Rossland: Canada's home of mountain biking?

Leaving Kelowna on the Sunday of a long weekend we were unsure of where we were going to find a place to park the RV that night. We drove SE through Grand Forks and contemplated camping at Christina Lake but decided it was too popular to bother trying to find a spot. Onwards and up a long way we pulled into a very busy Nancy Greene Lake Park with the Canadians making the most of the hot weather. Luckily there was a vacant camp spot for the night. We

No fun police here

spent the rest of the day swimming and building a sand castles. Before leaving the next morning Rob and Symi went to find a rope swing that was quite big. After a few swings each it was time to head towards Rossland. On the way we stopped off for a quick out and back ride on the Larch Ridge Trail. The trail was blue rated but quite technical in places, this would be easily a black rating in Bend. Symi and Fiona did a great job of negotiating the many rocky sections. At the end of Larch Ridge I descended the flowing 3km long Monticola Trail, great fun until the long and hot climb back to the RV.

Arriving in Rossland we pulled into the Lions Memorial Campground, a short walk from town, next to singletrack (Drakes) and only $20 a night for a full hook up. There was time for a quick ride up and back on the Drakes trail, a great link to rides south of town but not without some decent

Aussie, Symi and Briana

altitude change. That evening we met a family from Rocky Mountain House in Ontario. Ed the Dad had come to ride the 7 Summits so we arranged to ride together. Luckily for Symi he had a ten year old daughter.  Not that you would know by looking at her, she was a good head taller than Symi.

Next day was a ride south of town with Ed, trying to get the legs working again with some serious climbing, it had been about a month since I had done any. Luckily the fitness seemed ok. That afternoon it was off to Revolution Cycles,

Favourite new rear tyre, at least for five rides
until another tubeless puncture

say hello to Jared who I had met in Silver Star and buy another rear tyre. The Rossland locals use nothing but Maxxis DHF or DHR, so a new DHR it was. There were many copies of the movie Lifecycles in the shop, obvious when you realise that the movie was filmed around Rossland and used footage of the bike shop. I was also informed it is the best MTB movie of all time, no bias here of course.

Waking early the next day (Wednesday) Ed’s wife shuttled us to the beginning of the 7 Summits Trail, a renowned epic 30km alpine singletrack adventure. The trail starts with nice flow but very soon there is a 650m climb. The reward comes with amazing views and ground thick with wildflowers. The

first real descent is epic, flowing downhill gradually for 400m. Following this was three moderate climbs and descents. Finally at Record ridge the trail turns down for 10kms to the end of the 7 Summits. Luckily that’s not the end, it’s another 5.5km, 500m descent of the Dewdney Trail. It was fast and open in places. We shot out at the end to Ed’s pickup waiting with cold beer. Thanks to Fiona and Lisa for dropping the car off.

Thursday in Rossland is men's shuttle night, I can’t say no to not peddling up hills. It was off to the shop at 5.30pm, chat to a few locals and jump on the shuttle. The ride was a double Dewdney, backside and frontside. First was backside Dewdney, this goes down some fast and long singletrack in some remote forest, it would be a huge pedal back up

Bottom of Dewdney backside

without the shuttle. Luckily the shuttle bus was waiting at the bottom. Next was Dewdney frontside, this time with energy and fresh hands. Quickly back at the trailhead it was time for some cold beers. Then the tradition is pub and food with bikes parked inside the front door. What a great night. Chatting to people I only got to hear of all the places I didn't ride in BC and trails I must ride in Rossland. Eventually it was ride home in the dark watching for bears, one had wandered through the camp the previous evening.

Top of Tamarind Trail, Rossland in distance

 

The last two days in Rossland was spent riding some more technically challenging trails. First was the double black Whisky, there was plenty of stopping and checking out the many steep technical rock features. At the bottom I promptly turned back up the hill to ride it again, this time not having to stop, awesome. I also had to ride the interestingly named Super Megadeath (SMD) as I had been repeatedly told this was the ride to do. Again it's up the big climb south of town, then onto SMD. You know you are in the right place when you hit the Bob Marley sign. It's worth the effort, classic descending. Unfortunately I jumped a rock drop straight onto a sharp rock - another rear tyre with a sizable hole. Time to rethink rear tyres. The trails exits 10 km from town. It's either up the road or back over a pass on Doukhobor Draw. I choose the later and realised this is where the name comes from, ouch. It was time to head back to the USA, so many trails unridden....

Top of SMD, it's BC!

