This weekend we are off to exhibit in the Seattle International Bike Expo, March 13 - 14, 2010. If you are in the area, please come down and see us. We will be the booth on the second level having fun!

Also, only 2 spaces remain for the Ryan Leech yoga and riding retreat July 3-9, 2010. If you have been tossing the idea arounnd, time’s running out!

Sedona is also known as an energy destination. Our accommodation was near an energy vortex. Not sure if I ever saw/felt it. Apparently they are a thing of beauty that makes you feel good about yourself. I think I am nominating our Boréale yurtville bluff as a Yukon vortex. After a great ride, it is awesome to sit there, take in the view and you just can’t help but feel great!

Snow had caught up with us so we started to heading back to the west coast. After an all day drive, we are now in sunny Alpine, California. Close to San Diego, and near the trails of Cleveland National Forest. Sylvain has about 5 maps in front of him and our feet are itching to pedal!

We are going to go to a few more shops while we are here, and then make our way up to Seattle, WA for the Seattle International Bicycle Expo mid March. Time is starting to go by quickly!

Down at the expo, we had a sweet set up spot and had a lot of face time on Friday, the opening day for the expo. Directly across from the package pick up tent! Our photo book was an immense hit, people couldn’t get over the mountain biking pictures that we chose to represent Yukon riding. Friday night they had a dedication dinner that we were invited to go to. Buffet tacos and free beer! Couldn’t believe that one. And perhaps even more shocking was that everyone was gone by 9pm! Definitely not in the Yukon anymore.

Saturday we were up early to man the booth and watch the start of the race. So many riders! There were about 500 people doing the first lap (and every subsequent one). Sylvain represented Team Boréale for the first lap. He was in the top third of riders and took off with the pack. Apparently about 30 minutes in he had a slow leak turned flat in his tubeless tire and stopped to fix it. He figures he was passed by about 100 riders in a row!! Pretty intense.

The rest of us figured out our order and the scene relaxed a bit. Teams were getting their groove. There are some insanely competitive riders out there! More spandex than I ever imagined! Each lap had about 400-500 riders on the course, and the course itself was 16.4 miles, or 26.4 kms. So it was taking us about 1 hour 30 minutes, the fastest guys were around 1 hour. And man were they fast. It was like they were being catapulted past you!

On the course, there was a ridiculous amount of cacti. You really had to watch your cornering, or else you would end up with a shoulder or knee full of cacti needles - and they don’t mess around. Luckily everyone on our team had a healthy dose of respect for the cacti and we didn’t have an incident. It is a nasty mess if you do!

We all had a great time, super fun event and so much energy. It was huge!!! Great experience, and I encourage anyone who is interested in escaping the winter cold to come down and check it out. Fast course, good singletrack and lots to do at the expo! If you would like to see some pictures from our event, please check http://www.facebook.com/borealebiking

On Friday night we went for a drive around the Catalina mountains near Tucson. Sylvain followed his spidey senses and all of a sudden we came around a corner and boom! Trucks with bike racks everywhere! He had found the trailhead parking lot! The next morning we put our bikes on the dirt and had a good pedal. There are cacti EVERYWHERE! Pretty crazy. The trails we rode were well packed, hard and fast, but man we were definitely taking it easy due to the level of consequence if you crashed. We met a local at the parking lot the night before who did a header into a cactus. His knees and elbows looked like a bloody mushy mess. Disgusting. So, we were taking it easy! On the return ride we started to pin it a bit more. Confidence or cocky? Not sure, but we made it back to the van incident-free! Here is a picture of our cacti ride http://www.twitter.com/borealebiking

We are starting to get excited about our first expo next week. We will be presenting at the 24 Hours of Old Pueblo here in the Tucson area. We set up next Thursday and the show runs Friday-Sunday. We have 6 friends coming down to participate in the race with us as Team Boréale. Should be a fun time! One thing that just really registered for us - it gets dark here at 6pm. So this race will be about 12 hours of darkness! Usually for Yukoners, when you are riding, the sun is out all night. So it will definitely add a new spin to the 24 hour race idea. Haha, for us I guess. I am betting locals are pretty used to the idea of summer riding with a light on!

