicycles's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/12566
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/61239
Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services
----------------------------------------------------------
** SPEED ** RETENTION ** COMPLETION ** ANONYMITY **
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.usenet.com