7 Days, 7 Summits and More.

Approaching the 1st Summit

 Years in thought, months of collaboration, weeks of fine-tuning and 7 days to implement. The last summer singletrack adventure of 2011 is nothing but a memory. The ultimate goal was to cross the 7 Summits in Rossland and whatever happened in between was the cherry on top. North or south only Mother Nature would determine our direction of travel.

One day after escaping the big city the mission was accomplished. Conditions were perfect for the two of us willing to take up the challange. Endless blue skies and a touch of frost on the trail as we left from Nancy Green Summit led to amazing alpine vistas and great riding in perfect temps considering there were few places to hide should the sun burn too bright.

The last Pass

Next stop Nelson: Scott had never been to the Kootenays and this trip was as much about tourism as it was about the riding. A pleasant morning touring town an afternoon riding on the classic Paper Bag and an evening ale with a friend from town capped another good day.

Day 4: Travel and then shut out in Revelstoke. Conditions were less than inviting, drizzle all day long and we were informed that our goal, Frisby Ridge, had been getting a dusting of the white stuff of late and mother nature wasn’t likely to smile on us in the next 24hrs. However there was sunshine and optimism a couple of hours to the southwest in Vernon. 

Gravity riding at Silver Star’s Bike Park is the main attraction in Vernon while Ellison Provincial Park on the east side of Okanagan Lake offers a great variety of fast and challenging XC oriented trails amongst the ponderosas and wild grasses of the surrounding slopes. Thanks to the late and hot summer, powdery conditions were the order of the day.

Next on the hit list was the Larch Hills Traverse, a new collection of fabulous trails in between and amongst historic clear cuts above Shuswap and Mara Lakes linking the communities of Salmon Arm and Sciamous. With High temperatures and a late start Scott and I opted for a helping ride to the top of the Rubberhead trail system in North Canoe as our starting point. We were still blessed with 28km of spectacular views and flowing lines through groves of cedars and pine with one of the best descents ever to Sicamous to finish out the traverse.

Trail-side maintenance with a view

We had options on our last full day of the trip, both involved stopping in Merritt.

Option A: Ride the rolling grasslands of the Lundbom Recreation area, spend the night with an early morning ride from the info center before heading back to Vancouver.

The Grasslands of the Nicola Valley

Option B: Rolling grassland ride and then heading south for the comfort of home.

The only technical challenge is avoiding the cow patties

It wasn’t too hard a choice. The weather was definitely getting worse and thought of an early morning ride in potentially dodgy weather was a less than an inviting proposition.

Fortunately Merritt is in the middle of a fair sized rain shadow and we were welcomed with bright sunshine in the hole of a donut of doom and gloom and moisture. Such a contrast to the beginning of this great adventure, coming from the high alpine vistas of Kootenay-Boundary country to the grasslands and pine beetle ravaged forests of Nicola Valley.

Cowboy Country

7 days of travel, 5 great rides, 5 distinctly different locations of a great province to call home. Having been home for barely 24hrs we're already planning the next adventure.