Survivormen

Finally. Someone puts together a Comfortably Numb ride and I can go. Good Job Trevor! And thanks. Having said that, that's the last nice thing I have to say to you, you used trail salesman. LOL.

The sign at the entrance sells the drama nicely. Please read.
I learned a thing or 2 about about translating messages in Japan. Nice ways of saying things maybe not so nice. Here, let me show you what I mean.

"Demanding Trail" actually means that the laws of physics don't actually apply here. What goes up doesn't actually have to come down.

"...can be ridden as 8.5 km loop via Young Lust..." translates into "Get out while you can, fatty."

"Average riding time for fit riders is 4-7 hours". What they really wanna say is "If you think you are fit but aren't, welcome to your reality check..........fatty."

We all saw the sign. We all started on our way. 10 of us in all. What day we would have. An awesome ride. Good times, good laughs and good people. But what doesn't kill you only makes you a better rider. A good sense of humour helps too.

But don't start the day talking about who can fix a bike if there is a mechanical.

Dale had his first about 15 meters into the trail. I think he hates me now and the blog post isn't even done yet.

These 2 pics were take right after a group of joggers passed us. The first of many dips in the trail.

Comfortably Numb is about 19 km of up and 4 km of down. This is about as nice as the up got for us. CN is a very technical trail. The pictures in this post will be deceiving for anyone passing by, but believe me the roots, 18" rock hoppers and tight switch backs are still there. I opted not to photograph them, instead I just put my head down and pushed up grumbling and cursing under my breath.
Definitely some nice views along the trail though.
I don't know what it is with and wood work. On the way home after looking through the pictures on my camera I realized I didn't get a very good representation of the full trail.

That's Trevor checking out the valley below. Hi Trevor. Ooops! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Squish!
Ahh. Just had to get that out of my system.

The continuing woes of a blogger. You try to take pictures of everyone so they can enjoy them later. But people just wanna ride. The caption below reads...

"Ted, put the camera back in your pocket and get the fuck out of the way."
Sigh...

We motored on up. And Up. and up some more. Occaisionally we were teased with a bit of down.

CN has a really nice mix of rock faces and wood work.
That's Tom.
Todd

And Trevor... having survived his fall.
We reached the bottom of a small valley. There was a really nice bridge going across it.

But after the nice short decent it was time to get back up the hill again.

We rode on. Passing over the woodwork and up the technical switchbacks. Our pace was good. 2.5 hours or so in we came to around the 8km mark of the trail and had our first real food break.

I had (I think we all had) packed around 3 liters of water and some Gatorade. I ran out with about an hour to go in the ride. But that's notso bad really. I escaped the trail with a minor headache that would be easily fixed by a few pints.
After this I motored on ahead to try and get a vantage point for some more epic photos. Got some good self shots (mercifully omitted) and these.

I think the hardest part about this trail is the flow. When you finally get to a part with some nice flowy bits you suddenly have to start climbing again. I heard a few people say that as soon as they dropped their seat posts they would suddenly start up again. Then there would be some steep technical down out of nowhere and they would have to walk becuase they weren't ready.

I likened it to dating some crazy chick. One minute everything is going smooth, the next she is dating other guys. I just couldn't tell if Comfortably Numb liked me or not.

We all peddled on just hoping she would come around.

Soon we hit the 12km mark. Half way!!!
Trevor rides into the rest area. He would tell us" there is now more down than up!"

YAY! we thought. Trevor sorta embellished that I think.

Ran across an English dude who took this pic for us. One of the best group shots I've even been in.
And a good time to make some introductions. Right to left are: Me, Dale, Todd, Ian, Sasha, Aaron(why was I thinking Andrew?), Trevor, Brian, Christie and Tom.
Ian. Good friend and F#&$in prick. A short time after this shot, buddy here would start doing the trail at his own pace. He's one of the best XC riders I know. He prolly weighs 90lbs soaking wet(bike included) . Don't think we saw him again for 2-3 hours. Got a little worried that a hungry bear wrapped him in bacon and made an appy out of him. We caught up with him. He had this smug little grin on his face as if to say "Did you guys get lost or something?". Next time we do this trail I think I'll sneak bear pheromones into his pack.
This is Dale again. I really should just leave him alone but .... well you know me. Dale is also a good rider but every time I got behind him he would wipe out. Not sure what it was about. Maybe I'm back luck, make he was getting fatigued from the ride. Last time I saw him do it I said "Wow Dale, that's three." He didn't say anything but I could read what he was thinking. "Ted, if you count one more of my crashes I'm going to pick up my bike and hit you in the head with it.

Dale (everyone actually) rode up more of the hill than I did. I usually like to take it easy but for sure I was out with some motivated riders. I guess anyone who does this trail deserves respect.
This is Todd. He likes to eat potatoes on his bikes rides. Neal Todd!! From now you will be known as Sir Potato Biking dude!.
I didn't get to know Sasha very well. But from what I saw I'd say she is very organized and very good with her time. Spent her resting time taking power naps. Seemed to pay off cause she spent her time in the saddle peddling up the hill. That girl is one good rider for sure!

We motored on. I did my best to manage my energy, not wanting to over extend myself. I know my limits and am glad I took that approach. We would hit the decent soon and thats not where you want to start bonking.

Finally after 19 or 20 km of climbing we got into the real decent. Some woodwork and truly awesome rock faces would take us out to the bottom.

This is Brian in sport capture mode heading down a nice ladder rockface combo.





Aaron.

Dale.





Trevor the man.



Always nice to include a little video clip. Todd and Trevor on the way down a nice rock face.

Christie was nice enough to get this one of me. Nice to actually be in my own blog for once.

The bottom was shortly after that shot. We got the cars sorted out and headered to Squamish for a 'Discussion Group' at the pub.

So my final thoughts?

Epic Adventure riding. For sure. Am I lining up to do it again? Not really. I'd like to go one more time but only when absent friends can join with us. I sorta knew what I was getting into when I signed up for the ride. But having done it I'd say that it's not the sort of riding I really enjoy. I like going up for the cardio training, but this was just off the map of what I am used to. I love flowy downs too, but there wasn't enough here it seemed to justify the grueling push up.

That being said, Ian loved it. He is a much better rider tho with a greater love of technical riding than myself.
The ride home. We are a lucky bunch here. I sometimes feel bad for the people who never get to try mountain biking. B.C. imho is one big bike park of which I have barely scratched the surface. Nice to have Comfortably Numb checked off the list tho.

Thanks Trevor and to everyone who came out. A great day and challenging day for all. Otsukare sama deshta! (Job well done)