Back to the Future

"May you live in interesting times."
-Chinese proverb/curse

2008 has certainly been the most "interesting" in memory, both on a personal level and a national and global level. On the personal side, it was a rollercoaster year... Sacred Rides had a record year, with new trips launched in 4 countries and more than double the number of riders compared to 2007. In May, my daughter was born, easily the best day of my life (and the days since have been no less amazing). In September, someone very close to me passed away after a protracted battle with cancer. On December 1, our non-profit organization Bikes Without Borders hosted our first successful bike collection drive, for HIV/AIDS workers in Malawi.

On an external level, we had yet another election in Canada, followed by a protracted power battle within the halls of Parliament, followed by a suspension of parliament. And in November, a historic election south of our border resulted in the U.S.' first black president, barely a generation after Martin Luther King's famed "I have a dream" speech.

All of this has been overshadowed by what is promising to be one of the largest and deepest financial crises of the past 100 years, the first truly global economic crisis. The scale of this crisis is being revealed day by day, and the news is anything but pretty. I was riding my bike in Croatia on a sneak preview of our new Alps + Adriatic trip when the news of the first big financial collapses began to trickle over to us in Europe. At the time, I was too preoccupied with having a great time in my ancestral homeland to truly grasp the scope of what was happening.

All in all, truly a momentous year. 2009 is poised to be no less interesting. If one were to believe the media reports, then we could be seeing an unprecedented financial collapse during the coming year. All around me, I see and hear fear. Indeed, it is the prevaling emotion in any discussion surrounding the economy.

Yet where others see fear, I see signs of hope. Surely the coming years will be trying ones, for many people, yet what may emerge on the other side of this crisis is something truly wonderful. In the natural world, death begets life. Regardless of how the crisis plays out, one thing is for certain: our economic system could not continue. An economic system based on infinite growth in a finite world is neither sustainable nor possible. If anything, this crisis may have bought us some time to avert another collapse: the collapse of the natural world and our ecosystems.

This crisis has started to awake millions of people from the deep slumber called free-market capitalism. The notion that our economy must be based on continued growth, and that capitalism should be allowed to run free, untainted by government control, is now being seriously called into question.

After decades of ever greater levels of consumption, people are starting to question capitalism's most sacred promise: that consumption of goods will lead us to happiness. Almost every conversation I hear, almost every magazine I pick up, and almost every news show I watch has something to say about living with less, about getting back to the basics, about turning the page on 30 years of neoconservative economics and unfettered free market greed.

Perhaps what we'll see on the other side of this crisis is an economic system that serves people and the planet, and not shareholders or hedge fund managers. If you get a chance, read the excellent book Natural Capitalism, in which the authors spell out just such a vision.

Everywhere around the planet, in every town, every city, every village, people are imagining the world of the future, one that is sustainable and more just, with a more equitable distribution of wealth and a better use of our planet's limited resources.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this matter. What do you see in your 2009 crystal ball? Are you scared? hopeful? Ecstatic? Pissed off?

I wish you all a Happy New Year, and a prosperous 2009 on all fronts.

Mike

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Guatemala in the rear-view mirror

“Everyone is the age of their heart.”
-Guatemalan proverb

We left Antigua this morning under the cover of darkness, our van bumping and hopping its way through empty cobblestone streets. At 4 am, the Christmas lights of the main square flashed their seasonal cheer to us alone. Reaching the outskirts of town, I glanced in the rear view mirror of our careening van and caught a glance of Volcan Agua, the giant volcanic sentinel that looms over the city. It is a massive piece of geology, visible from almost anywhere in Antigua, and a postcard-perfect icon of the town’s unique and beautiful topography.

Just a week ago, I’d climbed up Agua’s flanks on my bike, grunting up dirt roads and narrow trails in my smallest gear, first cursing the tropical heat then grinning as we descended through fertile cornfields and small villages, farmers and children waving as we passed. We marveled at the ingenuity of Mayan agriculture, weaving green beans around fallow cornstalks, and gazed in awe at the spectacular views of the city below.

Guatemala has, in just two visits, become one of my favourite destinations in the world. What is it that stands out for me? Among many highlights I’m hard pressed to come up with just a few. Mostly it is just a collection of small moments, those brief slices of existence that collectively make up our memories, and consequently, our lives and identities.

I remember descending through the narrow cobblestone streets and stairs of Santa Catarina on the shores of Lake Atitlan, people emerging from seemingly every window and alleyway to wave at and run behind us. My heart grows younger at the thought of the old Mayan woman sitting in her courtyard under an avocado tree and sharing the stories of her weavings. I smile at the memory of the warm greetings and farewells of Lorenzo, the Macadamia nut farmer who told us that we now have a new family in Guatemala. The corners of my mouth turn up in a silent grin when I think of the children of Guatemala, some of the happiest and most prone to laughter I have ever met. I still giggle when I think of traveling along the main highway from Panajachel to Antigua, where an endless parade of small children waved at us from the side of the road, for seemingly no other reason than the joy of waving at a passing car.

Guatemala is a poor country, fraught with many problems. But in the midst of its poverty is a simple, quiet pride and a joy taken from the small pleasures of life: family, friendship, community, and the small moments that make up our fondest memories. There are many small, beautiful lessons to be learned from its people, and I hope I do not forget them.

My thanks go to Luisa, Matt, Rodolfo, Wilbur and the many people who helped make our stay in Guatemala such a fantastic one.

-Mike

We still have space on our Jan. 10, 2009 La Ruta De Maya trip in Guatemala and are offering spots at 10% off. Visit our website for more information on this amazing trip and our other mountain bike adventures around the world.

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motorcycle ice cream delivery in Guatemala

I'm writing this post from the shores of spectacular Lake Atitlan, at the incredible Casa Del Mundo hotel. The hotel is built into the side of a cliff, with 16 stunning rooms overlooking the lake and its volcanoes. Today we set out after breakfast in kayaks, and paddled our way to the little village of San Marcos, where we had a super refreshing dip in the lake. After a quick drink, we headed out on foot for a fun 2-hour hike along the shores of the lake, back to our hotel.

We've had 4 days of incredible sunny weather here in Guatemala. Our group is 9 strong riders: Mack and Shanti from California, Sean and Adam from Ontario's own Chico Racing, Wilco and Lisa from deep-freeze Alberta (currently -30 C), Kingston from Toronto, myself and local über-guide Luisa.

