I can’t create a new category for each post, so I decided to put this one under “discovering BC”, since I’d already put that into play. I guess I got some good interactive time today with some of the local fauna. Vince and Tim, to be specific. These guys live either side of my new shop space at the end of second Ave in downtown Squamish. Vince is a stonemason and Tim is a plumber. They were talking in front of my shop today, where Vince was putting in a new patio for the owners, and decided to do what most good trades workers do on a rare warm sunny day in October in Squamish - go for a mt bike ride! I asked if they wanted a tag-along, and the said sure. I think Vince might have licked his lips.

I went to get my bike and rode back to the shop at the appointed time. I “dressed-down” for the occasion - no bike jersey or anything, just the t-shirt I had been working in and some plain black bike shorts. Good call on the t-shirt. Bad call on the bike shorts. Those guys were nice about it, but “mandex” is apparently not the fabric of choice among this crew. Oh well, it’s what I’ve got. At least they weren’t wearing body armour, but I should have paused and thought when both of those guys wheeled out full suspension rigs with plenty of travel and big rubber. Made my little hard-tail uphill bike with V-brakes and fast tread look kinda whimpy. Anyway, we got things together, got the bikes in the back of Vince’s truck, and were on the road once Vince had a quick beer. Well, almost on the road. Tim had to go meet someone for something, so Vince said we’d pick him up. Then Vince started jonesin’ for a hit of wheat-grass juice so we swung by the local wheat-grass establishment - Vince lauding the “clean energy” feeling of wheat-grass the whole way. “Much better than coffee - that shit gives me the heebeegeebees.” Terrible thing - the local wheat-grass establishment was sold-out of wheat-grass for the day! Understandably, I guess - it was four o’clock and folks do like their wheat-grass around here. Vince took a double espresso to go and we were back in action in no time.

Riding was good. Well, it started out good - we were going uphill. These guys don’t hurry up hill. Especially Tim, who seemed to be laboring a bit. We rode for a while, climbing up a utility access road under power lines, until we got to what appeared to be the top for today’s excursion. Tim stretched a bit, and then Vince said to him “well, you better go first, hotshot.” Uh oh. The guys dove into a bit of single track called “the corners”. It had - you guessed it - corners. Lots of them. It was basically a single-track slalom run on a relatively gradual but still fast grade. After overshooting the first corner (my V-brakes work best when I don’t have to ride the rims through mud puddles, which is always out here) I had a blast, and pulled up only about five or ten seconds behind those guys after a few minutes of riding. Then we went into the woods, and pretty soon we were riding single-track over these wooden ladders which varied in width from about 24 inches to about six inches. The parts that were split cedar rails were OK - especially when they were wide enough. But it was really wet and the milled lumber that had been there for a couple of years was like it was greased. I fell off ladders, bounced off trees, and tried not to whine.

In places I held my own - like anyplace with an uphill grade.  In other places where I  thought I rode technical stuff pretty well, I got seriously stretched. I think I could catch onto this coastal riding but it would take some time, and maybe a different bike. They took it easy on me today - showed me the really basic stuff. On the ride back they discussed taking me down something called “the plunge” tomorrow. But then Tim pointed out that with all the rain we’ve had it would be like riding down a greased pinball machine. So maybe I’m off the hook on “the plunge”, but I have a feeling these guys can find other hooks. At least I made some friends. Do they count as friends if you come home beat-up and muddy?