Saturday, August 29, 2009

Interlude: Dual sporting north of Squamish

I'll get back to the ride report soon, but we went and had a great day of riding today.

I posted a ride on dualsportbc I had 2 responses, both from guys who I'd ridden with before and wanted to ride with again (Bill and Simon). Both are great riders and we have the same attitude toward what a good ride (and good riders) look like.

Unfortunately there was a crash on the Sea to Sky and traffic was back up a ways. But we managed to 'scoot around' some cars and not get tickets :)

By 10.30 we made Squamish and were gassed and ready to go.

First up to Brohm ridge. The trail was rough and there were tons of rock gardens. Tough going as much of the rock was loose.

But there were some nice views along the way




Simon says "Hondas work great"


Bill busy fixing a shifter that stopped working (loose screw :) )


We got to the Chalet with no other problems (except for the damn loose rock, lots of 'tense' moments for me). I wasn't really in the grove yet.


Great setting






We left the lodge to go explore and see if we could make it all the way up to the actual ridge. The rocks got nasty and ugly. Bill stalled and I didn't see a safe way past. Neither of us managed to get the bikes going while on them. So we tried to push and then jump back on.

This is what my attempt looked like:


I guess the KLR got sleepy.

Also, this is where I need to insert the obligatory "it was much steeper than it looks".

I got some help from Simon to pick the KLR up and went back down. Bill and Simon went back after though and did a bunch of exploring.


I went back to the lodge and enjoyed the views




When the guys came back it was obvious that they had lots of fun


On the way down we stopped at this structure, I'd love to know what it used to be


At the bottom we actually rode some single track (no photos, I was busy keeping the KLR upright). Bills KTM decided to blow a gasket.


We went back to Squamish after a failed attempt to get through to some gravel at Alice Lake (damn wardens :) ).

After a quick snack we managed to find some more gravel and were in amongst a bunch mountain bikers. People were friendly and didn't seem to mind us riding there. After some more single track we found the trail we were looking for. It lead to this eventually:


Another different look at the mountains we saw from the skilodge, now further away of course.


A different view into Squamish


They are building some kind of tower


This was the best trail of the day. We reversed our route and went back into Squamish for some refreshments. Then back to Vancouver.

Except that Bill disappeared and when I went back to look for him, his bike had gotten sick and puked all over the pavement.


Back into Squamish I went to get some extra oil and then we nursed it home.

Made it home by 7 pm, dirty, tired and happy :)


A good day.

Bjorn

2 comments:

al (sue and al) said...

hi Bjorn

you have a nice blog set up here and i have enjoyed the combination of the photos and text.
thanks for sharing
with your skill i am surprised you never made it up that rocky section
i guess its that hill and rocks that got you.
i wasn't able to make the ride that day with other things happening :(
Al

Unknown said...

Nice report.

The structure you reference, as well as the lodge now used by the snowmobile club, were leftover from a failed attempt to create a ski resort on Brohm Ridge. The developers got to the point of beginning to build, trails all cleared, and some of the lift towers in, when their investors backed out.