#followcamfriday fifth and final stop on my tour across Northern BC. Put Valemount on your short list. 

I have ridden many bike parks in my day, and this one is right up there with the best of the best. Not to be confused with Valmont in Boulder, Valemount lies near the BC / Alberta border, just south of Banff National Park. How such a small town can sustain such an amazing trail network is beyond me. Impressive, to say the least. 

 Circus stunts or bike park features.... You be the judge. Any time you can pass over the top of your squad, on trail, you are winning. These trails have been thoughtfully created. The attention to detail is obvious from the second you point your bike downhill. You can support the trails HERE 

Synchronized park riding. Because everything is better with a squad. I was fortunate to get a proper tour from Conor, Glenn and Jacob. Rad Army has these trails on lock. 

Turns out that your hands are worthless. Hands are for slowing down and maintaining control. Two things that are less important than the send. 

Living life correctly means almost touching your friend's back wheel in mid air. If it looks close on my GoPro, I am basically tire buzzing. Fortunately Jacob whipped right, as I was sneaking under on the left. Timing is everything friends. 

Glenn King has more ups than you. At least 1 meter higher than everyone else on this particular jump. That is three feet for you 'Mericans. Where will #FollowCamFriday turn up next? Canadian withdrawal hitting hard!

No worries eh, welcome to Canada. #followcamfriday hunting for wet-wood-jank. Prince George delivering the goods.

Stop 4 from my tour across Route 16, exploring the lesser known spots in Northern BC.  You can learn more about the Ride North initiative HERE

Glenn King, Conor Sproull, and Graeme Paterson were kind enough to give me the tour of their local spot, Pidherny. This place has more wood than you can shake a stick at. It is all remarkably well-built and rides well, even in the wet. Which was a good thing because it rained heaps, upon my arrival to town. Moisture levels on fleek. 

Always pull up, never not. Glenn knows the deal. The young shredder vibe is alive and well in town. All the dudes at the local bike shop rip and are keen to hit big jumps. All is well in the world. As long as the kids just want to hit jumps and don't actually like to pedal uphill, everything is right in the world. As it should be. 

Sideways is the right way. You can definitely jump over your friends on the lower section of Ditch Pig. The gist of the game is to get as many people in the air at that same time as possible. We had 3. You can do better. If you can buzz the tire of the person you are following, they buy you a beer. Have fun. 

Most Americans have a great disdain for wood. I rather enjoy it. Most people hate on things that they suck at, as a general rule of thumb. "That track had too much pedaling"..... You suck at climbing. "That track was too tech".... You suck at riding downhill. I just try and embrace all of the trails, and ride them all mediocrely. Jack of all trades, master of none theory.  

Yeah BC forest. Brown and green make the trails slappy and mean. Prince George received its first rain in a while, upon my arrival, leaving the conditions perfect for shredding. I am not sure how it is possible, but I have timed my visit just right. Breaking my streak that is normally a day late and a dollar short. Let's keep those moisture levels up and keep "fire season" at bay. 

Check out the boys from Rad Army HERE!!. They are a crew based out of PG, representing all things sweet in bicycling. Sometimes they even do merch, so go give them a follow on the IG and buy some socks because your feet smell. 

This trail nomenclature made me smile. I grew up in New England, eating clam chowder. Interestingly enough, the "r" is silent and the "e" is pronounced a, but I digress. Chowda guy. Although there were no clams on this trail, it was still a heartwarming comfort trail. Yum. I don't even know what that means.  

Where will FollowCamFriday emerge next? Keep it locked right here for more misadventures from The Great White North No Worries Eh Welcome To Canada Tour. Get that down your neck. 

#followcamfriday coming in hot from stop three of my Route 16 tour of the Great White North. 

Enter Burns Lake. Another riding area that I had previously not heard of before my trip. I'll say this again, what have I been doing with my life.... The riding up here is absolutely amazing.  Every single trail that I have ridden for the last 2 weeks has been new to me. I could get used to this....  I have been so very fortunate to be put in touch with the right people in the communities I have visited, to show me a good time. And man, have they ever. 

