Cam Visits Squamish - Photo Epic
When VW met Cam McCaul at the Vancouver International Airport and handed over the keys for their Sportwagen All Track they may not have realized the boundaries that were about to be pushed! "When they first handed me the keys I was thinking, 'they have no idea how sketchy I am in a car. . . this is a bad idea and they don't even realize it, '" jokes Cam.
Adam Billinghurst and Fraser Newton accompanied Cam on his #VWadventure to Squamish, British Columbia where they were treated to some world renowned dirt—and a snowstorm. But improvisations, chainsaws, and the 4Motion all-wheel-drive system won out for a road trip of a lifetime!
 | Squamish is a place I feel like I've never properly experienced even though I've done a few film shoots there and I've driven through it at least once, sometimes twice, a year for the last 14 years. I really enjoy the old school, technical style trails that are hidden in those woods, and I've always wanted an excuse to go ride them.Cam McCaul |
The guys headed up to ride the morning after the first snowfall of the season, there were a lot of trees down but they were equipped with an axe which provided a comfy case of “hot-back” for Adam. Between that and Fraser's pocket saw they had the road cleared in no time. In retrospect they realized that the drive up should have foreshadowed the trail conditions—anyone who is halfway aware may have recognized the connection. No backpacks on a powder day!
| Riding with these two is a blast. I've worked and filmed with both these lads loads, and I was pumped to join in and put rubber down—on snow! There's a recurring theme of riding frozen terrain with Cam and Adam, and Squamish delivered day one. We even got first tracks on Half Nelson! Fraser Newton |
| The first morning we looked out the window and it was a full on snowstorm. We rode a ton of stuff where you couldn't see the trail at all and it ended up being a blast. You'd lose control every five seconds and have to figure out how to save it. Cam McCaul |
The first snow of the season meant fresh tracks on Half Nelson. The rider breaking the trail had the easiest job; everyone coming behind didn't have much line choice, contrary to summer riding where you can learn from the people in front of you.
| The snow was actually pretty fun to slide around on—the rain that was falling on it was the bad part.Adam Billinghurst |
Psueda Psuga was handling the drainage well and Adam was cornering like it was a dry and dusty day.
| A safe, stylish vehicle that can get the kids to school on time is a necessity, but wouldn't it be great if that same vehicle is also right at home with a couple bikes on the roof or drifting a gravel corner?Cam McCaul |
The boys warmed up with some local indian food from Essence of India.
| The fit and finish of the Sportswagen was all-time; and the all wheel drive too. Of course it's their top tier model with a touchscreen and leather inside. Having the ability to interact with the car's computer and being able to control the drive mode was great for cutting loose. The stereo was insane too!Fraser Newton |
| I realized when I rolled my first car that maybe I should leave the recreational drifting to my bike; but it's been 10 years since I rolled that car and it was time to get back on the horse. The VW made it easy for me to drive above my ability level and before long I was getting into some nice drifts. I started to be able to pick lines on the road with the drift in mind. Cam McCaul |
"Cause shotgun bullets are bad for your health." ~ Ice Cube
| For this project there needed to be a lot of driving shots in the VW so the dirt logging roads in Squamish seemed pretty appealing.Cam McCaul |
Rallying the car was a good time, there were enough bodies for a poor man’s road closure (read: hollering when corners were clear). The whole time Adam was beat-boxing with the multi-pitch proximity sensors with Cam’s harmonic fills.
This exchange went like this; “nice horse”, “nice van”. So stoic bro.
| The Sportwagen had some feature that were pretty convenient for mountain bikers—like the lever in the trunk that made the back seats go down.Adam Billinghurst |
This is 20 kilometres up the Squamish Valley; we were exploring.
Getting very Canadian while out for dinner at the Copper Coil; lots of meat, brisket, burnt tips, and poutine.
| Keeping up with Cam's humour is a full time job. He's got some lucky kids.Fraser Newton |
Hanging out with local trail builder, Big Red Ted (aka Tedward Shovelhands) and talking about the portal to Mordor.
| My favourite part of the whole trip was simply getting to hang out with Cam and Fraser!Adam Billinghust |
This lower section of Half Nelson was new this past season from Ted and his crew. These new berms, flow section, and bridges helped to avoid dangerous trail merge. The new berms were rated 'insane.'
Gouranga trail at the top of the rocks, next to Highway to Hell in the Alice Lake/Slabs of Squamish area.