On Monday we had a great ride from Antigua to the horse farm at Posada de Mi Abuelo. The ride started out with a fairly grueling climb up an old jeep track, through corn fields and avocado plantations, before putting us on top of a plateau, with views of volcanoes in all directions. The descent was fast and furious, and dropped us off at a lunch spot right by an old Spanish ruin. Lunch was a delicious affair, highlighted by the sudden appearance of an ice cream vendor on motorcycle. He was asking 1 Quetzal (about 15 cents) for an ice cream cone, so how could I resist? The ice cream was delicious, especially since it was delivered to me in the middle of nowhere by a man on a motorcycle.

After lunch we had a feast of fast, smooth singletrack through more corn fields, jungle and mountainous terrain before ending up in the Mayan village of San Andres Itzapa, where we met the folks from MayaPedal. MayaPedal is run by a congenial fellow by the name of Carlos. They repair donated bikes, distribute them to local villagers, and take old bike frames and turn them into really cool pedal-powered machines, such as blenders, washing machines, generators, and corn huskers.

Our non-profit organization Bikes Without Borders is going to be doing some work with MayaPedal over the coming months and years. We're going to be donating some bikes and learn a bit more about the bike technology that Maya Pedal is developing, in the hopes of bringing this technology to other parts of the developing world. If you're interested in learning more about Bikes Without Borders, supporting our work with a financial investment, or purchasing some ethically sourced bike-themed clothing, please visit us on the web.

Yesterday, we had what was by the far the best ride of the trip: an incredible 9-km descent from the highway above Lake Atitlan to the village of Santa Catarina Palopo. The descent is technical, with spectacular views of the lake at every turn. The ride ends with a wild descent through the village's narrow streets and alleys, with children poking their heads out of windows to wave and say hello. It's easily one of the best rides I've done in my life, and one that I hope to do many more times in my life.

Tomorrow we leave Casa Del Mundo and take the ferry back to Panajachel to do Guatemala's own version of Moab's famed slickrock trail, before heading back to Antigua and the incredible views at Earth Lodge above Antigua.

We still have a few spots left on our Jan. 10, 2009 trip to Guatemala. Visit our website and sign up today!

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On the Cardamom Trail - Antigua, Guatemala

This morning we set out in search of some Guatemalan cardamom (a spice used in curries and other dishes). Join us as we walk the winding maze of the mercado (market) of Antigua, in search of what proved to be an elusive little spice.


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Antigua, Guatemala. It's good to be back

We arrived in Antigua late Wednesday night after a full day of planes and airports and layovers. I'm back in Guatemala for 10 days of mountain biking and good living with our La Ruta de Maya trip.

We started off the morning right with several cups of some of the best coffee in the world (Antigua is surrounded by coffee farms, all of which producing incredible java) and the famous Guate Guate bagel at the Bagel Barn in downtown Antigua. Antigua is a beautiful colonial city in central Guatemala, and a fantastic place to hang out. It's surrounded by volcanoes, with beautiful architecture, colourful Mayan culture, and a laid-back vibe that sucks travelers in for weeks, months and even lifetimes.

Yesterday afternoon we put our bikes together for a first spin and headed up the side of one of the local mountains, with some instructions from local guide Mateo (we don't start the actual trip until Sunday, so for now we're on our own and exploring). The climb was steep but steady and we soon found the trail he told us about, a narrow ribbon of beautiful singletrack winding between coffee farms and avocado plantations.

The singletrack around Antigua mainly consists of walking trails from village to village and farm to farm. They're fairly smooth, but narrow and technical in spots. You have to stay on your toes, but the riding is among the best in the world. We whooped and hollered our way down the trail until it spit us back out onto the road just as the sun was setting. The last 2 km were a 70 km/h race down the road into the fading sunset, with Volcan Agua looming large over the valley.

All in all, an amazing first ride.

Today we head to the beach to check out some Guatemala surf. Stay tuned.

The Weather Outside is Frightful - Are You Ready?

Post guest-written by Robb Sutton of Mountain Biking by 198

That's right! It is winter riding season. Many mountain bikers pack up the bike until spring during this time period, but I am going to challenge you to get out and ride. To help with that challenge, here is an outline on how to use available equipment to make that ride much more enjoyable.

Layers

Mountain biking in cold weather conditions is all about layers. For most rides, especially in the low 20's to mid 30's, you are going to be very cold in the parking lot. Here in lies the problem...your body temperature is going to start to rise as you ride and eventually you are going to want to shed clothing to expel some of that heat. When you are preparing for a cold weather ride, plan ahead. Think of how you are going to want to shed layers as you ride, and how you are going to carry those items as you ride.

Some tips:

• 

  Leg and Arm Warmers - Leg and arm warmers like those found through Pearl Izumi provide a lot of much needed warmth in an easy to pack setup. These fleece lined arm and leg socks are designed for cold weather riding and keep your extremities away from the wind.
• Light Outer Jacket - A light outer jacket will be easy to pack and it also keeps the wind off the core of your body. The warmer you keep your core, the easier time your heart will have pumping warm blood to the rest of your body. Lighter windbreaker type jackets are also easier to pack away and normally fit over thicker under layers.

Poor Circulation Areas

Poor circulation areas of your body are going to cause you the most discomfort. These areas include your toes, fingers and ears. This discomfort is easy to fix if you follow some guidelines.

Preventing Cold Feet

• Thick Wool Socks - Wearing thicker wool socks is the obvious choice and I highly recommend this. However, there is one thing that you need to be fully aware of before you take this route. Your riding shoes are normally set around thinner riding socks. When you use thicker wool socks inside of you riding shoes, be sure to leave them loose enough so that your feet still get adequate blood circulation. If you constrict your blood vessels...you will be defeating the purpose.
• Toe or Shoe Covers - Your riding shoes are designed to breath and keep your feet cool...not warm. Shoe or toe covers will keep the heat in and cold out while preventing that cold wind from penetrating. I highly recommend picking up a set of these for anyone that is considering cold weather riding.
• Winter Riding Shoes - The most expensive option, but also the one that performs the best. Companies like Sidi actually make winter specific riding shoes that are much warmer than your regular set, but be prepared...they aren't cheap.

Preventing Cold Hands

• Cold Weather Gloves - Do not use your regular riding gloves in cold weather riding situations. Much like your shoes, they are designed to breathe so that your hands to not sweat and overheat. Get some cold weather riding gloves for your cold weather riding. There is nothing worse than cold hands while you are trying to enjoy the ride.

Preventing A Cold Head

Your ears and head are vital components of your body to keep warm during a ride but they are also the cheapest to keep warm! Get a set of good fleece ear warmers or a thin full head beanie that fits under your helmet and you are set. The big thing to keep in mind is that you want to block the wind and keep the heat in. Your head is a natural source of heat, but it is also where most of the heat in your body escapes. You want to keep this heat close instead of it leaking out.

