Riding the North Shore

Riding to the trailhead my stomach if full of butterflies, I've waited for this for almost 2 years, and I'm finally here seconds away from riding the famous North Shore! . . .

Not too bad starting off, kinda rough with short 1' drops rooty and rocky, the ground is soft and strange compared to the black dirt around KC. . . . So far it's been challenging, but not too scary. We come up on the first major stunt, a small jump/drop and a 4-6" wide skinny that has 3 bends and ends in a downhill log ride…

(A '4-6" wide skinny', in case you're wondering, is a 4- to 6-inch wide board suspended 3- to 4-feet in the air. This one is 30 or 40 feet long and has three curves. It does get a bit wider at the curves. It ends on a log--imagine the trunk of a large pine tree lying on the ground--and you ride the log another 40-50 feet down a hill.)

Click here to read the rest of this excellent story of Patrick McCue's trip to mountain bike Vancouver, including some great photos of the trails, on Freeride