Warming up around a staple pallet fire for the final night's celebrations after revisiting old haunts and touring Cam around some of the places he recognized from old videos.
The snow meant not getting to ride everything they wanted to but getting to hang out for a weekend was well worth the trip!
Images by Reuben Krabbe.
MENTIONS: @ReubenKrabbe
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89 Comments
Says the guy who owns three VW's including two estates.
Love ya Cam, please get back to stuff we really wanna see & leave the garbage in the garbage can. Thanks.
gotcha . thank you
and thanks for the down votes for simply asking a question
revolutionary lol
I think at one point you could buy a jetta and get a bike with it.
Just remember dudes, if you hate advertising on a free site with great content that advertising is what is keeping this site funded, staffed, and full of free content. That advertising goes away and your beloved movies for your monday and one bike quiver reviews go with it.
Wha. Is it again? Oh a car!
Sweet!
Ummmmmm nice car!
Wait bikes are involved?
Yes they are being driven by that sweet car!
I'll pass the bike to Cam and his "vee double u"
"A safe, stylish vehicle that can get the kids to school on time is a necessity, but wouldn't it be great if that same vehicle is also right at home with a couple bikes on the roof or drifting a gravel corner?"
'Cause if my wife found out I was rally-racing in the family minivan, no, it wouldn't be great.
So we jumped in... happy with pee's in a pod with our new car. Then the Scam broke, every one lost there shit from the way the media handled it.. Do some research if you are outraged by VW there was a long line of other companies that made the right "donations" and got away with even worse of what VW did (H-D I'm looking at you) , but the wife and I still love our car.
We bought bike racks for it so we can now take both bikes with ease to all these great trail heads around the GTA, We loaded up the car with camping gear and bikes and when off to Mount St. Anne for UCI this year. Something we would of never be able to do before owning sedans. That car has opened my wife up to biking and our lives up to do more things out in the wild far from home. Now sure there are many cars that could do that job, but for someone that would rather be lit on fire than drive a cross-over that little wagon is not that bad. Its never had a problem, and our gas motor is not mixed up in this Diesel B.S.
Many-mnay companies build station wagons out of mid-ized cars in different markets, Ford will sell you a Fusion wagon, even a Focus wagon in Europe, but here in Canada if you want anything like that you have a buy a Escape (for about 10 grand more than what the same trim Focus will cost or you can leave. GM does this too, as well as countless other manufacturers that just couldn't be bothered to bring a sport wagon over for weird people like me in favor of jsut selling them a CR-V knock off.. And that's why I broke the "never buy new"moto for a Brand-new VW. Good for them to have the balls to even sell a wagon here that doesn't suck and isn't over $50K to buy.
We look forward to keeping ours form many years.. Will I buy another VW product.. I doubt it.
But, I've been surprised before..
Subaru.....?
Nope never head of them, are they shit?
The Outback is a Full sized car platform, The cost in buying, owning and insuring an Outback are reflected in this.The Golf is a midsized car, Its about 10 grand cheaper to buy gets much better MPGee's and is a lot cheaper to ensure. And the Golf has a real transmission not a CVT. Now a bunch a bikers that think spending 4 times as much on a bike than a car, this is something there brains can't simply compute. I being a bit of an automotive nut simply could not stand the slow,lazy, power robbing behavior of this problem laden box. And a manual is out, the wife can't be bothered to learn how to use one and I like having a DD" after too many suds.
Sorry people. You all enjoy Gucci grade bike parts to get you down a hill a 10th of a second faster than the next guy? Well I prefer not to waste my money on a sub-standard grade of car that's only party trick is an outdated AWD system and a motor that has known oil consumption issues and blow head gaskets like they are not even important.
I only bought the VW to get the Wagon, It happened to be an excellent car that is cheap to run and offers tech that all other markers simply can't touch at the price point of the Golf.
We will be hanging on the to wagon as long as possible, I will get back into an ATS or something for my self and the wife will keep the wagon for a family hauler when that time comes. My guess is that she will want to stick with VW to replace that wagon, I simply don't care, I buy cars on how they make me feel as a driver, not what they say on the hood. Something most people can't get past.
Anyway, I'm not trying to tell you that you made the wrong choice or anything, the Sportwagen looks like a cool little car! Also, I share your sentiment that it's really too bad more manufacturers don't build wagons... they are very practical and it would be great to have more options.
"VW visits Squamish - VW Photo Epic"