Today James Hargrave, Byron Watts, Kris Holm, Bru (Kris’s dog), and I rode on the North Shore Trails in Vancouver, B.C. I drove up with Greg Harper who is currently out of commission unicycling wise, he has a lame excuse – he broke his leg and won’t listen to us tenderly telling him that it is ok and many people ride with a broken leg, and that the cast actually acts as an excellent ankle guard. We parked below the gate to the North Shore Trails System and unicycled up a few switchbacks to the entrance of a trail. I forget the name at the moment, but Greg described it to me as “the trail that Kris said takes 45 minutes to descend (it took Greg and James four hours).” On the ride up I found out that I may be the first girl to unicycle on the North Shore Trails. Very cool. Please correct me if I am wrong.
The weather cooperated with us and it was sunny with patches of clouds for the entire day. The native Vancouver riders told me that I was really lucky and that it is almost always rainy while riding these trails. I will have to come back and see for myself if this is true (really this is a lame excuse to come back and ride more).
We started the descent and I quickly learned that I could not necessarily do everything that the person in front of me could (usually that was Kris). I did conquer one of my fears by riding on a log that was three feet off of the ground. Generally I am good at riding on stunts and over things that are closer to the ground. We departed from the trail we started on and took Ladies Only down to the entrance gate. There were some very decent lines completed by all of the riders. As we got closer to the bottom there became more photographers than riders as the photographers decided that it would be a better idea to take pictures of people that weren’t as tired as they were (myself included) trying stunts/lines that they still felt confident about conquering.
After the ride we grabbed some chow and a pitcher of beer at a local pub. I thoroughly enjoyed legally drinking (I’m one year from the legal drinking age in the states) with such excellent unicycle company. I hope that we can ride again in the near future, with more unicyclists and a healed Harper.
I have some pictures on my camera from today and I intend on posting them in the near future.
I tried “Ladies Only” with Greg, Nathan, and Beau. That trail was better than me. It was better than all of us. It’s called Ladies Only for a reason. We weren’t man enough to ride any of the other trails there.
I think Irene, James, and Byron will all post photos as soon as they photoshop their heads onto Kris’ body. I would have gone but I only brought protective gear for one leg. I’m beginning to become forgetful. I think they’ll photoshop my head onto Bru’s body so it will look like I was there.
JC’s right about Ladies Only. Nathan told us it was about 80% rideable. We found the 20% that wasn’t rideable pretty quickly. We never found the 80% part, though.
Thanks Irene, Kris and James. That was great fun again
Irene was a pleasure to ride with. I think Kris enjoyed having someone to chat with on the way up. Kris and Irene chatted about what would be good to include in a unicycling book, while James and I mostly made wheezing sounds and the occasional grunt and made excuses about how hard it is to get into shape when the weather’s wet, and then we made some promises to get into shape which were broken before the end of the day as we hit the pub at the end of the ride.
After four switchbacks Kris decided the air was thin enough to begin a proper decent, so we put on our gear and headed down seventh secret.
Irene kept saying “This isn’t what I was expecting”, but she was nailing most of the drops and always had a grin on her face so I think she liked it. Brew like it too (after all there are sticks everywhere). James hurt is ankle repeatedly, but that didn’t break his focus. James doesn’t have a fully developed sense of fear and quite often followed Kris down routes that only super human beings should attempt. I however have a fully developed sense of fear and was happy to just take pictures.
Fantastic video…now that’s why Kris is by far my favourite rider. I can’t believe those people who think muni is boring on videos. I’ve been watching this one over and over again.
Some of the nicest unicyclists I know, riding in one of the best spots in the world - I can’t imagine a much better way to spend the day and with Greg as a chauffeur that just completes the picture of perfection.
The photos confirmed my suspicions that you guys had lots of fun. Wish I could chuck in my day job and fly over for a shore ride.
You are a stupid retard. DON’T YOU KNOW THAT DRINKING IS NOT SAFE? Your precious head could be damaged by a few drinks> and you are more likely to cause yourself a fatal head injury while intoxicated. Alcohol is a poison. Kill yourself however you like but make sure you wear a helmet at all times while drinking.
More pics of dog, the uni is interesting but that dog is cute
The ride looks like it was great fun! Once I get enough money to get a muni and some body armour I’m going to be going on some rides like that. For right now I have to stick to learning freestyle skills and jumping up and down steps. With all these Seattle unicyclists I’ve yet to see a single one. A friend saw someone riding a giraffe in the u-district a few days ago but thats all.
…WHERE ARE MY VIDEO CLIPS AUSSIE??? hahaha (nervous laughter), i mean, how’s life treating you andrew old boy? by happenstance have you mailed me some video segments of you chaps down under?
Those were great videos that you took. Why aren’t you in any of them? You and I do entertaining mud face plants on trails like those. I’d like to see a couple of those shots.
Sorry I sissied out with a broken leg. I’m becoming Canadian with the lame excuses I make up lately, eh?
I’m also really sorry you missed the impromptu freestyle demo that Irene gave for us in the parking garage before they left for the MUni ride. I’ll bet they didn’t tell you about that, did they?
Re: First Girl to Unicycle on the North Shore Trails
Having the opportunity to meet Irene was fantastic. She was friendly, fun and energetic, hanging out with her would have been great even if we hadn’t gone for a ride.
I’m not so sure, on some rides Harper can been quite a girl … using a broken leg as an excuse, we should offer him honorary Canadian citizenship for such sissiness…
Thanks for posting the video Byron. It was a very accurate reflection of the ride as the only footage of me on my unicycle was when I crashed … the company on the ascent was also appreciated. You’d think Kris and Irene would have at least offered to carry our gear, maybe next time Brew will be kind enough to do it…
A huge thanks to Harper for organizing everything even though he wasn’t able to ride. Without Gregs prodding I swear I don’t think I’d even get out of bed in the morning. Also thanks to Araz for accommodating Greg and Irene, I’m sure in no time she will be the 2nd female unicyclist tearing up the North Shore trails.
I had a great time, hopefully you can make it up here again soon Irene! (If you bring the same weather we might have to start paying you to come up
… using a broken leg as an excuse, we should offer him honorary Canadian citizenship for such sissiness…