Zest tour day 8: Sale Mt./Martha Creek, Frisby Ridge

A nice sleep in the hammock was only interrupted by the GREASIEST coughing dude. Fresh off our Mt. 7 up and down slay, we decided to give Sale Mt the similar treatment. It was a little longer (16km, 1500m elevation gain for a 9.3km descent!), but Bill had his Ibis today, so he was up for it. A couple of hours later, we were at the top. 5000 ft UP AND DOWN on the Marin Attack Trail (and Ibis Mojo)

Nice views 1500m up at 2000m!

Just as we got to the top, a group of shuttlers arrived at the top as well. I asked the head honcho who was wearing a jersey bearing the logo of a certain alcoholic beverage that is popular with those who are from the province directly to the east of Alberta if he had a socket set so that I could tighten up my suspension linkages.

"Hey, would you happen to have a socket set in your truck?"

"NO!!!??!!" 

"Sorry..."

Yes, I actually apologized for asking a question...

The descent was super rocky at the top, the kinds of rocks that eat tires and rims for breakfast, and spokes for desert. Eventually the rocks eased up and led to some steep corners, bridges, and flowy sections further down. Fun descent and we and our bikes survived unscathed (I almost ate shit really hard on a steep section before a road crossing), but we were both wishing for some thicker tires for some piece of mind...

Plenty of descent done

Plenty of descent left

A note on trail etiquette: "TEAM PILSNER" were on DH bikes, full armour, etc.. and they were pretty good riders, so we let them go ahead of us. But they kept stopping for a long time at each intersection and we would catch up. Should we continue onto the next section ahead of them where they will eventually have to pass us again and again, or do we wait and drop in right after them? We chose to wait, but it definitely got annoying near the end...

Well that wasn't enough for us. Although we didn't have enough time to ride up to the trailhead of Frisby ridge (so that we could both ride the DH back to town), we drove up a gnarly logging road to a BUSY parking lot. Wow, this new trail is popular! As it was in the afternoon, most people were on their way back down, and by that confusing  IMBA rule, we could climb interrupted!

"Frisby Ridge is pretty much wheelchair accessible"

During the climb, I was honestly a little worried that these super buff trails would be the future of mountain biking. What will happen to steep and technical riding? I was having nightmares that involved the shitty new trails at the CNC. Well after some beautiful views up top, we headed down the SUPER FLOWY descent: contours you can pump, berms you can rail, smiles on our faces. And at the bottom, Bill was done, that he let me do the DH to town while he drove the vehicle down. (muhahahah, my plan worked to perfection!)

Even more flow, some steep sections, maybe the funnest trail of the trip. Sorry Bill!

After crushing some Micky D's, it was off to Kelowna to drop Bill off at UBCO