Last '05 Whistler Day....New Cranks as well

Well today was my last day of Whistler riding for the '05 season. It was glorious. I was riding solo, so there was nothing holding me back and I could go where I wanted when I wanted. To my surprise they opened Garbonzo at about 11am so after 3 runs from mid station, I was able to go to the top.

Nothing like a bike covered in Whistler mud!!

In total I did 5 top to bottom runs and 6 runs from mid station. In other words lots of vertical. I must say that Freight Train is a wicked trail but the steep gnarliness of Original Sin and Goats Gully is where it is at.

I cannot wait until next year.

Night Ride Premier

It has been a week and a half since I last rode so I have been itching to get out on the trails. This is the first night ride of the year. Tim and I. We hit the Woodlot riding Cabin Trail, Snakes and Ladders and Shotgun. It was great to get out in the dark again on the hard tail and Tim and I had an absolute blast.

Sunpeaks - Rookies

Rob and I rode Sunpeaks today for the first time.

One word.....STEEP.

Great time was had by both of us. Rob puking off the chair, the close encounter with a Mama Bear and her cubs and wicked runs down the hill.

Woodlot Solo

I rode the Woodlot solo today. I was really tired going up so it was a slow push/pedal. I rode Krazy Karpenter, Blood Donor (doing the big gap twice), Giant Killer, Snakes and Ladder and Shotgun.

Great ride in morning sun.

Seymour Fun

Tim and I decided that we shuttle Seymour one more time this summer. We rode CBC, Corkscrew, Salvation, Pingu, Pangor, Slash and Empress. It was a really, really good ride. On the Bullit I was literally floating down the hill. I loved the skinnies on CBC and Salvation was a blast. The log Gap to rock was sweet.

Cypress Bike Park

Tonight was an after work ride at the Cypress Bike Park. The three of us Rob, Tim and I decided it was time we checked this place out together. I rode on the hard tail and boy was I loving it.

The first run was a little rough but after a couple runs my body softened up and I was in the groove flying down the mountain.

The views were great and the trails were all dialed. I hope they continuing to develop the mountain for next year.

Sunday on Seymour

The forecast today called for highs of about 30°c so in order to avoid the blazing heat I decided to go early in the morning for a spin up Seymour. I arrived at about 7am, parked my car on the street in front of the Old Buck parking lot (I'm not paying $5 to use a Provincial Park) and started my climb to the top of the hill. My trusty steed today was my Cove Stiffee which for the most part has been a dependable do everything bike. I had my leg, arm and full face helmet strapped to my hydration pack and up the hill I went.

Surprisingly the climb up the road is not as steep as one might think so the use of a granny gear is not needed. I pedaled all the way to the top in 32 front and 24 in the rear for the gears. Along the first traverse I encountered my first of 2 other riders that were pedaling up the hill. He was a roadie on a nice light bike and such skinny tires. I asked him if we could trade bikes and he just laughed saying I was going to have allot more fun than him on the way down, which is quite true.

There really weren't allot of shuttlers early in my climb. Only one truck with 2 bikes went past me on the climb between the bottom and the Mushroom parking lot. It was after the Mushroom parking lot (about half way up) that the shuttlers started buzzing by. I guess there were about 5 more truck loads of bikes that I saw cruise on by. On the first traverse after the Mushroom parking lot some guy on a XC Giant Mtn bike with slicks passed me. But the dude was what I would call rude. Normally you turn your head to make eye contact and at least say hi. I was a beautiful day and it is normally correct social etiquette to at least say hello, but no, this guy passes me on the opposite side of the road (2 lanes over). I looked over to motion hello but he just stared straight ahead not even acknowledging my existence. Jerk.

Well at the switchback there is a outhouse and water fountain and guess who it there having a drink......the anti social rider. I just cruised on by and continued up the hill at a little higher pace knowing that he was going to try and pass me again so I dropped the hammer and put the hurt on.......dreaming of the Tour and winning the Alpe D'Huez stage. He passed me. Again.

