Why oh why did I come back? Every time we go to Whistler, it seems to get harder to tear ourselves away to go home. Had a great time Sunday on the mountain with son and daughter-in-law. Started out warming up on the mellower lines like Crank It Up and B-Line just to kinda shake the cobwebs out, get the juices flowing and all that . . . and to make sure DIL was going to be comfortable on her Trek Fuel (which did just fine for her) before son and I split off to go up on Garbanzo.

Well, just a few runs in, I hear a weird tick from the back and stop, thinking something's gotten into the RD. Noooooo . . . spoke was dangling. And another. And another. So there are 7 or 8 spokes flopping around. First suspicion was broken nipples (knew I shouldn't have built it with alloy nipples). But, no, they'd backed off. A long push back off the mountain, stop at a shop to buy a set of brass nipples and a quick rebuild back at the condo and was back with the kids on the mountain - - only an hour-and-a-half lost . That's what I get for not checking those wheels after the Port Angeles race - - and not pulling ANY PM before a big trip. How dumb can I get?

Anyway, son and I got up on Freight Train toward the end of the day and just had a ball. Rolled out at mid-mountain and decided to ride the chair back up from there and hit FT again - - with gusto - - and then link it up to Dirt Merchant. Caught some sections of No Joke on the way and I finally hit the step-up to the container on lower Freight Train . . . dang I love step-ups. This isn't me but you get the idea:



As with Drop-In Clinic, which I also hit Sunday, it made me wonder why it took me so long to do it. Soooper smooth 'n easy. Looked at the bigger jump at the creek gap on Dirt Merchant and almost lined up on it, changed my mind and hit the smaller one . . . and realized I'd cleared it by so much that I could have done the bigger gap. Oh well, next time we go, maybe. Kids had to hit the road early that evening so we wrapped it up with brews at the GLC and said our goodbyes. GoPro actually got some useable footage despite the rookie at the controls. It was aimed a little low but is at least watchable. Will post a clip here in a few days when I get some time to do some basic editing.

Gotta figure out how to spend a month there.