Today started out really early, Dave being the super troop great guy that he is picked me up at 6:15am. My bike was ready and I was ready to rock and roll. We then headed to Burnaby to pick up Connor who was in a chipper mood early in the morning and then we picked up Kenneth who was late for our rendezvous. I had ridden with Connor once before last year for the 2006 Remembrance Day Ride.
So once we were all in Dave's sweet ass Ford F-150 Quad Cab pickup, we were on our way to Whistler. On the way there was talk of bikes and girls and cars and girls and well....you know. There was a load of construction going on so there was the occasional delay, but it is understandable. Dave however dozed off and almost got us killed just outside of Squamish... ;-)
Once we arrived you could tell we where all Whistler veterans, we disembarked the vehicle, got dressed, checked the bikes and were on our way over to the ticket counter to get our passes.
The first run of the day was Crank-it-up. There has been a lot of hype about this trail as it is a fun rip that is great as a warm up. Little hits, lots to pump through and it gave me a great opportunity to get my wings back as I had not seriously jumped my bike in some time. Crank-it-up was a total hoot.
We then found Tim in the line up at the bottom; he had spent the night camping at Brandywine Falls and was to meet us at the hill. This run we went all the way to the top......Garbonzo!! It was a little chilly and a little moist but well worth it. I had fun, lots of fun, Sidetrack is a wicked fun line.
Today I was addicted to A-Line and Dirt Merchant as well as the Bikercross. After figuring out the speeds needed for the Bikercross course I hat a freaking hoot on it.
Kenneth had a few issues with a flat rear tire today. One run with me on A-Line resulted in a flat for him (I gave him a tube). Then he had another........he gave me back my DH tube with holes in it!!! So Connor got him good Rodeo Ninja style.
One run down Crank-it-up was freaking hilarious. Kenneth, Connor and I were training practically wheel to wheel down the trail. There were several times where all three of us were in the air on the same jump at the same time. On one particular table, Kenneth over tweaked and went down just feet ahead of Connor and I was so close I think I actually ran a part of Kenneth over with my bike. He had a little trouble getting up from laughing so hard.
Joyride has a few HOLY SHIZIT!! features added to it. One new section that was part of the DH course was straight down a steep rooty slippy section that I just decided to skip because it was late in the day and I didn't feel the need to show off ;-)
On run later in the day on Garbonzo had Connor and I going down Goats Gully. HOLY CRAP!!!!, talk about treacherous!!! Slippy mud on steep nasty rocks. I have ridden it many times before in the dry, in the wet while raining, but today was the meanest I have ever seen it. I cleaned the nasty right hand corner that starts the real madness and all the other sections on the trail but the few roller rocks with roots near the end of the trail looked super nasty today and for the first time...ever at Whistler I walked a section. It just looked too mean today.
For the most part we all made it out relatively unscathed. I did however decide on one run on the bikercross course to hit the first set of doubles at double the recommended speed and proceeded to auger into the lip of the next set of doubles and then decided it would be wise to hang onto the bike until my body had passed the lip of the landing and then eject. Lets just say it was rather ugly but I was only shaken...hard. Later in the day I looked at my shirt and noticed a hole in the chest and a good scratch on in my armor. Chalk one up for the armor.
Overall a great day at Whistler with a great group of guys to ride with. It was a really late night getting home for me let alone Dave who dropped me off and then had to go back home to Poco and then work the next day.
I had a great time at the holy land for mountain bikers.......Whistler Bike Park.
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