Dear Whistler

I just spent a week in you, and I gotta say...you...are...awesome!

The first three days we spent riding the valley trails. Now if you only go to Whistler to ride the bike park, you are missing out on some world class well maintained and seriously fun trails. We rode old school trails like Cut Yer Bars and A River Runs Through It and some of the newer stuff like Grand Wazoo and the lost lake trails...wow, just awesome flowy fun. 

These were some of the best trails I have ridden in a long time...well built, TTF's (technical trail features) that were safe AND fun...more land managers need to take note of what the Municipality of Whistler is doing...world class, fun, sustainable trails. There are trails for beginners, families and hard core riders alike. Not only that but there are trails that link everything in the valley together...just awesome.

The best resources we could find for the valley trails were the awesome Whistler Mountain Biking Book, it can be found at some but not all Whistler Bike shops, but if you are looking for free options I did find some other resources, Tourism Whistler put together a great site for local trails, and last but certainly not least whistlermountainbike.com has a great trail wiki, check it out.

The bad news is that after not riding for two months and coming back from an injury....my legs were taking a beating...and I still had three days left to ride the park, but its all lift access so it's easy right? Well, thanks to the many braking  bumps your body can take quite the beating...especially if you are on a little 6x6 like me...the Rune is good...especially after I gave it a little more sag but this is the land of the big DH bike...they just smooth out the trails a little more...and if you are a hack like me..the extra travel soaks up mistakes...maybe I should get one...lol.

I am a blue trail bandit up at Whistler...I just LOVE Crank It Up...such a fun trail, but since the lower section was not open for the first half of day one I spent the day exploring some of the other trails...I found Bluesium, Wednesday Night Delight and Samurai Pizza Cat a great little run and would have loved to session them more but after 5 days of epic Whistler trails...my body was telling me enough was enough...and I would rather cut it short than push it too hard and crash out...but that is just me.

So what can I say...thank you Whistler for the awesome times...the expensive...everything and I look forward to coming back at least one more day this season...I have to use my last day on my triple play card...or you will take it away...not too impressed by that...but I guess as you are the big boy on the block you can do what you want. 

I leave you with this crappy video of me riding slow on Pinocchio's Furniture...a fun little trail that we rode a bunch over the few days we were up there...enjoy.