Cameron Stewart putting the Cam in follow cam friday... See what I did there. Cam is 16 and pinned as. Keep your eye on this kid. He was kind enough to give me a tour of his home tracks. Burns Lake has a wide variety of tracks, from tech, the flow and everything in between. You can ride xc all day or smash shuttle laps. Options. 

Burns Lake has a family vibe. I was lucky enough to be greeted with a weiner roast, before doing a bit of digging and eventually smashing out some shuttles in the afternoon. It turns out that if the whole community helps to work on the trails together, has a bbq together and rides together, good things happen. Ownership and pride in the trail system is next level, just like the hospitality. Communities could learn a lot from this model. 

And then there is the whole camping situation. Free campsites at the trailhead. Oh yeah, and there is a lake to jump into at the edge of the camp ground. If you are looking for a weekend getaway for the entire family, there is probably no place better. Bring bug spray. 
You can support the trails 
HERE!

The locals were even kind enough to share their whiskey stash with me. Rule one, don't tell anyone the whereabouts of said whiskey stash. So don't even ask. I couldn't find it again anyway. There is a tree in Arizona with a bottle of Tequila hidden beneath it... Similar situation. I'll never tell. 

All the views. 

This may be the biggest wall-ride ever constructed. If it was a deck, you could put 200 people on it and have a bbq. Fortunately, this is for bikes, and the public grill in the parking lot is close by. I didn't notice anyone at the end of this ride without a beer in their hand. My kind of people. 

As I type these words, I find myself in Fernie, right in the middle of racing the TransBC 6 day enduro race. In addition to racing, I am producing nightly recap videos. #followcamfriday is tired as, but promises to keep the content machine fed. After all, she has got to eat. Anyone want to be my intern? I can pay you in worn out DHF's. 

#followcamfriday bringing you along for stop 2 of my tour of The Great White North. Smithers delivering the green room. 

Stop 2 from my Northern BC road trip. Just a short drive from Terrace lies Smithers, a picturesque ski town, a bit farther inland on the route 16 corridor. This township of approximately 6000 people has an amazing network of XC and easily shuttleable trails. I was impressed, to say the least.

The true start to Backdoor is on this platform in the alpine. A twenty minute hike a bike up the tee bar line at the ski area gets you to the top so that you can take a selfie above the trees. Fortunately I had my camera so there was no need for Heiko to grab a quick snap of himself for the gram. Heiko is 17 and as pinned as they come. I was amazed with his raw speed and ability on the bike. Especially when he mentioned that he didn't really have many people to ride with locally, that were his age. Humble as they come too. Keep your eye on this kid. 

I was fortunate to get the local tour from Heiko, his friend Ben and a mix of other locals in the riding community. Brian Shorter is responsible for building this amazing network of trails over the last 20 years. Brian even made me dinner at his place and drove a few shuttle for us. Solid dude! You can support the local trail organization HERE.
I was blown away with the attention to detail and the thought given to construction of this network. Some of the finest pieces of trail I have ridden anywhere.

Giver ski do. It wouldn't be a proper alpine ride without a bit of snow to keep things interesting. The skiing is world-class and uncrowded here apparently. Quite the contrast to the blown-out situation that I currently call "skiing" in Colorado. I really do need to come back and visit in the winter at some point. It should be noted that I spent Canadian Independence Day up here, so that kind of makes me a citizen... right... ha

It also wouldn't be a ride in British Columbia without a fair share of wooden jank. At least there was chicken wire on most of it. All of the wood work was remarkably well built actually. This particular stunt was 100 meters long and had drops, linking the sections of skinny. So very Canadian. Go out and practice your skinnies kiddos, if you visit, you will need this skill in your bag. 

And the tour continues. I wish I had a bit more time to hang out and see more things but the #followcamfriday train has to keep moving. I have a race to get to next week in Panorama. Trans BC begins on July 8th. I have a race to try and win.