NSMB Team Trip Chronicles
Sun Peaks and Silver Star
Words by Dan Gronross. Photos by Dan Barham.
This is the retelling of the events on the Team NSMB trip 2008, outlining what can be done on a trip from Vancouver with three days and traveling 1,135 km. Names and places have not been altered and the events listed herein are as accurate as can be remembered.
For some the arrival time was early. For others it was even earlier and for Eamonn it was arriving fashionably late. As to why he was late you ask? “I was banking on someone being later than me!” Despite the milling around and the high fives, by 8:00 am the NSMB TEAM was on its way for a weekend of riding the best of what BC has to offer, in three days.
Loading the Team Truck with all that is needed packed away in Dakine Luggage.
Yota the Team Truck contained Dylan Dunkerton, Curtis Robinson, Dan Barham and Dan Gronross. Cam’s Toyota Highlander Hybrid was rolling with Mr. Cam McRae, Mike Wallace, Pete Roggeman, Jerry Willows and the shirted Eamonn Duignan. Mike Kinrade’s burly truck contained Mike, Ian Nelson and Mitch Chubey. 'T-Bone' Trevor Hansen aka the Team Capitan was meeting us in Kamloops with his Toyota: Goldmember.
Mitch Chubey and Jerry Willows survey the bikes in Merritt, making sure everything is accounted for.
After the journey up the Coquihalla Highway the first rendezvous location was in Merritt. This was a great location to get lunch and touch base about the first stop on this three day tour, Greenstone Mountain just south of Kamloops. No chairlifts there and the shuttle up is a painstakingly long 45 minutes for those with less than comfortable seating. I am too not sure why they signed up to take a motley crew of 12 riders down a dusty single track-littered mountain, but our guides for the day were Kamloops locals Warren Todd and Jeff Sykes. Huge props for taking us there and showing us Greenstone.
Even the cows were stoked to see us. Be sure when ripping down Greenstone that you steer away from the cow pies.
Despite a rather slow start back at the house in Kamloops, which could probably have been chalked up to sitting in a truck for a few hours, the boys were ready to go once they arrived at the top of the mountain. The trailhead was so new that the only sign indicating that a trail was there was the fact that the grass was a wee bit trampled from the handful of bikes that had ridden there before.
Mitch Chubey rolls a huge rock. What you can’t see is the sharp left at the bottom of the rock, followed by a tight right and finally down a long wooden ladder. Mitch made it look oh-so-easy.
Two minutes after traversing the grassy slope, the first feature, a 5 foot rock roll into a dry loam-laden valley, gave a fine taste of what Greenstone had to offer. When you are told how dry it is in Kamloops, you have no idea just how dry until you get there and feel it for yourself. On top of the immense heat were the thousands of mosquitoes and black flies buzzing around your head, looking for a snack. The sure-fire best way to keep the bugs away? Ride fast, and don’t stop.
Cam McRae navigates the most technical section of the trail, the legendary bike drop!
Riding fast with 12 guys is a challenge to say the least. You get to a section of trail with something interesting on it and they all want to stop and have a go at it. Greenstone Mountain is littered with interesting features around every corner. From steep rock rolls to wide dusty corners, wooden wall rides to skinnies that seem to go on forever, Greenstone delivers on the riding goods.
Dylan Dunkerton lays it flat on the wall ride.
After the ride from the top, some of the group took to the trucks and made for the very long retrieval of the vehicles. The young guns and Mike Kinrade rode off to session a wall ride and get some pictures with Dan Barham. In keeping with the “Un-Timely” nature of this trip, the long return of the guys from shooting at the wall ride allowed the others to get reacquainted with each other and enjoy the Kamloops heat with a cold beverage.
Cam explaining to a captivated crowd, just how much “This is mountain biking”
After what seemed like forever the guys arrived with various stories of why they were late, half of which probably weren’t true, the same chord kept resurfacing. Hunger! They had been on the road for most of the day and the only food was back at 12ish in Merritt or whatever bit of food they picked up at the rest stop on the side of the highway.
Denny’s has been a long-time sponsor for the NSMB Team, providing fast, friendly service with great food for the guys to eat wherever their bikes take them.
Enter Denny’s restaurant in Kamloops! Or should I say… Enter Team NSMB into Denny’s. I am sure that the good folks of the Denny’s were expecting a quiet Kamloops night, but instead they got a load of tired and hungry mountain bikers looking to eat. Oh, and eat they did! With the help of T-Bone and his magical ways with the Denny’s bucks, we all got a great meal off the menu, and a delicious dessert of turtle cheesecake.
T-Bone illustrates just how much money the Team had to spend. I sure hope there was food left after we finished.
With full-on food comas compounded with the tiredness of riding all day, the Team loaded back into the trucks for one last haul to Sun Peaks.
Left to right, Curtis Robinson, Ian Nelson and Jerry Willows marvel at the map, deciding which trail they are going to ride.
Sun Peaks is one of the oldest Bike Parks in BC. They offer 37 trails with over 70 kms of technical mountain bike park goodness for the Team to ride. The Team never disappointed, the guys rolled out of bed, or in the case of Mitch Chubey off the balcony, loaded up with some food and got right on the bikes. The hot Kamloops sun didn’t let up as the morning rolled on. Insanity 1, Honey Drop, Arm Pump and Route 66 were easily the favourite runs of the day. Sun Peaks offers the widest range of trails, from super techie to downright fast and flowy.
Ian Nelson rails the trail beside one of the many creeks through the park.
Unfortunately for a small number the day was cut short as we had to be at Silver Star for dinner in and around 7 o’clock--back into the trucks. Dylan, Curtis, Mitch, Ian, Mike all went on the hour and half trek back through Kamloops and east to Vernon to Silver Star.
Great food and beverage provided by The Club Saloon.
We arrived in Silver Star at 7:05 pm to a hero’s dinner. We were bunking at the Lord Aberdeen Hotel with dinner and refreshments provided by The Club Saloon. Service was fantastic and the food was top notch. Dylan, Curtis and Mike even got to watch themselves in a movie as the bar was playing Kranked 7 “The Cackle Factor”. A few signatures and a bunch of vicious games of foosball later, the guys were ready to hit the sack.
The calm before the storm, Curtis and Mike battle it out at the foosball table.
Silver Star is the antithesis of Sun Peaks in every sense of the word. For what Sun Peaks has in technical rooty, steep goodness, Silver delivers a full dose of super fast, bermy goodness. Laps of Rock Star, Superstar, World Cup and finally ending the day with a few laps of Pipedream, left the guys wanting more.
Curtis, making it look easy riding Pipedream.
Unfortunately with the need to get a few “Coasties” home in time for the ferry, half the Team had to call it early and load the truck up for the long trip back down the Coquihalla Highway. The ride back to the city was far quieter than the trip up. The laptop was out and the guys were going over the pictures from the weekend, reliving the great moments and thinking about the next adventure.
If only everyday could end this way. Curtis coasting through a trail at the base of Greenstone Mountain.