Where are you going to put this gear?

As you can already tell, this is a lot of gear to carry. On winter weather rides, I would recommend bringing your 100 oz hydration pack. Most of the 100 oz hydration packs on the market have plenty of storage for packing away layers and accessories. As an added benefit, a 100 oz pack is also going to cover more of your back and this will further your quest in staying warm.

Final Thoughts from 198

Cold weather riding can turn out to be some of the best riding you have ever done. The trails take on a peacefulness that you just can't find in the heat. If you are fully prepared, you will have a great time, but as you can see by the suggestions...if you get cold or too hot...it will be a tough ride. Follow the guidelines above and you will have an incredible ride.

For more tips like the ones you read here...visit Mountain Biking by 198. We have a free newsletter that provides exclusive content as well as a free rss feed for daily updates on product reviews, riding tips, bike maintenance tips and much more.

Guest blogger: Robb Sutton of Mountain Biking by 198

Robb Sutton of the fantastic site Mountain Biking by 198 will be doing a guest blog here later this week! We've suggested a few topics for him, but will leave the ultimate content totally up to him.

Stay tuned for what I'm sure will be some great, informative writing!

Mike

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Number 1 holiday destination in the world?

Responsibletravel.com has just selected New Zealand as the winner and best overall destination for their 2008 Responsible Tourism Awards. Which makes us pretty excited to be heading there in February for our new South Pacific Singletrack mountain bike trip.

Have you been to New Zealand? Know anyone who's been? Want to go?

We'd love to hear your stories (we've never been ourselves) and any wisdom you can share with us beforehand. Please leave your comments by clicking on the comment button below.

Sacred Rides selected as one of the Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth

I've just learned that National Geographic Adventure magazine has selected Sacred Rides Mountain Bike Holidays as one of their top Adventure Travel Companies on Earth for 2009. Normally I don't pay a ton of attention to magazine lists and rankings, since they're mainly just a way to sell magazines, but this is a huge honour.

NGA has a stringent selection process and making the list was the culmination of a long process that ranked our company according to various criteria, including quality of service, sustainability, education, and client experience.

It's nice to see your efforts rewarded and recognized, and I'm proud of all the hard work by our staff that led to this award.

The issue comes out in January 2009. Look for it on your newstand and join us for your amazing ride in 2009!

Boost for Bike Commuting

Some encouraging news from our neighbours down south (our American neighbours that is)

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Feds, Caltrain trying to make it easier to get to work

Buried in the financial rescue bill passed by Congress last week is a provision to encourage bike commuting. The idea is to level the playing field for cyclists, who currently can’t get benefits like those available for participants in car or van pools or other programs designed to reduce traffic congestion.

Starting in January, employers can reimburse bike commuters up to $20/month for the “purchase of a bicycle, bicycle improvements, repair, and storage, if such bicycle is regularly used for travel between the employee’s residence and place of employment” and have such reimbursements get the same favorable tax treatment as other benefits. Twenty bucks a month isn’t a lot, but as a regular bike commuter, I think the concept is very cool!

Meanwhile, Caltrain, which runs commuter rail service into San Francisco from points south is trying to figure out how to provide more bike capacity on its trains. All trains have a specially fitted bike car with room for 32 bikes and passengers. During rush hour, some trains have two of these bike cars. But the number of bike commuters is growing (now 8% of Caltrain’s ridership), leading to overcrowding and frustration among cyclists when they can’t get a spot on the train. Waiting on the platform for the next train 30-60 minutes later is no fun, especially if you’re trying to get to work on time.

Caltrain is using all the cars it has, so this won’t be an easy problem to solve. In a plan approved last week, officials said they will increase bike-parking facilities at stations and experiment with removing some seats in train cars to make room for more bikes. A long term solution probably involves a big investment in more bike cars and more frequent train service.

Source: TerraPass + Sustainable Travel International

Utah Part 2: Moab, Slickrock, Gooseberry Mesa

Part 2 of our installment from recent Southwest Slickrock participant John Brownlow. Thanks, John!

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Thursday: Finally, we arrive in Moab. It's a tiny, funky little town surrounded by huge vertical rock walls, a bit like Fernie in the desert. We meet up with our local guide Julia, and immediately embark on Moab's most famous trail, the Slickrock. Before we ride, Julia warns us that it's like 'three hours of stairmaster', and she's not wrong, but despite its fearsome reputation it turns out to be eminently rideable, and unlike anything any of us have ever ridden before. Terrifying climbs and descents are only made possible by the sand-paper like texture of the rock surfaces, and the 'trail' is simply a series of white lines painted on the rock surface. An unforgettable ride and one which features a seemingly endless menu of challenges, limited only by your own abilities and courage.

Friday: Julia guides us through the famous Porcupine Rim trail. An hour-long technical climb along a rock-ledge-strewn jeep road finally crests at a spectacular lookout, and then begin a 10-mile descent. The first two-thirds is a bike-eating rock-fest featuring a seemingly endless roster of boulder gardens, drops, S-bends and whoop-de-doos before narrowing to singletrack as the trail teeters a thousand feet above the Colorado river, subjecting the rider to extreme exposure and considerable vertigo, as well as numerous extreme technical sections, before finally descending to the canyon floor where we wipe the sweat from our palms and crack open a beer. Another unforgettable ride.

Saturday. Moab's third 'serious' ride is Amasa Back. It's an out-and-back, with a two-hour technical climb followed by an hour-long fast-but-technical descent. Others enjoy it but I'm not riding well and the trail seems crowded with both riders and ATVs. I almost endo several times, and a whipping sandstorm makes life ever more difficult. It's not a bad trail, but we've been spoilt by Slickrock and Porcupine Rim, and I leave feeling a little deflated.

Saturday afternoon, we head back to Brian Head in the hope of riding Virgin Rim, but as we climb into the mountains, a huge snowstorm hits and it's touch and go whether the van will make it to our lodging. By the time we finally make it to the ski lodge, there's five inches of snow and the temperature is -8C. The altitude (12,000 feet) is making several of us sick, and we decide instead to head back to St George in the morning to ride a trail we skipped earlier in the week.

Sunday: Mark finally gets on his bike and guides us through most of Little Creek. Also created by Morgan Harris, this is a sister ride to the extraordinary Gooseberry Mesa, and Mark says it's his favourite trail in the world. Within a few hundred yards we see why. This is a real bike-rider's trail, with seemingly infinite flow, from slickrock bowl to smooth singletrack winding through the rocks and cacti, to rock gardens and ledges, then back to slickrock drops and loops. The trail eventually gives out onto one of the utterly spectacular views over the vast Utah landscape we've now gotten used to, but within minutes we're back on the bikes and hurtling along the trail again.

