Ride Day 3, Second Day at Baldface

Posted by Charles Sun, 03 Aug 2008 22:31:00 GMT

The herd had been culled to 8, plus our guide Mike Kinrade. He labeled us the Shredders based on our survival, er performance, after yesterday’s ride. Two other Lodge guests got a smaller ride on the second day guided by our Host, Jeff, and the remaining four guests trucked off to Rossland for an XC epic. We Shredders pushed up from the Lodge again, but this time we stopped short of the Cherry Tops summit and dropped in on Cherry Popper, and the section of trail featured on the cover of Bike magazine some months back. This begins with several switchbacks built with hand set local stone.

We cut back into High Man again, and then repeated our Swamp Donkey and Shannon route from the day before. When we got back down to lake level, we shuttled back up for a group run on Newtsac, my favorite for the weekend. We had caught video highlights of Newtsac the night before over pints in the Lodge, and after being assured by our guides that none of the skinnies were narrower than his handlebar, the decision was made to incorporate this trail into the days loop. No one questioned how narrow the bars might be on Paul’s road bike, or his fixie, or whatever he has that runs a narrower bar than any mountain bike. Liquid courage from the night before, and a need to save face carried us through, and we ended up riding an amazing array of rock faces, elevated skinnies, and the occasional teeter totter.

This ended up being another 8 hour day, either on our bikes or in the shuttle vans. We got back up to the Lodge pretty wiped out, but had little else on our agenda other than showering, hitting the sauna, dinner, and polishing a few elbow spots on the bar. Some still had the energy for a Guitar Hero elimination tournament, and a plan was made for the next days rides.