I’ve been watching so much Drop-in TV and Rideguide mountain bike on Extreme recently, getting overexcited
again about my annual trip to British Columbia.

You think Afan Argoed, Coed y Brenin and Glentress are good? Haven’t been to BC yet? Do it now! I love the British trails and singletrack but you need to mutliply the distance and technicality by ten to get some idea of what BC riding is like.

Last year five of us joined Fernie Fat Tire for a couple of weeks of pure pleasure – riding flowy to technical singletrack, steeps, North Shore ladders, ramps and jumps, huge three hour Alpine climbs with two hour rolling descents… The riding of dreams. And as if the riding wasn’t blissful enough, the scenery was beyond belief – snow capped mountains, alpine meadows, clear blue lakes and hot springs! Aaah!

Fernie’s guides are fantastic. They take care of everything whilst retaining a bit of adventure. They cater for you and coach you and build your confidence but kept it safe all the time (well, as safe as mountain biking can be!). We camped most nights and ate amazing food prepared by Ryan on a camp fire or camp stove. I don’t eat that well in restaurants! But maybe the mountain air and beautiful surroundings make it taste that much better.

Every day there was a flurry of bike maintenance (with some tuition from Ryan) to repair the toll yesterdays trails had taken on our bikes. Then Rich explained the day’s trails to us and gave us a choice of what to or whether to ride at all. We’d ride some really gnarly trails like Mount 7 in Golden (a full on natural downhill ride, home to the Psychosis race), we’d learn to have a go at North Shore ramps and ladders with Anie coaxing us along and making us, “focus on the end of the log Claire”. I’d whoop for joy every time I made it safely. And when the ramps were that little bit higher and harder everyone would “spot” you, bouldering style. One time I raced up a steep ramp, stalled at the top and fell sideways thinking I was a hospital case. Suddenly I’m crowd surfing (as Dennis called it) in the arms of eight men holding me and my bike aloft. Now that’s service!

BC camping has strict wildlife rules if you want to stay safe, food and even toothpaste in your tent is not a good idea. One night I retired to my tent having unwittingly left an energy bar wrapper in my shorts. Sometime around 2am we could all hear a snuffling around the campsite. When Rich came out of his tent to see, there was a bear right by my tent. A few loud scared voices raised around the site and the bear was off. So was I – I slept in the van for the rest of the night!

Realising that my Cove Stiffee hardtail could manage the trails but was hard work on my arms, I tried out Rich’s Norco Shore with dual crown forks and 7in travel front and back. Wow – this is what I call fun! Downhill bumps and roots suddenly became really fast and smooth, I even dropped a few jumps! At 48lbs it wasn’t so good uphill, though.

And I’m back out there this year for two weeks. It’s raining again here (July in UK!), so I’m dreaming of hot, dusty BC trails. This time we’re going to sample Whistler’s Bike Park too. Looking forward to it? I can hardly wait…