James and I get deliciously lost before finally locating the trail head and our companions. We only ride about half of the full trail, but it's an addictive place and of all the places we visit it's the one I'd go back to first. Not for the views, or the challenge, but the simple ride.

Sunday night, we bundle back into the van, back to Vegas, and take out flights home. On the plane back I nostalgically review helmetcam, and as I drive home from Pearson Airport I think about the vacation. In a single week we've seen temperatures from scorching heat to freezing cold, ridden the desert floor and 12000 foot peaks, skidded through snow and mud, and found infinite grip on slickrock. To our surprise, our group is repeatedly complimented on its riding skills by our local guides, and in conversation we agree that although much of the riding is technical and exposed, overall it is slightly easier than the BC trails most of us have experience of. Also to our surprise, we agree that the little known trails around St George are easily a match for the famous rides around Moab, with Thunder Mountain probably the highlight of the trip for its unforgettable combination of scenery, flow and technical challenge.

Utah, part 1 - St. George, Gooseberry Mesa and more!

This post comes to you courtesy of John Brownlow, one of our riders who just completed the maiden voyage of our new 'Southwest Slickrock' trip in Utah:

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Sunday: Arrive Las Vegas and check into the South Point Casino. Vegas is the saddest town in the world but this is National Indian Rodeo Finals weekend so I pay $25 and pass the afternoon watching Navajo teenagers riding bulls and wrestling steers in the huge equestrian ampitheatre. They even play the Canadian national anthem at the beginning (there are many riders here from Alberta). I'm touched. I thought mountain biking was tough until now, but these guys are something else. Nobody seems to leave uninjured.

Monday: Meet up with the other riders and our guide Eddie who's driven down from Fernie. We build bikes in the parking lot to the bemusement of passing gamblers. The group is almost entirely composed of former Sacred Rides clients and I know several of them, so we have a good
esprit de corps from the get-go. We also meet our local bike buddy Mark, a gentle drawling Mormon who will shuttle the van for the next week while telling some of the tallest stories I have ever heard.

After a two-hour drive to St George, Utah we change into riding clothes and manage a single shuttle run at Bear Claw Poppy, an instant hit of a downhill trail replete with berms, drops, hucks and little wallrides that sends us hurtling out onto the desert floor as the setting sun paints the huge mesas surrounding us a deep shade of crimson. At this point we realize this trip is probably going to be something special.

Tuesday: Mark introduces us to Morgan Harris, a barrel-chested local legend who built the trail we about to ride. Morgan leads us through Gooseberry Mesa, a twisting pretzel of a trail that loops around the top of one of the local mountains through pine, cactus and juniper. The trail requires total concentration with several sections featuring several thousand feet of exposure, and others taking us through our first taste of the steep slickrock bowls whose infinite traction turns apparently unrideable steeps into red-lining anaerobic workouts that require you to believe that you can do the physically impossible.

In the afternoon we shuttle to the top of J.E.M., another hurtling, smooth, twisty downhill trail whose twelve miles are gone in a matter of thirty minutes or so, the last section of singletrack snaking alongside the edge of a canyon, a couple of feet or so from what feels like certain death.

Wednesday: Mark shuttles us to the 'top' of Brian Head Mountain. The elevation here is about 12,000 feet and the real top of the mountain is still above us, the simple climb made grindingly hard by lack of oxygen and several inches of snow that has just fallen. We're the first riders through the snow and Mark is worried, but we assure him we've seen snow before, and set off. The first few miles are a slip-fest, then the snow transitions to mud and we splatter our way
down to the tree line, where the trail turns into a humdinger of a downhill sidewinder following Bunker Creek through yellowing aspens, where it seems a shame to even think about touching the brakes as thousands of feet of elevation shoot us out into a dirt road where I finally pinch flat on one of the hundreds of little rock drops it's impossible not to hit. Afterwards, Scott pronounces it one of the best trails he's ever ridden, and it's hard not to agree.

As if this wasn't enough, the afternoon takes us to Thunder Mountain, a trail he discovered and now voted Utah's best. A long series of alternating downhills, bermed hairpins, and grinding climbs finally emerges into an utterly spectacular hidden canyon, the trail winding up between eerie redstone hoodoos then along a three-foot wide ridge with exposure on both sides, before ricocheting down a series of tight, technical, exposed switchbacks, culiminating in a balls-out
rocket ride to the trail head along smooth, bermed singletrack. Afterwards, Scott pronounces it even better than the first trail and many of us feel that we've just experienced one of our best days riding ever.

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next post: Moab, Porcupine Rim, Brian Head

Company Name Contest

A big thank you to everyone who submitted an entry to our company name change contest. We're sorry it's taken so long to get to the next stage (the voting stage) of the contest, but we've been overwhelmed with submissions, over 1,000 of them, and it's taken a while to sift through them all. We've circulated the names among our staff and are whittling down the suggestions to our top 5. We'll put the top 5 back out to you in a week or two for a vote - the winning entry will receive a free trip to Peru in 2009!

On a side note, we just got this e-mail from a client who was on our Rocky Mountain Singletrack trip this summer. E-mails like this really demonstrate how enthusiastic we are about our jobs and why we love what we do:

"Just wanted to say a big thanks to Sacred Rides for my Rocky Mountain Singletrack trip. Not only was it the best mountain biking holiday I have ever had, it was the best holiday I have ever had. Great people, great weather, great guides, great rides...

Eddy and Johanna were great, took care of us all really well and I learned so much from both of them. I learned more in 1 week than I have learned in about 5 years of riding. My confidence and technique have improved greatly and I'm looking forward to trying some new things when I go to Scotland in a few weeks.

Anyways, just wanted to say thanks again for making it such a memorable trip. You guys rock!" - M. Barrat, UK

The feeling is mutual, so thank you too!

Mike

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Alps + Adriatic, part 2 (Croatia)

We crossed the border into Croatia, climbed the hills above Trieste and were greeted with an immense, beautiful panorama of the Adriatic: deep blue water and islands dotting the landscape, the coastline receding into the distance, with green mountains providing scenic relief.

This is the coastline of my childhood: my parents left Croatia 2 years before I was born, and I returned often with them, spending weeks and even months on the coast every summer. The sea is an emotional home for most Croatians; they spend their summers on the Adriatic, emptying the cities in the months of July and August.

We soon stopped at a small coastal resort town, stripped down to our swim trunks and jumped in the clear blue water of the Adriatic. It's been five long years since I was in Croatia, and it felt like home. We topped off our swim with a local beer and a cevapcici sandwich, made of spiced meat and pita bread. Yum.

