Dirty Girls

Tamara, Katie and I participated in the Sugoi Dirt Series in Canmore this weekend. It is a 2-day, all-girl mountain biking camp. Mornings consisted of skills training followed by afternoon rides. In the evening we had an opportunity to get our bikes tweaked and then Rebound Cycle, the host shop, gave seminars on bike maintenance. I finally learned how to change a flat!

I learned all kinds of new skills... manual skills, wheelie drop skills, high speed cornering skills... guys like girls with skills! Now I can take my bike off sweet jumps.



Saturday afternoon's ride was the Reclaimer, which drops into the valley off the Spray Lakes Road. It was the same ride I did with Dad and Cory back in June. The last time I rode it, I walked down the first pitch, which isn't very steep, but really loose and gravelly. This time around I had to give it a shot. We all took turns trying it, many many wipe-outs ensued. Mine was the bloodiest though! I took a header over the side, hitting a few boulders along the way. It was the biggest crash I've ever had, which is saying quite a lot.

On Sunday we did Riders of Rohan. It was a bit further up the Spray Lakes Road but it wasn't quite as fun as Saturday's ride. It was really challenging again, with lots of loose gravel, but not a lot of fun stuff you could really ride hard. Our instructor, 2001 Canadian Downhill Champ Cassandra Boon, was an amazing rider. It was inspiring to watch a chick tear up a trail like that, she kicked ass! Our sweep, Leaf, was also amazing. I got some pretty cool shots of him showing off for the ladies.

There are tons of stories I could tell from the weekend, but, of course, I like to keep it brief (ha!).

Katrina, our instructor, showing us how it's done. This is approximately where I fell. Note the boulders and hill on rider's right, upon which I left a great deal of skin.

Tamara giving the top of Reclaimer a shot.

My shredded knee.

Close-up of shredded knee.

My scratched-up belly.

My knee two days later.

My arm two days later.

Me ridin'

Tamara ridin'

Mid-ride

Boys, showing off for the girls. Yes, that's right, Lief is drinking a beer while doing a wheelie.

Lief, our sweep, doing a huge friggin' drop.

Lief kickin' some ass.

We stopped in at the 24-Hours of Adrenaline to pick up Cory's keys, this is what we found in the parking lot.