Road to the Western Open, p.2

One responsibility of the Family Man is to provide adequate and appropriate recreational time for his family. During summer months, this will often include journeys to far off destinations to take in the sites, scenery, and sun. Part two of this project documents the struggles of one particular Family Man, trying to mix and balance his family obligations with his personal goal of testing his mettle at the Western Open.

Part 2: BC Bound

We've all done it. Trying to juggle personal riding time with family time. But, when the riding destinations are so far away, it kind of makes sense to try to blend the two together, right? Two birds, one stone. Two girls....okay, I guess that one's not an appropriate analogy. Moving on.

But it's a very delicate balance, trying to mix biking into a family vacation. I suspect that most wives aren't too happy to sit around in the campground, waiting for us to finish biking for the day. I know mine's not. So it's got to be a give and take, which basically means, do what ever your family wants, and be grateful for whatever limited riding time you can sneak away for. But to achieve this delicate balance, you must have a plan. Here's mine:

- July 28: Travel to "the lake" to load and prep RV for the trip
- July 29: Haul family and RV out to Invermere to camp out at the home of the in-laws of my sister-in-law
- July 30: Abandon family for the day to ride Kickinghorse
- July 31: Beach day in Invermere
- August 1-5: Down to Kimberly for family fun
- August 5-8: Back up to Golden to take in the Race

Sounds like a simple plan, right? Now take into account that you're traveling with a 5 and 3 year old, strung out from excitement and burnt out from a scorching hot sun, the likes of which they're not accustomed to, coming from a province that must surely be having it's rainiest summer in history. Good times.

Sarcasm aside, the 7 hour drive to Invermere went well, all things considered. Met up with my wife's sister and her husband at his parents' home in Invermere. We then proceeded to quickly alienate his parents, who, conditioned to the quiet life of semi-retired grand-parenthood, in a quiet town, with their only grandchild living 6 hours away, were largely unprepared and unarmed to deal with the energetic exuberance of two young boys who'd been trapped in a car all day. With their second grandchild due this winter, this would be their first painful reminder of what parenthood was like, oh so long ago, and I was more than happy to take them for their stroll down memory lane. Saturday was...akward, but by Sunday, they recover from their shell-shock, and warm up to us once again.

I ditch the family on Saturday to head up to Golden. Arranged to rendezvous there with a friend and put in some laps. Other than simply getting accustomed to the physical pounding I was about to receive the following weekend, I had a couple monkeys to get off my back that day:

a) Ride "Rock & Roll". It's always raining when I go to Golden (something about those Golden showers), so I've never been able to ride this trail.

b) Take the rock-drop line on Pioneer. I've always used the ride around, but with the race coming up, I'd better get this dialed, as the ride-around must cost at least 5-10 seconds

And the results?

a) Been there, done that, now, and almost successfully too. Cleaned the first rock face. Almost cleaned the second face too, but, got bucked around a bit at the bottom, and couldn't make the turn. T-boned straight into the berm at the bottom, and snapped the shifter clean off my handlebar. No biggie, who needs gears anyways? At least it wasn't my brake lever. Pit stop for burgers and beers while the boys in the shop bolt on a new shifter for me. Good to go.

b) Scoped out the line on the first run of the day, and return on second last run to giver' a go. Stop before the last turn into the rock face, tell my friend to get ready to call the medics, say my hail marys, and go for it. Almost stick it too, but my weight was a bit far back, and my rebound a little too fast, the bike gets a bit bucky and I can't quite hold it. Close, but no cigar. We'll try again next Saturday. (spoiler alert, next Saturday does't work out for me either)

All in all, a good day. A couple of tail-gate bevys, and back down to Invermere. Still in one piece, "Great success!".

I'll spare you a long-winded story about the balance of the week with the family, and just let the pictures tell the story. Pictures include Fort Steele (love that place), pool at Kimberly Campground, and the town of Kimberely, and it's skate park.

Fort Steele


Panning for Fool's Gold

Panning for real gold

Here's the Fool's Gold

Here's the real gold

A special place

Pool Bound




One member of the future family racing team

The cuckoo in Kimberly's Platzl

The "famous" Chef Bernard's. Good food, but overpriced, IMO. After all, it's just schnitzel.

Homage to Kimberly's mining history

Kimberly Skate Park. Is that a "transfer"?


I will share one story. I did take the time to do a hike-a-bike with 40-something pound Giant into the Kimberly Nature Park. Started from the campground, headed up Sunflower Hill trail, up Duck Pond Trail, to Romantic Ridge, down to some other trail that brought me into Kimberly. Saw a giant bull moose at Duck Pond. Word of advice, if you're ever headed to the area, bring your trail bike. The trails there are fantastic, readily accessible, and are not to be missed. Here's the route I took. Took me a couple hours, but on the properly suited bike, it would take much, much less.

Here's the route I took:


Coming up in Part 3:

- The Open: Practice day
- The Open: Race day