Silver Star and Kelowna

The day after the major thunderstorm in Kamloops we eventually left mid-afternoon to drive to Silver Star, another mountain bike resort with chairlift access. The rain continued but was quite light. We arrived at Vernon and started the slow (40-50kph) 20km drive up (all) to Silver Star, Simone wondered if we would end up in the clouds. Yes we would, about half way up. We arrived about 6.30pm and with poor visibility (50m) and poor sign posting to the campground. After a few wrong turns we found the campground, promptly plugged into the power and put the heater on. 

Walking with Silver Star in the distance

Next morning was much brighter. We were camped right next to the village and at lift opening Rob promptly set off to ride.

The Kettle Valley Rail Trail

My bike in the middle

Front seat at last

When we were in Kelowna we borrowed Hayley and Mark’s bright red ute and we drove up to the Kettle Valley Trail, it was good to sit in the front. It was easy to put the bikes on the ute because they sat in the back. My bike is the middle one between mum and dad’s bikes.

Glaciers, lakes and rainstorms

We left Whistler on a Saturday morning hoping that it would not be too difficult to find a campsite on a weekend in the middle of summer. We had no specific destination so wound our way through Pemberton which was not an option as it was hosting a music festival. We almost feel we can say we went (briefly) as it was right next to the road and being high up in the RV we could see as well as hear the music.

Whistler – the other story!

Canada - land of lakes

We last posted as we were about to leave the USA and head into Canada (with a quick stop at camping world to buy some more levelling blocks for the RV as some of ours were broken). Getting into Canada proved a very stress-free process. We were unsure about what foods we could take across the border so decided to eat up what we had in the last couple of weeks in the USA.

Whistler: Mountain Bike Mecca

Symi came for three runs. The bottom of the chairlift, notice the jumps
in the background that are part of the Crankworks madness

 

Top of the World. Awesome scenery, dubious trail in many places

What can you say about Whistler that hasn’t been already? It has the most famous lift accessed trail in the world (A line) and the most ridden trail in the world (Crank it up, runs into Heart of Darkness).

Port Townsend – One of the coolest small towns in America?

Harbor Port Townsend. RV over back of building

Port Townsend was recommended to us by a volunteer ranger we met on our overnight hike. She told us it was a lovely Victorian Port worth spending a night in. We took her advice and were glad we did. Arriving mid-afternoon – badly in need of laundry facilities after 9 nights dry camping – we drove up without reservation to a marina in town which also had RV places. We had the choice of  a beach side spot or one $17 cheaper just behind it. We took the cheaper one gambling the front one would remain empty giving us uninterrupted views – score –no one came! After completing the domestic chores of the washing, vacuuming the RV and showering we headed out to see the town of Port Townsend. 

Olympic National Park – a rain lover’s paradise

Heading further north into Oregon we had to make a decision on seeing either Olympic National Park or Mount Rainer.

After some reading and talking to other people we decided on Olympic. Before heading there we had a night in Portland. After crossing Portland from south to north and encountering what was pretty much the only real traffic congestion we have seen in months we settled into an RV Park then showered and cleaned up before heading out to dinner with Bruce Felix (a family friend of Fiona’s family for many years) and his wife Audrey. Also there was Jenna his daughter and her fiancé Mike. We had a fantastic evening with them, enjoying to company, the food and Bruce’s wine which was excellent. It was lovely to spend time with a family (and their lovely dog) and we are grateful for their hospitality.

Blackrock: Whistler Warm-up

Road gap after the Salad Tosser

Blackrock is one of North America’s premier freeride destinations. Go to Salem, turn west to a small town called Falls City. Here hokey and pokey combine. There are a number of shops in town but at 12:30 on a Monday afternoon, when Fiona and Symi had a wander around, only one was open. We went looking for bread – we had already dismissed the possibility of decent and were just concentrating on the bread part.

McKenzie River: Home of America’s favourite MTB trail! (and hot springs)

Blue Pool: It's cold and deep. You can cliff jump here if you want to freeze

McKenzie River is not far north of the Willamette River but is way more popular.  The drive from Bend was spectacular with open views of the Sisters Mountains, Mt Bachelor, Mt Washington and Mt Hood, all still covered in snow. After Sisters (a town) it was very quickly back to the lush green scenery. You are spoilt for choice for accommodation with cabins and campgrounds all along the river. Paradise Campground had been recommended to us but we couldn’t go past Belknap Springs with its two hot spring fed pools, Rob feeling the need to soak a tired body. Our campsite was opposite a large area of lawn, perfect for soccer and Frisbee, and the McKenzie River Trail (MRT) was 30 seconds ride away.

