Where the Trail Ends (2012) - full transcript

To understand how this ended for us,
you need to know where it began.

For over a decade,

we thought the state of Utah
was the best landscape on the planet

to push our riding
and, ultimately, ourselves.

I don't think you could design
better terrain than this.

It's not something
you could dig or form

or put together with boards or nails.

It's a landscape itself.

It's big terrain, high consequence.

We spent 10 years getting to know it
like the backs of our hands.

Every crack, every slope, every line.



It's not tame, it's not safe,

but our time here
has made it like home.

Traditionally, in our sport,

you have a few trails
coming down a hill.

But standing on top of a mountain
and having 360 degrees of options,

that's freedom.

The only limit is your imagination.

Over the last few trips to Utah,
we noticed something.

Something had changed.

It started to feel familiar.

Everywhere we went,
people had ridden there before.

And that's what sparked
this whole idea.

As unique as Utah is,

could terrain like this
exist somewhere else?



Could anything come close?
Could there be better?

The bicycle has always been
a way for me to explore.

It started with the training wheels
coming off.

Suddenly going from the yard

to the whole neighborhood,

then the local trails,

and eventually a career
of traveling the world

doing contests and photo shoots.

Riding has become my life.

I've broken a few records
and a lot of bones,

and I've been lucky enough
to see a lot of the world

from the seat of my bike.

But now the places I wanted to find

were landscapes

that had never seen tire tracks

or even footprints.

But how do you find something

that not many people
have even looked for?

Where do you start?

The elements required
to make up these riding zones

are rare and exact.

The perfect dirt, pitch, climate.

To find new locations,
we would have to go to places

where the mountain bike
had yet to be introduced.

Leaving the familiar behind
and starting out on this mission

meant a lot of research.

But you really don't know
if these zones will work

until you put your tires in the dirt.

If we were going to pack up and head
to the other side of the world,

we were gonna need some help.

-Hi.
-My name's Jack.

Nice to meet you.

Let's go.

I'm here with James Doerf ling
and Kurt Sorge.

It's pretty crazy being this far
from home and what you know,

being in this completely different
part of the world.

Wow, check that one out.

Coming here to China
is definitely a big culture shock,

like, it kind of makes you feel
like you?re on another planet almost.

The way people around here look at us,

they've definitely not seen
westerners before.

We have a good team.

We've got a translator,
three drivers,

and it's really key for over here
because no one speaks English.

Yeah, this is a traditional bazaar.

-What is that?
-It's baked dumplings.

Yeah, it's safe.

Having our guides here is definitely
a very unique experience.

You get to know these guys.

You know, they?re locals.
They?ve grown up here.

You know, this is the culture,
really, is them.

So, really being able to hang out
with them, get to know them,

is really a cool experience.

Go left.

Left, right?

The second we saw this terrain,

we knew this location
had a lot of potential.

Almost too much, if that was possible.

Come here, and it's just so vast
and so many zones.

That makes it almost harder
to find stuff.

But we also realize that coming
in the middle of their summer

may not have been the best idea.

The average temperature
was 45 degrees Celsius,

or 773 degrees Fahrenheit,

almost unbearable to ride in,
let alone hike.

I'd be lying if I said
there wasn't a learning curve.

But once we got our heads
around the new dirt and terrain,

it was game on.

All right!

Champion.

It's really cool having Jack
and the drivers come and hang out.

They?ve never seen
riding like that before.

They?re just cheering, yelling,
hollering. It's awesome.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Last day of the trip here,

ended up rolling across
this pretty sweet road gap.

If I'm able to do this,

definitely will be the biggest thing
I?ve ever done

out in the middle of nowhere.

Hey, guys, I'm just,
I'm holding for wind here.

You know, hopefully get this thing
in the bag.

Hey, guys, it's getting pretty windy.
I'm not sure if I'm into this.

Looking back,

I'rn not sure if it was the wind,
or if I just wasn't into it,

but I was definitely disappointed.

At the end of the day,
the trip was a huge success...

Oh, yea h! Thank you.

...and proved this whole idea
had great potential.

Cheers, boys. Good trip.

China.

-Kicked our ass.
-It did.

