Canada - Day 4 (Whistler)

So it turns out that climbing two mountains in one day will result in subsequent muscle pain, achingly tight calves, and the inability to walk down stairs. Luckily mountain-biking involves a whole set of (mostly) different muscles :-)

It was severely tempting to join the throngs of body-armour-clad downhill bikers hurtling their way down the mountain, but given the fact that only the lowest chairlift (of three up the mountain) was open and the better than even likelihood of me causing myself significant injury, we decided to stick with cross-country riding in the valley. So we rented a couple of bikes, received a few trail suggestions from the shop-staff and headed off to have some fun.

We spent the morning playing on the lake trails. These were good, but it seemed hard to get any kind of flow happening because we found ourselves constantly being spit back onto various fire-trails, then having to pause and reconsider which way to ride next. Despite being pretty much hopelessly lost after a couple of trails, we managed to inadvertently piece together an almost perfect loop around the park.

Nice sections of flowy trail

The dangers of extreme photography

(apparently lining up the perfect shot can induce spontaneous nosebleeds)

Lots of bridges to ride

The rock that (literally) stopped me in my tracks

We enjoyed lunch at the base of the gondola, watching the downhillers shoot out from the trees at the bottom of the mountain. The peaks themselves remained shrouded in cloud and there were even a few skiiers lining up with the bikers, taking advantage of the remaining snow somewhere far above.

Looks deceptively quiet in this shot, but there were bikers everywhere

True to our (my) habit of choosing the most difficult-sounding trail available to us, I pored over the trail map at lunch and settled on the "Flank Trail" for the afternoon (based on the fact that it was the longest and highest track on the map). We rode out to the trail head along the paved Valley Trail then got temporarily lost trying to find the beginning of the actual trail. We had to resort to asking for directions in a bike shop, and I managed to startle the three guys inside who didn't notice my entry by calling out a hearty "G'day"...

After being pointed towards the (now fairly obvious in hindsight) trailhead (which we had ridden past three times), we found the track climbing pretty much straight up the side of the mountain. We pedaled/puffed/pushed our way up, then followed the trail along the flank of the mountainside. There were a few vantage points which gave us good views back towards Whistler village across the valley, but most of the time we were riding through forest. Bear warnings had been abundant at the beginning of the trail, and although we questioned every strange noise emitting from the forest (and a few big piles of poo along the trail), the bears remained invisible, and we remained un-eaten. The trail eventually dropped us back into the valley, and after just over 40km of riding, we were officially cooked for the day.

More bridges

 

Enjoying the view (and resting the legs)