How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Words by: Steve Remer
Photos by: Steve Remer and Jeff Newman

The fall is always a great time to reconnect with people after a long hot summer of traveling. On a recent group ride with some friends that I essentially hadn’t seen since summer started, I got asked those three, all important, questions:

“So, how was your summer?” “Did you go anywhere cool?” “Did you do anything fun?”

I was instantly reminded of that Cheech & Chong skit with substitute teacher Sister Mary Elephant; the one where the stoner in the first row had to stand up and read his essay about “How I spent my summer vacation”.

With a smile on my face, I replied, “It was aaaaawesome! I went to BC and helped build a mountain bike tail!”

Build Trail?

Most people probably don’t think of manual labor, for eight hours a day, as a vacation. It probably sounds more like a form of community service you just might get for having one or two too many at that outdoor Ween concert. Hell, even now, when I put it like that, it sounds kind of ridiculous. But the fact is, this particular trip was aaaawesome!

It was all because of Kiwi Paul. He is the man! This guy loves to build trail, and genuinely loves helping anybody out, especially if it is mountain biking related. He had made a connection with the guys up at Retallack over the winter, on a cat skiing trip, and pledged to bring back a crew from Oregon in the summer to help start building their trail network for their guided mountain bike trips. I got the call.

Seven of us, a mixture from Bend and Hood River, made our way up to Retallack in late July. We brought tools, bikes, and beer (a case per person is what you are allowed to bring across the boarder, so we each brought just a little bit more than that). We were all stoked, but also a little bit unsure of what to expect.

We pull into the parking lot at 6pm in the pouring rain. This huge guy with crazy, red hair, matching red suspenders, and big spiked boots comes walking out of the woods. In his hand was one of the largest STIHL chainsaws I have ever seen.

Enter Riley McIntosh: the man, the myth, the legend. This experience, like so many, was great because of the people you meet with along the way. Riley is one of those guys you can’t help but like. Combine his easy going way, huge smile and belly laugh, with his passion for trail building and riding mountain bikes, and it is easy to believe in what he is doing up there. Riley has been working for many years now trying to get his guided mountain biking operation going. And now, with his legal tenure and partnership with Retallack, I think this thing is about to go through the roof!

But there were others too. We got to meet, and party with, so many great people while we were there. Riley’s main helper, Kris McMechan, shredded the trail, both with his paulaski and with his bike. Lorraine Blanchar stayed for a few days to help out and scout the scene for her all-women’s bike camp. There were pop-ins from Evan Schwartz and Garett Buehler to check out the project. And then there was the bachelor party with some of the guys from Freeride Entertainment and Sherpa Cinema. Good freakin’ times! And from all of them, we heard the same question “so… you guys came up here to work?”

Retallack was our base camp for eight days. We would wake to the smell of bacon in the morning, and then work our asses off. In the evenings, we would explore the mountains and ride bikes. Now, I have ridden around Nelson before, but this was an opportunity to get a guided tour of many of the phenomenal trails that line the mountains of the surrounding areas. Mind blowing is all I can say. Riding in BC is so good on so many different levels.


It was the last day that sealed the deal for me. After working all morning, and then banging out three shuttle runs in the afternoon, we found ourselves at Slocan Lake; drinking whisky and jumping off the rocks into the water. All with the perfect backdrop of the sunset draping over the Valhalla Mountains. You know you’re going to have a good time when your host throws the bottle cap into the fire and says, “Well, I guess we need to finish this before we leave.”

All said and done, this mixture of people, work and play felt good. It felt, well comfortable and familiar. It kind of felt like home. What an odd notion of a vacation indeed.