The fall morning at Silverstar Mountain was cold as we emerged from our lovely accommodation into the frosty air.  In our haste the night before we did not test the key cards to let us into the lavatories.  We had already had our morning coffee's and things were getting desperate!.  The campsite had cleared out last night as the last of the Rev-Limiter Racers headed home, we were basically the only keeners that had arrived almost a week early to get a feel for the area, the conditions and get into mischief.  Unfortunately this meant no one was around to borrow the bathroom key from.  We darted across the car park and campsites to find an outhouse which had just been used by 200+ riders for the entire weekend.  This quickly put a bit of a damper on an otherwise beautiful morning.  

With the necessities out of the way, we sorted out some breakfast, and spread out our gear from the wet ride the day before.  I had some knobby tires to put on and all my fluids to check.  As always Davinder was bragging on how his Tenree never needs any maintenance.  After I finished my bike, with Davinder itching to get out riding I forced him to slow down so I could have a go over his bike too.  I teased that just because he never does maintenance doesn’t mean the bike doesn’t need maintenance!  after bickering like an old married couple i succeeded in convincing him the I had to have a look.  Mind you it was only after threats that I would not ride the rally with him unless I went over his bike first.  He was low on brake fluids, clutch fluids and almost everything that could be adjusted needed at least some adjustment.  I felt much better once we were done.

It was still early and although I still had a couple race prep things I wanted to do, I figured what the hell, I listened to Davinder and we went exploring.  The races from the weekend before had not yet taken their flagging down so we thought we would go check out their track before anyone could tell us we were not allowed (which we were not!)  250cc-500cc dirt bike single tracks do not make for easy warmup 1000cc adventure bike tracks!  We even accidentally ended up on a mountain bike track which I am sure would have gotten fined for being on if anyone caught us and followed trails and tracks to the top of the Ski hill (also not allowed) Davinder and I both dropped the bikes a few times but then found some fire roads and double tracks where the bike really excel!  We put on some serious Km’s just getting a feel for the area! We were both tiring so we headed back for a late lunch at the trailer.

Davinder:  Quinton do you know what this lunch is missing?

me:  ???puzzled look?? no what

Davinder:  beers!

And on that note, we geared up, emptied our panders and headed into the town of Vernon in the Okanagan Valley.  We filled my panders and one of Davinder’s panniers completely with beer wine and booze.  Hey, we had a week on the mountain still!  then we filled the remaining pannier with food.    A few adventures around town and some sight seeing and we were on our way back up the mountain.  There are amazing switchbacks and twisty roads the entire way and sitting at the lights at the bottom of the hill Davinder revel his bike and called me a piece of the female anatomy through our intercom system.  Ohhhh ya this was on!  we both wheelied through our first two gears and we were out in front of traffic.  We pumped the bikes around the insanely tight hairpin corners all the way back up the mountain to our campsite.  On arrival, things were picking up a bit and some KTM tents were being erected.  Things were shaping up.

We dined and drank and generally had a good time although the bar was closed and not much was going on with it being off season and mid week at the ski hill so a quiet night and early morning was on the books.  I had a Chris Birch Training day in the morning and was excited.