An hour later, we arrived at our hotel: a 16th-century baron's residence in the interior, surrounded by vineyards and rolling green hills. The owners bought the villa from the community in 2000, and spent 2 years lovingly restoring it. Before we sat down to dinner, the owner sat us down in front of his homemade rakije (whisky) collection. There was fig whisky, mistletoe whisky, cherry whisky, and others. More yum.

Dinner was a multi-course, 3-hour affair. We finished off our crepe desserts completely stuffed, ready for bed and the adventures that awaited.

The next day, we hopped in the van and drove to Mt. Ucka national park. This mountain, known as the Ucka Massif, is about 3,000 feet high and overlooks the Adriatic and the mountains of Italy. We drove right up to the top, then pushed our bikes the final few metres to the top. Remants of a castle stood on top of the mountain, along with a small gift shop in its base. The views were spectacular.

Doug the Aussie and I took turns riding down the spiraling castle steps and then we set out en masse, with our Croatian guide Martin leading the way.

We ducked into the forest, past a group of German hikers, and entered some beautiful forested singletrack. It alternated between sections of smooth dirt and sections of technical rock. We exited onto the road a few kilometres down from the castle and then rode down the road until the next section of trail. Which is where things took a different turn.

The next section of trail was unforgettable - not for its fun, or beauty, or any other positive adjectives I might throw at it, but because it was sheer survival for 60 minutes. The 'trail' became narrow doubletrack, so rocky that at times I felt my bike was going to explode and I'd be forced to walk the various parts of my bike down to the valley bottom 2,000 feet below. A few thorn bushes added to the excitement.

Joe the American and I were the rear guard - Team Hardtail as we called ourselves - and we cursed ourselves for leaving our nice soft squishy full suspension bikes at home. We exited the trail several kilometeres later, feeling a few inches shorter and a few fillings lighter.

As the saying goes, you win some, and you lose some. We'll call this one a draw. The traditional lunch at the base of Mt. Ucka made up for the bone-jarring descent, and later that day we drove to the beautiful medieval seaside town of Rovinj. A ferry took us over to the island of St. Martin, and we had a beautiful open-air dinner with the smell of sea salt in the air, Istrian wine accompanying a delicious feast.

Later that night, we swam under the midnight stars, the warm Adriatic sea a perfect end to a demanding day.

Our first client tours to Croatia and Slovenia take place in June 2009. Sign up for our newsletter at www.sacredrides.com and be among the first to get a spot on our Alps and Adriatic tour!

Alps + Adriatic, part 1 (Slovenia)

I had hoped to keep an ongoing account of our inaugural trip to Croatia and Slovenia: daily posts, photos, movies, etc... But when you bring together 2 writers, 1 photographer, 1 German, an American and a handful of Canucks for an adventure through the Balkans, there tends to be a bit of socializing. A lot of socializing, in fact. Which leaves little time for blogging.

But lots of time for sampling plum brandy and local trails.

We started our trip in the Karawanke mountain range of northern Slovenia, only a few kms from the Austrian border. This is Sound of Music scenery: big rolling grass hills, flanked by rocky, jagged peaks. Spectacular in every sense. My local Slovenian guide Dixi has a beautiful lodge perched on top of a hill, with an organic garden, a few cows, a swimming pool, and a massive network of singletrack surrounding his property.

Our first day got off to an auspicious start. Doug - the Aussie - and I were early arrivals, so we went for a spin to nearby Crna na Koroskem to visit a local potato festival (see below). Upon arriving back at the lodge, we were greeted by Alex - the German - with a fresh case of German Weis beer. Nice. Later that night the rest of our group arrived, suitably excited for the upcoming adventure. A few beers and some late night ping-pong followed, with The Dragon - yours truly - once again demonstrating his prowess, vanquishing the American journalist Rob Story with pinpoint precision (next time, P. Willow!)

The next morning didn't start quite so smoothly. Just half an hour into our first ride, Alex - the German - impaled his hand on a branch sticking out from the side of the trail. Shortly after that Peter, one of our local guides, went down hard on a tricky descent and gave himself an 8-stitch reminder of the trail. 'What are we in for?' I wondered. The rest of the group looked a little uneasy. Nevertheless, I knew from experience that these things tend to happen in bunches, often at the start of a trip as post-flight nerves and fatigue wreak hacov on riders' abilities, so I felt confident we'd made our sacrifices to the local mountain gods and could continue on with relative ease.

The rest of the morning was sweet - beautiful flowy singletrack, including one ride along a spectacular ridge, with some nice challenging steeps. We stopped for lunch at a remote little inn under the shadow of a 14th-century church, and crawled up into the belltower for a little dose of history, followed by delicious local mushroom soup and goulash.

We rode another beautiful singletrack trail after lunch, and then what followed was simply sublime and surreal: a 90-minute ride through the heart of a mountain, underground. The 500-year-old Crna mine was shut down in 1996, leaving a legacy of 800 kilometres of underground passages. We would be riding along one of the main shafts, in total darkness (with lights, of course).

We met our guide - a former-miner-turned-underground-mountain-bike-guide - and strapped on our headlamps before heading in to the mine. Just a few metres into the mine the temperature plummeted, from a comfortable 25 degrees to a downright chilly 10 degrees.

The shaft was narrow, leaving just a foot or two on each side of the riders. The effect was surreal and adrenaline-filling. As the walls rushed by, we rode on in silence, stopping every few minutes to listen to our guide talk about the history of the mine, showing us eery caverns and shafts down to other levels (there are 21 different levels in the mine!). Turning off our lamps at one point, I experienced darkness like I'd never 'seen' before in my life. I tried to imagine spending my days down here, 14 hours at a time. It must have seemed like one of the lower circles of Dante's hell to its inhabitants. Thankfully, we were only here for 90 minutes.

We finished the last kilometre with a high-speed chase to the end of the tunnel, emerging into the heat and light of the day with smiles on our faces. It was easily the most unique experience I've ever had on a mountain bike.

We finished up our first day with a grueling but short climb to another local singletrack, and bombed our way back down to Crna along a beautiful patch of trail. Reaching the bottom, shooters of local whiskey awaited us all - a perfect cap on an amazing day.

The next 3 days were spend exploring the beautiful country of Slovenia. We visited stunning Lake Bled, a spectacular alpine lake with a picturesque island church in its waters; rode along an old WWII where Hemingway cut his war teeth and lived the experiences which led to For Whom The Bell Tolls; gawked at the stunning scenery of the Julian Alps; ate delicious - and massive - local meals, and cursed the Legend, our 2nd van, as it broke down in southern Alps.

