Zest Tour 2011

Hinton Races - Baseline - G8 - Moonrakers - Mt.7 - Keystone Standard Basin - Mt. Macpherson - Sale Mt. - Frisby Ridge - Myra Belleview - Mt. Mackenzie - Canmore Nordic Centre

Full entry on http://www.knightisright.blogspot.com/

It all started out in Hinton. All week, I was sitting in my office desk stoked about the trails I would get to ride in the race after seeing Nathan Froehler's video. I was also pumped for the introduction of timed downhill sections so that I could see how I stack up against the best riders. A feature of only a handfull of expensive full on stage races brought to the grassroots Alberta Cup. It was a shame that more people did not share my enthusiasm.

So after riding the best berms that I have ever ridden and a weekend of crushing some hills, it was time to start heading south with my brother. Baseline Mountain was the first destination. Beta on the area is extremely scarce and a locked gate as well as being smack in the middle of nowhere deters many riders. Fortunately a mechanic at Hardcore Bikes had a hand drawn map for me, and it made finding the trails a whole lot easier.

The trails at Baseline are steep, but they soon give way to flowy and loamy goodness.


We climbed up for 3 laps and will hopefully return again, although there are rumours that some of the trails will be logged.

The next day, we had planned on riding at Moose Mountain, but heavy rain in Canmore deterred us from making the drive. Instead we took advantage of a short weather window and rode the G8 trails which were surprisingly fun, and proved to be a good consolation prize.

The rain continued into the next day where we were planning on riding the Moonraker trails in Golden. The rain must have started shortly before we arrived in Golden because the trails were not soaked. 3hrs later, we were muddy and drenched, but enjoyed the smooth trails, including the new CBT Mainline Trail. Fortunately, the rain stopped overnight as we were planning on riding Mount 7 the next day. As there was only two of us and we only had one vehicle, we decided to climb up the 14km logging road to the paraglider launch. My Marin Attack Trail managed the climb without too much fuss (I am an Elite cross country racer after all) and Bill powered up the climb on his Santa Cruz Driver 8, and he even declined a shuttle ride 4km from the top!


We opted out of the Deaddog, instead choosing a flowy descent on the other side of the launch platform. This steep and flowy trail eventually took us to the main downhill trail, but we traversed back to the 10KM trailhead. The roots were still a little wet, and Bill, the desert dog, struggled a little bit instead of dropping me like he usually does. The trail got tackier lower down and we were soon ripping some awesome hero dirt.


The snake hill section at the bottom was extremely smooth and it was easy to get up to speed. After a short break, we set out to explore the Mountain Shadows network near the base of Mount 7. Deep into the network, it resembled a bowl of spaghetti, but we were soon able to find a fun line that would take us back to snake hill. It was similar to the Rock Garden trail at Kicking Horse, except in the middle of the forest! Ladders onto and off of huge boulders. Unfortunately there are apparently some land issues with this network as it lies on a woodlot. The woodlot owner is very unhappy with people cutting down trees on his woodlot. This was clearly evident as many of the bridges had been destroyed with a chainsaw, and there was lots of "strategically placed deadfall".

The next stop on the trip was Revelstoke. It rained on us at the forestry site campground overnight, but we were determined to ride the uber classic Keystone-Standard Basin trail. It was chilly at the trailhead after the long drive, and we soon got going on the damp trail. Higher up, the trail was covered in fresh moist snow, which hindered our progress. About halfway to the cabin, we turned back until we encountered another group who convinced us to continue to the cabin. I lead the rest of the way to the cabin, riding through 1 or 2 inches of snow in some sections.


After a very, very long warmup at the cabin with a fire (thanks to the other group for being smart enough to bring a lighter!), we headed back. It was way easier going back and we were crushing the trail super hard, while a few other groups were still filtering towards the cabin. The final descent back to the car was super tacky but was over all too quickly.


