The celebration of bikes and a weekend at the Full Boar Challenge

Well since I've almost become an honorary citizen of Kamloops this year, it was only fitting to make the trip up the Coquihalla to take in the Full Boar Challenge this past weekend. It's events like this that really make you appreciate cycling and what makes it so great to most of us. It may have rained until 3 in the afternoon on Saturday, but that did nothing to dampen the rider's spirits. Here are mine and Derek Chamber's takes on what will hopefully become an annual pilgrimage for myself to cap off the riding season.Full Boar Challenge through the misty eyes of Derek,


This was the best weekend ever. Well maybe not ever, but it was a really great time. I showed up Saturday morning; it was poring rain, and I was stocked to ride some bikes. After the 6-hour drive from Nelson, riding my bike was the only thing on my mind. I wasn’t really sure what the Full Boar challenge was all about, but I had a really good feeling that it was going to be a good time.


When I rolled into base camp, there were red neck pick up’s and dirt bikes everywhere. The first thing that came to mind was “am I in the right place, and then I thought to myself…” wow this could kick some ass. “If the super long downhill course was on dirt bike trail’s… oooo this is going to rule”. I gathered my gear, got ready, and hitched a ride 18.5 km to the top of the course.

The whole way up, all I could here in my head was “brap braaap” this is going to rule. And, yes it did. The course consisted of two steep pitches at the start, then into single track… then into the double track. It was very obvious that these trails were made by dirt bikes. My first run down was with some random locals that I had hitched a ride with. They were giving heads-ups on what I was getting myself into. I felt like I was 12 and my mom was giving a speech on crossing the road, and all I could here was the teacher from Charlie Brown… I guess it was the A.D.D. kicking in.

We headed down and I fell in love with the trail. I left my new found friends for beer’s at the bottom later. This is the type of trail that feels like it never ends. It has such good flow. The mid section of this trail gives you the confidence to open it up, as if you were cracking the throddle of a finely tuned two stroke. The endless double track that follows the rolly power lines has long and sweepy corners, finely manicured by dirt bikes to perfectly suit our downhill bikes. Following the cloud nine double track, I was back to the tight lines of the greasy, sloppy, single track that I call “love”. I named the final bit of this trail “surf’s up”. When it rain in the 'loops, it all turns to clay, and clay is nothing but slick! And who loves slick… “I do, I do”. Surf to the finish, and call her a day. “Wow what a run” I said to myself.



This was my first impression of the Full boar challenge, and it is amazing. The course is fun for all gravity adrenaline seekers alike. It’s been nothing but a good time. It pored rain, everything was caked in mud, it was cold as hell, and all I heard was positive happy people riding their bikes and having a great time. And I'll be back next year, I hope you all can make it too!

Spectators take on the Full Boar Challenge by Tyler


Well Bruce Spicer put it best:"this is great, it has that mid 80's race feel to it-everyone is just here to have a good time!"

I convinced my buddy/mechanic Mike that we should go to the Full Boar Challenge in Kamloops, because, well, it was the Full Boar Challenge. Basically I kinda made it sound lilke I knew what I was talking about and that it was gonna be rad, it was enough to convince Mike that it would be a great time riding bicycles.

Once we had HIS truck loaded up we hit the road, with NO stereo. It seems that someone felt they needed his stereo more then him. Oh well. It was pooring rain Saturday morning and thoughts of returning to the 'whack were in our minds. Well since we were there, we figured we might as well go see what the shops in Kamloops looked like at this time of the year.

Once we had successfully done the tour, it was off to the Ranch to see what we could do to entertain ourselves as we waited for the weather to blow over. For those of you that have not made the trip to the Ranch, you really should!! The hype is real and it is a great thing to see what an organized group of riders and an open minded city can do when they work together.

Well the clouds weren't leaving town, and if anything it appeared to be getting worse out at Greenstone. Oh well, lets go check it out and see what the course is like anyhow was now the plan. The instructions on the door at Full Boar were all we had to go on to get there and they were enough. 5 minutes from downtown, we were pulling off the highway to a dirtroad marked with cardboard signs that had been spray painted with arrows. The rain was fully letting up out here, but it was obvious that it had been here by all the mud.


We found a few clean people and fully loaded the Ranger up and went insearch of the trail head. A few wrong turns later, we were at the top and unloading. As we did that, a true Kamloops truck pulled up to drop their kids off for a run too-sick truck!!


