Strippers, booze and big city lights are the normal ingredients for a stag. When a close friend's wedding date was drawing near we had to make a decision, form a plan of action as to what must done in the ritual traditions of the matrimony cycle. Since Sean is far from normal and a die hard mountain biker it was only fitting that we plan something that revolved around bikes, riding and a bit of partying too.
With this in mind on a Friday afternoon, one week before the big day several of his close fiends gathered in Pemberton and pointed the noses of our trucks to the Duffy Lake Road, the destination Lillooet at the far end.
There resided a fabled trail which none of us had ridden. A trail that combined speed, flow, steeps and a few little jumps, along with a camping zone that placed us delinquents well away from the general populace incase things got a little rowdy.
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| While the women gathered in Whistler for Jaime's stagette (bike park laps then dancing the night away) the guys gathered at Sean's house in Pemberton after everyone finished work which meant darkness descended upon us as we started up the 40km single track logging road to the campsite. |
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| "Yep, pretty sure we're going the right way." Dave Gillie (left), current Pres of SORCA and one of Sean's (right) old time riding buddies made his way out for one of the nights. |
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| One of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World. Bryce came out to party with Sean and shuttle bitch the crew. Here he raises the aurora borealis. One of the many things that made the stag weekend special. |
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| A nice view to wake up to. This was right off the back of the flat that we camped out on. |
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| The Della has incredible flow to it. Even on one of the hottest weekends of the year in conditions that were rather dusty you could still pin it.... |
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| ....that is until you came upon one of the many surprise hairpins that launched you through a silty berm. |
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| Right off the bat there was a fun little booter. Shannon Rozel styles it up on his Chromag Stylus. |
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| Ian Shaw takes his turn in the air. |
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| Al Macinnes (Slapshot) made his way out from Alberta to rip it up with us. He also gave us a lesson in riding fast and crashing hard. Very entertaining. |
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| It was a stag so of course the evenings were filled with a little partying in the middle of nowhere. |
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| Shannon brought his best pimp blanket up from the City, I guess he thought we were going to find rippers in Lillooet. |
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| The Della is a massive shuttle. Something like 15kms of narrow, twisting, singletrack road with sketchy drops off the side. |
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| We lost our shuttle bitch on Saturday afternoon when Bryce had to head home. This meant a couple of us had to take turns for Sunday including the man of the weekend, Sean Nicol. It may have been his stag but he still sat out a lap to drive. |
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| This is the only riding shot of Sean from the whole weekend. It was his stag and he was here to pin it not stop for pics. |
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| Since we didn't have strippers the only things loose were the corners in the HOT weather, if you weren't careful it was pretty damn easy to blow through them. Shannon demonstrates how to hit 'em clean. |
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| There is one long, steep, rather gnarly section on the Della. It was so loose it was like descending a steep field of marbles. Slapshot hit it fast, on his first lap he pedalled in and just barely held on. This shot was taken on his second lap just seconds before he pile-drove himself face-first down the bottom third. |
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| Shannon took everyone to school on the second lap with a controlled slide down the steeps on his hardtail. |
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| The bottom section of the Della spits you out into wide open fields and sparse trees. It was ridiculously fast and there were several, corners and off camber sections that saw bikes sliding and riders tripoding. Too much fun! |
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| After a couple days and nights of riding, partying and generally carrying on (the unofficial, top secret, rock rolling championships of the universe) we had to point it back home. Some of us had work to go to while Sean had a wedding to get ready for. |
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| One week after the stag Jaime and Sean tied the knot in a mountain biker's wedding. Here the preacher reads custom vows that compared riding to marriage. Awesome. |
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| The Bride and Groom's party were outfitted in Troy Lee Designs riding kit. After the ceremony was finished many jumped on their bikes for a lap down Overnight Sensation with the newlyweds and then onto a killer party. |
