Lorna Corke comes for a walk

After a nourishing meal of fresh Puget Sound Oysters and Clam Chowder in Wahingtons capitol, Olimpia, we headed up the Cushman Lake into the Olympic National Park. This is a temperate rain forest to the West of Tacoma. We ended up choosing the Stairway route that took us along the Skokomish River. We spoted Osprey feeding thier young, clambered over some huge boulders and once we had tired ourselves out retreated to the small village of Union for tea and cake. A most excellent adventure.

One final ride

The last morning before we fly home. So up early and out the door.
First ride was on the TCR Advanced SL0, New ultegra6700. Stiff, responsive smooth...best race bike ever.

Followed by a Giant Faith and a gondola trip to the top. Hilarious trails followed as Mike and I, inspired by 2days confidence building, decided to tackle the Black runs, both single and double diamond. Mike was some what under biked with our new favorite all mountian bike the Trance. Never the less we rode the north shore wood, hucked the drops, railed the berms and laughed allot. The Faith is an incredible bike that saw me chasing for one last gondola trip and a few more double diamond trails. It has its limits though as it sucks at riding up hill.

Finaly before we left I had to sneek a ride on the all new Trinity Advanced SL Aero bike. Despite the problems with oxygen depleted air, its easy to believe how this bike has come to be known as 'the fastest bike in the world'

Afternoon ride

After such a great ride in the morning we managed to blag another bike for the afternoon. This time we chose to climb on fire road and keep off the beaten track. Check the picture below, we climbed to the hieght of the ski runs in the far distance. My body seems to be getting more used to the altitude as the climb was not so bad and Dave and I managed to hold a conversation at times! Click the maps and pics to see larger.

Truly the best mountain bike ride I have ever ridden. Satisfying climb, rolling wooded singletrack with technical switchbacks breaking out into beautiful mountain pasture. 1hr40 up and 45mins down. A true mountain bike ride on a mountian.

I rode a 2009 Giant Trance X (called Texas) Rapidly becoming my favorite MTB.

A quick ride before breakfast

When you wake up to this its rude not to:

This time we did it without cheating, we rode up the trails we were riding the down at 30mph the day before. Steep technical trails at 10,000ft means heart rate overload! It took us an hour to do what the gondola did int 12mins! Almost 1,000ft.

Click the map below to see where we rode. Follow the red line.

I rode Giants new XTC 29er (she was called Belle)

Chair lift Mountain biking

12mins up in the gondola with our bikes and we are at the top of Keystone MTB resort.

What awaits us is 40 mins of the most hilarious singletrack I have ever ridden. Mr Brown and I chose to ride Giants 2010 Trance X1 'trail' bike, from the demo fleet. something like this:

Sadly the camera battery died, so there are no action shots today. I did manage to get the camera juiced in time for the evening meal.

This was held at a Colorado horse stables. Giant had built a pump track(mini bmx track) there and we had traditional cowboy food. Ribs, brisket, corn bread and refried beans.

Giant ride in Colorado

Me and Mike scored big time.



We ended up at the Keystone resort 10,000 feet above sea level at the Keystone MTB resort in Colerado.....and the best part is that its all courtesey of Mr Giant, and he is giving us his bikes to ride.



The altitude does funny things...my hands are tingling!



This is a bad picture of the resort complex...Im glad i brought my swim trunks.




This is the trail map:









Click this video link to see how cool the riding is:


http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid474445721?bctid=26430854001