[buildyourown]

We've been rocking Whistler all summer and it has been epic. However, we were thinking that it would be fun to take a trip and ride some new terrain and hang out with some new people. My gf wants to go to Norway. I'm thinking there has to be something there worth riding. The riding has to be good, but the location as a whole is more important. Other ideas are Les Gets, Morzine, Scotland, Hawaii.

Anybody taken an epic trip with your DH bike? Domestic locations are welcome too.

 

[narlus]

morzine/les get and that whole portes du soleil area is very cool and convenient in terms of riding (both xc and dh) and getting to (about 90 min drive from geneva). from seeing some of the pics of Are, sweden, i'd throw that on yr list too.

 

[UiUiUiUi]

We've been rocking Whistler all summer and it has been epic. However, we were thinking that it would be fun to take a trip and ride some new terrain and hang out with some new people. My gf wants to go to Norway. I'm thinking there has to be something there worth riding. The riding has to be good, but the location as a whole is more important. Other ideas are Les Gets, Morzine, Scotland, Hawaii.

Anybody taken an epic trip with your DH bike? Domestic locations are welcome too.

make it a road trip
visit Les Gets and Morzine, then Winterberg, afterwars go to todtnau (Germany near freiburg), next should be Bad Wildbad (germany near karlsruhe), then go
to Austria, Saalbach and Leogang, maybe even Graz. and at last go to bischofsmais. and there are places in switzewrland which are worth visiting too.

you can spend a month traveling through central europe and not be riding in the same place for more then two or three days

 

[MikeD]

Might check out South America. www.gravityboliva.com, I think, has some interesting stuff...

MD

 

[buildyourown]

you can spend a month traveling through central europe and not be riding in the same place for more then two or three days

That sounds epic indeed, but I couldn't afford it. Are, Sweden and Wildbad are on the list.
I think the trip would be more fun if it were in a less touristy area.
ie, hawaii

 

[narlus]

email john p @ evilbikes. i think he goes to hawaii every year. i think you'd need to know some local to find the good stuff, though.

also, there is supposedly some kickass stuff in the alpe d'huez area too.

 

[SuperSlow]

how about travel down through oregon and norcal ?

 

[Kornphlake]

You could do Moab/Fruita if you're thinking about going in the next couple of weeks, it'd cost you pennies compared to europe or hawaii. You could make a trip out of it and visit some of the national parks if that's your thing. If you've never been before it'd be fun, not really downhill as in lift assisted but there's lots of technical stuff with a downward slope and a few shuttle services.

 

[mobius]

I took a trip across the states to whistler this past summer with DBR. We rode DH and Trail on our trip. We started in VA and rode Snowshoe, WVA one day. The next day we just did a short XC loop in St Louis. Our next major stop was Denver Colorado where we shuttled a local trail with a friend then the next day we rode this epic trail called monarch crest at like 13000 ft above sea level and that hurt on my bighit dh. After that we hit moab and rode the slickrock trail and did some hike a bike upto the stunts on the moab rim trail. The next day we drove to hood river oregon where they have shore inspired stunts on a mountain and rode two days there and it was amazing and a beautiful site to see some nice trannys. After that we headed to whistler rode there for 10 days then to the shore for a few. On the way back we hit northstar at tahoe and then pretty much were to beat to ride more and came back.

It wasn't exactly a straight DH trip but it was fun. If you can i'd say goto the shore, whistler, kelowna, kamloops, squamish, penticton and all those canadian places and ride their stuff.

 

[Acadian]

Two years ago Gavin (speedball) and I did a great road trip from San Jose to Van. During our trip, we rode in Arcata, Ashland, Hood River, Vancouver and Whistler. We had originally planned to also make our way out to Nelson, but the riding in Vancouver and Whistler was so good, that we decided to spend more time at those locations. We also were supposed to hook up with Shaums March for some riding in Squamish, but at the time he was racing the East Coast NCS’s. At each of these locations we were fortunate enough to hook up with some locals who gladly showed us all the prime riding spots! I wish I remembered all the name of the trails, but unfortunately I don’t.

Our first day we rode two different trails in Arcata. Curtis, a local race promoter and trail builder there took us on two very nice trails in the area. The first one we rode, in his own terms, still had the “bark on it” as it was quite new. The first leg of this trail was the race course for one of the Bigfoot races. The second trail was this fun, fast, steep run (60% doubletrack, 40% singletrack) along an access road. Again, fun, fun fun….

Our second day we rode in Ashland. We hooked up with one of Gavin’s friend who was nice enough to take a day off work to be our tour guide. That day we did a few shuttle runs which finished right downtown. Pretty frekkin’ cool.

We then spent a few days in Hood River with Ryan, another of Gavin’s friend. He was nice enough to lend us his sofa and also let us use his kegarator!!! We rode some pretty fun trails. The first day we rode a trail that had some North Shore type stunts on it. It was my first time ever riding skinnies. Never thought I would like riding them, but it grew on me. Glad they were not that high off the ground, and it was a much-needed introduction before heading out to the North Shore, where they are all over the trails…. The next day we hooked up with Doug and did more rippin’

After a few days in Hood River we headed up to Seattle where we spent a few days riding Ratpack, Exit XX, Exit XX and urban in the city.

Although all the riding we did to this point was phenomenal, in my opinion by far the best riding we did was in Vancouver and Whistler. First I still can’t believe how nice the people were to us in Vancouver. When we got into town we stopped by John Henry’s bike shop where I met Darren Butler. I had been in contact with him via e-mail after his horrific accident while filming the Drop In series, where he shattered both his heels. Since I had been through the same type of accident, I sent him a few get well e-mails, but no more. He greeted us with open arms and invited us to stay with him and his roomies. How’s that for hospitality? We got the royal treatment! He took us up on a killer ride, pointed us all the great places to eat, provided us with a place to sleep and even hooked us some with some locals to ride. We rode with Danu Huber of Hukk Bikes, who took us on Cypress and Seymour. The next day with Jay Morrisey, who showed us how it’s done on Fromme! Again, all the nice people we met blew me away… All the people at John Henry, Darren, Forrest, Cassy, all the people we rode with, etc… just unreal!

We then headed up to Whistler for a few days before making our way down again. After Whistler we stopped for a day in Vancouver to ride Seymour one more time and do our farewells, then down to Seattle where we spent a few more days riding. The last leg of the trip was a 13+ hour drive from Seattle to San Francisco…yuk!

All in all it was an AWESOME trip..I would love to do a similar road trip but start in Van and hit all the sweet BC spots on the way to Nelson. After watching Drop In Season 2 - I can't believe all the flippin nice trails they have there...I would love to hit that up!!

Although Morzine in on my list of place I would love to visit.