I think what we got was good,

but, like, I definitely think
I could find more stuff in the future

if I come back.

Mike Kinrade had told me
about another potential zone

on the edge of the Andes
in Argentina.

The other option we were thinking
was just going across the river,

maybe further up,

and just, like, going way back in.

So, we traveled down to South America

on his word
that there would be good riding.

-Dude!
-That is awesome.

Dude! That's the biggest spider
I?ve ever seen, man!

You got to see this!

Whoa, man!

Dude! Dude!
Hey, where's my camera, man?

It was pretty weird, man,

'cause on the drive,
it didn't really look like a desert.

Thinking, "Okay, where's the desert?"

You know, all I'm doing
is seeing jungle and mountains.

How far we got?

The whole crew was just like,

"Where are we?
What are we doing here?"

Like, if I wanted to ride
in the forest, I'll stay home in B.C.

You start climbing in elevation,

and you start to see a little bit
of red dirt here and there.

And then, sure enough,
come around a corner,

and there it was -- desert.

Just explodes into this huge valley
of red dirt and red mountains,

and it just looks unbelievable.

Instantly, morale was just
up through the roof.

Yo, look at this place.

Whoo-hoo! Pretty sick, eh?

I start scouring to find lines,

and everyone's finding, you know,
about two lines each right away.

We got to use
what each place has to offer

and use its strengths.

So, here in Argentina,
it's the big open faces

and the chutes
that you don't have to touch.

It's like five times bigger
than I thought it was

when I looked from the other side,

which is a good thing, I think.

This is like the best spot
I?ve ever been at.

Ohh! It's like quicksand!

Oh, my God.

That was the biggest hike I?ve
ever done in my whole entire life.

No one's ever rode
in this place before.

That's a pretty cool feeling,
you know,

'cause you're out there, and you?re
like, "Dude, look at this line."

Probably the first one hitting it,
and I'm probably gonna be the last.

Me and Andreu were sitting
on the ridge up there,

and he said, "Robbie --

Robbie's probably
my favorite human being."

I'm like, "He's probably one
of my favorite human beings, too."

Just sends it.

Doesn't--
He doesn't even warm up run.

Hasn't ridden his bike in six months,
and then just rips down that.

Robbie, man, like,
as soon as he's on it,

he just finds the craziest line
and rides it, man.

His line was just insane.

Get it, buddy!
Get it, buddy!

-Dude!
-Damn it!

Broke my foot, I think.

-Really?
-Yeah.

After just like a quick assessment,

we had to go to the hospital
to check it out.

You don't want to end up
in the hospitals down here

or anywhere besides home, really,

'cause you never know
what's gonna happen in there.

X-ray, or..

No one speaks English.

It was really rough
trying to get them to understand

that I needed an X-ray on my foot.

Fortunate enough
that there was no broken bones,

but he's pretty injured right now,

so we?ll see if he can
get back on his bike

anytime later in the trip.

Seems like more people are
getting hurt this trip than normally.

Andreu took one of the hardest crashes
I?ve ever seen in my life.

-Your neck and everything all right?
-It may be the collarbone.

I took a big crash,

but luckily, I just got a bunch
of bumps and bruises.

No one wants to take any more risk
in a country like this,

but, at the same time,
if you see something you want to do,

you?re not just gonna let it go by.

You?re still gonna go for it.

Two minutes later,
he's just 100% again,

and he just goes back up there
and rides the same line.

Rolling.

Nice!

So sick.

Nice work!

No problems that time.

First day back.

The next location we wanted to explore
was back in North America.

And we knew that if we wanted to find
new terrain on our home continent,

we'd have to go deep.

We?re in the most pristine section
of the Fraser River

in central British Columbia.

The only way into most of these areas
is by jet boat.

We?re gonna be on the Fraser
for, like, 10 days--

camping out, roughing it,

pretty far away from anything, really.

Being back in North America,

we definitely had access
to some amenities

that made exploring a lot easier.

We?re in the middle
of the middle of nowhere.

If you can find
the center point of nowhere,

it's inside the center point.

When I first heard about this trip,

I knew we were gonna be living
by the Claw lifestyle.

