Cadence Freeride Wall of Fame Fires up with Road Trip

Cadence Coffee and CloakOfCarrot photography are at it again for another great season of riding: Getting shots of great non-pro riders ripping the best trails from Alberta and BC.

This year we start with a road trip to Fernie, Neslon, Rossland.....Every year for the past 5 years or so, the big crew of us have been kicking off the bike season with a rip down to fernie. Through the organizational skills of Brent, we book two of the huge mansions on the Fernie ski hill - equipped with all the amenities. Thirty people were in attendance this year to get things fired up... Partying was had all night, and riding during the day..

Several great rides were had on the lower microwave tower run in Fernie, Kids Stuff, and on the classic trail Old Goat.
Paul Sudlow took a few shots at hitting up the big Sandpit jump.

The weather was crazy - on the ride we ran into rain, hail, thunder, sun... Fortunately, back the mansion the hot tub and pool tables were open all night - as was the bar...

From there, a smaller crew of us (Dean, Forrest, Mimo) headed down to Nelson to hook up with a crew of Dean's buddies from Squamish for a solid week long road trip ride....


We camped at the Kootenay campground just outside of Nelson. We did two rips down Newt Sack - it was sweet - long rock faces, some great stunts - all around wicked trail.

A few campsite beers were definitly had in the van...

The next day, we hit Hitman: and the lowerhalf 12 slabs. Hitman is a great ride - faster dh than newtsac: but still has some great techincal elements including the Zorro stunt and some cool rock faces. Dean pulled a wicked move on one of the longest and most techincal faces - jumping a small gap beside a tree onto a steep face - very impressive.

We then headed across town to do Bedframe and placenta decenta. I managed to land on my head off a smallish drop when I hooked my shoe on my stay when trying to pedal into a ramp - got launched sideways. I managed to roll the landing ok, but then got the wind knocked outta me when the bike landed on my head. So I kind of muddled my way down the rest of the trail: the rest of the crew kicked some great moves on the stunts and techical steeps.

Nelson rocks for riding - and I hope to get back there this summer...

We then headed up to Rossland - unfortunately, I started having some odd trouble with the van. It had been running well all trip when suddenly on the climb up to Rossland, the engine started losing power and stuttering really badly. It never quit, but was running gradually worse and worse. Had a quick look at things in Rossland - after some checking and a fuel filter clean, it appeared to boil down to the bane of all freeriders (and those who ride with them) - bad gas.

Anyway, we made it: and hooked up with local Rossland rider Mike, who took us around to some great trails. We hit up The Flume: Excellent descent. The weather was super nice - hot sunny - but rain had just happened the week before so the trails were in wicked shape. Fantastic long descents and tons of log rides.

There was a great huck in the bush as well: everyone hit it: so I got back on the horse and fired off it, landing perfectly after airing large. After that, things went great for my riding. Well other than the @#$ log rides - was still pretty sketchy on those compared to the first day on NewtSac when I was actually nailing pretty well all of em - weird.... Not enough beer? Maybe too much...

After a few beers and some food we headed over to the other side of red mountain to setup for riding down Oasis and lower oasis.

These trails are long long long descents - there are a few stunts on upper oasis, and its steeper and more technical. I hit a few of the stunts - including one long flow ramp. There was one three option stunt that no one managed to get.

Unfortunately, poor Taylor mashed his knee off a skinny that came after the flowramp, and we had to bring in a truck to help him out. Hopefully it was just bruised up and not torn - haven't heard yet...

Lower oasis is just fast - 9km of fast open full throttle blasting through the bush ending in a long sand chute. Best way to describe it is to watch the star wars scene where they are blasting through the woods in fast-forward on a dvd.

We then headed over to the Rock Cut pub for beer etc. Talking to some of the local Rossland doods found out they have cut a major long high-alpine trail that runs across a bunch of peaks for some 30+km - I totally have to ride that one!!!!

All pics from the trip can be found at cloakOfCarrot website and the best ones naturally on the wall at Cadence Cafe in Bowness, Calgary!

Go now, get coffee and breakfast, look at pictures, get inspired and GO RIDING!

Mimo out...

Next Trip: Golden BC...