The Prairie Boys Go To The Kootenays
Photos by: Matt Davis and Greg Rae
Click on the photos to enlarge.

Life in flatland Red Deer is pretty… well… FLAT! I just got back from a trip to the Trail, Nelson, Rossland area of BC (we stayed in Rossland) and it was fantastic (not flat at all!). We went purely for mountain biking. My friend Jeremy is working at the big smelter there, so my friend Greg and I drove out to check it out. We got there at 5am on Friday, took a quick sleep, and were in the local bar eating burgers and drinking beer by noon!!! (Perfect start to a road trip!) Jeremy picked up a new Santa Cruz Bullit with Stratos forks Friday afternoon… so of course it started raining right away. Oh well. That night we went to the local bar again and watched a sneak preview of a new bike video "New World Disorder". 50 foot cliff drops, and tons of stunts (teeter-totters and ladders) from the Slocan Valley just west of Nelson. (We read an article on this area, which is one of the big reasons we came.) We were so pumped up after that video!

The next day was a little rainy, and all of the rides we were doing on this one mountain we kept running into some pipeline construction. So halfway through these crazy trails we would have to stop. Oh well, we rode down one of the forestry roads at about Warp 7 and got chased by the biggest Rottweiler I have ever seen (he was only going Warp 6.9… Seeyah!). A little later we found a big gap jump to have some fun on.

Matty flying high in Rossland!

The next Morning we got up and went out to the Slocan Valley. We didn't have the greatest directions… Take your second Right after crossing Lemon Creek… the trails are all up there. So we took my poor little car up that trail and after about an hour I finally pulled over. "Where are the trails?" Jeremy took a nap and Greg and I noticed a trail that started right where I pulled over. We snuck down the trail a bit, and there was a huge stump that was cut at an angle so that you could launch off it. We were on the right track. That is when I noticed that in a small clearing below us… STUNT CITY! There were Teeter totters, ladders 10 feet in the air, and log rides all over the place. Well, we ran up, got our bikes (and woke up Jeremy), and off we went! We quickly found out that we didn't have the skills to ride any of the bigger stunts, but we could handle some of the tail drops on the trails and a few of the log rides.

Jeremy killing a log ride.

Greg Rippin' up one of the only stunts we could ride!

If you can find a copy of Coast magazine (free little outdoor mag, usually at bike shops) there is an article about the Slocan Valley. There are three main trails in that article… Lemon-aid, Polly Pissy Pants, and Eye of the Madman. Here is the trailhead of Lemon-aid.

Ready to try our luck on some stunts.

I had the most fun I have ever had on this trip. It looks like I will have to work on my balance a bit, and then head out to Vancouver and try my luck on the North Shore. It is pretty funny that I thought I was going to be a big Cross country hammer when I got my poor Cannondale. Who would have known that I would be flying off five foot drops with it. - Matt Davis Editor's note - this article is an appetizer for an article by a trio of shore locals who recently tasted the joys of Nelson and Slocan Valley riding. Could it be that Nelson has surpassed the shore?