Bend: Named the best mountain bike town in the USA

Bend is only a 100 mile drive from Oakridge but a world away. It’s over the Cascade Mountains and on the Columbia plateau at 4000 ft elevation, hence classified as high desert. Due to this, the rainfall is much less than the west side of the Cascades. Bend has been one of the most successful towns in Oregon in the last 10 years and is a popular place to live, due to the low rainfall and many outdoor activities, there are snow sports very near town. The town itself looks prosperous with trendy shops and a micro-brewery for every day of the fortnight. The picturesque Deschutes River runs through town and has great rapids if that’s your thing. Unfortunately the camping here is limited to RV parks, the one we stayed in was between two major roads and relatively noisy compared with the solitude of Oakridge.

Deschute River Trail

Oakridge: Mountain Bike Mecca?

Meadow, top of Alpine

I had heard about the mountain biking in Oakridge from a number of sources, so it would be rude not to go for a look. It was an easy drive up the i5, where we discovered that it’s illegal to fill you own petrol in Oregon. After filling with gas, Simone wanted to put some music on and we continued our usual system of playing songs alphabetically, choose a song and off you go. Today she randomly started with The Angel’s, Am I Ever Going to See You Face Again (studio version!), that evening I read in the paper Doc Neeson had passed away!

Four Months in an RV in the USA

So, how are we going after four months of RV living? Very well thank you. Buying and registering the RV was achieved in a couple of weeks - we will write more detail about this in a post later on.

High Desert Museum

Today the whole school (me) went on an excursion to the High Desert Museum. I was extremely excited to go to the museum because there were live animals like owls, otters and fish. After we ate our delicious breakfast of tomato with avocados on olive bread, we made our way to the museum.

Porcupine

The first show we attended was the desert dwellers show about animals. It was fascinating. They showed us three real live animals and told us all about them. The first one was a skunk and they explained how they spray their predators with a terrible smelling liquid to scare them away. Next up was the badger, they showed an excellent demonstration of how badgers digs, it was cool. Lastly there was the porcupine, I was stunned to discover that porcupines ate and climbed trees!!!!

Northern California Redwoods

Replicas of Indian houses at Patrick's Point

The redwoods on the California coast are taller than their inland cousins but with a smaller diameter. The northern Californian coast is a confusion of National and State Parks that contain 45% of the remaining coastal redwoods, 39 000 acres compared with the more than 2 million that existed in 1850. Summer brings the fog which supplies half the water supply that allows the coastal redwoods to survive, a tall redwood requires 500 gallons of water per day!

King Range: The lost coast

We heard about the King Range National Conservation Area and Tolken Bike Park from Canadian friends. It's on the Lost Coast near Shelter Cove. The coast here is the most isolated in mainland USA. Tolken sits 2000ft above the ocean and only 2 miles away, the hills are steep. We drove up the US101 from San Francisco and at Garberville turned towards the coast for the 26 miles to the campground. This was one slow road in an RV, near the turn into Tolken the road was so steep we wondered if the RV would make it up. At one point the speed was below 10mph. We finally turned into King Peak Rd which was dirt, narrow and again very steep in sections. Tolken campground only has limited spaces available, the thought of there not being a spare camp space was not a happy one at this time. Luckily the campground had cleared out after the Memorial Day long weekend, relief!

San Francisco

After spending a good deal of the day driving across California from Yosemite we reached San Francisco Bay. Crossing the San Francisco-San Rafael Bridge into Marin County (where mountain biking began) we passed the San Quentin prison. We had booked a place in an RV Park in Greenbrae as it evidently had easy access to a ferry to San Francisco.

Golden Gate Bridge with just a touch of fog.

Once we had booked in our minds turned to the necessary tasks to complete before beginning exploring the city. For Fiona this was the washing, for Rob (who admittedly had been driving all day) it was mountain biking. For those of you who notice details the last time Rob did any “proper” mountain biking was back in Colorado and withdrawal symptoms were well and truly set in.

Riding the ferry to the big smoke

Next morning we were up and on the ferry to San Francisco (our first city in three months). The ferry ride was great with views of Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and the city itself. Arriving at the ferry terminal we were greeted with a huge farmers market. 

Lots of lovely food.

