Wet ride - Mt Fromme, North Shore.

Since late September I have been recovering from a serious ankle sprain obtained on the "last ride of the season" in Whistler. I have been dying to get over to the mountains on the north shore and get a good taste of the famed north shore trails. At last weeks Halloween festivities I made some arrangements with Keith to try and get out over there before the weather made it totally impossible. Boy am i glad we did.

Watching the weather all week it appeared it could be touch and go, but after plenty of early morning rain on saturday, it died off, so we agreed to go for it. Parked up off mountain hway and started pedaling from the dirt road. Seven grinding switch backs later we finally made it to the trail head for "Seventh Secret". I managed to pedal the entire way. The only time I actually stopped was to take a photo (turned out to be 2 mins from the trail head anyway). This may be nothing for some people, but a milestone for me. It snowed on us briefly on the ride up and by the time we had gotten most of the way to the top, the trees and the road were covered in an inch or two of fairly fresh snow. It looked stunning, I was very excited!!

So we dropped into the trail and I realised at that moment that at no point prior to now, had i even given thought to the fact that I was about to ride in rain and heavily wet conditions, a stark contrast to my hot, dry, dusty summer of riding. That was smart! My rotors howled like a banshee as i braked down the first few declines, a sound that faded as they built up some heat. The trails were well built with many stones bedded into to give it definition and no doubt stop it eroding away, the amount of water flowing down the trail in parts ranged from a trickle to a gushing creek! I was already wet but within minutes i was soaked. I couldnt have cared less!!

I was concerned about grip levels and it took me some time to trust my tires in the wet on rocks and wooden features. Fear of falling and re-injuring my still unstable ankle was hampering my confidence pretty badly, but all the same, I was having fun dashing down the more open sections, splashing my way though huge puddles and trying not to fall off elevated ladder bridges. There were some cool features on "Pipeline" the next trail we connected with, Its all new to me but Keith was commenting on some new woodwork that he hadnt seen before.

Some of the steeper descents had so much water going down them it was liking riding down a waterfall, I have ridden in wet weather before, all the time as a kid, but I have never experienced anything like what I discovered on Saturday. I nearly fell into a creek as i crossed a narrow bridge, and decided it would be fun to scare the shit out of myself riding along the very edge of a ladder bridge about 4-5 feet off the ground for some distance before straightening up, its remarkable what you can do when you have no choice.

We took a lower section of the Baden-Powell trail and connected back up with mountain hwy, buzzing down the steep bitumen road back to the car. As i jumped off my bike, both front and rear rotors were steaming away, but dissipated to fast for a photo. 

I would love to have a go at the trails here in drier conditions, but as I said, the water and mud really made for a fun experience, and seeing snow like we did at the top had me stoked for whats to come :)