Jim and Theresa crossing the first bridge

It started off fairly cool, but it didn't take long before we stopped to peel some layers.

Ian and Leanne on the early stages of the 13 km climb. Ug.

Roy, Leanne & Hussein cruising up the hill.

It didn't take long before we were looking down on the Panorama ski area, but we still had quite a few km's to go.

Ian and Jim checking out the view while waiting for the crew to regroup. It did rain for a while at this point but soon quit.

There were lots of water falls along the way.

Theresa making her way around the creek.

Hussein, Leanne and Mike weren't really walking. They had just stopped to check the view! Yeah, that's it.

Mike and Theresa. Climbing and more climbing.

Not only was the temperature dropping with the elevation, we were soon encountering more and more snow. It wasn't far beyond this point that the snow became too deep and we abandoned the trip. We still had the afternoon for another ride.

Ian & Jim

Theresa & Carol

The decision was made to head back down and here Roy is navigating his way through the snow.

Here the group is quickly having some lunch. It was a bit cold to sit around for too long and some of the group had already headed for the bottom.

It was a chilly descent down until we reached lower elevation. Here are some of the riders crossing a creek.

Hussein

Theresa and her BIG pancake sandwich courtesy of Roberta.

Here's everybody in some stage of readiness outside the hostel. Good: a cool grey sky.

Armed with maps and guide book descriptions we headed off for the trail head. This was an exploratory trip and there were a few moments of confusion as you'll see.

Here Mike is leading the gang up an old trail. It all started well.....

....until we came to the first split in the trail. Too many Chiefs and not enough Indians.

There was a little route finding to be done as well as some bush-wacking.

Some where along the way part of the group felt they had found a better route but the rest of us stuck to the herd mentality. We still managed to take a few wrong turns, well you can hardly call them wrong when you have no idea where you're going in the first place. We managed to have fun anyways.

Here the gang is regrouping by a corral. Going along with our herding instinct we seemed to be on the right track.

Here are Esther and Roberta on the home stretch

MOVIES: Doug and the gang heading down the trail and Roy leading some of the pack.

End of the trail. The sky looks threatening but we managed to get through the whole day with no rain. Not the most exciting of trails, but a fun day regardless. Some of the guys went for ride #2 of the day and rode UP to the top of the chair lift at Panorama and rode down the "Look Out!" trail. It was very excellant. Here's a map of the biking trails there.

TOBY CREEK CANYON     

Mon, July 1st, Canada Day       

Andy, Bob, Bryan, Carol, Donna, Joanne, Kevin, Kim, Lida, Roberta, Roy, Steve, Theresa

Here we are at the trail head of Toby Creek Canyon.

Roy is already enjoying the ride

It was a day of flats and repairs. Bob starts it off with a flat tire and Kim had two more. Brian claims he has a tube with eight patches on it. What a hero.

MOVIE: Riding Toby Trail

Can't beat the views on this trail.

Here Roy is riding a narrow section of trail. There are a few places where there is very little between you and the valley bottom.

Roberta climbing the ladder up to where

Kim is standing.

The yellow arrow is showing the old road leading up to where the trestle crossed the river. The road carries on through the trees on the other side.

          Kim    Roberta   Bob    Bryan

  Kevin     Roy    Lida  Steve  Andy

Andy and Kim riding the berm.

It doesn't look that difficult until you see what's on the other side. Or better said, what's not there.

MOVIE: The group at the view point. Teresa's hiding in the bush and Carol's taking the picture.

Looking down Toby Creek.

The final repair was Andy's rear derailleur. A screw had come undone and he lost his rear guide wheel. Five of us spent quite some time scouring the trail up and down only to have Andy find it right in the middle of the trail and not far from his bike. It could have been a long walk out.

Hey, how come he got the big piece?

It was a great ride with only a little rain half way through. By far the best ride of the weekend. Too bad for those who wimped-out.

Of course some people got wetter than others. While Steve was riding through the ONLY big puddle on the road, he stalled in the middle, clipped out on one side but fell to the other side. The puddle was big enough to soak Steve almost from head to toe.

REALLY sorry there is no picture of that performance.

TRAIL BITES

We had a few thrills and spills on the trails over the weekend.  Esther performed the first flying dismount when she and her bike headed in different directions. Her front wheel hit a log hidden in the tall grass and cranked her wheel around. Of course this happened during one of the high speed descents so her exit from her bike was done at great speed. Esther got a nasty arm bite but it didn't slow her down for long. Sorry, no photo of that one.

Then Roberta got a sunglass bite when she lodged her face on the ground. A stick jammed in her spokes, stopped her bike dead, but she kept going. The bruising is just coming out nicely to add to the swollen nose and crossed eyes.

Not to be outdone, Theresa performed an over the handlebar dismount while smoking down a steep slope with a root on it. She got a knee bite to add to her collection of bruises on her knees.

Kim. Well Kim was just being Kim. Those beautiful legs...

It bites hey Kim?