Well I know that we didn't break any records for time on that first run, but wow that trail rips. Long ass descent that features everything you need in a trail, steeps, rocks, single track, double track, tree sections you name it, it had it. Best of all, there was no "shore" style stunts to deal with, this was a riding trail. It was pretty muddy to say the least:


With one run down and light running out, I opted to retrieve the truck and that way Mike could get in a second run. There was about 6 of them that finished their runs in pitch black, but hey it's all in good fun. Now we just needed to wait until 8 pm for NWD6 to play out here. Yeah you heard me, the folks at Full Boar had arranged to have a screen and projector set up so that everyone in attendence could watch NWD6, lake side with the full moon over head. Before the movie played, Trevor was handing out awards from the mornings XC race.


I can remember Trevor on the Mega Phone:"And with a blistering time of..." and just hearing this kid in the front row, "Naw man I was dead last!!". That and BRAAAANNNDOOON BAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRKKKERRRRR!
I realize you had to be there, but for those riders that were, you'll all smile when you read that I'm sure. Time for the movie to begin:


It was truly awesome to get to watch NWD6 again, since I'd seen it in Vegas, but this time out in the open next to a lake with like 150 riders. That was pretty cool. Well the movie was over so we decided to skip the antics that would come next and head back into Kamloops to wash our bikes and get some sleep. The bikes had a meeting with old Mr. Carwash to get the goo off them:


We arrived in the morning to find a rather chipper group of individuals that were keen to ride:


Most people were warming up by the fire or getting some practice swings in for their golf game:



Enough warming up, it was time to load up and watch the race from all over the course. My intentions were to ride the course and take pictures of racers as they came by the section I was at, at the time. The problem with a course that is 20 minutes long, is that there are a lot of places to stop and take pictures. Here are a few from the race:

The top starting line and warm up shack:


Entering the first steep/greasy pitch:


Switch back after the first steep pitch: ( the rider before this guy had one of the craziest wipeouts I've seen in a long time-he was on a Devo is all I can remember, but I hope he's ok)


A rider being past on the second steep section in the woods: (passing happens a lot on a 20 minute course like this)


The fire road double track sections on this course are rediculously fast and SOOOOO much fun. They seem to just go on and on.


You can't have a course this long with out a hike a bike or two. Both were mellow and allowed riders to catch there breath before throwing a leg back over their bikes again.


The last wooded section on the course was really challenging on Saturday due to all the rain that turned the clay into snot, but it was moderately better today. Sure riders were still tripoding down the section, but there were more riding it for sure!! With a sprint to the finish, where the nice timing ladies were cheering you on under their timing tent:


The overall vibe from the Full Boar Challenge was great!! It isn't often that you go to a race and the focus is just to have fun. The biggest prize actually went to the person with the best poker hand. You got to pick up cards on the way down the course at various check points (start, hike a bike and finish) and the person with the best hand won a sick Elektra cruiser. Riley from Nelson took home the cruiser with four 7's in his hand.

The race winner was none other then Derek Chambers, who went home with a Brodie Holeshot frame for his efforts.


I'd like to thank Full Boar for putting on such a great event and Brodie for showing up and showing their support for the grass roots level event that went on this past weekend.


Here's the results from The Challenge:
(courtesy of Chuck Brennen)

1/2 course for up and coming little pigs:

Stu Sykes 7mins 41sec
Mason Cleve 10mins 49sec

Full Suspension:

Junior:

Chayse Marshall 24min 41 sec ( Boar's youngest swine) he beat a lot of the older wanna be pigs
Adam Peacock 30mins 10sec
Bryen Cook 30mins 28sec

14-19yrs

Justin Terweil 20min 07 sec
Evan Schwartz 21mins 03sec
Mike Wallace 21mins 43sec

20-29yrs:

Derek Chambers 18min 26sec ( fastest time!!)
Joe Schwartz 19min 21sec
Jonathan Folger 19min 33sec

30-39yrs:

Steven Patterson 24mins 07sec
Roy Williams 24mins 11sec
Dave Pehowich 24mins 36sec

1 minute 35 seconds separated 1st - 6th

Yee Ol' Guys !! 40+

Greg Burbine 23mins 39sec
Bodie Shandro 25mins 22 secs
George Terweil 26mins 44sec

Fastest Lady..

Angelina 26mins 49sec

Hard Tail Classes

14-19 was won by Taylor Cordonier 23mins 26sec
20-29 was won by Brandon Barker 22mins 42 sec.. ( he must have stopped to grab a coffee..)

Total of 15 riders in the hard tail class!!