We met up with Yukoners, Rob and Roberta, and started to ride around the Canyon. As we didn’t bring any armour with us, we stuck to the cross country trails. We had a great long ride one day, with us riding down the up, and up the down! Directional signs would have been useful. But cardio is good for you, right? We have posted a few pictures on our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/borealebiking.

After 3 days there, we headed back up to Red Rocks area. There are three different areas around the campground there, Cottonwood Valley, the Cowboy Trails and I believe Charleston Mountain. It looks like our Yukon friends will be joining us again tonight - fun! So we should be sticking around here for about a week still, and then making our way back down to Tucson for our first expo at the 24 hours of Old Pueblo. Starting to get excited for that event. We’ve met a bunch of people planning on being there so it should be a great time!

Exciting news - it looks like Boréale will be profiled as a Yukon business during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in a few weeks! Keep your eyes peeled for our logo if you are in the area!

We went for a pedal at the Cottonwood Valley trail network. Red dirt is pretty fun to ride on, and the scenery is amazing. Rock mountains all around us. There wasn’t a lot of elevation change on our ride, but the trails were super fast and fun. On our way back to the trail head we came across a donkey road block! We put the dogs back on their leashes (hehe they are trained now) and walked towards the burros in hopes they would leave the trail. Nope! They started hee-hawing at us and started walking towards us! So, we are trained in moose, bear and coyote ambushes and are a little wary of donkeys! We turned around and let them enjoy the rest of the trail.

This morning we were hoping to have a sunrise pedal and get some awesome pictures of the sunrise over the red rocks. However, the storm cloud that has been following us found us again! It is pouring outside and obviously super cloudy. So, no pictures. Tonight we are heading to Bootleg Canyon in Boulder City. We are meeting two friends from Whitehorse there for a day of riding tomorrow. Should be a good time!

The dogs are learning about cacti and thorns but other than that, they are behaving beautifully! It appears the public really loves Scotch and so far he is decent to them. Still hiding behind our legs, but it is looking ok!

Something that is pretty crazy down here is the State Parks situation. In California they are closing 220 state parks and leaving 57 open. In Arizona they are closing 13 parks and leaving 9 open. The final decisions will be made July 1, 2010 for the remaining 9. Scary stuff. Support your parks!

That was definitely my best ride of the trip so far, and even though I didn’t see a bobcat, it was awesome to ride in these fast singletracks right by the Pacific ocean. To see some of the pictures from Santa Cruz, check out this link http://www.facebook.com/borealebiking#/album.php?aid=142663&id=170689039083&ref=mf

Our next riding was in the Wilder State Park just north of town. We are having a hard time having the puppies here. In the Yukon you can ride everywhere with your dogs. I knew here there would be a lot more restrictions, but yesterday the dogs weren’t even allowed in the parking lot! So that put a kink in our riding plans. We are in a Westfalia that we are camping in, so our ‘campsite’ moves with us where ever we go and the puppies come to! Solution was that we would ride solo and one would walk the dogs somewhere. Sylvain was up first and ended having a decent ride. Lots of uphill double track with a minimal amount of fun singletrack. He took a wrong turn at a trail head.

My turn! Well, I am a little sick right now and only wanted to ride for about an hour. Sylvain by now knew the trails so he pointed me in the direction of a good ride. Up a fire road and then down on a trail called Zane Gray’s and then connects with a few other trails. Super fun and amazing views of the Pacific Ocean. I wish I had my camera! Super fun trail, saw two bobcats and 7 deer too. I think when I finally met up with Sylvain again he was a little jealous of my ride.

C’est la vie, mon homme!