Whistler - Thrills 'n Spills

I managed to hook up with Steve and Daryl to get a ride up to Whistler where we then hooked up with Dave, John and a few of Steve's friend. 7 guys in total.

The day started off well with a warm-up run on Dirt Merchant and then it was up to Garbanzo. At the top I set up my camera to be a reverse view chase camera. Some of the footage turned out pretty damn good.

I must say that letting others take you on trails you've never ridden before can be a hoot at times. Blue Velvet is a wicked intermediate trail that I have never thought of riding in the past, but turned out to be the most fun trail I've ridden in a long time.

Below is a helmet cam run of Freight Train, No Joke/New Joke.


During that run an incident took place on the roller coaster which took out one of Steve's friends for the rest of the day. He didn't have enough speed to get up the face of the roller and then fell backwards where his head then hit a big rock on the side of the trail. FORTUNATELY his helmet did its job and took the blow. He had a minor concussion and was out for the remainder of the day.

After the Freight train run, we rode over to Angry Pirate which is a tight trail of turn after turn after turn.


Angry Pirate was a hoot but after that twisty trail I hungered for some air time, so A-Line was next on our list. A-Line can be a love hate type of trail and today my love turned to hate after my run. The video below shows how an amazing trail can very easily rear its ugly head and turn a great run into down right ugly one.


I consider myself very, VERY lucky because things could have been a lot worse given my speed and distance traveled going over the bars of my bike. I'll be off my bike for a while but at least I spent the rest of the day at the GLC patio taking in the sights and drinking beer.

Woodlot night ride

Tim and I hit The Woodlot tonight.

We rode Krazy Karpenter, Mandatory Caution,Snakes and Ladders and Shotgun.

Our ride started at 6:30 in light and we descend in dark. My Dinotte lights proved to be a good choice for this ride.

Golden Ears Park - Lush Single Track

I went for an afternoon rip today. Nothing special, nothing technical, nothing but a nice ride in the woods.

I drove into Golden Ears Park and did a helmet cam run of the most lush trail I've ever ridden. In the spring the ferns glow even more than they did today.

A short section of the West Canyon Trail



After a rip on the West Canyon Trail I drove to the park entrance and hopped onto a random trail. Then for fun at each junction I picked up a stick and spun it in the air and let random luck decide where I would ride depending on where the sharp end pointed.

I finally ended up at Mike Lake down a decommissioned road. The ride back to the car was a blast on a double track horse trail. Random spins in the woods are a great way to ride somewhere new and keep it fun.

Burke Mountain Flow

Several months ago I was approached after a ride at The Woodlot by someone who recognized me as the guy that rides a Banshee and does a lot of helmet cam filming. The person that approach me was a builder on Burke who has over the last few years built several trails on Burke that he wanted to show to others in the form of videos. Pete (the builder) drew me a map of his trails and described to me how they link up. Today's ride was for Pete and his request for some video footage of his hard work.

The really cool thing about his trails is that they are all natural with no drops, jumps or woodwork needed. EVERYTHING is flowing and pumpy and each of these four trails leads into the next. The second cool thing is that the trails are named after his bikes (Six, Slayer, Dawg and Hustler). The bikes used for the names of the trails are all the perfect genre of bikes for these trails; small to mid travel enduro / AM bikes. Therefore my weapon of choice for this ride was my Rune.

I arrived early ~6:30am and pedaled all the way to the top. The descent started with Triple Crown which is basically the highest trail on the hill and then hit Six, Slayer, Dawg and Hustler in succession.

The videos below speak for themselves. In fact even video cannot portray how much pure pump and natural flow these trails have. A friend of mine describes the trails as a series of downhill pump tracks. I could not agree more.

Evening Rip

After dinner I loaded my Rune on my car took my helmet and pack with me and headed to The Woodlot. It's been a while since I hit up the Woodlot. In the summer I just seem to ride elsewhere. Upon arrival I unloaded my bike, raised my seat and pedaled my way up. Lately I haven't been doing much pedaling and it showed on the climb. I just didn't have the legs to get up the hill with speed and ease I've had in the past. I guess late summer is good time to start some carido.

I decided to try a different route mid way up hill and began my descent after a half hour climb to Upper Toadstool. Upper Toad was fun and given the super dry conditions, the long logride was really fast to ride down. I then traversed back over to the skidder road and climbed back up to Mandatory Caution/Fluffy Kitten. It has been a long time since I've been down that trail and it is still for the most part abandoned an rotting in the forest. I rode the ground line of the trail the whole way down to Snakes and Ladders. To be honest, Caution could be a fun rip if there was a traversing reroute part way down to better used the terrain and elevation. It could easily be a nice alternate line mid way down the hill.

At Snakes I dropped in on the trail and just let it flow. Apart from a crappy lip on one jump and a few bomb hole landings, it is in damn good shape. I'll likely be heading up to fix the few trouble spots in the near future and maybe rake the trail for that extra buffed effect.

I then rode over to Shotgun which is riding well and out to my car. Overall it was a good ride. Given the small amount of time it takes to get in a ride like this, I can even see myself doing this ride in the morning before work.

Quick rips are tons of fun.

Seymour Shore Ride

I knew that today was going to be a cooker so I arrived at Old Buck on Seymour early in the morning for my ride today.

I pedaled my Rune all the way up to CBC in the hot morning sun only getting passed my one group of two shuttlers that I caught up to later on the descent.

At one of the look-outs I paused to take a photo of the view.


Once at the top I donned my gear and made my way down CBC, Corkscrew, Pingu and Pangor where I caught the two shuttlers and helped them with a bike issue (flat tire), then finally Slash and Empress.

Below is a full helmet cam run of CBC that I did on this ride.


By the time I was at the bottom it was 8:30am and I was hot and tired so I loaded up and drove home.

Summer dawn patrol on Seymour is a great way for me to get in a good climb as well as a wicked descent without missing out on family life with the kids.