Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton and 3 new rides:
Starting with a Friday ride is never a bad thing, it was a near disaster as our intended destination Disneyland did not pan out, but plan B - Valley of the Dolls turned out to be an epic adventure. I learned a lot about a side of Squamish I had not known before- Valley Cliff is home to some amazing tech trails, not just Crumpet woods, but you best have a good guide who knows his way around and you better be on your game if you are going to adventure to those trails.
We took our crew of 12 riders, from all over the Sea to Sky corridor on a serious adventure, with a seriously great guide. I think we rode 15 km's in 4 hours, it was hard core riding, hiking and kart wheeling down trails that only a billy goat or us would love. Flow Master and Wood Pecker are two of the names that come to mind, but though the distance seems small I was completely humbled physically by the end of the day. It was like emerging from a hot tropical jungle when we finally popped out at nearly 5pm. All singletrack - All Day.I've been ticking off legendary trails pretty consistently and looking to add more. This can be a frustrating venture because at times it feels like I will never actually accomplish all of the back log, there simply are too many great trails that must be ridden and not enough time. This weekend though I managed to reverse the flow and tick off a couple of cool trails and a great event.
Saturday of the family stay-vacation, another story all together, saw the boys receive the afternoon off after parenting for the first half of the day. I was on a mission - not to be thwarted or turned aside - Kashmeer was the destination, the trail of choice and everybody was on board. Our crew for the day swelled it's ranks with a number of day travellers from the big smoke just looking for an adventure. Not a huge ride, but very, very amazing - a hell of a grunt to get up to, nearly 1.5 hours of granny gear climbing gave us some serious vertical, and we were not dissapointed, the descent- pretty, loamy, steep and definitely not for the faint of heart, was beautiful and pulled the 'hoots and hollers' from our lungs, honestly and unbidden. Too fast it was over and we were sitting by the lake slapping high fives and reliving the recent ride, I will be back.
Sunday, with two pretty decent rides under my belt was going to be an uber family day - after a quick a.m. pow wow we were off to the Pemberton Slow Food Ride. Usually Crankworkx is happening at this time, so I have never had the pleasure, but this year things changed. The premise is simple- ride bike, preferably a cruiser bike out the Pemberton Valley and sample dishes from the local farmers, simple right? Here is the list of things to know about the ride:1) bring food as you may not get any out there, line ups are big and they run out
2) bring money to buy food, small change is easier
3) the event is free
4) it's 50 km out and back, don't take the clothing casually it's a ride, do not go Comando!
5) flip flops and spd's don't go that well together, back to preferably a cruiser bike
6) bring beer or wine there is none out there, yet!
7) though we had near perfect weather, last year it was almost 40 degrees..., water, sun screen.
8) do stop at the 1 mile lake on the way out of Pemberton it's awesome
9) wear a costume and have fun
10) bring the whole family this is one 'must do' event.
Things happen in 3's, for good for bad, it just seems to be the way things are, this weekend was 3 great days, 3 great rides, 3 different towns and saying that makes me think every weekend should be 3 days long...,! Right, Right - so just make it so?
Some one carved this on a trailhead in North Vancouver - I thought it was totally hilarious and appropriate!
