18kms to go.

We arrive at the ‘park entrance’ 2k into the hike along a perfect beach, our reservation isn’t quite adequate the Parque Nacional Corcovado ranger tells me en espanol. We needed one more confirmation note. You’re kidding me. I keep staring at him. The 11hr bus ride to Puerto Jimenez, the 3hr collectivo ride in the back of a pickup truck through the jungle this morning, the wierd ghost looking spider that almost gave Jacqui a heart attack, and the 2km hike to the park entrance meant we weren’t going to turn around on some bureaucratic technicality. Common sense and compassion prevail and the ranger lets us pass.

We get intimate with the largest preserve of lowland tropical jungle in Central America. It’s my third time doing this $&*! slog. The last time I had bad blisters, Corcovado managed to deliver the most painful experience of my life. But it’s of the most biodiverse places on the planet. The magic of biodiversity and the promise of seeing nature’s evolutionary answers to complex problems is what keeps drawing me back.

The crocodile we see when wading across the 200ft river crossing seems relatively small, and nice. And we aren’t attacked when we come upon several troops of fabled White Lipped Peccaries (endangered, though here they often travel in groups of 300). We had been warned, repeatedly.

Jacqui steps over the flange buttresses of what is likely a species of Fig tree. A [big] silk weaving Golden Orb spider sits idle in the foreground.

Flange buttresses, one of the many mind blowing evolutionary adaptrations found in this neotropical wonderland.

Prunes.

Santa Teresa. One of my favourite places anywhere.

Monteverde, cloud forest.

Billy Labonte flies his 1960’s canvas Cub over the Stakine river, where the mighty river is only in it’s infancy.

Ray Collingwood has lived in the Spatsizi Wilderness since the 1960s.

Double rainbow, anyone?

I’m stoked to see that one of my images from last summer’s Deep Summer photo competition was selected for Bike’s Photo Annual issue. Bringing the image to life is the revered freerider, Thomas Vanderham. And it gets me thinking of the past.

Above, one of my early mountain bike (film) images. Thomas Vanderham, circa 1999/2000. Mount Seymour, BC.

During high school Thomas and I rode bikes together with my twin brother and a group of other friends at school. The freeride scene was really just developing, and we felt like we were a part of it on the North Shore. I got my start making photographs and little movies of our group of friends riding the North Shore mountains, simultaneously trying to emulate the cutting edge bike movies of the day, and the athletes that were pushing the limits of what mountain biking could be. Though, it wasn’t long before Thomas was making his own ascendency into the star light of the mountain bike world – his masterful and unparalleled stylistic command of a mountain bike caught the attention of the industry’s best – freeride legend Wade Simmons, photographer Sterling Lorence, and film maker Bjorn Enga, to name a few. By the end of highschool, Thomas had a secured firm place amongst the freeride greats.

Following different paths, it would be a long time until Thomas and I would shoot together again. Last year, we reunited for the Deep Summer photo comp along with Darcy Turenne and Mike Hopkins. We were fortunate with great weather (the rainy and foggy kind) and we captured some keepers, evidenced by the forthcoming Bike magazine cover.

Below are a few other covers – with my great friend Andre Charland bringing those to life!

The event is a 7 day stage race with 450 people that gives singletrack trail precedence over fire road – a true mountain biker’s race. Beginning on Vancouver Island in Cumberland, it ascends northward to Campbell River, then hopping back to the mainland at Powell River, down to Sechelt, then Roberts Creek/Gibsons, over to Squamish, and finishes in Whistler. It relies heavily on the BC ferry system for 4 different routes – indeed the great part of the race is that you can go swimming in the ocean (or a lake) at almost all of the finish areas (and I did).

I had a great time with the other photographers, racers, and the event’s staff. And fortunately to gather images for the story I had to enjoy 7 days of riding a healthy amount of amazing singletrack in places that I had not yet explored – shucks. Keep an eye out for the Bike mag feature in the months to come.