Now this is where a good ride suddenly became a great ride that I will not soon forget. About a 100m from the trail head of CBC and the end of my climbing for the day I heard a car approaching coming up the hill. I could then hear it gradually slow down and come to a complete stop beside me on the road. I looked over and to my surprise were 2 very good looking ladies in their early 20's in a shinny silver Mini. My first thought is that these girls are lost and are just stopping to get directions but rather the passenger smiled and said to me, "You look a little tired, would you like a Red Bull?". I hesitated slightly before my response as I was confused and surprised until I looked at the side of the car these girls were driving in. It had the Red Bull logo plastered all over it. It turns out these girls drive all over town looking for active people and offer them Red Bull. I must say that their timing could not have been better. They gave me a can of ice cold Red Bull, I thanked them for it and they were on their way.

So up to the beginning of the trail I went and geared up for the ride down and drank my can of Red Bull. I did of course call the wife to check in and tell her of the Red Bull girls and she just laughed. CBC is one of the very legendary trails on the Shore and has recently seen allot of armour work and upgrades to keep up with the increasing traffic that the trail is encountering. I must say I really like that trail an on a hard tail bike it make line choice a very important thing. I passed a group of 3 people on bike full suspension bikes that were taking a break at one of the stunt areas but I really find that doing that trail non stop and riding smoothly with unbroken continuity
is so much more fun than that stopping and starting all the time. I role pretty much all the wood work without any issues today, I just avoided the drop and the few new launches that have recently been built.

Over the Corkscrew is was after the exit off CBC. At that point I say 2 more guys with dogs that I had seen shuttling. They were sidelined with a flat but were fixing it so I just cruised on past. Corkscrew is a fun trail that has quite a challenging skinny section near the top. One thing I find hard to believe is the last time I rode that section reasonably clean was during a wet night ride with Tim, Graham and Marco. It is hard enough in the dry in the daylight. I made my way down corkscrew to the new connector trail that I believe is called Salvation. It is a brand new hand cut and wood ladened trail that gives riders of most abilities nice well built trail to ride. The trial is about 70% complete with a few of the larger signature stunts yet to be completed. There is one particular z shaped teeter totter that will be really interesting to ride once it is completed.

After Salvation it was Pingu which is a flowing trail with solid woodwork and lots of roots to ride over. Then over to Pangor which is like an extension of Pingu but just not directly connected. The thing I really like about Seymour is that the trails are real Mountain Bike trail. I say Mountain Bike because so many trails nowadays are being smoothed to the point where they become like BMX tracks with jumps on the paths. Seymour mountain where real Mountain Bikes are needed to have a proper ride.

After riding Pangor I rode a short trail called Slash which I love because of its steepness and the exposed rock areas and overall technical aspect. From Slash it is a short climb over and up to Empress and the nice steep rock sections. Every time I ride Empress I see a new way down the rock faces but I always seem to go the same route whether I am on the hard tail or the full suspension. So after the rock sections it down the uber armored bermed corners and out to my car.

I had an absolutely faultless ride. The only thing that could have made it better was if I have a riding buddy with me to share the experience.

Berm Cheater

The Woodlot was freaking awesome tonight. It was cool and wet (It had rained up there just before I arrived) but it was not raining while I was on the hill. The birds were chirping and I was out for an after work ride. Life doesn't really get any better. My route for tonight's ride was The Gate to Tsuga then Snakes and Ladders to Quick Hit and finally Shotgun.

The Gate wasn't bad especially for being wet. I cleaned all the skinnies and just rode around the gap jumps (I was on the Stiffee). Tsuga is buffed for the first 50-75M but then is it's same old self which is pretty damn good. The beginning of the trail is kind of too buff right now. It is so smooth that you could have rigid forks and it would feel like glass. I guess as time passes it will wear and the trail will form a rougher path and become a truer Mtn. Bike trail again.

Snakes and Ladders was nice. A few little soft spots that 10 minutes with a shovel would solve. I cleaned the whole jump section the best ever and then went back and did it again. Soooooooo much fun. One of the berms is too soft (the extended one I made) because the dirt has too much clay in it. I will just need to throw some different type of dirt on it and it will get solid again. There has been massive amounts of water through the trail and it is dry in many spots, but in others there were standing puddles due to poor drainage and flat spots in the trail (stuff to be fixed). I ripped the trail non stop to the bottom and continued out to the road.