If he, all of a sudden,
got dropped off here by himself,

I have a feeling he'd be all right.

Can't say the same
for the rest of us.

The McCauls haven't camped too much.

I'm claiming a spot right here.

It looks like, kind of, tent city.

Safety in numbers
from the wildlife and the bears.

Hopefully they'll get them or them
or them first,

so I'm pitching my tent
right in the middle.

Did you see the bear shit about
10 feet away from your tent there?

I did not see the bear shit

10 feet away from where
I'm about to set up my tent.

-It's right here.
-Oh, good. That's safe.

This is his trail.

This thing needs a glossary.

They never told me
what a rip-and-stick wrap...

Yeah, I set up tents all the time.

No, I'm not reading the directions
or anything.

This keeps the rain out, by the way,
in case you?re a rookie.

Home sweet home!

How come the pole
is on top of your tent?

Nobody else's seems to be that way.

It's a little trick I picked up
over the years about tent-building.

Ow, ow, ow, ow.

I thought you were singing.

Yeah. Ow!

I burned my knee

It really-

Ow, fuck.

God damn it.

I thought the CD was skipping
for a second.

I'm down with this camping business,

except for my tent's on a hill,
and my sleeping bag's really slippery.

I kept trying to figure out
why I'd end up in a little ball

down at the bottom of my tent.

So I'd scoot my way back up,
fall asleep,

and then just slowly
slide back down.

That was my first line of the trip,

all the way from the top of my tent
down to the bottom.

I think I'll find some more today.

We all just kind of gambled
a little bit,

and then went down river.

And we come across this zone
that just looks awesome.

And it looks like something that was
just made for mountain biking.

It's all good.

The first two corners are soft,
so you can blow those up.

You?ll rail it no problem,
and it's all good, man.

Dude, that is probably
the funnest line I have ever ridden...

-Yeah, so fun.
-...in my life.

-I think we got her, buddy.
-Yeah.

Just the best way to end the day.

So, we?re up the Chilcotin River
this time.

We?ve been camping
on the Fraser River.

Fraser River is beautiful,

but Chilcotin's
on a whole different level.

The river's just bright blue-green

and just surrounded
by big canyons and hoodoos.

Unfortunately,
the Chilcotin's rapids were too big

for the jet boat
to bring our hikes in.

But lucky for us,
we still had the heli.

See that sand slope,
like, dead ahead of us?

Yep.

I think that's gonna be our L.D.
right up there.

Okay.

We got an early start today,

and we have a mountain-bike
playground at our disposal

with a helicopter
to get us up to the top.

I have a feeling this day
is gonna be one

that goes down
in the memory banks

as one of the greatest days
we?ve had riding.

We were gaining momentum.

But we knew that if we really wanted
to push big-mountain riding,

we would have to go
to the biggest mountains in the world.

And that's what brought us to Nepal,

headed to one of the most remote
regions in the Himalayas.

Upper Mustang's been the longest
and furthest and hardest trip

I?ve ever been on,

and just to get into the country
it was like a three-day ordeal.

I don't know what happened.

All 45 pieces of luggage showed up
except for my two pieces of luggage.

As soon as we get to Kathmandu,

I know that we?re supposed to charter
a plane and get out of there

and then start our trek
for three days,

so it just doesn't seem realistic
for me

that my bike's gonna end up
catching up to me.

So, at this point,
I'm really bummed out.

I came all this way,
and I don't have a bike

or clothes or anything.

No purpose.

This will probably be
the sketchiest flight of our life.

Pretty much.

In a situation like this,

you just have to keep
your mind occupied,

because coming all the way
to Kathmandu

and then knowing that we have

another three- or four-day trek
ahead of us

to get to a zone that we might not
even be able to ride,

and if we could, it might suck,
so it's a leap of faith,

but, you know, you got to take
gambles every now and then.

One of our guides, Mingma, is
a pretty acclaimed mountain climber.

It was pretty cool to have him

'cause he's been up to Everest
a couple of times,

and he's also climbed Annapurna I.

So what we?re doing here in Kagbeni
is we?re gonna enter upper Mustang,

which has been just opened up
to the public in '92.

