biking, whistler, adam, etc

I spent the weekend in Whistler, and I'll have to tell you, it was one of the hottest bunch of days I've ever had to bike in. Mid 30's was the name of the game for Friday, Saturday, Sunday and finally cooling down to some high 20s for Monday. Man, it was hot, sunny, dry and dusty. You add some thick, polyester knee length cycling shorts, gloves, protective knee pads, and of course a full face helmet. Oh, did I mention it's a 5K bike ride from Adam's place to Whistler Village, so I'm dripping in sweat before I even hit the mountain.

It was a great weekend of riding, even with the heat. At least it gets cooler as you go up the chair lift, and by Monday, it was actually a little brisk at the top. According to Wikipedia, the peak of Mt Whistler is 7,160 feet, so you're getting up there. Actually, if you take the gondola right to the top (which I have a few times, but there's not much biking up there), I bet there are a few snow banks up there you could make some snowballs with.

I ended up sleeping WAY in on Saturday (14 and a half hours of sleep) so I didn't get up to Whistler till about 6pm, which left very little time to go biking, as the park closes at 8pm, but it doesn't take much arm twisting to get Adam biking, so we hit the hill a little late, but got to do two "Sweep Runs". The sweep runs are when you are working with WhislterBlakcomb staff, and you get to select a group of trails/runs to do a final "sweep" checking to make sure there is no one left on the mountain. It's fun, because for the most part, you are the last ones going down the runs you have selected (no pressure from behind) and there is no one in front of you blocking your way or going "too slow". Adam and I did a pretty technical group of trails for our first  sweep, and then had some fun with some easier trails on our second sweep. It was a quite, relaxing night once we got back, BBQing some burgers, having some cold beer and watching some TV.

Sunday was a pretty full day of biking, though with the heat baking us again, it was hard to get moving early on. I love biking with Adam. He's quite a bit better than me, really skilled, but extremely patient. I think he would make an excellent coach or teacher. The only time I hear him chirping at me, is when I take off first, then find myself in his way, as he has caught up. We explored some new trails that were built this year, did some old favourites, and just had a great time biking. I had a close call on one feature; it's on "Freight Train", and it's jumping on this bunch of Sea Cans that happen to be half way up a the mountain. Jumping up onto it was no problem, but coming off the other side, there is a fairly serious drop, and I kind of landed on my front tire, and it got a bit sketchy, but I got it under control. The thing about it is, after you land off the back, it's only another 20 feet or so, before there is another huge drop off a rock, so you have to get your shite together after the Sea Can. Here is video of me last year doing the feature.

Monday of the long weekend, it was again just too hot to be Up & Atom too early, plus I had some bike repairs I had to tend too. Bike repairs are pretty much on going in the world of downhill biking. There is a saying that "Whistler Eats Bikes", which is SO true. Another cute saying on a T-shirt for one of the local bike shoppes is "Mountain Biking, as additive as crack, but twice as expensive". With our bikes up and running, we biked the 5K back to the village, where I realised I forgot my bike park pass, so it was a 5K ride back to Adam's place, grab my pass, 5K back to the village, to meet up with Adam and a guy he had met the day before (I forget his name, lets call him Dean). Dean is in his late 40s, from Kamloops, and was riding with some good Karma as he found and returned a wallet with $520 cash in it. Adam met him a few days earlier when the wallet owner was buying Dean beers (Adam was beside them at the bar). Well, we three got a good long run in (it can be 30 to 45 minutes from the top to bottom), and it started to rain, and thunder and lighting, so they closed the lift. We went to a local bar for a beer, and met up with another rider, Kaylen, from one of the Hawaiian islands. He's in Whistler for two months, to just ride. He's young (early 20s?) and just loving it here. We all went for pizza slices, and it continued to pour rain for our bike ride back home. FYI, I did about 20K going back and forth between Adam's and the Village, which may not seem like much, but I'm doing it on a downhill mountain bike that weighs about 50 pounds. by comparison, a good road bike weighs less than 20 pounds.

Great weekend. I've been biking for so long now, and I never get tired of it. I could bike every day, all day long, and still be smiling at the end of the day. Having a biking buddy like Adam along for the ride, just makes it better. He is definitely the icing on the cake.

I surprised myself tonight (Tuesday) with an 8K run after work.