Hurtin' for Vert 2012 - Part 2 of 4

Images by Dave Silver (unless otherwise noted)
Words by Tyler Maine


Day Two: Little White

With three rides on the first day of the trip and a few hours of driving thrown in, the crew was in need of a hardy breakfast to get day two started. We awoke in various stages at Smoke's places and headed to the Blind Angler for a big ass breakfast to get the bodies fuel up for what lay ahead of us - a multi hour hike a bike, followed by over 30Km of trail riding back to Kelowna. Yes Day 2 would set the bar even higher.




To say that Smoke is vague at times about trail details could be an understatement. But I have learnt that "It's gonna be a big day." means just that and that you better put your happy pants on and be ready for an adventure and some hiking too. The drive out to the base of Little White should have been the first indication that today was not going to be a cake walk like the day before, where vehicles really helped us earn our vertical. Today we were in the middle of nowhere and there was a big ol' mountain infront of us that we'd have to scale before making our way back to Kelowna via various trail networks.















While I am not new to pushing my bike in the slightest, I would consider myself new to the idea of hiking my bike up steep enough grades (aka hiking trails) that I'd have to actually mount my bike on my back. Watching Smoke, Schley and others in front of me reach down and swing their bikes onto their backs was a whole new ball game and it went on for what felt like a few hours, straight up. There were little breaks in the hiking, you know time to spin the legs for a few minutes or do some quick trail clearing. But for the first part of our day it was all about the hurting, and Brant was on a mission to get it over with, so I stuck to his trail for the summit.

The summit used to house an old fire lookout and its foundation would serve as our regrouping spot and the place in which Smoke would lay out the next portion of the ride for us. We celebrated the climb with a Pilsner and some homemade cookies. Then is was time for a few hundred feet of freeriding - no set track here, just roll off the summit and make our ways to a set point at the forest's edge far below.





Working our way down the old Jeep trail from the nice freeride zone had us all wanting DH rigs, but really happy to not be on full blown XC rigs. This is why the AM bike is so versatile, always gets you from point A to B whether up or down. Entering the Crawford DH riding zone felt more like we were getting back into civilization to we rode past the KVR and into some well used DH tracks.

The last time I rode Crawford was a little over a year ago at the Kelowna Cycle Super D where I had my butt handed to me by some good friends and others that I simply didn't know yet. The fast, loose and rocky terrain is very different from the coast, but once you get into the groove, it's pretty amazing to be sliding all around a full tilt. Full tilt is exactly the pace that the crew was now pushing as we were racing the sun light and had a ways to go to get back to the van which was waiting at the Eldorado for us. We'd arrive at the van as the sun disappeared for the day - perfect timing. It should be noted that Reg did all of today's ride with a broken post and spent most of the time with no post or seat in his frame - that's why he's like a 6 plus time recipient of the Alberta Freerider of the Year - the man makes the rides happen and always with a smile.







Little White - 38.6km traveled, 2836 feet gained and 7344 feet lost

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Trips like Pinkbike's Hurtin' for Vert can't happen without a great group of riders and an equally amazing support group like Specialized Bikes, Bush Pilot Biking, Rocky Mountain Bikes, Pilsner and Pinkbike.com. Thanks a ton for your support in making this year's adventure all time, we all appreciated it.

Extra thanks to our drivers today, Barb, Chevy and Kim as well as Dangerous Vince at the Eldorado in Kelowna.

Stay tuned for Day 3 coming shortly.