I'd visited Slovenia once before, many years ago, but hadn't had the time to properly appreciate how beautiful this country is. Everywhere you look there are beautiful mountains and green, untouched forests. I asked Dixi's son Anej how they manage the country's natural resources and he replied 'very carefully.' I didn't see a single clearcut during our 4 days there, despite thick forests full of valuable timber. Logging is heavily regulated in Slovenia, and you have to get special permission and submit a long-term, sustainable logging plan if you want to do any logging at all. Canada could learn from our Balkan neighbours.

Next stop: Croatia, the Adriatic, and mistletoe brandy.

Bud the Spud

Bet you've never been to a potato festival before. I've certainly never been to one, let alone in the Balkans. So when Susanna, the proprietor of our amazing hotel in the Slovenian Alps, told us about a potato festival happening in the nearby town of Crna na Koroskem (yes, I know, it's a beautiful name for a town, isn't it?), we jumped at the chance.

Ride our bikes in the Alps and go to a potato festival? You have to carpe the diem when opportunities like this arrive.

It's still one more day until we start the official 'guided' portion of the tour, so Doug and I decided to do some exploring of our own. Just below the hotel (which sits on a ridge high up in the Alps, with Austria across the valley) an overgrown donkey track veers off into the woods. We saw it last night while riding back to the hotel, so we'd vowed to check it out today.

It turned out to be an almost-perfect piece of singletrack snaking through the woods. It looked to be brand-new, and a fair bit of work had gone into it. I suspect Dixi, our guide, had cut this piece of trail. It ended in a 8-foot deep and 6-foot wide ditch that made one feel like they were doing a luge course on a mountain bike. The trail spit us out onto the highway - a perfect start to the day!

The ride to Crna Na Koroskem took us through some spectacular scenery. Slovenia is green - way greener than I expected - and streams and rivers abound. You can't go more than 1 km before another stream or waterfall passes by. And the mountains are incredible - big, rocky and postcard-worthy.

We ended up in Crna and followed the signs pointing us to the festival. We'd both expected a small low-key affair, maybe 30 or 40 Slovenes gathered around a few potatoes in a fire, with an accordion, a donkey and a bottle of plum brandy, Borat-style (hey, I'm Croatian - allow me 1 Borat joke about my people).

What we found instead was a massive festival. The first sign that this wasn't a low-key affair was the parking lot - hundreds, perhaps thousands of cars parked in an open field. We biked past the gates and entered the festival grounds, where dozens of stalls advertised potatoe dishes. We went to one stall and were instantly greeted with a shot of blueberry brandy, followed by a plate of boiled potatoes. More brandy (pear this time) followed. Fearing a drunken, potato-filled uphill ride back to our hotel, we extricated ourselves from the booth.

We visited a few more booths, each one offering potato dishes, for free no less. You would think at a potato festival you could get several styles of potato dishes: baked, mashed, fried, etc... Not at this potato festival. Every booth featured some slight variation of 'boiled potato with various random bits of meat.' Nevertheless, extremely yummy, especially after a 25-km ride.

There were accordions everywhere, a marching band, some sort of strange theatre involving wooden staffs, a giant beer tent, and the requisite 'drunken people singing folk songs with their arms around each other.' It reminded of the summers of my youth spent on the Croatian seaside. Doug was suitably amused by this display of traditional Balkan culture, and after some cevapcici (Croatian spice meat sandwiches) we decided to hit the road before the brandy hit us again.

We arrived at the hotel 2 hours later after a grueling uphill climb, spent and satiated, collapsing in the late afternoon sun in the sublime Slovenian Alps.

Balkan bikin'

I made it. After 9 hours of flying, 10 hours of airport sitting, 2 bus rides, a 2-hour car ride and a 4-hour train ride, I am sitting on top of a mountain in the Slovenia Alps, looking out over a beautiful green valley toward Austria.

We're at The Mountain Bike Park Hotel, a beautiful hotel on the side of a mountain in a beautiful valley in northern Slovenia, just south of Austria and a couple of hours from the capital Ljubljana. We're doing a sneak preview of a new 8-day mountain bike tour to be offered in 2009, with 4 days in Slovenia and 4 days in the Istrian Peninsula region of Croatia. I arrived to find Doug, Sacred Rides über-client (5 tours so far) in heavy relax mode on the porch of the hotel.

The hotel is also a working organic farm, with cows, pigs, chickens and a variety of fruit trees and vegetables. It's a pastoral paradise here, and you can almost feel the clocks slow down as you arrive.

Dixi, the owner, greeted me with a shot of local whiskey that could have peeled the paint off the next door barn, but which tasted surprisingly good. Tomorrow the rest of our trip mates join us: 2 writers, 1 photographer, and 5 of our clients. For now it's just me, Doug, Dixi and his family, and a lot of livestock.

After a delicious homemade lunch prepared by Dixi's wife using local vegetables, Doug and I were itching to hit the bikes. Dixi had to do some farming, so it would be just us two, me and Doug deep in the heavily forested Alps of Slovenia. Luckily I can speak Croatian, which is similar enough to Slovenian to help out in a pinch.

Dixi's son gave us some basic directions ("go that way, then stay left"). We headed up the road, climbing in the late afternoon light. The road soon passed a farmhouse then dropped into the forest, a nasty, burly affair that had us on the backs of our seats and on our brakes. We dropped into an overgrown section alongside a creek, with branches whipping our legs and arms. At that point we were pretty sure we hadn't followed Dixi's son's directions, had made a wrong turn, and were lost in Slovenia. Eventually we came to a creek crossing and found a local who pointed us in the right direction. We eventually ended up back on the road and followed it for a while until we spied a tantalizing climb on our right.

We jumped at the chance to get off the asphalt and began climbing. After 2 days of traveling, it sure felt good to be climbing on a bike again. After about 3 or 4 km of climbing, I spied the faint remains of a trail dropping in to the forest. We dropped our bikes to take a further look: the trail wasn't much more than a game trail, but looked like it had been ridden, perhaps ages ago. We didn't need much more encouragement. Doug dropped in first and I followed. The singletrack was rough but beautiful. The forest was full of giant fir trees stretching 100 feet into the air, with little underbrush: perfect territory for mountain biking.

We whooped and hollered our way down the trail as the afternoon light faded. Eventually the trail spit us out back onto the road as the sun ducked behind a balkan mountain. There wasn't a car in sight for miles, just quite farmland and spectacular peaks.

It's going to be a great 8 days.

