Fast Times at Rocky Mountain High - Nelson, BC
My travelling companion Steph, My Dodge pick-up, My bikes, (a Kona hardtail and my new ride, a Rocky Mountain Switch) and I set out on Sunday, Aug. 17. The trip was long and after twelve tough hours we arrived at our first stop, Fernie, B.C. Fernie was a sweet stay. I got my feet wet on B.C.’s long, fast, downhill runs riding my Kona at the Fernie Alpine Resort. My RM had a blown Fox Vanilla shock that the guys at Rocky couldn’t get to me before I left. Spoke n’ Sport, my shop in Saskatoon promised to get the shock to Nelson, where I was to meet up with it. On Wednesday, after a couple of days riding the hucking hardass with P ete, my host, it was time to load up the Ram, get Steph and hit the big-time, Nelson.
Nelson was it right from the beginning. Needing to get my RM tweaked I headed straight to Gerick Cycle, to hook up with my shock and Travis, a transplanted Saskatoon rider, and all around sweet dude, who has been living and working in Nelson for the past few years. Travis told me that the shock was there so I left my bike after making plans to hook up that evening at Mike’s, a local watering hole where the mountain bikers were holding a fund raiser to help send Deb, a local female downhiller to worlds. I was also informed that the entertainment for the evening would be some previously unseen footage of last year’s Red Bull Rampage put together by none other than Derek Westerlund, creator of the New World Disorder series. Sweet.
Mike’s was a riot. The film was great and I noticed a couple mountain bike heavies, Shawn Denny and Mike Kinrade sitting nearby. Travis pointed out Westerlund who was milling about in the crowd and shared his pizza, some of the best I’ve ever had. Check out Taffy Jacks in Nelson for some sweet grub, the BBQ pizza was particularly good. I checked out the scene, drinking my beer and not saying too much. Before leaving, Travis and I planned a ride for the next day.
Around noon I showed up at the shop to a complete and ready to rock mountain bike fixed by Derek, Gerick’s mechanic and another sweet dude (Thanks for the tech help and for letting me hang in the shop Derek, much obliged). I spent the afternoon chilling and waiting for the boys to get off work. When 5:30 rolled around I was hot and heavy to ride. Myself, Travis, and local riders Doug, and Heath set off in the Ram up Give Out Trail, a steep, windy mountain fire road just outside town. We hit the trailhead of “Bedframe”, had a meeting of the minds, and began our descent. After a couple of days riding my hardtail I felt invincible on my big-travel Rocky. Hitting everything in site I followed my more experienced mates over 8 ft. drops to sweet trannies, log rides, rock faces and a teeder-totter. My ride was incredible, I felt great riding into the darkness, the days getting shorter and shorter. We rode into town totally amped and planned another ride for the next afternoon.
Friday started off great. I kicked around Gerick fixing a spoke I had broken the day earlier and took it all in. Derek worked on bikes, Travis bounced around, Denny sharpened skates, more big-name mountain bikers showed up as Dylan Tremblay stopped by to chill, Kinrade worked on a trials bike outside and Robbie Bourdon stopped by to chat about his injuries suffered in a car wreck earlier this summer (Bourdon even took a quick peek at my ride). Gerick Cycle puts off a cool vibe and is a really chill place.
Around three o’clock Travis and I set out, this time in his van, and this time we were driven to the top by Mike, another of Travis’ many friends. I noticed Mike had a Pinkbike tattoo on his calf and I asked him what his connection to the website was. He told me he was a partner in the site and that he now lived out in Nelson. I told him I was a writer and the inspiration for this piece was born. We travelled up Give Out Trail again (our options were slightly limited because some local trails had been closed due to extreme forest fire risk), this time to a trail named Burl Ives. The trail is aptly named, it’s burly. All of the confidence I rode with the day before evaporated as I rode the steep, gnarly terrain with more stunts than I’d ever seen. The trail was a real glimpse into the real local hardcore scene with tall, narrow, sick looking stunts everywhere. About half way down the beast, after a pretty serious wipe that left my Hayes HFX-9 brake lever in need of some work, Travis and I got off our bikes and climbed a partially finished stunt. Called the Molson Drop for reasons unexplained, it was a sketchy walk, let alone ride. About 20’ up, the Molson Drop was a 2’ wide ladder bridge that came out over a 15’ or so trench to a tranny reinforced by a log, come up short and it’s game over. Travis told me that only 5 or 6 guys have made the drop and that last year a rider had paralysed himself on it. Seeing the built up stuff was cool, even though I was a bit rattled by my spill. I fought the trail the rest of the way down. After partying with Travis one more night and fixing my lever at the shop the next morning Steph and I left Nelson, Eastward bound for my warm, familiar Saskatoon home.
Nelson has it all, huge mountains, lots of natural and built stunts, and riders galore to hit the trails with. The town attracts bike people from all over and unlike some places, people seem to understand you when you tell them you are a mountain biker. There is a real scene that is well connected to the rest of the mountain bike world. Nelson both stoked and scared this prairie boy but I’ll be back next year, for a week next time. If you get the chance give Nelson a peek, the riding is sick and you never know who you’ll run into. Once you pop that cherry nothing else compares.
Editor's Note: While indeed rocky, the mountains around Nelson are 4 hours west of the true Rockies. Found here are the Selkirks, Monashees and Valhallas, Adrian was referring to both his sweet ride, Rocky Mountain's Switch and the terrain he was lucky enough to taste!
