Last Chance to Dance
A two-day Okanagan All-mountain extravaganza - A two-part picture story by Margus Riga
For most, the last big ride of the year is a special event and something not to take lightly. The term "It's better to burn out than to fade away" comes to mind. As the conditions are deteriorating fast on the Shore, I thought about other zones that are still happening.
My friend Johnny Smoke had been trying to get me to come up to ride and shoot his local scene in the Okanagan for some time, and I had been working a lot this past summer with Ryan Berrecloth and Knolly Bikes. So when the opportunity came up for me to try out a fresh Knolly Endorphin and shoot some all mountain action, I jumped on it.For those that have never heard of Johnny Smoke, he is one of the original Cove kids/brats and a true original in his own right. He grew up on Vancouver's North Shore, and played a key role in the birth of real mountain biking in BC. Now "Smoke" as he likes to be referred as, runs Bush Pilot Biking...likely BC's best mountain bike guiding outfit. If you ever want to ride the best trails anywhere in BC, and you're looking for a place to start, call Smoke...he'll set you straight.
Day 1
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Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow!
-Margus
For most, the last big ride of the year is a special event and something not to take lightly. The term "It's better to burn out than to fade away" comes to mind. As the conditions are deteriorating fast on the Shore, I thought about other zones that are still happening.
My friend Johnny Smoke had been trying to get me to come up to ride and shoot his local scene in the Okanagan for some time, and I had been working a lot this past summer with Ryan Berrecloth and Knolly Bikes. So when the opportunity came up for me to try out a fresh Knolly Endorphin and shoot some all mountain action, I jumped on it.For those that have never heard of Johnny Smoke, he is one of the original Cove kids/brats and a true original in his own right. He grew up on Vancouver's North Shore, and played a key role in the birth of real mountain biking in BC. Now "Smoke" as he likes to be referred as, runs Bush Pilot Biking...likely BC's best mountain bike guiding outfit. If you ever want to ride the best trails anywhere in BC, and you're looking for a place to start, call Smoke...he'll set you straight.
Day 1
The Okanagan is Western Canada's wine hook up. Also Canada's hottest and deadliest (snakes, spiders, scorpions, you name it) zone in the summer, so coming here in late fall made sense...the wine's ready to go, and the critters are too cold to worry about you.
"Watch out for the Black Widow spiders" was the opening line from Johnny Smoke as he started showing us around his newly acquired home in Peachland BC. This was the first clue that the next two days in Smoke's neck of the woods was going to be different.
After about three cups of coffee and thankfully no spider attacks, we were off to Penticton-about a half hour drive from Johnny's mountainside villa home base-for our first taste of Okanagan epic.
Shuttling up the Derenzy FSR just above Penticton the fall colours were in full effect.
 | Watch out for the Black Widow spiders |
The ride of the day was called Derenzy's DH. From the vehicle drop point we needed to climb another five or so kilometers on the FSR. There's lots of redneck activity going on all the time up these roads. On the way up we spotted lots of shotgun shells, couches, empties, and dead things. Classy.
At a junction 4 KM's up the FSR, we had the choice to meander up another 20km's of FSR or try and find an old hidden path that would cut out about 18km's off the FSR road. Smoke had never taken this route, and he couldn't guarantee it would save any real time because it's a hike instead of a ride. So of course we decide to hit the hidden path. An hour of the most brutal alder bushwacking later, we popped out at the top of the FSR again. Still can't quite say if it was worth it. Definitely can say, "I'll never do it again."
After another 2KM's of FSR, we finally arrived at the trail head at around 5200'. All that was left to do now was, send it.
The trail was surprisingly buff considering how far out of the way it was. Apparently the locals are all a bunch of iron lung monsters who don't mind climbing to get to the goods.
After about an hour of ripping high speed loam through the trees and fall colours, the landscape started to change up a bit. Now we were into more open rough, rocky singletrack with plenty of little climbs thrown in to keep us honest and working.
A couple of hours in, we came out at a junction signifying the end of Derenzy's DH, and the start of The Rock Oven, and also the start of a brutal granny ring climb up to the lookout point. On the way up we came across all these crazy looking crags. Apparently this area is also big for rock climbing.
The lookout at the top of The Rock Oven climb has massive views of Lake Okanagan and the town of Penticton. It took us about three hours of descending, taking photos, and climbing to get to this point, and according to Johnny's GPS, we had already descended a total of about 3000', with about 2000' of total climbing from the drop off point. That meant there was about another 2000' of pure down to go...bring it on.
After ripping down steep, slabby, twisty, Okanagan rock, we came upon this viewpoint of Skaha Lake...the lake on the other side of Penticton. This cliff edge looks way scarier in real life than in the picture. Here Travis Krochinsky (a local ripper who came for the pain) gets as close to the edge as he'd like.
Ryan Berrecloth takes it a little closer. Since we lost the light for photos it was high speed, loose, gnarly, steep, exposed ripping all the way down to Skaha Lake. It took about five minutes to get down to the lake from this high point, if that's any indication of how fun it was.
Just made it out in time for darkness, and a 5km road ride back to the other shuttle vehicle. After checking the stats on Smoke's GPS, the final tally was 30km's of riding with 2000' of climbing and 6300' of down. Our minds didn't feel it was that big of a ride because of all the stops and climbs, but our bodies sure did. Off to sleep back at Smoke's pad with beers and Black Widows.
Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow!
-Margus
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