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Today is day one of our Ride & Reach retreat with Ryan Leech. Everyone arrived in Whitehorse yesterday in time to watch Ryan do a trials demo in front of one of our local bike shops, Icycle Sport. After all the bikes were assembled & Yukon Brewing beers were sampled, we sat down to share stories over a fantastic dinner.

Today started off with a few perfect Midnight Sun coffees and a morning yoga session led by Ryan. As a certified yoga instructor, he led the group through an energizing session that allowed both the beginners and more advanced practitioners to have a great start to their day. Sylvain is leading the group out on their first taste of Yukon singletrack. Today’s ride headed out from our Yurtville to the trails on Grey Mountain. We’ve got a great group here for the next week and are stoked to be sharing our part of the world with them!

Pro rider Ryan Leech has arrived in the Yukon! He is here to lead a yoga and mountain bike retreat called Ride and Reach with Ryan Leech that runs July 3 - 9, 2010 in Whitehorse, Yukon. We are all pretty excited about this retreat. It is only offered in the Yukon and it is going to be fantastic. We have a great group from around the US and Canada, making their way up North as we speak. Bon voyage!

If you are in town this weekend, please stop by Icycle Sport on Quartz Road. Ryan will be doing a trials demonstration at 3pm on Saturday. Drop by and say hi to Ryan!

Well, the summers are long in the Yukon, at least if you are counting the hours of daylight. We Yukoners manage to cram as much activity into the daylight as we can. One of our guests here just wrote home saying how in the Yukon it seems you get two days for every one. On his last day we pushed it so it felt like 3 days in one! Just to make sure he remembered his Yukon trip fondly.

There is a large amount of fun, interesting and unique sporting events here in the Yukon. Over solstice weekend there is the Kluane Chilkat International Bike Relay http://www.kcibr.org Start.ing in Kluane National Park, up and over the stunning Haines pass and ending in the quaint mountain flanked fishing village called Haines, Alaska. It is about a 230 kms and can be done in solo, duo, 4 & 8 person teams. This year’s race saw 1200 competitors! The next weekend is the 24 Hours of Light Mountain Bike Race http://www.24hoursoflight.ca Solos. and teams race around a 14 km loop of double and singletrack all guided by the midnight sun. No lights allowed or required! Great party, emphasis is on having a good time on bikes!

The Yukon River Quest http://www.yukonriverquest.com is hailed as the world’s longest annual marathon canoe and kayak race. Paddlers put in at Whitehorse and race 740km/460mi down river to historic Dawson City on the famed Yukon River. There are two mandatory stops of 5 hours, but after that the race is on. It doesn’t get dark, you are paddling into the sun - it is quite a trip! Here is a video made by an Australian journalist on the 2009 race! http://www.youtube.com/user/OuterEdgeMag#p/u/16/tLuRKEyCJAA

Then it is the Dri-Tri, a triathlon without swimming! A fun, local event with a great vibe!

Just announced is a Super D/Mass Start DH race called Montana Mountain Madness July 30 & 31 in Carcross. We are super excited about this one! Should be awesome!

Each year Whitehorse hosts a 24 Hours of Light Mountain Bike race. This year the race is June 26-27, 2010. One of the only rules is no lights allowed or required! The course is about 14 kilometres and a mix of single and double track. We usually get about 150-200 riders from around North America. If you are in the area, you should think of signing up! Great door prizes, our chief of fun knows how to keep the energy high for the entire 24 hours!

www.24hoursoflight.ca

See you there!

Today is the longest day of the year. What better way to celebrate than by riding bikes under the midnight sun? Meet at the parking lot across from El Camino trail head, beside the biathlon range. We will leave our black van at the bottom of Grey Mountain to shuttle back up to the cars when we are done. Meet at 11:45pm and we start riding at midnight!

See you there!