This ride was mentally draining as it was cold and wet, but we still had lots of energy left and were pumped that the dirt was starting to tack up. So we quickly headed back to camp, grubbed up and headed to the Macpherson trails for a quick evening rip while there was still daylight. The trail kiosk had suggested directions of travel for all of the trails in the network and that made it much easier to piece together a quick loop. I also managed to run into someone I knew from skimountaineering racing, who was doing some trail running. She suggested a slightly different loop, but I decided to stick to my guns and it turned out to be an AWESOME ride! TNT is super flowy, but doesn't have that BMX track look and blends in nicely with the landscape. Berm Donor to Super Happy Fun Trail to Tantrum back to the parking lot served up some technical and steeps to balance the forces.

After a solid sleep under a clear sky in the hammocks, we set out for the next day's adventure: A pedal up to the top of Sale mountain to rip the Martha Creek descent. Although slightly longer and with more vert than the Mt. 7 road, I had my lighter wheels, and Bill was on his Ibis. We got to the top just as some armoured up shuttlers also arrived and let them go first because 8" dh bikes are faster than 6" and 5.7" bikes. The descent was super rocky up top, the kinds of rocks that eat tire sidewalls and rims for breakfast, but fortunately, we survived unscathed. We kept catching the other group as they would stop for long periods of time at each road crossing. We wanted to keep going as we were having too much fun, but didn't want to make them have to pass us again and again, so we waited. It got annoying by the bottom. Questionable trail etiquette.


After making it to the bottom, we then headed up to Frisby ridge to rip an awesome new trail. The road was steep and the parking lot was packed! Holy Shit! We got going, and most people were already on their way down, but by that weird IMBA rule, we got to keep climbing uninterrupted, totally unnecessary! I wasn't sure what to think of such a buff trail. Is this the future of mountain biking? Will new steep and technical trails still be built? Well on the way down, I didn't have to worry because the flowy and railable corners put a smile on my face! Back at the vehicle, Bill was pretty spent, so he drove the vehicle down while I got to rip the DH. Another super fun trail, possibly the funnest of the trip with a good combination of steeps and flow. "Sorry Bill, you missed a good one!"

Now we were off to Kelowna for the next day of riding! The heat was almost unbearable, but I had "acclimatized" by the time we got to the top. Unfortunately, the rear axle in my Sun Ringle Jumping Flea hub decided to snap in half (as I would find out at the bottom), possibly related to the taper in my Maxle Lite, so my freehub was not working too great, and I eventually had to go chainless as the chain slack was super annoying. The Vapour descent was incredibly fun, dusty, with lots of steep rock sections through some cool burnt forest.


I was a little bummed that I broke my hub (the hub on my other wheel needed some loving as well). But I got to take Bill's Ibis on my way back after I dropped him off. I just had to return to Revelstoke for more riding the next day! This time, I went for a short ride on the MacKenzie side, and I found an awesome trail, that skirted a fault line and had some fun technical and flowy sections.


Back in Canmore, I convinced myself to ride the next day


All in all, a super fun trip, each trail we rode was fun and not even rain, snow, or fatigue could stop us!

Summary: lots of vertical meters of ascent, lots of hours, lots of kms. I GPS'd it all, but there were a couple of times where I forgot to turn on the GPS after stopping for a while.

ALL vertical was earned, EXCEPT the Frisby DH from the Frisby ridge parking lot down to the Boulder parking lot for me (as Bill drove the vehicle down after we drove it up), and Bill missed out on a short ride back to the bottom of the Sale mountain road from Martha Creek Provincial park.

The bikes:
I rode a 2010 Marin Attack Trail 6.8 on all rides. This bike is awesome. I had 2 wheelsets, the stock one for rough stuff (Baseline, Mt. 7, I wish I had it for Sale. Mt) and a Stans Arch/Supercomp wheelset for smoother rides (the bike weighed 29.6lbs with the lighter wheelset).
Bill rode his Ibis Mojo on everything except Baseline and Mt 7 (aka where I used the stoke wheelset). I rode the Ibis on MacKenzie and in Canmore on the last day. He got a lot of questions about his X-Fusion fork (he loves it!)