SANDILANDS
 The
following story starts off not so epic and then gets better...
Sorry if it leans a bit on the verbose... I had a Red-Bull
late in the day and I'm kinda still wound up.
So Sunday we woke up with the rumble of a thunderstorm
outside... Carmen wisely suggested perhaps I should call
the ride off... Argh! That's always a tough one ... So
far this year my track record for calling rides has not
been so stellar. yet still, I proceeded to send out an
Email to the ten people who were to partake in the ride:
"Thundershowers" I typed "not a great idea
to load and unload aluminum bikes on a metal truck in
lightning" I followed...
So I lay there... second-guessing myself immediately
after having pressed the 'send' button on the laptop...
After 15 minutes of that behavior, I check my Email to
see if anyone had replied. After only getting a "Zzzzz"
reply from Brian Wood I decided to get up, get dressed
and drive to the shop just in case... At 7:10am and Scott,
Kenny and Gavin promptly rolled in... I greeted them with
a thumbs down...
After looking up at the sky for what seemed like an hour...
(In a way that must have looked like we were expecting
something to land at any moment)... All four of us decided
to go for breakfast at Cora's on Waverly instead. Seemed
like the smart thing to do.
During this poor substitute for a ride ... and breakfast
for that matter... We decided on one more thing (we were
on a roll with the decisions so why not, eh?) What we
decided was that we'd all go back home, attempt to fall
asleep and reconvene at the shop at around noon... And
perhaps ride Bird's Hill if the weather turned in our
favor.
Asleep I fell... (to quote Brian: "Zzzz") Until
our good buddy Dan Yurkiw called at 10:53... "you
sound weird" I think is what he said... He then went
on to suggest an interesting amalgam of trails at Bird's
Hill (he lives near there) and half-asleep I concurred...
Until, that is, I got to the shop... When I saw the complete
lack of want in Gavin's eyes at the mention of Bird's
Hill... To not acquiesce to the guy's desire to ride anywhere
on earth, (Transcona, even) other than BH was just not
something we could do. Inevitably, another venue was in
order.
How about "Sandilands"? I asked Scotty... That
place JL said made him want to quit mountain biking forever?
"Sure, why not" and the planning began. We started
by going to some website I hate to get a review of the
trails there... and some type of directions... printed-up
the reviews, asked Krista how to get there, stole a map
(we didn't even know where the damned place was... much
less where the trails where)... Adventure #4 for the year...
Hopefully this one was going to be better than the previous
three.
The good thing about this one was that with only 4 riders
left... Gavin, Carmen, Scott and I... (all the rest had
either decided to go back to sleep or hand in their day
pass for the day (So Steve, how was your daughter's Ringette
game?)) and let us not forget our three dogs: Prue, Rocky
and Reeko... So with this 1.3:1 ratio of humans to dogs
we set out to this place that I'd only heard of. A compact
group of scouts... I always hate exploring with lots of
people... Maybe this would turn out to be fun, after all.
Sidebar: Turns out that leaving at 1:00pm gives us a
whole lot more marketing bang for our buck (I'm of course
referring to the www.Gords.com plastered along my truck)
Leaving at 8:00am on Sunday mornings presents us with
a city pretty much still at home getting ready for church...
Leaving later (like we did Sunday) does provide us with
a few more people to gawk at the bike-rack set-up on the
van.
So we proceeded to that godforsaken place on Fermore:
Tim "what the @!#$$" Horton's... where there's
a 30 minute line-up ALL THE TIME. (Special thanks to Scott
who got to sit in the truck with me while I vented by
cursing Gavin for his penchant for T.H. bagels). Besides
the aggravating pit-stop, the other thing I had to get
over was my complete disappointment (at myself) for having
once more cancelled a ride that DIDN'T NEED TO BE CANCELLED
for it was SUNNY and 27 degrees outside!
But I digress (as usual)... With Gavin's needs fulfilled
(the ONLY needs we were prepared to fulfill at that moment)
we set out for the super quick 1 hour drive to Sandilands...
We happily almost instantly found the spot we were looking
for... Got ready (this included the absolutely necessary
2 liter Deep Woods OFF! shower) and hit the trails...
Whew! what a pre-amble, eh?
The trails rocked... Brandon hills meets Panorama (the
XC part of Panorama anyways)... We happened upon a trail
that didn't appear on any map... rode it for a total of
about 30k's... created a nice loop and smiled almost all
of the way... Not quite prepared for that long of a ride
we ended up with exhausted dogs and tired legs... but
the ride was memorable, challenging and fun... one of
the best in a long time. Nothing like what I'd heard...
Quite the opposite. Quite good indeed.
The only thing about Sandilands is that this is NOT a
ride to do when it's thirty degrees... this is a sub 25
degree ride to be certain... (it was 29 degrees for us)
In warm weather it's a two-bladder camelback ride (with
one of the bladders being nothing but ice) and let's not
forget the Deep Woods OFF! (Blue can). We saw horseflies
that had marker lights... These things made Sea-Kings
look like fruit-flies... You'd be riding along, one would
crash into your forehead and throw you off your bike...
Thank goodness, the Deep Wood's OFF! kept them from eating
us alive.
Despite the large flying carnivores the ride was most
excellent... smooth, fast, (although a little overgrown
in some sections) and quite technical in an XC kind of
way... We rode for 3 hours, could have ridden for 9 ...
I read somewhere that Sandilands has hundreds of K's of
trails... I believe it.
I'm going back soon.
..
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Listen, if you ride any trail, flat as it may be or steep as you can find... If you're over 19 years old and you want to keep on riding into your sixties and beyond... if you're still riding that hardtail WAKE UP! Give your head a shake. Do yourself, your body and your ass a favor, get with the times. INJECT SOME FUN in your moribund life, get a full suspension bike and join the ranks of those who do more than just ride, join the ranks of those who are having the time of their lives on their bikes, join the ranks of the living. LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO RIDE A HARDTAIL. (We should make a T-shirt!) Check out our full-suspension page 
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