The Big Pig Bike Race at Boer Mountain, Burns Lake, BC
Wild blueberries are the best. But picking them in a lesson in patience.
On the downhill section.
On the pump track section.
Finishing the cross-country section.
Cookie medals are the best!!
Really cute piggie cookies.
Race face on.
Creepy pig bike light. Nightmare material.
They finished in first place!! They did 7 laps of 10 km in under 5 hours. They are the only team that did 7 laps!
Downhill race on Charlotte's Web.
Downhill race on Charlotte's Web.
Downhill race on Charlotte's Web.
This incredible little boy was doing the race and his daddy was following behind.
The Four Cross Race was quite a show!
The Four Cross Race was quite a show!
Keeping with the theme, of course!
The Blood Sun (yes, that's the sun!) created by the smoke from the forest fires.
We have so much history here (just do a search with #burnslake on the home page)... A broken arm, mechanical problems, meeting friends, moon rise watching on the dock in our sleeping bags, bonfires and berry picking... It’s no surprise when a local comes and knock at the bus door, happy to see us returning once again and offers us a shuttle up the mountain.
I wasn’t excited to come back here again this year. You see, I long for discoveries and new places. All the time. My family likes a mix of both and the girls were *really* looking forward to come back here, especially for the Big Pig Bike Race that we have missed for the last two years since we left the Yukon too late... But as unexcited as I was, it didn’t take long for the magic of this place to hit me! I love Burns Lake. The bike trails are amazing, the community of riders is incredibly friendly and the camping is FREE right by the trails and by a gorgeous lake.
The BC Bike Ride event was here just before the Big Pig and they wrote a great article (with beautiful pictures) about this great place and the amazing mountain biking community.
So this year was the 10th year of the Big Pig Bike Race, which is the premiere mountain biking event in Northern B.C. It’s a family friendly festival, with kids events, downhill races, 4 Cross races, an epic cross country race and cross country events.
On Friday, Mathilde took part in the Pump Track, the Downhill and the X country challenges in the 10 to 12 categorie. She took the first place int he Pump Track challenge behind 12 yo girls and came in 2nd in the other two events!
JF and the twins did the Dante’s Relay, a timed event in which teams or solo riders race to complete the most number of 10 km loops in a five hour period. For the past 9 years, one lap of 10 km was added every year to the Dante’s Inferno course. It culminated with a grueling 9 Rings of Hell last year (for 90 km). I remember reading Dante’s Inferno (in Italian!) when I went to school in Italy at 17. To describe it as dense and intense piece of work is an understatement!