Biking and fishing in Canada, eh?

First, there was the birthday pie. From the ages of about 8 to 43, I was a mud pie guy. This year and forever more, I shall be a rhubarb pie guy for birthday dessert. The observant reader will recognize this pie hauler as the SH-80.

We're not in Canada yet. This is Glen. Click for big and take a close look at that fork. Yep. That's a Ruby. Glen had to do all sorts of unnatural acts to make it work with that bike. The previous version of John would've taken at least one full blog post with many illustrative pics to walk you through it... there's a lot going on there. He's talking about riding that on the Midnight Century. My quick ride down east 16th ave (which is as rigorous as any MC washboard section) proved the utility of those forks to me. I wish there was such a thing as an ultralightweight, short travel road sus fork still. 

This is Liza in Canada. On the Slocan Valley River rail trail, which is an excellent family vacation plan for chill biking and river swimming. And fishing. Thanks to Stine for turning us on to this gem.

This is a standard swimming hole off the Slocan rail trail. Super rad. The Slocan River is fat, mostly deep, clear, and nice and cold. 

Dead Maddie float.

After day one of riding, we stayed in this excellent cabin in Winlaw. At the Karibu Park campground to be more precise. 

That's a happy kid. Ride for a bit. Swim. Eat. Repeat.

We're out of order here. This is day 2. This is Wilson Creek outside of New Denver, where I was skunked. We camped at Rosebery Provincial Park. 

This is later on Day 2 at Lyonel Creek somewhere up in BC. Pic by Maddie.

This is a brook trout from Coffee Creek. I woke up at 5:30 and hit this creek before the girls woke up. Lots of these dudes on a rager of a mountain creek.

See red print. Seems great in theory. But delivery was slow and portions were minuscule. I was really excited when I saw this at first.

Your basic pre-teen. In Trail BC

Oh. Back to Day 1. More swimming hole off of Slocan rail trail.

Happy Liza. Post swim. Back on the bikes for more flat landing.

Maddie and I chatted like crazy for miles. That may have been my favorite part. Well. Second favorite. Keep reading.

Figured out how to make the fill flash work here. Bam!

Slocan river trail is well-marked. These little signs point to food and lodging. In this case it was a ridiculous bakery. Ridiculous good. Too bad we'd just eaten or we'd have hit that much harder.

This is Maddie busting down the trail from the bakery. Most of the paths to the off-trail attractions were on these excellent little overgrown connectors. Light is on for safety.

Lemon Creek. Wait for it...

Big ass rainbow.

Here it is again. This was my favorite part of the trip. I did a lot of fishing and caught a lot of smallish brook trout, which I love. But catching this monster was excellent. 

Over-the-shoulder shot. Dig that trail!

Slocan Lake. Reminds me of SE Alaska. Click for big. Maddie can jump.

Liza. Good egg, her.