The North Shore: Fromme

I got into Vancouver yesterday around 2 after writing all those blog updates.  I went to the Cove Bicycle Co shop on main street in North Vancouver to seek riding advice.  I also got to look at some Cove bikes, a North Shore classic.  They have an interesting lineup, including the STD, the hummer, the dirty sanchez...you get the picture.  I noticed their bikes seemed on the burly side.  A little sign of what was to come.

I'm really skipping over my riding at Galbraith, which was great, but the North Shore outshined Glabraith.  There were some nice gaps and drops at Galbraith, some very tight xc trails, and some good woodwork, but my hands weren't feeling great and I was riding a little sketch probably for that reason.  Don't get me wrong--it'd be a great local mountain but it was outshined.

An xc ladder at Galbraith:

Flowy:

Holy technical steeps and woodwork!  Yesterday may be my best ride ever!  It was hard to take pictures because the forest is dim, but I tried.  To ride Fromme you have to park on the street in the residential area below the hill.  As you enter the woods you see this sign:

You can't actually shuttle up Fromme, but you can shuttle a little ways up.  I rode up for a bit, then took a blue/black trail for a north shore warmup.  It was fun, with lots of ladders and some rooty, rocky, wet stuff.  Then I rode/pushed my Perp up to a triple black diamond, Air Time, just to look.  Air time was filled with rotting wooden kickers to relatively flat landings with 15-20 foot gaps.  There were some kickers to nowhere--the trail seemed beat and not cared for.  This is due (I hypothesize) to the fact that you have to hike Fromme, so many 'freeriders' have moved on to Seymour I think.

A kicker (oof on the landing):

A drop, about 15x15 feet, with a pretty skinny landing.  I'd ride it if there were other folks around:

from the ladder:

I also took a look at Espresso, a single black diamond:  Here's the entrance.

After checking out Air Time and Espresso I hiked to the top of Seventh Secret, a trail recommended by Cove.  As I was mentally preparing for my ride down, a group of three Vancouver riders lined up at the same trailhead.  One prepared with me, we talked, I asked if I could ride with them, and we were off.

Seventh Secret was a great advanced level warmup trail.  There were steep pitches (nothing I found scary), some moderately wide skinnies, and some fun drop options.  At the end there was a HUGE log ride option.  It looked like it cut out a lot of trail so I passed it.  We popped out on the road, and took Pipeline, a fun, faster, recently cared for, intermediate level trail.  After Pipeline we rode the hiking trail for a bit to a hidden trail near Ladies Only.  The drop in was sketch.  I was trying to follow the locals ahead of me, but I had to stop to look at a few sections before I rode them (after nearly going over the bars on one wicked steep roller to sharp left hand rock turn).  This trail was the technical crux of our ride.  After bombing through a gnarly section without stopping to pick a line, I stopped to take a picture.

First you ride this wooden turn:

Then you drop through this chute of roots:

GNAR!  A little fuzzy on the picture but at least you can get a sense of the terrain.  I haven't seen anything this steep since Plattekill in the Catskills.  Thank heavens I've ridden Plattekill, else I would have surely pood my pants and crashed.

The secret trail joined Ladies Only and we cruised out to the road on some techy steepness with skinnies.  I love techy steepness AND skinnies.  From there we hiked up for five/ten minutes, and took a new trail, Natural High, down to the neighborhood road.  Natural High was a nutty built trail with many optional skinny/roller/teeter totter lines.  There was one teeter-totter that went sideways.  You get on, get past the fulcrum, and it pivots right and down to drop you into a transition that's about 45 degrees off from where you were when you got on.  I tried to spot my landing as soon as I got on, and successfully rode the weird teeter.  Sweet!  I gotta build one.

I was very thankful that I have ridden trails this steep at Plattekill and skinnies at Shindagin.  Without that I would have been far less prepared.  As a trailbuilder these trails were inspiring, but I could also see how much work some sections must have taken.  The rock armoring is bomber and must be difficult especially with as little soil as there is.  Galbraith had great, plentiful dirt that made me jones for a mcleod.  

I got food at a grocery store and drove to Deep Cove where my new riding buddies recommended I park to sleep and have breakfast in the morning.  Good recommendation!  I was not harassed and my breakfast was great!  This is a picture I took this morning on my way to the breakfast place (where I am now).

I dunno what I'll do today.  Khaled (one of the guys I met) may be headed to Whistler on Wednesday, so I think I want to do Wed/Thurs for Whistler.  I will either take today off, do another North Shore ride, or go ride Squamish.  I think I'll go ride Squamish, but I'm worried if I plan to ride Squamish, then I'll do two days at Whistler, and I'll definitely want to do another day at the North Shore...too much riding....