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Squamish/Whistler, B.C, Canada
Experienced Freelance/commercial photographer who specialized in custom content creation, product photography, and strategy. My focus is connecting brands with their audiences, bringing life to ideas and media solutions to get noticed and hold attention. Ability to communicate and get the image for Industry/Action Sport, lifestyle Realestate and environments where good judgement and teamwork are essential. Excellent Knowledge of the West Coast of British Columbia for fresh locations to suite clients needs.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Camp DirtBag !!







This past weekend I joined a crew of 12 misfits and went on a mission up the Hope Princeton Hwy in search of some alpine mountain biking before the snow made it's 1st appearance for the season.
This was my 1st road trip in "The Executive". This unit is a sight to behold.. It's a 1971 RV in fresh off the lot condition.. bought for a song with all the old school amenities you could ask for including the shag carpet. Just wish the 70's fuel costs were included.
Anyway, with RV stocked we picked up a few stragglers along Hwy 1 heading for Hope.. There Might have been a refreshment or 2 stop along the way as we had to ensure hydration for the huge rides planned for the next couple of day's, Not sure how the hydrating was going cause I must have made about 10 trips to the can on the way.
  The Executive handled the long grades on the hwy like the veteran it is and before we knew it, arrived at "Camp Dirtbag" close to Manning Park.
The Debauchery had already started as we were the last to arrive but in good form we did our best to contribute to the Dirtbag roots that we all have in us. 
Someone came up with the idea for an early start that likely became a bad idea at some point.. because it was quickly forgotten. We let mother nature wake us up with a brilliant day of fall sunshine pounding in the RV. A quick pot of Cowboy coffee to warm the internal engines and remarkably everyone managed to be ready in short order for long day in the saddle. This is the 1st trip I've done in ages where I decided to leave the camera behind.  Dave Silver  Vancouver Island was with us and he was carrying the goods so I jumped at the chance to travel light..  http://davesilverphoto.com/
So we enjoyed 10 minutes of a flat approach and then the trail tilted up.. For 3hrs... The 1st 2 was middle ring mashing, generally non-tech climbing and as we passed through an incredible burned out Aspen grove ( gotta come back and shoot this both summer and winter) the trail steepened and we quickly got to see who ate their wheaties that morning.
Soon enough everyone was pushing and we were in the alpine among 1500 hundred year old Larch trees that were just changing color.. Once on the summit ridge we were forced to carry on blocky scree and was entirely unrideable. We ditched the bikes and scrambled an amazing peak with 360 view and spread some ashed from Fucker pants Fontaine who passed away 1 year ago on an adventure that went sideways.  YaaaFFFer !! love ya brother..
Back down to the bikes,  a quick down climb and then one of the most pinner 4000 ft decent I've ever done.. Non tech and super fast with some 90 deg corners that came out of nowhere.. Everyone made the decent with little to no issues somehow..
Back to camp for more hydrating and Dirt BAg bro brahing for the next day's ride which ended up being an out and back up a long climb of similar style to the 1st day..
There is something about a dirt bag crew rat racing for 3000ft of fast decending that puts a perma grin on your face..
This one just might wrap it up for the alpine rides this year..Bring it on Ullr !!
Now everyone back to the office until next weekend..
Out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Amazing story, thanx for taking me on your journey with you. K