We spent a lovely time wandering around tasting amazing stone fruit, cheeses, bread etc. One man was giving out samples of sun dried fruit. It tasted so much better than any dried fruit we have tasted before. Luckily we had a backpack with us so were able to stock up on goodies. We had allocated 2 days to the city so decided to spend our first day on foot.

We had a great time touring around the harbor area with the highlight for Symi being the sea lions which lounge around on the jetties. We did take the opportunity of a quick coffee in the sunshine as well.

Sea Lions at pier 39

Not RV friendly

Then it was on to tackle climbing some of the city’s steep hills. We of course visited the most crooked street in the world. Glad we did not bring the RV as it would have found the corners challenging.

By this time it was late in the afternoon and well past lunch time. China town was just around the corner. It is huge. We found a dim sum place and settled in for lunch. We spent a bit more time wandering around looking at houses, cable cars and trams and then decided to call it a day and take the ferry back.

Later in the evening we decided on a picnic dinner of local buys (evidently this makes us locivores!). Fortunately we had bought some local county wine so we were able to accompany our picnic with a glass of red.

Next day we decided to bus in over the Golden Gate Bridge. We were lucky with the weather on our stay as there was only fog over the bridge in the afternoon of our second day. That said, the temperatures in the city were decidedly cooler than if you went inland a little. Today was to be the day of the cable car. We purchased our day passes and were confronted with an hour long line to board a cable car.

We waited about 10 mins and decided that there must be shorter cues elsewhere. We hopped on a bus and rode around for a bit then found a queue of only a few people on the cable car that crosses the financial district. We waited about 10 minutes and then got an outside seat where Symi and Rob were able to stand out on the step. Symi was well pleased about this. Hitting the bottom of the financial district we decided to try out the rail system and head over to Castro district for lunch. We got off the train and saw a retro looking diner which looked good.

Lunch was good and made more enjoyable by the very gay owner who went out of his way to look after and entertain us.

Staying on theme we then headed up for a walk through Haight-Ashbury and down to the golden gate park.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on public transport. We rode on a great retro tram - San Francisco seems to obtain from other cities – the one we were on was from Chicago. We followed this up with more cable car rides and then a ferry ride back home. 

The verdict? We loved San Francisco our first city in over three months but don’t think we could spend long periods of time doing city tourism on this trip. Strangely a day walking around a city is more tiring in many ways than a 20k walk. The other reason would be that we could never afford it. We still have a few cities on our to do list but will definitely be spending the majority of our time exploring the natural wonders of this country (+ the man made single track). 

Yosemite National Park SAR Presentation

When we were at Yosemite National Park we went to a SAR presentation at the Yosemite Theatre. SAR means Search and Rescue. The talk was very interesting with a few scary stories.

The man talked about swift water and how dangerous it is. People drown every year and it is the most common cause of death. Stay out of swift water.

The scariest thing he talked about is how they have to rescue rock climbers off the cliffs from their injuries. They got them out with stretchers and lifted them in to helicopters. It was scary.

When I got back I made a Lego stretcher for all my toys. Now I play rescue games with all my toys. Some of the stories scared me but I learnt lots.

Rattle Snake in Kings Canyon

Yesterday my family went on a long hike on the Hotel Lewis Trails. It was eight miles in the Kings Canyon.

Lookout at the top.

We all walked up to the trail head. From there the trail was very steep and hard. I felt very puffed, hot and tired. We could see snow on the other side of the valley and thought it would be nice to roll around in it. When we started there was a nice soft flowing creek. Daddy almost stepped on a Rattle Snake. Every twenty minutes I got some cold Gatorade.

After a long uphill we got to the lookout and it was a stunning view. We could see the roaring river. We got up to a really high elevation and we could see the camp.

Coming down was the easy bit. We walked through a meadow which was lovely. We got tot he end of the walk and we were all glad.

Back at the campsite

My visit to an American School

After Easter I went to school with Tanner – a friend I made in Durango. They call it an elementary school not a primary school. The teacher’s name was Mrs McCue and she was lovely. I had already met another girl from the class, her name was Aspen. Aspen was born in Australia but now she lives in Durango, in Colorado.

Emma, Symi and Tanner all ready for school - complete with PBJ Sandwiches!

Tanner’s class had been learning about rocks. While I was there they told me what all the rocks were. They were metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous. The teacher gave colourful book to write down all the different type of rocks. At the end of the day I got to keep the book and take it home. Now I am using it for my schoolwork.