The flat trail that Snakes and Ladders exits onto that leads to the bottom of Quick Hit had a few bushes that needed some pruning done to them. A few days ago I had bought a machete so that I could trim back the overgrown bushes that were taking over this section of trail. So I pulled my machete from my pack like a Forest Trail Ninja and hacked away at everything in site. One thing about machetes......they are dangerous. If I was not wearing my leg armour there is a very good chance I would have been visiting the emergency ward. A couple times I swung the blade and it cut through the bush a tad bit easier than expected and the blade continued towards my shin and glanced off my armour (thanks Roach). By the time I was done you could see a nice clear swath and when riding through you were no longer going to get attacked by wet prickly raspberry bushes.

It was then time to hit Quick Hit. I had been informed that Tim had been doing some building earlier this week and that I would be pleasantly surprised. As I did the short easy climb past the bottom of the trail I looked up and could see the 'new feature' he put on the trail.

So I pedaled up to the top of the trail, adjusted my gear and headed down the trail. It is such a fun and fast flowing trail that is over even before you realize you are having such a good time. I decided that it is in my best interest to scope out the new hit rather than taking a leap of faith. What this new hit consists of is a step-down jump that is a shortcut between two berms. So if you time it right and are racing down the trail close behind your buddies, you could theoretically pass him by jumping between the berms on this step-down jump. When Tim and Rob showed me their idea last week I was blown away at how perfect the section was set up for this new feature. I could not wait to build it and it seems that Tim could not wait either and just went ahead and built it himself. I did what most people do on a new jump/hit. I stood at the top of it on the lip with my invisible handlebars in hand lining up my approach line and landing. I then mounted my trusty steed and went back up the trail a ways to get a good run in to the new step-down. All went well.....my speed was good, the launch was good, but in the air I noticed I was slightly off line and heading towards the edge of the landing area and over the berm. Once I landed I tried correcting my line but my front wheel washed out and I hit the berm sideways going over the bars and landing on my back over the berm with my bike covering my lower body.

I chuckled to myself about how I ended up where I was and got up to try her one more time. I know how and where I messed up so I went up the trail to get another run in and hit it perfectly. I didn't really look at how high the step-down is, but I think it is somewhere around a 6'x6' for where you land. I then rode the rest of the trail and when I came out the road that leads back up the hill I saw 2 other guys that had just finished riding Snakes and Ladders. I have a feeling that I startled them as they did a triple take when I came up beside them. I said to them to have a good ride and took off down to Shotgun.

Lately I have been riding Shotgun faster and faster every time I ride it. This time was no exception. I absolutely ripped the upper section and crossed the newly widened bridge to the jump that was rebuilt about a month ago. Now in the past month or so this newly rebuilt jump had fallen apart because so many people hit it with so much speed that the lip had basically disappeared and the jump just was not what it should be. The other thing is that this high speed jump had no real transition and at times could be a bit of a hard landing. Well was I in for a very pleasant surprise. The jump had been recently (few hours ago) totally rebuilt even higher with all fresh dirt and a solid new lip. It was awesome. In the air I noticed as I was spotting my landing that low and behold a TRANNY (angelic voice Halleluiah!!!). This new tranny makes the landing so perfectly smooth. Many, many thanks to the one that built that tranny and re-did the jump.

I rode the rest of the trail hard and fast pedaling everywhere that I could. And then it was out the my car to head home. One funny thing was that there were a few guys down at their cars and when I came out from Shotgun I was shot a few odd looks and raised eyebrows....guess it was the big machete I had strapped to my back pack. I had a really good ride and I must say that the jump on Shotgun in now dialed regardless of the spill on Quick Hit I absolutely loved the new step-down that Tim built to cheat between the berms.

Pushing Trees

Today I arrived at the Woodlot a little later than normal.......12:30pm. I loaded up my stuff which included 2 long handled shovels and new rake all provide by Rob for use on our trail. I made my way up to the base of Snakes & Ladders in pretty good time riding my Bullit. In fact I got the funniest look from 2 guys pushing their bikes up the road when I passed them pedaling up the hill ladened down with tools.

When I arrived at the bottom of Snakes & Ladders there was group of about 8 people that had just been talking with Tim further up the trail. So I waited until they had passed and then walked up the hill with the tools. At the top I saw Cory for a brief moment and then proceeded over to where Tim was working on the trail. We talked for a bit then I went down the hill again to get my bike. On the way down to my bike Tim pointed out a log we had both seen before, but we each have different ideas about what we should or could do with it. Tim wants to make it a downhill log ride.....I think it is too steep unless we cover it with traction (shingles etc). I say we cut it up and use it as rung. I guess it will be a battle of wills to see what the log becomes. I guess we could try it as a log ride an if it works, it stays, BUT if it is too steep.....I get to cut it up.

