Rossland Devine

I had the most glorious weekend at the Devine Ride mountain bike camp. I took off for Rossland on Friday afternoon with 4 other women - I haven't done anything like that in years. The first night we had dinner at the Colander in Trail. The food was wonderful but the service truly bizarre. I was so punch drunk from hunger and driving I got delirious giggles. Having sobered up with the fantastic lasagna we headed for the Gerick's wine & cheese event. It was an odd combination of bike fitting/maintenance, schmoozing, shopping and wine. We capped off the evening with a soak in the teeny but wonderful hot tub at Greene's Family Guest House.

I woke up ridiculously early on Saturday and couldn't get back to sleep. I grabbed my mp3 player and went for a gorgeous walk down main street. One of the cafes was just opening so I had a quiet, sunny breakfast on my own. We spent the morning at the local elementary school working on skills like riding skinnies, lunges (small drop offs), wheel lifts, braking, switchbacks and oh yes, stairs!


It was warm & sunny and I loved the instruction and practice time. Lunch was provided by the Flying Steamshovel, which was our central meeting point and looked like this when we were in!





After lunch we went on our first group ride on on terrain similar to this and included an insane assortment of trails ( map). Here they are in no particular order (and possibly completely inaccurate) water tower to upper and lower pale ale, milky way, cemetery, back of KC, green room, Roger's and back. It wasn't nearly as long as it sounds. I attempted something I'd never done before that I had to work up to.



I cleaned it and then made myself go back up and do it again for good measure. I was so beat at the end of the ride that it reminded me of the university days when we'd come up for a week of snowboarding at Big White and could hardly walk after the first day.

The post-ride event was similar to the night before, only at the local Revolution Cycles bike shop. We wrapped up the day with a visit to the local Mexican restaurant. It had a great authentic vibe and it was fun to hear the Spanish rolling off the tongues of the employees. Technically all one family I think. The mole sauce was a little more than I had bargained for though and we were all breathing fire. Thank goodness for those super pricey margaritas. Maybe that's their marketing plan?

Sunday we woke up to pouring rain that didn't really let up so I didn't have my camera along. I had a very, very happy morning at the bike park. We worked on more little stunts and I had a chance to try some dirt jumps. My face was sore from grinning, I kid you not. The afternoon ride was on Crown Point. The rain certainly added some challenges but did not dampen the spirits. This trail also had a section I was hesitant to ride but with a few spotters standing by I rode it and, you guessed it, did it again to prove to myself that it wasn't an accident.

The weekend ended with a short wrap-up at the Steamshovel and then we packed our weary bodies into the car for the drive home. I could keep gushing about the weekend but you probably get the idea. I might possibly have irritated the people I was with by constantly exclaiming about how happy/lucky/delighted I was with my life. There were covert shuttles, exquisite Mr. Freezies, hot tub sessions and plenty of laughs. I'm sending out a huge thank you to the "girls" for inviting me along and putting up with me mooching all of their food.

It was my first time away from Ezra for night and only the third time I've been away on my own since having kids. That's nuts. There were the usual emotions when I left but it didn't take me long to get over them. It was great for me to go and good to come back. The biggest thanks goes to Jeremy for the encouragement to go and for his brilliant competence on the home front. I came home to a mellow husband, sleeping kids and a clean house!