Kamloops

Hi guys, I’m back. I’m really sorry, but this was for me a super busy month (work, snow, snow, snow and again snow!). Finally I found some free time for my stories.
After “Spences Bridge” we drove to Kamloops.

The North road for going to Kamloops it’s crazy, you can ride everything! Everywhere you look there’s something that you can ride. Going forward the wild landscape changing and the city urbanization take his place.
Kamloops is a city in south central British Colum­bia­, at the confluence of the two branches of the Thompson River. Very different from the coast’s city and from my point of view it has a sort of american style. The terrain seems shape to build extreme lines: no tree, exceptional ground and lots of space everywhere.

Our first stop was the “Bike Ranch.” That’s the city’s Bike Park and the shaper is Brad from the movie “Follow Me”. He wants to go big and he built shit!

There is no chairlift, no shuttle service and so you must arrange with your van or hike for 15 minutes. Unfortunately, when we went there, my arm was fucked up and I didn’t ride because not even allow to keep the handlebars, shit happens. You can just try to be positive.
Andy, Nick and Tony were so stocked: backflips and flip variations like flip nac were the basic tricks. Big up for Tony who sent his first BB_flip (BigBikeBackflip) in the Bike Ranch!

It was like being in paradise but we realized soon that this was only the purgatory…
Ace, Kamloops loco, bring us the most amazing place that I ever seen in my life: The Farm!
The Farm is the essence of mountain biking: everything you need is there. Ron (the owner) bought that place for something like 350.000$ and he start building trails and big stuff!

Just to let you know he build a 100ft gap jump in his backyard for the new world record jump on bike but when they decided to do that it was too windy and so the event was cancelled.

Aggy and me were shuttling with a crazy home made convertible Silverado (Aggy was injured after the crash at Bearclaw invitational) and the others rode two really nice trails. During the second run we are waiting at the trails bottom and Aggy told me to walk in the woods for see the 40ft line: unbelievable! 4 jumps, 40ft each one, and there was also a 60ft jump but not ready yet, just Sorge sent it one time. The line it’s like an highway in the woods!
The take off was perfect and also the landing: they are all stoked, me too, and I was just watching!
After that crazy riding we make a big BBQ at The Farm, Ron has lit a big fire inside the drum of a washing machine and after that we finally had shower after 4 days of road trip! Amazing!

After more than one months I decided to go back to “The Farm” and spend two amazing days of riding there!
As usual the first stop was the “Bike Ranch”: FUCK THE BIKE RANCH! I was riding the big line and during a run I was a little bit short on the first jump and I throw my bike on the next jump. I landed with my foot exactly and my rear wheel and I destroyed it! 100$ for new rims and spokes!
Very special thanks to Richie who rebuilt my wheel on the trail!

After that, we finally arrived at “The Farm”. If you are lucky enough to ride there, you can ride 3 different trails.
Treefur: it’s the first trail that we rode. Super flow, no big jumps but a lot of fun. The terrain was really dry and sometimes the corner ware scatchy. Ron built this trail for show to the people that he can ride super fast and easy trail too. He NEVER brake!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUg6_JnRI6A[/youtube]

K_Trail: that’s probably the best trail and was built for Kristina, Ron’s girlfriend. Kristina is a really good biker and the trail is crazy: road gaps, step down, step up and doubles everywhere. All is perfectly shaped and huge; go big and safe.

Whiskey: everybody knows the whiskey, right?! At the top of this trail there is a small bar with glasses and of course a bottle of whiskey. If you ride it before droppin’ in you have to drink a whiskey shot. Steep rock face, technical terrain and a huge step up is waiting for you.
I want to tell you a funny story: when I went there we spent the second day riding with Ron and during a run he told me that he would try a new step up that he finished to built just couple of days ago. 70 ft gap!

He told me to follow him and after the last jump start pedaling as much as I can, I was fucking scared!
We check the wind and we drop in. I was following Ron until I saw his Alpaca (Ralf) on the trail! Obviously we cannot hit the step up. That was the only good chance of the day, the others attempt were to windy! At the end of the day Ron went in front of Ralf’s face and said: “Fuck you Ralf, you fucked the only chance to hit the step up today!” and I burst out laughing!

The lower part of the farm is Dreamland! Jumps everywhere. You usually take confidence with “Nuggets” (one of the lower trails with the smallest jumps), after couple of runs you can start shredding a detour with a big step down and two nice doubles. If you survive, you can finally ride the 40s.
That is the best place that I ever rode in my life! I’m so lucky that Ron invited me in his house for riding his backyard, it was a dream come true. I’m so proud of this big opportunity!

Enrico Ubertini