So I hiked my bike to the area where we were working and we each cleared out some dead trees that were looming on the sides of the trails. These were the type of trees that you bash your bars on when you ride past. We each took turns PUSHING these dead trees down. It is amazing how easy it is to fall a tree that is 50 feet tall and dead. All it takes is a good push and TIMBER!!!! By removing these trees we not only made this section safer, but it made the section soooo much faster and added flow to a section of trail that has been neglected for many years. We then removed a bunch of roots, filled in a few holes and wet spots and called it a day. This section is not completely finished, but it will be after one more day of work.

So we both made our way a little further up the hill to get a good run at our newly buffed section and had an absolute hoot. The couple hours we spent on it made a world of difference. We then both made our way to Shotgun and played our unusual cat and mouse game down Shotgun. In the first section I am almost always the mouse and there is one corner where 9 times out of 10 I literally walk away from Tim because of the line I take. One day he will follow my line....but until then, I will win the cat and mouse on the top section of Shotgun. We then switched the positions and Tim lead the way. I was sooooo surprised by the dust in the new clear-cut section on Shotgun. In fact it was so dusty behind Tim that I wiped out on a corner because I could not see the trail. He always seems to get away from me on the bottom of Shotgun....bastard!

So at the cars we figured out the next time we would ride/build and headed home. I must say for such a brief ride I had and extraordinarily good time.

New / Old Trail

Today was a ride up at my usual hill, The Woodlot with Rob. We decided today was a good day for an after work blast from the top of the mountain down. A little over a week ago I was told of another not so well know trail that existed on the mountain. I kind of knew there was a trail there, but never really bothered to find the beginning of the trail. Anyways I was told by a reliable source where the beginning of the trail was, so that was the destination for Rob and I.

Onward and upward we went and with good directions we easily found this "New/Old" trail. In fact it was an old abandoned motorcycle trail that had not seen any motorized tracks in several years. To any of you that have never ridden a motorcycle trail, you are missing out. That is because if it isn't too rutted out, they are the flowiest trails that you can just pump through. Well we geared up and hit the trail with tonnes of speed. It is not what I would call a technical trail, it is what I simply call a fun blast. Not too fast, not too slow and if you aren't smiling when you ride it, then you are definitely in the wrong sport.



So after this reasonably short trail, Rob and I decided head up to Goldmine and extend our fun rip down the hill. On the way to Goldmine I saw my first pile of Bear poop of the year in the middle of the trail up the hill.....there were no berries in it yet, only grass, so I know he is hungry. We arrived at the top of Goldmine, lowered our seats to a more comfortable position, buckled up and literally flew down the hill. I have never hit that trail so fast. I used very little brake and pedaled in several spots that I usually coast on. The grins were ear to ear on our faces. We stopped a few times to make sure we stayed together and every thing was all good and then continued on ripping down to the power lines.

We then crossed the power lines and did the traverse down the trail to Snakes and Ladders and once again I used very little brake and ripped to the trail head of Snakes and Ladders. We then dropped in and ripped the trail all the way through to out newest jump section. I had the biggest grin on my face and we just had to go back and do it again. So up we went a little way and hit the new section again all the way to the rock face. I did the highly exposed left line down the rock face. With a great amount of encouragement Rob did the furthest right line down the rock. We then made our way to the roll down and sampled the handiwork that Tim had been up to lately. He has recently been buffing up a rather rough section of trail making it smooth again. Oh my was it ever fast, really fast and the ladder ramp to flat drop was removed and made into a berm. Both Rob and I were really stoke and pedaled quickly over to Shotgun for a blast down that. As we entered Shotgun there were 2 kids with their dog walking on the trail. We slowed to pass by and then hauled ass to hit the new and improved (larger) jump that had been recently worked on. I could hear the kids hooting and hollering after we hit that jump. And we flowed the rest of the upper part of the trail to the road. Then the lower part of Shotgun was nearly as much fun as the top. The trail was dry and tacky and most of the formerly wet spots were tacky so we were able to ride at full speed with no worries at all.

At the car I had a beer waiting for us and we had a few laughs about the ride. About the only thing that would have made this ride have been to eliminate the mosquitoes that were attacking us as we were drink our beer.