Day 35 – Whistler Bike Park

I woke up early and headed to the truck to pay for the parking. We could not park the truck un the hotel lot due to the height and the library parking around the corner was $30 per day. We found open parking for $10 per day in the main lots, so I parked there. Pay is only 8am – 5pm, so I had to get it paid. We moved the truck closer to the hotel in the process.

Lines for the park.

I replaced my rear brake pad since they were getting thin and I didn’t want those to be sketchy on the hill. We were going to get breakfast at a local shop, but the lines were incredibly long, so we headed back and just made oatmeal and coffee back at the truck. The bike park opened at 10 am so I moseyed on over about 9:30 to get my ticket and get started.

Whistler Mountain Bike Park is world renowned for its trails and fun. It also hosts a Crankworks event and a world cup race. I took the easy trail down the first time to get a feel for the mountain. It was really easy and pretty fun. THe next time I moved to the B-Line intermediate trail. Steeper, challenging, and lots of burms and jumps, this trail is really fun. The trail was washboarded a bit, but still was great.

The lines were getting long and I had to wait 20 minutes to get on the third run. It was starting to rain, so when I got to the top, I took the second lift to get to the second ridge 2500 feet higher. That lift is 2x longer and I decided at the top to take the intermediate trail called Blue Velvet. This trail was wider than the b-line below, but it was FAST and STEEP with some incredible jumps. I still was not ready to get my wheels too far off the ground so I did my best to keep the speed down. By now the trails were sufficiently wet that the mud rooster tails were thick.

Riding up the lift for the 3rd time.

It took me about an 40 minutes to get all the way down to the bottom. By then the lines were almost gone. I guess rain and mud thin out the tourist bikers. I made another run up to the mid level and took the Crank It Up trail. This was a bit more technical than B-Line but had a lot of great burms. At the bottom I decided to get lunch and headed to the truck to cook some soup.

Upper lift to the summit.

That afternoon I did probably another 8 runs down the hill on many trails. I managed to do a black diamond trail that Whistler is famous for, the A-Line. Now that trail is really good. It is wide, fast, has great and fast turns and tons of table-top jumps. I rode this trail several times and by the end I was jumping confidently, although not over a couple of feet high. There is one part that has a jump, and then cascades down a 10 story step drop into another jump. FUN.

Trees versus slope.

I quit about 6 PM and headed back to the hotel after washing my bike and myself in the public wash rack. It tool several washes and showers to get all the dirt from the hair and clothes. Carl bought some KFC and then baked a frittata. I made it to about 10 and then headed to bed. What a great day.

2010 Winter Olympic Mascot