Whister Trip #1 2007 June 11-13

We left from John's place of work at about midnight, the van was packed with gear and bikes and we headed north to the holy land of mountain biking...whistler.

After about seven hours of driving, we arrived in Whistler Village, got settled into our room and headed to the lifts. Weather was crazy coming through Squamish, but it was decent for the moment in whistler. after two runs, the weather turned crappy. All this didn't really matter because my bike was pretty screwed up. The front fork was not working well, it was bottoming out with just slight force applied to it. Bottom line is DO NOT BUY A ROCK SHOX FORK!

Of course this picture was taken after the weather turned nice at the end of the day. One lift ticket....four runs...it was still worth it.

The weather cooperated with us the entire night and into the next day. Weather was dry all Tuesday and it was even hot. We rode Dirt Merchant, A-Line, Joyride, Rock City and Schleyer. I hit a bunch of stunts that I had never hit before. Finally conquered the A-Line rock drop, the rocky roll downs and schleyer and the steep roll down on Rock City. It is always weird to ride all the rocks and roots in Whistler when you are used to riding all the smooth ground here in Oregon. Tuesday was one of the best days ever in Whistler. Finished the day with who knows how many runs and drops...even hit the drop off the road gap to the box jump! Crappy thing was I got my only flat tire of the whole trip on the last run of the night. The sweeper found me on the side of the trail trying to fix my tire and pump. Got it fixed and back to the village for drinking beer with the guys.

This day ended with me laying down because i didn't feel well....I wonder why. Woke up the next mornind and headed to the north...CBC on Mount Seymour.

Mount Seymour is cool because it is one of the rides that you can shuttle on the north shore of vancouver.

It is very technical rocky and old style...flat landing, skinny ladder bridges and wet everywhere.

This was us sitting down for a bit of pizza at the Old Buck shopping mall in North Vancouver after riding.

All this was on Thursday, just before we headed home. Wednesday we rode out at the Woodlot in Maple Ridge with our local resident/tour guide Mike. He was awesome, showed us the way out to the trails, showed us all the cool lines and how to hit most stunts. He also hooked us up with a place to stay since most hotels in North Vancouver were booked up because of cruise ship season. Damn those tourists!

Trip was a blast and was pretty affordable. I think I had less than four hundred dollars into the entire trip and it ended with an awesome sunset! I can't wait to get back up later this season!