Before that,
no foreigners were allowed in.

The reason that this area
has been restricted to foreigners

is because if you keep going that way,
up the valley,

it ends u p landing in Tibet,

and from what we?ve been told,

there's still a large military
presence up this valley.

This is where the road ends
and the hiking begins.

From Kagbeni we went to Chele.

Starting to put the work boots on.

I'm hiking in my skate shoes
'cause I don't have my bag,

and feet are starting to get sore,

and I'm wearing chino pants.

Just trying to stay positive.

You guys see anything?

Gained some elevation
and ended up here

at this small, little, remote town.

Definitely we?re in the Himalayas,
so the elevations are a factor.

Right now we?re at about 10,000 feet,

and it's not really
in too much of effect.

You can feel it, definitely,
when you?re hiking around a bit.

You get a little more tired
a little quicker,

but tomorrow we?re supposed
to put on a big day

and gain, I guess, thousand
vertical meters, which is quite a bit.

We?ll probably be up
at 14,000 vertical feet,

and you?re definitely gonna be
feeling it there.

Woke up to a bit of a frosty morning
with some snow on local hills.

I'm not looking down.

They?re building a road
down this valley

that will connect Tibet to Nepal,

but it's not done yet.

It's pretty cool to see this place
before the road's finished

and there's a lot
of outside influence.

And we get to see it how it's been
for hundreds and hundreds of years.

The trails are gnarly for us,

but that's the only way
the locals have to get around,

and it's the only way
to get out here, so...

It's what we signed up for.

Couple of us got a little bit
of altitude sickness

just because we climbed
so high so fast.

We gained about 3,000 feet
in elevation.

I wish I had a granny.

Still hiking in skate shoes.

Up and down.

And I'm beat. Blistered feet.

That's definitely one of the hardest
days I?ve ever had walking.

Rolling into this little town,
and, like, I'm super fired up.

The riding actually looks amazing.

Yeah, boys, how sick was that?

I'm still claiming longest day
of my life, I think.

And we?re just gonna
grab some dinner

and hopefully get a good night's rest,

and tomorrow we?re gonna hopefully
put the tires in the dirt

and see how it goes.

Nepalese Santa brought me
a nice gift for the morning.

I got my bag of clothes.

I got my bike back.

It's a little beat and battered,

but I was in the same clothes
for five days,

and it's pretty refreshing
to have my own stuff now.

I guess some porters
carried my bike in.

I can't thank them enough.

And I finally got
some normal shoes to wear.

Most people are like,

"Oh, yeah, yeah, you ride stuff like
this all the time," but we haven?t.

You know, this is totally new.

Every time we go to a new location,
the dirt is completely different.

Coming this far, and, you know,
getting your first line down

and realizing that it's not really
what you?re hoping for

is a huge disappointment.

You?re like, "Man, I just traveled
five days, and now it's not working."

It's not a good feeling.

How was it?

Oh, it was fine until I crashed.

I?ll race 'ya?

What about that next one over?

Has anyone looked at that?

Dude, this zone fuckin?sucks.

I fuckin?hate this zone.

All right, well, let's move on, then.

Hey!

All of new Nepal.

Just seeing the people
and the culture in Nepal,

it was still worth the trip.

But it was hard to believe
we'd come this far

and found nothing worthy of riding.

We?ve been going
over little mini-pass over mini-pass,

and it's just too gnarly
for all the wrong reasons

with too many big rocks
and no run-outs,

and come around this little corner,
and we think we got something.

I think that thing's gonna work, dude.

-That thing?
-Yeah.

Why not? It's sand.

See, there's so many options, too.

I think we found gold.

Hiking at this elevation
feels like the gravity's turned up

to double its normal strength.

The harder you work, the, you know,
more memorable the line,

so, it's a lot of work,
but it's always worth it.

Yeah, buddy.

Makes it that much more glorious
when you get it done.

All right.

Yea h!

Okay, dropping it.

Go.

You got this, Kurt!

Drop it.

-Yeah, Sorge!
-Look at Sorge.

Oh, yeah, buddy!

Dude, you killed it!

Oh, my God.

