It's been a hectic few weeks to say the least!! The good news is I now have my own internet connection so I can keep this blog updated. Apologies for the last few weeks it has been difficult without the internet and to be perfectly honest there were just too many fun things to do...

I'm going to go back in time to get everyone up to date but will write less and show more so that I have at least some of my Sunday afternoon left to relax in the hot tub.

Back in Vancouver Tim is mad keen downhill mountain biker (and seakayaker, snowboarder, hiker and general outdoorsman). Tim's the kind of nice guy that will happily take you out and show you his world so on the first Saturday I was staying with him he took me to Mt Fromme for some incredible downhill biking.

I rented a bike from the local shop - the kind of bike that costs more than a second hand car, has front and rear suspension, hydraulic disc brakes and wasn't made for comfort. It looked like this:

To add a degree of difficulty North Americans have their brake levers on the opposite handle bars to home...so the left hand controls the front brake and the right hand the rear...the first thing I did was unscrew the brake levers and change that...it's hard to unlearn how to ride a bike.

The top of Mt Fromme is not accessible by car so we had to park at the bottom of the hill and ride up to the top of the trail we were going to attempt.

The ride up was incredible we rode past the seventh switchback and it was gruelling to say the least. But also quite beautiful with a decent fog in the trees the sunlight was amazing.

With all the gear on at the top of the trail I looked something like this:

We rode down on a trail called "Seventh Secret" a black diamond run...great thanks Tim...did I mention that I live in the flattest city on earth and have only ever ridden my bike on the footpath before...

It was off the hook...the trail started with a near vertical 2m rock drop and continued down the side of Mt Fromme on a handle bar narrow path between trees, up and over rocks, across logs, wooden ladders and down what was at one point a small stream...yes in the water.

Some more photos from the trip below:

If you ever get a chance to do this don't let it go by. It was an amazing afternoon out there. By the end I could hardly walk I was that tired. The trail that we followed whilst graded as a black run was entirely 'rollable' meaning that you didn't need to be able to lift your front wheel off the ground or jump anything you could ride up, over, across and down all obstacles (I proved that you could also walk around a few of them...). Of course if you had the skills you could really do some crazy things up there.

Sorry Tim...I couldn't resist...