. . . is, as it always is: amazing.

Rolled in night before last; wife and I got settled into our digs and get ready for our first day here. Yesterday pretty laid back and low key; no Bike Park yet but that's OK - - have today and tomorrow for that. Besides, two days in WBP is like a week+ anywhere else. With 10am-8pm lifts, you can get more runs in than you have good sense.

Met up with never and two friends for a good romp over some of the XC trails in/out of the valley. Warmed up on Cut Yer Bars, then hunted down River runs Through It. Thought of you, scrublover, as I fumbled andclunked over these gnarly, rooty masses that seemed to magically rise out of the trail right on the approach to another tricky ladder section or skinny - - could have used your mad 'trialsy' skillz about then. Let's just say the black lines through those woods are terribly humbling and, even though you aren't going fast at all, have a different way of kicking your azz. You think you're a pretty good trail rider until you get into some of that.

Glad I'd been on a fair amount of wood before, because i finally got a little flow going and cleaned a couple of the series of wood. Felt cool. Also cleaned a couple climbs (on the Plummer's Nightmare) that I thought were going to be beyond my grasp. No climb was big or long but, with all the roots and rock knobs punctuating the trail, some were super techy. There was always some momentum-killer just in the crucial spot ready to reach out and grab a wheel.

Well, gotta get off and get some breakfast. I think we'll be getting an early start in the park today. Other guys are going down to Van later today/tonight for some of the nightlife so wanna get their park on when it opens (I hope). Over and out.

Awesome, for excitement today I hope to see a rattle snake or maybe a coyote. You are in the Mecca of MTBing. I would demand pictures, but who wants to stop and snap when you can huck and roll. Enjoy.

Amazing, indeed, Doug. Died and gone to heaven. Bucket list. All that and more.

We were there last year about this same time. Has it been dry there?

We stayed at Avaa hotel for about $90 a night. So worth it when ya gots all that insane riding all over the place.

Here's what my wifi list looked like:

I went to Whistler two years ago and went downhill mountain biking...easily the most fun I've ever had in my life still to this day.

You'd better get some pics, D. Bust out that phone or something.

Will work on pics and gopro tomorrow. Never and crew out with various knee/leg troubles today so no bike park. Son rolls in tomorrow andwill be ready for sure. Will ride 'til we drop or until beer-thirty. . . Then ride some more.

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.

Excellent, Doug.

Is Maelstrom still up there?

Maelstrom is actually in Vancouver now. He's regional director of IT and has been so busy he doesn't get up to Whistler a lot. Looks like the move is going to be permanent.

You have marketable skills. Get Canada to decide they can't live without you and pass out resumes. Then buy a big house in Whistler. You can be everyone's housing hook up.

I was just perusing an ad for a nice-looking year-'round residence there - - listed for a paltry $1,220,000.

. . . and then I realized that it was a duplex . . . and that was just for one half of it .

We don't need D in Canada!

I have that place on my bucket list. Wow!

Not even a work visa? Maybe Chromag needs a marketing/graphics guy .

Actually, you'd probably have a lot of fun working there...those guys are super chill. Plus they make kick-ass stuff! But they don't ever ride the resort, only the trails all around the valley...will you be able to handle that?

^^ That'd be good by me . . . as long as they didn't take me down Trespasser my first week.

Oh, and I'd still have to get in at least a once-a-week Park fix to boot.

Spokane is just a suburb of BC. I guess it is good to have him in Spokane, you never know when you will need a hand drawn map of Idaho.

D-BTW we are looking at CDL again, we don't want to be there during Elk season again, that was a mistake. Some of those codgers can't tell the difference between a Bike and a Bull.

Dang! Sounds like some great times you had.

^^ REAL good times. Got the clips loaded into Adobe Premiere and flipped (ran the camera upside-down on my chest mount). Now I just have to teach myself real quick how to edit them and lay down the music bed. Hmmmmmmm. . . . .


If it was the dudes on the camo four-wheelers with the gun turrets on the front racks, you'd probably be safer riding the elk than a bike. North Idaho is still very much powersport country.

I'm gonna teach myself how to do a handstand so I can watch your video.

OK - - finally got my (crappy) video together. Now I know why it took never so long to post up video from Whistler a couple years ago. This was my first attempt using any video editor, let alone a non-linear; so I had a lot of self-teaching to do before I got anything watchable. And at that it was trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear for sure - - had the GoPro aimed too low, so it's not looking down the trail far enough. And the chest mount was a little loose, so it's a bit bouncy at times.

SOOOoooooo . . . like I say, it's a crappy video; but it was a good exercise in non-linear editing. I learned a lot in the process, so now I just need to shoot some better raw footage, haha. Here ya go:

.be

that looks really fun.

"The content owner has not made this video available on mobile..."

^^ Should be fixed now?