I don't think I?ve ever gone that fast
down a chute before.

Dude, I was just fuckin?holding on
for dear life.

It is fuckin?fast.

That was sick!

Oh, this is gnarly.

I think the only thing
that went as planned

is that I made it to the bottom.

-Yeah, buddy.
-Give the boy some air, huh?

Dude, that's probably like 2,000 vert.

That's like your average trail
at Whistler in, like, five seconds.

Yeah, you?re right.

Yeah, the riding has been

probably some of the gnarliest riding
I?ve ever done, in the upper Mustang.

It's just trumped pretty much
everything else I?ve ridden.

We keep searching all over the globe
for this unique riding terrain.

It's crazy 'cause, you know,
we just seem to scratch the surface

wherever we go.

We just, you know,
we got two weeks here,

and it just seems that we need
a couple months, you know?

Just being in these zones

and seeing how vast,
you know, the world is,

it just makes you realize
that there's a lot more out there,

and there's a lot to be had,
and the search goes on.

There's an old saying about traveling,

that when you travel,

you not only get a new perspective
on the world,

but you also get a new perspective
on home.

After almost two years
hunting down new landscapes,

we decided to return
where it all started

and see if it looked any different.

Virgin, Utah, is where this style
of riding first came to life.

Its shelves and spines
have seen more progression

in big-mountain riding
than anywhere else.

We?ve all ridden this terrain
countless times.

We know the drops, the dirt,
and the hospitals all too well.

But with these elements of comfort
comes a lack of excuses.

All these other locations,
it was exhilarating enough

just putting tires where they'd
never been and surviving.

Here, there's an immense pressure

to exceed 15 years
of big-mountain history.

We?re rolling.

Let's do this!

Probably the gnarliest thing
I?ve ever done.

Oropping in five.

There's a common misconception
that when you come to Virgin,

you rod, get all the lines
and tricks you wanted,

and return home victorious.

But the unfortunate part
of pushing your limits

in a place like this

is eventually, you find them.

You know, we really want
to push our riding,

and, you know, myself,
I'm here to get some new tricks

that I?ve been wanting to do
for years, actually.

I want to try a front flip off a drop.

Something that scares
the crap out of me,

but end of the day,
it's something I know I can do.

I just need to commit to it.

Yeah, this spring,
Darren broke his back

front-flipping just in his backyard.

I want this.

You can do this.

Having that kind of demons
in the back of your mind

haunting you on a trick,

it always comes into play out here.

Yeah, front flips are scary.

They?ve taken a lot of people out.

You?re a fuckin? pussy!

Not every story has a happy ending.

The pressure we put on ourselves
to push our riding is immense.

He lost it, man.

He wanted it so bad,

but that thought
of breaking his back again

was in the back of his head.

You can't blame him for not doing it.

It just shows how much passion
he has for bike riding.

I respect what he did, you know?

Like, sometimes you?re able to do it,

and sometimes
your head just goes like--

Sometimes you just can?t, you know?

Fuck. Fuck.

He's out. He's out!

I'm good.

Whoa.

Coming to Utah is full-bore.

You?re not just going
to ride your local trails.

It's like you?re going for blood

because you?re trying
to progress the sport

as much as you possibly can.

It's a great place to where
you can go bigger

and show the world things that have
never been done on a mountain bike.

But, at the same time,
that comes with a price.

Sometimes you eat Utah,
and sometimes Utah eats you, I guess.

This trip, Utah, I think it
definitely got the better--

the better end of us
than we got out of it.

You good?

-Yeah, he's good.
-I hit it hard.

I thought I broke my collarbone.

This shouldn't be viewed
as a negative, but just reality.

And it's simply par
for the course in Utah,

a landscape that remains
one of the most ideal

for big-mountain riding.

But was it still the best?

It felt like there was
another location

that may have taken its place.

After all the searching we?ve done,
I came back to this spot

just because it's the best
big-mountain riding I?ve ever seen.

There's nothing like the Gobi.

As soon as we saw Mr. Wu again,

we?re like, "Yeah, we?re driving
with him the whole time, man.

He kiIIs it."

This go-round, on this trip,

I think we know kind of more
what we?re looking for.

