So the boys arrived at my house at the scheduled time and the plan was to head down to ride in Victoria. However, it was a super beautiful day: warm and overcast. Since the new trail I’d been working on was literally right above my house, I suggested we just get up there and start riding, and skip the travel time to Victoria. Dre and I agreed that it would’ve been great to showcase some of the trails in Victoria that he’d spent so much time riding, but at the same time, he rode in the Cowichan Valley too so we might as well get to it. The true soul and highlight of mountain biking on Vancouver Island is the fact that you can pretty much ride every day of the year. It’s not uncommon to have temperatures in the double digits in January for god’s sake. That’s what makes Victoria such an ideal training ground for Canada’s top cyclists. I was stoked to show the guys the new trail on Maple Mountain, which was a fresh effort put together by a Society I helped start, called the Cowichan Trail Stewards. Dre has watched all these riding towns on the coast transform into full on destinations with races, events, clubs, tons of new trails and riders. I was excited to show him what we had started on Maple Mountain.