The Flow Finds You: A Ballad Of Belonging

Story and photos by Dylan Sherrard. 

Some days begin a little empty.

Optimistic… but empty. No plans, no problem. Just you and your bike, without any arrangements for the ride beyond the wide-open promise of dirt beneath tires and trust that you’ll find your people.

And Sun Peaks has a unique way of filling those gaps in time. A way of sparking an otherwise quiet afternoon to become something electrified. Somewhere between a warm up lap and latte, familiar faces begin rolling by. You flick a few texts, “You at the hill today?” “Riding laps?”

And suddenly the lifeline feels less like a waiting room, and a lot more like weaving into a long awaited show.
Laps begin stacking and friends appear from thin air. The stoke train transforms the ride as corners get pushed deeper, side hits stretch a little wider, and laughter hangs in the air like the gold dust of these summer night dreams. 

Carried away in the tide of the crew, 1 lap turns into 10. You remember that a lot of the best lines aren’t on the map as you roll shoulder to shoulder and tire to tire with friends and heroes alike. Fast laps and fist bumps on repeat as the flow finds you.

As the light gets low, the whole trail is glowing. The dust of these summer days floats like glitter on the trail before you - brush strokes in the falling light that make this ride, this moment, truly magic.

You grab hold a little tighter to your bars, but also to the feeling. Not the number of laps or the stats, just that feeling of belonging to something larger than yourself. Something that you never could have planned for. 

It chases you through the end of the ride and into the evening, because it’s yours to hold until your next day in the park. You might arrive solo, but you always leave in a train.

Some days start a little empty. And some days fizzle up to a fullness more rewarding than you ever could have imagined.

A Ballad of Belonging. Short stories of the moments that define our ride.