TOWER OF POWER - PEMBERTON - MAY 2004
Off we go on the long weekend in May to ride the slickrock of Pemberton. After navigating the hordes of sheep going to the bike park - baaaaaahhhhh - we arrive at One Mile Lake.
Tower of Power is a fun trail that starts off with a xc climb up Lumpy's Epic. It's not a long climb and brings you up rooty interestingly technical singletrack sections and then past some barely climbable switchbacks to the base of BC Hydro towers planted on granite rock.
Armouring up for the descent
Chris starts off with a small rockface. Mt Currie is the backdrop
Sean takes a turn at the rockface.
Nigel then followed by Tyler take an alternate line.
Chris on one of the trails leading up to a rockface with the Pemberton Valley and farm fields in the background.
Trevor takes a turn on another rock face
Pete tests out the manualling capabilities of his 6.50 MEC rear rubber
Pete again on another rockface further down the hill just under the hydro towers.
Chris takes another line down the same rockface. The lines are so close to you that you get electrical shocks from your bike.
Tyler takes a turn on some talus.
Trevor on, you guessed it! - another rockface. The granite is so grippy that even steep faces can be ridden with confidence.
Continuing down the trail - here's Pete.
Sean then Tyler down yet another rock face.
Yet another group shot with Mt Currie as a backdrop.
The rock faces get steeper and bigger in the middle - starting with this granite slab ridden by Nigel
followed by Pete
Tyler leads Chris down a series of granite rock benches.
Then Nigel elbows them both aside and leads out Tyler down another granite vein framed by moss.
While Pete is content to show some nose wheelie action
Finally here we are at the mother of all rock faces. This mother is long and steep... Tyler and Nigel start the bikercross down it in this sequence.
Here's a close up of Tyler going for the pass on Nigel
Pete again shows some front brake control down the rock mother
Sean shows patience for the camera on the steep section
Trevor on the steepest part of the slope just before the abrupt right hand downhill turn
and then a group shot of some bikercross elbow action
Chris on the mother of all rock faces
Chris again
and Sean in an artsy shot
The rest of the trail is flowy and has more rock faces but I'm a little photo-opp'ed out by then and only take pictures of the last move - a series of steep rooty technical granite ledges down to the creekbed that goes to the Nairn falls campground.
Pete on the rock move
Nigel makes the last section of trail
and a closeup
No mechanicals on this trail! Off we are to the second half of the day and up Ivey Lake to Cream Puff.