October 1st (Afternoon)

A decent ride home. Physically I felt pretty good, but technically I had a few retard moments… The brakes were OK, but the lack of power leaves a lot to be desired on the steeper sections and I just can’t seem to get rid of the squeeling!!!

I made it through the creek crossing OK, but failed trying to get over the root AND the climb over the east bank! I met a professor from TRU just before the climb out of the valley and I stopped and talked with him for a while. He has been in Kamloops (Sahali) for 7 years, but has never hiked these trails before. I told him the different options he had, and tried to explain how he could hike down to the Billy Minor North trail, cut back through Peterson’s Creek and then make his way back up into Sahali (would be a good hike, actually). In the end, I gave him a map of Peterson’s Creek part that I had printed way back when I started this new route and then went on my way.

I didn’t quite make the usual distance up the long, straight and steep climb and then even at the rock wall I ended up putting my foot down and giving up when I probably could’ve made the climb had I tried…

I came out of the first gulley trail with some good speed and came right up behind a few cows again! This time they took off down the trail in front of me, so I kept riding towards them. As I came around the corner, they had stopped and were watching me with about 10 or 15 others behind them. Hah! Having no other trail to take, I hollered and they all ran off with me behind. Ever seen a cowboy on a mountain bike before? Hah!

Anyways, instead of herding the cows the entire way, I decided to take the new gulley trail down that I discovered at the beginning of this week. It was fun, and this time I did stop to get at least one picture (should’ve taken another one, but didn’t find a good stopping point ‘till it was too late).

This is the beginning of the trail. The bushes make for a bit of tight squeeze, especially when considering the few rocks just above them that are a bit tough to manoeuvre… Don’t forget to add in brakes that are merely keeping me from going full speed, not actually slowing me down in a controlled manner!!!

The rest of the ride was pretty good. Just like yesterday, I failed to keep the bike straight on the last climb at Rose Hill and therefore didn’t make the climb when I probably could’ve done so… I sprinted through Juniper and took the look-out trail again, so all in all it was a great end to a good week!

I picked up a Deore LX derailleur this week and so I cleaned it up, oiled it and put it on the Cannondale this week. If it works really well, I’ll keep it. If it works OK, I’ll probably put the Altus back on and put the LX on the Balance. If it just downright sucks, I’ll throw it away!!!

The “new” old Deore LX. After cleaning it up, it looks pretty good. It is scratched up pretty heavily, but it seems to still work smoothly and it took me about 5 minutes max to get it adjusted properly and tuned in perfectly. Although LX is still on the lower end, it’s much better (even when old and beat up like this) than the Altus I have.