It seems like it's just--
The only hard part is getting there

and scouting it and finding
an efficient way to cover everything.

Getting over there?

That's where I want to go.

Is there any way that we can get
the vehicles down

and on the other side'?

We can see this place
in the distance,

and then trying to get out here
is another thing.

It's like Vegas.

When you see the casinos from afar,
you?re like, "I can walk there,"

and then six hours later

you haven't gotten
halfway across town.

This is gonna be an all-hands-on-deck
situation here in a second.

The van cannot go.

We got little clearance vans
with our bikes in them,

so we had to figure out a way
to get the bikes on the land cruisers.

Traveling around the world,

you really got to rely
on what you bring with you,

and if you don?t,
you just got to improvise

on what you can find
and what you can create.

Some sketchy craftsmanship here,
but I think she's gonna work.

Plenty of clearance.

Little high.
Little higher than we needed.

You know, when you come back
to a zone like this,

it's not like it's engrained
in your head

on how to ride this terrain.

It's funny,
hiking up you?re kind of timid

and like, "Man, I don't really
remember what it feels like."

We?ve all been here before
besides Zink,

and you could tell he was anxious
to get on his bike.

When I dropped in,
I didn't want to be timid.

I just wanted to go
as fast as I could.

And then as soon as I got
in the gully, I realized,

"I'm in big trouble."

Oh, my God!

Oh, my God.

Does he even have a radio?
I don't even think he has a radio.

Yo, Zink.

How you feeling, buddy?

Is Zink all good or what'?

He's super short on breath
and a little wounded.

-But he's good.
-Oh, my God, that was so gnarly.

I totally thought
that I was breaking my back.

I thought it was gonna be
so mellow and whatever,

and that gully
just got so thin so quick, like...

-What's up?
-Dude, you got tommied.

It fuckin? sucked, man.

Well, can we go to a doctor
that has an X-ray machine?

That's the hardest thing ever
is keeping your mind from running.

I?ve never been to a Chinese hospital.

I didn't know
what it was gonna be like.

And say I had a ruptured organ,
and I was bleeding inside.

I don't want them to cut me open.

It could be a nightmare.

I'm starting to figure that this trip
might be over for me.

You tell them it's like I don't care
about the cuts right now.

I just want to get my ribs...

Thanks a lot.

We going?

Sit right here.

-Sit here?
-Yeah.

Thank you.

It's feeling a little bit better now,
but I'm still, like, short of breath.

Let's go.

-A shadow.
-Thank you.

The ribs are good.
I'm not going home now.

One of my best friends, Kyle Strait,
is always making fun of me

that I love crashing,
and, clearly, I don?t.

Nobody loves crashing.

There's something gratifying
about taking that kind of a beating

and just being able to continue on.

And you?re just like, "If I didn't get
hurt doing that, I can do anything."

When I found that jump,

I made up my mind
pretty much right away

that I wanted to flip it the first try

so that when I landed on a flip

you would clearly see that
that's the first time it's been hit.

I think we?re ready.
Are you ready?

About as ready as I?ll ever be, buddy.

The places we?re riding right now,
like, there's just no comparison.

I don't really know how to explain it.

Just complete freedom,
like you try whatever you want.

Last day in the Gobi.

It's just opened my eyes
to so many other locations

I want to take it to,

and I really hope that this isn?t
the end, and it's just the beginning.

-Yeah, Wu.
-Yeah!

Yeah, Jack.

Just saw in the distance,
coming across the flats,

a group of kids.

No English?

No, you guys just...

The first thing that they noticed

is the brakes are a little touchier
than what they are used to.

The whole reason that brought us
on this voyage is the landscape

so that we can find a place
to ride our bikes.

The people, the cultures,
and all the other things that we saw

are the true fruits of our labor,
you know?

These kids are gonna be doing this
till dark.

I know I would when I was a kid.

Now we?re back two years later,

and it's still here
in perfect condition.

Looks pretty much good to go as is
right now.

Yeah, Claw!

-Yeah, buddy!
-Yeah!

After traveling the world
for the last couple years

looking for what's next,

we found one thing...

that where the trail ends,
the next one begins.