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From Mountain Biking to Tree Planting.

In case you did not know...in 2020 my daughter Kat Tourond, who Tree Plants for a living, challenged me to join her treeplanting for the 2020 season, in British Columbia. I, of course took her up on it...hoping to also make it into an opportunity to do some mountain biking in real mountains...possibly the mountain biking mecca of the world. However, COVID restriction burst the mountain biking possibilities, but tree planting, being an essential service (to provide material for construction of PPE) did go on. It was hellishly hard manual labour....but I loved it. So, I planned to do it again in 2021 (one more season), and this time, work in some mountain biking. So, off to BC I have travelled...


Pics from last season.





So, I made it out to BC in the converted 2001 Honda Oddyssey (Audrey??). The conversion done by Steve Rideout at ‘Rideout Originals’. The trip was mostly drama free, until the van started making a slight clunk in Northern Ontario with every little bump...right up near the driver side front wheel. The slight clunk eventually became a crash-bang that had me wondering if Jason was going to break throught the dash and machete my head off. I planned to stop in Saskatchewan to visit family, so when I did I had high-school buddy, now mechanic, Rick Goulden (best mechanic on the prairies!!) check it out. It was a quick fix, broken/missing caliper bolt that had the caliper flopping around with every bump. Then it was back on the road west.


Travel pics.



I met up with Kat in Lethbridge and we continued on to BC....where we plan to isolate, and for me to get some mountain biking in while we wait for the treeplantin season to begin. I brought two mountain bikes, a Ti Kona Honzo hardtail with a 130mm fork, and a full suspension Specialized Stumpjumper with 150mm/130mm travel. The start of tree planting is always uncertain...depending on when conditions on the mountains allow...usually early to mid April though. So far I have managed to get a solo ride in Lethbridge in the massive Old Man River gorge, and rides in at Trail BC, Castlegar BC, and will ride in Rossland BC today guided by now locals Jeff Landry and Tanya Hanham.


Riding pics




Tomorrow (Tuesday) I (and Kat) plan to make our way north, to find more mountain bike trails, and isolate, as the treeplanting industry requires at least two weeks of isolation before each planter enters into camp. So the challenge is to find an obscure camping spot near mountain bike trails (for me)....likely somewhere in the Kelowna area...


Regarding treeplanting, last year I kept a journal and shared it, with pics, on Google Drive...however only folks with a Google account could view it....so this year I will use this blog as the journal, in case you want to follow along.


Stay posted....



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