Some things that were different were that the kids did not have any uniforms. I wish we did not have to wear uniforms in Australia. At least I don’t have a wear a uniform in RV school. Sometimes I do school in my pyjamas. Another thing that is different is that all the classrooms are inside so the classroom door goes into a corridor. I found it a bit claustrophobic. The last think I thought was different was that the recess and lunch seemed very short.

I really liked spending time with lots of kids and everyone was kind. I miss all my friends so I was happy to spend time with lots of kids. I would like to thank Tanner and his Mum and Mrs McCue for arranging for me to come to the classroom.

Yosemite: Why would you welcome bad weather?

The biggest issue with one of America's most popular National Parks is the crowds and reservation only campground. You have to book five months in advance and when released campsites sell out in minutes. Having missed that boat it was plan B, turn up early to the campground reservation office and hope for a cancellation. The first attempt started just south of Yosemite, up at 6am (definitely this is not typical!) and we drove 1 hour to Wawona in time for the 7.30am opening of the office. Yes

Grizzly Giant

there was one night only available the Ranger apologised, we were very thankful. It was then a couple of hours of school work before going to Mariposa Grove on the shuttle bus to visit more Giant Sequoia's. We did a small walk as legs were still recovering from Kings Canyon but managed to take in some more giant Sequoia's including the Bachelor and Three Graves and the Grizzly Giant. Grizzly Giant is more than 1800 years old and stands only 209ft but has a base of 96ft circumference and 29ft diameter. In the photo the branch on the right that bends up has a diameter of 6ft!
 That afternoon we relaxed at another stunning campsite next to a river. However we were in the trees and there was none of the stunning granite dominated scenery that makes Yosemite famous. Our aim the next day was wake and be at the valley reservation office very early. There was rain forecast that night and the next two days, in our thinking improving the odds of fair weather campers cancelling. That night was wet with a large thunderstorm coming over us during the night!

Tunnel View, fresh snow on the hills

Setting off before 6am the next morning we drove the one hour to the valley. The roads were quiet and wet, from Wawona it climbed steadily to over 6500ft. We noticed what we thought was hail on the ground that gradually become more dense, yes that would be fresh snow! It did feel cold the evening before. The road enters the valley through a tunnel. We stopped for a quick view and photo of the cloud choked Yosemite Valley, it was bitterly cold. Then it was straight to the reservation office where we arrived first in line, just. Could we have three nights? We were in luck, no problem :). Not staying in the valley would have involved an hour drive to get to the nearest accommodation. Celebrating we caught the shuttle bus to the Yosemite Lodge for unfortunately an ordinary breakfast before walking to explore the village via the lower Yosemite falls. That afternoon Fiona and Symi attended a monotone bear talk while Rob explored the valley's 12 mile bike network. That night we went to a Search and Rescue talk at the village. We learnt of some careless ways to die at Yosemite, saw some great rescues of climbers via helicopter and came away with a new respect of white water, drowning being the most common way to die here. Basically falling into the white water is equivalent to falling off a cliff! Because we are here in spring the rivers are moving awesome amounts of water from the snow melt.

Yep it's busy, the 'death' stairs

The next day the weather improved but the cloud was still obscuring the higher granite and the famous Half Dome remained hidden. We set off on the parks most popular walks, the mist trail. It was a slow walk up to Vernal Falls and after the SAR talk the previous night we had a new respect

Vernal Falls

for some of the trail dangers. There is one point (see photo) were three people have died, they get bumped off the trail, from there is a very steep slope to the white water river. Knowing this makes some people's actions seem very casual! After Vernal Falls the crowd thinned by 95% and it was upward to the top of Nevada Fall completing a 1900ft climb (and 8.5miles round trip), the biggest climb yet this year. We descended the quieter John Muir trail. Of course the trail is popular for a reason. The waterfalls and views were stunning. Rob and Symi finished the day with a bike ride around the valley hoping to spot a bear. Just before sunset is a great time of day, the crowds have gone home or are back in camp.

Nevada Falls

Yosemite Falls

Our last day in Yosemite was clear and sunny, finally giving us the full view of the valley! It was another walk and the only way is up here. 1000ft and 58 switchbacks later we all arrived at the base

Yosemite Point, Half Dome top left

of the upper Yosemite Falls. Rob continued up another 2000ft to the top of the falls and then Yosemite point. It was of course another amazing walk, this time with the complete view of the valley. The view of Half Dome highlighted a very successful Yosemite trip. That evening we found the energy for another valley bike ride, again enjoying the solitude that evening brings.

Yosemite Point, observing climbers on top of Stolen Arrow

Meadow late in the day