Okanagan Sampler 3

Nothing beats waking up on a house boat on the lake and taking a swim to shake that hangover off. Ahhhhhhh.  Breakfast on the water was quite enjoyable also.  After eating, and lounging for a while we headed back to the dock to begin the day’s adventures.

The first order of business was to find Hoots – Jay Hoots that is!  We had heard the day before that Hoots was out rebuilding a local bike park and was starting today.  We couldn’t have timed things better.  We hopped into our convoy of trucks, and headed towards Salmon Arm (after a few wrong turns by yours truly).  Our destination was White Lake Skills Park, about a ten minute drive south of Salmon Arm.

  Jay Hoots at the White Lake Skills Park near Salmon Arm.  Photo ~ Steve Crowe

The White Lake Skills Park was originally designed by Hoots and built in 2008 by mostly volunteer labour.  The main leader of the build was local rider John Evdokimoff, who drowned tragically in an accident on the lake after the intial build was complete.  Fortunately, the Columbia Shuswap Regional District found some money to re-build parts of the park and finish what Hoots had originally designed, and the park will be renamed in John’s honour.

The park will consist of four lines of dirt jumps, with sizes for all levels of riders.  Already built are a row of various sized drops, some ladder bridges and log rides and two lines of berms and tables.  Adjacent to the skills area are a downhill course and the trail head for five kilometres of cross country singletrack.

  Everyone’s a Rasta near Kamloops.  Ryan “Jah” Kuhn showing his dread side.  Harper Mtn, Kamloops. Photo ~ Steve Crowe

Again, we spent time with a local government official as Darren Gridley-Haack, a community parks and recreation operator from the CSRD was on site to meet us and provide information.  I find it very encouraging to see local governments embrace and support mountain biking.  What a change from a few years ago when the biggest involvement by most local governments was chain-sawing stunts. Now they build them!

I also had a chance to chat with Jay and check out his prototype 2010 Norco Shore.  Turns out we both have a soft spot in our hearts for the venerable Norco Six, and had a pretty funny conversation about it!  At one point, Jay commented that they should make a men’s version of the Vixa, to which I replied “Wouldn’t that just be a Six?” Much laughter ensued!  Jay was a great guy to hang out with and you just know that the John Evdokimoff Bike Park is going to be a “Hoot” to ride!  Per Jay “Take a good bike park and make it better.”  Hoots and his crew have built 43 bike parks to date!

Next stop – lunch!  Taco Del Mar in Kamloops served up some tasty burritos, after which we made our way to Thompson Rivers University to check out that day’s stage of the Intermontane Challenge.

The race is in its inaugural year, and was planned as a stage race with five stages in a week.  Most of the stages were set to start and stops at Thompson Rivers University.  Several major sponsors had bucked up, and an impressive $60,000 prize purse was advertised.

  Tinker Juarez gives us the low down on the Intermontane Challenge. Photo ~ Steve Crowe

As we arrived at the finish line that day, we witnessed Tinker Juarez pushing a team mate (Jeremiah Bishop) over the finish line.  Turns out Jeremiah had fallen up the trail a ways and in the end we saw him “spine boarded” up and taken away in an ambulance.  Later we learned he had crushed two vertebrae in his neck.  Jeremiah was the race leader up to that point.

I chatted with the guy at the Spoke in Motion booth who were offering neutral tech support.  He told me that the racers were suffering, but little did we know at the time, controversy was brewing.  We began to hear stories of an angry local trail builder who was not too happy about the race using a trail he had built, albeit on Crown land.  Tales of sabotage and route markings being removed were in the air. 

Seizing the opportunity, we had a chat with Tinker Juarez to get his impressions of the race.  In Tinker’s words, things had been “tougher than expected” with back tracking and having to work hard to find the route.  I think the one image that really seemed to stick in my head was as we were leaving, we saw a group of racers coming in along the road – seems they missed a turn and gave up on the stage!

  Tinker putting out some big wattage in the hills above Kamloops.  Photo ~ Adrian Berry

I took the time to cruise some bulletin boards after the race to see what the community’s reaction was.  Some locals seem pretty unimpressed with the Intermontane, and are worried this year’s less than stellar first go round could hurt the chances of future races in the Kamloops area.  However, balancing this off were some people who did the race claiming that sure, it was tough, but it wasn’t that bad.  Hopefully this race has a chance to go again, mature and get better, because its events like this that ultimately help our sport and can help put our communities on the map for the whole world.

   Andrew Gower tackling one of the many stunts on Harper.  Lifts turn at Harper in the winter. Photo ~ Steve Crowe

It was getting late, and we hadn’t ridden our bikes yet, so our next stop was Harper Mountain for a DH run guided by former local, Ryan Kuhn.  The trail we rode is one of the older lines on the mountain, and mixed speed, steeps, natural drops with some pretty big (to me anyways) wood work.   The mountain is relatively easy to shuttle, but I wouldn’t try to get up there in your car!  After our quick rip, we stopped for a swim at Paul Lake Provincial Park, where Ryan and Steve got us all worried with tales of leeches and mites, and then it was of to Sun Peaks, our final stop of the tour.

Have a look at Steve Crowe’s video interpretation of the trip below.

Check back for the final installment of our Okanagan Summer Sampler – Sun Peaks Lager – Old school but still tasty.  

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Anything to say about White Lake, Hoots Jay, Tinker Juarez, Intermontane, dreadlocks, Hefeweizen or leeches?  Say it here…