September 2018 – Vernon ATV Club

250km Marathon Ride

October 3, 2018September 16, 2018 by Vernon ATV Club

Vernon ATV Club Marathon Ride of the Aberdeen Plateau and Beyond!

Ride Recap: The Not Quite 250km Ride

It sure looked promising as riders and machines kept turning up as the clock ticked toward 8:00am Sunday morning. After introductions and the safety chat we set off with 18 machines and 21 riders at a spirited pace up King Eddy, across the 7km trail and over Fan Hill, stopping at the bottom to reunite a lost gas can with its machine and to check in with everyone.

Wet snow was falling but optimism reigned so we forged south past Wilma Lake and down the Flyfish Lakes trail before stopping at Grizzly Lake with snowfall increasing by the minute. Discussions of barely missing stumps, hitting ruts funny and a wrong turn due to fogged up goggles were shared which prompted the larger discussion if we should continue given we had covered 50kms and it was just going to look more like winter as we continued.

We decided to head back to King Eddy the fastest way possible so Crescent Rd past Bear Lake and back down King Eddy had us back at the trucks before long.

Great to have so many riders out and a number of new riders, we look forward to seeing you out again and watch for more enhanced pace rides.

Photo Credit: Brad Hickson (thanks for capturing the nasty conditions)

——————————————————–

Ride: 8:00am Sunday, September 30, 2018

Hold up – this ride is not for everyone! Read the rules of the ride to see if you should attend.

RULES OF THE RIDE:

Ready to ride at 8:00am
You must be able to ride 65kmh minimum on FSR stretches
Your machine has to be in good mechanical order
You must bring enough fuel to go 250kms
Be prepared for fewer/shorter breaks than normal club rides

Ok, so you’re up for the ride? Read on then!

Starting at 8:00am Sunday, September 30 from the bottom of King Eddy FSR in Coldstream. It’s a long ride so we need to start early, keep up a good pace and we’ll still be late in the afternoon getting back.

Ride difficulty is upper intermediate due to the speed, nothing greater than intermediate level difficulty obstacles along the route.

There will be a mix of trail and FSR with extended sections of FSR which is unavoidable on a ride this length. Consider bringing ear plugs because one section is 30+ minutes of FSR done at cruising speed (65kmh minimum) which gets tiring on the ears.

Bring food and drink for a full day on the trails. Breaks will be short and they won’t happen very often so bring something you can poke down quickly, we’ll try to stop and smell the flowers as much as possible but need to keep a brisk pace.

We reach 6,000ft elevation along the route so bring cold/wet weather riding gear.

Ride Route – this isn’t 100% accurate as it has been simplified to reduce the number of waypoints but is a pretty close approximation of where the 250km ride will go on Sunday.

Download the GPX file and bring your GPS or download a 3 month free trial of Gaia GPS App to your phone to track the ride.

Ride with Kelowna ATV Club

September 19, 2018September 12, 2018 by Vernon ATV Club

Ride: 9:00am Sunday, September 23, 2018

HEADS UP – we’re leaving the bottom of King Eddy at 9:00am so we can meet Kelowna at Damer Lake at 10:00am. Don’t be late!

Heading out from the bottom of King Eddy FSR to meet up with the Kelowna ATV Club for a ride of the Aberdeen Plateau.

You’ll find more information about the King Eddy riding area on our Riding Areas page.

Bring the usual supplies:

Food and drink
Clothing for fall conditions
Machine in good mechanical shape
Riding buddies

Mara Mtn Ride and Lookout Check

September 19, 2018September 6, 2018 by Vernon ATV Club

Vernon ATV Club ride to Mara Mtn Forestry Lookout

RIDE REPORT – We put the ATV in team (!?)

A big turnout for this adventure high into the alpine to see if we can reach the Mara Mtn Lookout to assess its condition, make some repairs and shutter the windows for the coming winter.

Grey skies and precipitation were forecast for the afternoon, as we reached the alpine the snow started coming pretty hard. The ground was still too warm for the snow to stick and it stopped snowing after we were at the lookout a few minutes.

This ride was “the ultimate handyman/handywoman” ride because almost everyone brought their cordless drills, saws and other tools. So many people helping clean, fix, find and locate shutters meant we were done in no time.

Recreation, Sites and Trails BC really appreciates us being able to check on remote sites like this as they have so much to cover with just a few staff. We’re working on plans to head up to the lookout in July or August 2019 to put a fresh coat of paint on.

UPDATE September 15 – The ride is on. You voted in favour of braving the conditions to attempt to reach the lookout so get your woolies on because we’re going.

—————————————————————–

UPDATE September 13 – You need to vote if you want to go to the lookout this weekend as there is a very high chance there will be snow, possibly enough that we can’t make the lookout.

Vote in the poll or send a message Facebook or email [email protected] if you still want to go.

—————————————————————–

Ride: 10:00am Sunday, September 16, 2018

We’d better head to Mara Mtn before the snow. Last year we tried in mid October and were snowed out before the peak so trying in September.

The purpose of this ride is to check out the forestry lookout and ensure it’s ready to go into the winter. We check for shutters on the windows, damage to the structure, etc that we can fix so snow isn’t getting in the building or causing further damage.

The ride is a bit rough in spots but the view is well worth it, if you haven’t been to Mara Mtn before it’s almost bucketlist worthy.

Contact us through Facebook or by email ([email protected]) if you are coming and have hand tools you can bring like battery powered saw, drill, screwdriver, etc or a small generator and corded tools. We’ll bring some building materials to patch holes, cut new shutters if needed.

For anyone driving from Vernon we’ll be leaving the Tim Horton’s by Walmart at 8:30am Sunday, September 16, briefly stopping east of the bridge on Cliff Avenue in Enderby to gather up locals at 9:00am then ready to ride on 3 Valley Mabel FSR at 10:00am. Click here for map and directions.

This ride reaches up to 7,400 ft elevation so bring enough clothes for a surprise snow storm and brisk winds.

Message on Facebook or email if you’d like to carpool.