Mike

off to the old country

Whew, it's been a while since I've posted. We've had a busy summer in British Columbia, with almost all of our trips sold out and 95% of all of our seats sold - our best summer yet!

We also just got our waste-vegetable-oil-powered van on the road this past week. Our new van has been outfitted with an onboard system that filters and heats used vegetable oil - the kind you get from your local fast food joint or pub. We're now burning 100% clean vegetable oil!

Tonight I'm off to Slovenia to lead a group of clients and journalists on a sneak preview of our new Alps and Adriatic trip in Slovenia and Croatia. Stay posted over the coming 10 days for photos, videos and stories from the old country!

Mike

Sol's Granola Bars

Join one of our BC trips and you'll likely be scrambling to cram as many of these tasty treats into your Camelbak as you can (not to mention your mouth!). Lovingly prepared by chef Kali, these bars are tasty, packed full of energy, and a perfect snack when you're halfway up a grueling climb!

n.b. we use organic, locally-sourced food as much as possible on our tours (our 2008 goal is 50% locally-sourced food!)

Sol's Granola Bars

Mix 3 cups oats, 1/2 cup coconut, 1/2 cup nuts or sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup wheat germ or bran, 1/2 cup raisins or craisins, 2 tbsp. sesame seeds and 1/2 cup chocolate chips in a large bowl. In separate bowl mix 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup peanut butter, 3/4 corn syrup, 1/2 cup melted butter and 2 tsp. vanilla. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Pat into greased 9x13 inch pan and bake at 350 degree's farenheight for 20 to 25 minuts. The key is not to over bake or the cake becomes dry, Mix up the dry nuts, seeds and fruit but keep the mesurements the same. Cool, cut, pack and enjoy!

Canada's own Slickrock

On Thursday, Johanna (my lead instructor in BC) and I went for a drive up to Buckwallow Cycling centre, in the Muskoka region of Ontario. We're hosting an advanced mountain bike skills camp there this weekend, so we wanted to have a sneak preview of an area we'd heard so much about.

Buckwallow is in Canadian Shield country, with lots of pink and white granite breaking up the pine and spruce forest. You can practically hear the strains of a Tragically Hip song drifting over this quintessentially Canadian landscape. The area's rolling scenery was a favourite subject of The Group of Seven, one of Canada's most famous artist groups. Needless to say, we were pumped to ride.

We crossed the road from the parking lot and entered the first trail, a windy, twisty affair through tight trees. There were a few rock rollovers - a small taste of things to come.

We exited onto the road with an enthusastic high-five, excited about the possibilities that lay ahead. This was going to be a lot of fun. We came to the next trailhead; the sign innocently rated this next trail - The Weasel - a five out of five rating for difficulty. How hard could an Ontario trail be, we thought? Having two dozen seasons of BC riding under our collective belts, Johanna and I scoffed at the notion of an 'advanced' trail in Ontario. Our hubris would soon prove to be our undoing.

Immediately the trail came to a rollover, about 10 vertical feet down a steep rock face. We handled it with relative ease, but were both impressed. This was real challenge. More meandering through the forest, and then we came to another steep dropoff, this time on an off-camber rock face. We both got off our bikes to scope it out, and then rolled over, this time with a lot less ease. We both let out a hearty whoop - ! - and kept going. Over the course of the next 1/2 kilometre, the trail dished up a hefty dose of technical climbs - I mean technical - and steep descents on rock faces. Some of it was barely rideable, and we loved it.

The next few trails were smooth, fast affairs through the woods. Coming out of one of the trails, we met Mike McLaughlin, the brains and brawn behind Buckwallow. Mike is the full-time builder and owner of Buckwallow, and you can tell that he has a passion for trailbuilding.

We ran into local rider Carlos and spent the rest of the afternoon sampling every one of Buckwallow's amazing trails. One trail in particular - West D'Nile I think it was called - stood out. Over 80% of the riding on this trail is on rock: flowing masses of granite that look like they were poured onto the landscape with a ladle.

Buckwallow is Canada's definitive answer to Moab's famous Slickrock trail. It was an amazing afternoon of riding; I'll be back many times. If you live in Southern Ontario, I recommend you check it out this summer (take highway 11 past Gravenhurst and follow the signs for the KOA).

We'll be offering another skills camp at Buckwallow later this summer. To find out about dates and prices, sign up for our newsletter at right and we'll let you know via e-mail.

Keep ridin'

Mike

Bikes Without Borders launch

After months of hard work, our non-profit organization is almost set to launch. Bikes Without Borders is a non-profit organization dedicated to bike-related solutions to community poverty issues, based in Toronto.

The seeds for BWB were planted in a remote jungle community in northern Nicaragua. Visiting a small one-room schoolhouse in the village of Peñas Blancas, I met a young girl from the surrounding countryside. She was about 10, and when I asked her how far away she lived, she responded that it took her two hours to walk to school in each direction. Back then, I didn't know where that innocent comment would lead me, but I vowed to do something to help. 4 hours of walking every day just to get to school seemed wrong.

Fast forward a few years to a hilltop community in Peru called San Pedro de Casta. Last year we delivered couple of shipments of used bikes to San Pedro. The response of the community was amazing, and the effect that a few used bikes had was incredible.

Now BWB is a few weeks away from being a registered non-profit organization, with a board of directors and over two dozen volunteers (and counting). We're launching a line of BWB clothing at MEC this summer, and we've got some incredible programs in the works.

Some of the things we're working on:

-bike events: some to raise money, some to collect bikes, some just for fun
-collecting used bikes in Canada, to distribute to our NGO partners in Guatemala and Peru.
-bike-related programs for youth-at-risk in Canada, including employment programs-a website
-t-shirts and hoodies for our line of BWB-branded clothing (at right)

It's all pretty exciting and inspiring to see the enthusiasm people have for this project. If you'd like to get involved, please e-mail me and let me know where you live and how you'd like to get involved. We're looking for people to help start BWB chapters in their communities, so get involved today!

get involved: Join our Facebook Group
spread the word: Join the Facebook Cause

Trips of a Lifetime

I was pleased to find out this month that we're being featured in magazines and TV shows all over the place. Our Five-Star Singletrack trip made it to #8 on the 'Top 25 Trips of a Lifetime' list at Explore magazine, and is also one of Outside Magazine's 'Top Canadian Adventures.' We put a lot of work into this one so it's nice to get the recognition.

We're also featured this month in an 8-page spread on Peru in Mountain Bike Magazine, a feature in BC Business magazine, as well as on TV: Ride Guide TV has an episode with us in Peru, as does 24/7 TV in Chile.

So Much World

Just a quick aside to let you know about a great travel website I found on the web: So Much World. The content is written by professional travel writers - although they're new, what I've seen so far is pretty good and only getting better. There are lots of reviews and stories from around the globe, so check it out.

My favourite trail

This is the text of an article on my favourite trail that will appear in an upcoming issue of Explore Magazine.

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I Don't Play Favourites (but I will this once)

As the owner of a mountain bike holiday company, I ride my bike a lot. A lot. In fact I’m writing this a day after getting home from 6 weeks of riding in Chile and Guatemala. I’ve also ridden my mountain bike in Peru, Mexico, the U.S., and Europe. I’ve ridden 10,000-vertical-foot descents in the Andes; on ridge tops in the driest desert in the world; on the sides of Guatemalan volcanoes.

All of these rides are dazzling in their own right; many could rightly bear the ‘ride-of -a-lifetime’ mantle. But put any of these rides up against a reticent little hometown favourite in a fair fight, and they’ll go down like a sack of P.E.I. potatoes.

Dem Bones is a quiet, unassuming mountain bike trail in my former hometown of Fernie, British Columbia. Unlike some of its bigger brethren in the Rockies, Dem Bones doesn’t serve up spectacular views (there’s one 50m section where you can kinda see the valley below); it doesn’t offer the adrenaline rush of its North-Shore competitors (no big airs or log rides here); it isn’t an all-day epic (you can ride up and down the trail in an hour).

Compared to local epics like the 4,000-vertical-foot Al Matador, Dem Bones suffers from a lack of the former’s glitz and glamour. But that might be just why I love it so much. It’s one of those trails you don’t ride often, and then after you’re done you wonder why you don’t ride it more. The Al Matadors of this world will come and go, but trails like Dem Bones will endure. They’re The Beatles of the singletrack world, able to appeal across generations.

What Dem Bones is is classic singletrack: fast, smooth, and twisty. It’s an old-school throwback to the days when mountain bikes were hardtails with 2” of front suspension and clunky cantilever brakes. You don’t need armour for this trail; heck, you don’t even need suspension. Just point and go.

Shall we?

After a challenging climb up a steep powerline, and through the pine forest of Mr. Mushroom Head, you get to an unassuming clearing in the woods that marks the start of the downhill. Put your seat down and point your bike downhill. Soon the Aspen are whizzing by and the trail is taking you on its verdant journey. Squeeze through a few tight turns at high speed and soon you’re out on the powerline again, ready for round two. A short climb brings you to the top of the second downhill, this one even faster than the first. You scream through the forest, pine branches thrashing your arms, eyes focused on the few feet of silky singletrack ahead of you. Halfway down you enter The Boneyard, for which this trail is named. Someone, years ago, has taken a collection of animal bones – skulls, leg bones, ribs – and hung them on the trees. Over the years, poachers have depleted the boneyard of its former glory, but remnants of its mystique still remain.

The adrenaline continues to flow as you descent the last thousand metres of trail, the trail finally spitting you out onto the blacktop of Mt. Fernie Provincial Park, tired and sated. You put Rubber Soul on your iPod and savour the jagged Rocky Mountain scenery as your knobbies eat up pavement in the late afternoon sun and John Lennon sings about a girl he once had.

New photo gallery

We've added a brand-new photo gallery to our website, where past clients can upload photos of their adventures with Sacred Rides. We've got photos from BC, Chile, Peru, and Guatemala up, with more photos coming every day.

VISIT THE PHOTO GALLERY

Chile - the land of Pisco Sour

I'm back home after an amazing 12 days in Chile. The country with a 4,000-km-long coastline and the 2nd-largest mountain range in the world has once again blown me away.

This time, I was there with 7 clients - all Canadians - and boy did we have a blast. We started in Santiago with a sweet little ride just outside of town, then headed up into the mountains for some spectacular views of Mt. Aconcagua (the continent's highest peak) and the ocean.

Valparaiso - the town of Pablo Neruda, the country's famous poet - entertained us with some epic urban riding, funiculars (streetcars that go up steep hillsides), and really cool restaurants and bars. Along for the ride was Felipe from 24/7 TV - check out the episode on Valparaiso (the riding segment sandwiches a skating segment).

From there, we headed north along the coast to Maitencillo Surf Camp, where Roberto and his crew showed us the surfing ropes. Surfing is a lot harder - way harder - than mountain biking. Respect to those who can rip the waves. I managed to stand up for about 3 seconds - once. We followed our surfing with an amazing ride through the Chilean jungle, with spectacular views of the ocean interspersed with thick jungle.

I don't think there can be many things more awe-inspiring than a sunrise surf. Sitting on your board at 7 am, watching the some come up while waves crash over the beach and birds divebomb the water is an unexplicably amazing thing. Do it if you ever get the chance.

After Maitencillo we headed north to the Atacama desert, home to the driest desert in the world and some really unique riding. Surrounded by 6,000 m volcanoes, the town of San Pedro is an adventure hotspot. It's also a Pisco sour hotspot, and we managed to knock back more than a few bottles at the post-riding fiestas. One of the highlights was floating practically on top of the water, at the salt water lagoons of Laguna de Cejar. If you tried, you could practically do a sit-up in the water.

All in all, an amazing time on our inaugural Surf and Singletrack trip!

La Rute de Maya - Guatemala final post

Hi everyone:

Well Guatemala is behind me now, a series of memories strung together like decorations on the Christmas tree. Liek those decorations, I can pull them out anytime - admire them, share them with others, reconfigure them anew each time. How to sum up an incredible month in an incredible country?

It's true that pictures can often tell stories better than words, so I'll keep this post brief. Suffice it to say that Guatemala has provided me with some incredible memories. We met incredible people, visited places so beautiful we couldn't find words to describe them, and had experiences that are indelibly imprinted in our psyches (we - allow me to explain - is my beautiful fiancée, my as-yet-unborn child, and me).

It's hard to imagine such a gentle people as the Maya having to suffer through something as unimaginable as the brtual civil war that wracked their country for 36 years. Walking through remote villages in the Ixil, it's not hard to see the scars this period left on it its people. There's a hesitancy on the part of many of the Maya we met, a reluctance to open themselves to strangers. But spend a bit of time to get to know them and you’ll be rewarded with a whole lot of grace and hospitality.

Our final week in Guatemala was spent riding around Lago de Atitlan, kayaking and trekking on the lake, relaxing at Casa Del Mundo, hiking an active volcano, enjoying a colourful weekend of Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Antigua, and visiting the ancient Mayan site of Tikal. It was about a year’s worth of adventure, all packed into one week. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Next post: Surf and Singletrack from Chile