First up was Whistler. Ahh, the bike park. Because I wanted my little bike for tomorrow's Squamish ride, I brought both bikes to Whistler which gave me the opportunity I've been itching for to try out my little bike in the bike park. To make a long story short, it rocked. I was a little weary of smashing it to bits but it seems to have survived unscathed and it was sooooo much fun. I dont think it will be the last time it seems the bike park......Whilst doing a few laps we (and by that I mean Rich and Derek) tried some new lines - Shale Master (above) is right on the side of a cliff at the top - I was shaking too much to ride it :-(
han
and Angry Goat - a big roll in. Rich and Derek are older than me, I think I'll get these two when I'm their age - so that's 7 days for Rich and another 4 for Derek!!
a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away we did another trail...It got a little serious in a dozen or so places, this was one of the first - 15ft of huge roots, all going in the wrong direction and followed immdiately by a 90 deg left turn - exciting stuff!
and we did it :-D. here's Derek
Here he is again further down - please dont adjust your set - the green corners on the photo are where I've rotated it to compensate for my poor photography
Rich rolling in to a steep root-covered S-bend
...and again jumping over the remains of some woodwork
before we knew it a couple hours had passed and it was almost over. It was a great trail though. Maybe some bits are only ridable on you're best day but in between the crazy bits there were some lovely trails and some beautiful scenery
the final pitch was suitably crazy - it even had a rope down the side - Rich and Derek didnt need it!!
After a hard day at Whistler we took up Dr Meg's invite to crash at her place and have a bit of a bbq- she's such a good host. It was a bit crazy as there were a dozen climbers partying with Meg's room mate. It was fun though - all dirtbags together ;-)
there was also an excursion for ice-cream in the wee hours....
Sunday dawned bright and early (about 10) so we headed off for what Derek described as "the best breakfast in the world, ever" - how could we refuse?
And as Meg is the perfect host she had of course arranged for the annual Squamish parade to go by just as we sat down ;-) I didnt have my camera but there were lots of cops riding up and down pretending to be Eric Estrada followed by lots and lots of trucks - the usual carnival parade stuff although here that includes enormous earth movers and logging trucks
after the excitement of the parade we had a leisurely ride in Squamish - Peanuts Wild Ride I think it was followed by a trail I cant pronounce
here's Rich deciding that last night was a little heavy to be jumping big gaps today, and opting to ride round - Derek is clearly effected to - he's still in the "wow- look how high the jump is" pose - his reactions may have been effected
ahh pretty. Michele on a bridge.
After our ride we all went to the lake for a swim - its sooo good to swim in a crystal clear lake after a sweaty day on the bike - although it can be dangerous - as Jon found out when he hurt his foot walking along a floating log that Derek 'found'. I think I want to go back to this lake. It was so good to swim - Kits Pool has been shut for a couple weeks due to a strike :-(
Most headed off early evening but Rich and I stayed at Meg's again which gave her a chance to bake me some cookies - they were kind of half birthday - half thank you for helping her move house. mmmmmm cookies..... VERY nice, thanks Meg :-)
On Monday - my actual birthday and a public holiday in BC, we decided to go riding at Burke Mountain - another worlds best breakfast saw that plan modified to a lap of Fromme - but we all love Fromme so it wasnt a hardship :-) We were in for a surprise though......
as we pulled up this fella was wandering down the street! After getting as close as I dared to warn the owners of the garden he'd just walked in, we parked and got our gear on only to have the bear come our way... for some reason we all stayed pretty close to the van for the next ten mins!!
he was much more interested in the contents of the dustbins than in us - although it did worry me that he was looking at me and licking his lips when I took this picture from right across the street - 20ft from him!! This is the biggest bear I've seen 'wild' - he was almost as big as the grizzlys they have up the top at Grouse!
After lots of bear watching we made a break for it and headed up
As usual, Fromme was brilliant. We had a good ride on Upper Oil Can - we all cleaned the skinnies, Lower Oil Can, and Diggers - although I couldnt seem to ride the Diggers' skinnies today.
This is Jon on his first ever ride of this thing on Upper Oil
Obviously as it was my birthday I got to choose the restaurant (which is never Indian cos Michele can't eat it) so Indian it was! My thanks to Michele for playing along :-)
Everyone knows Indian restaurant's dont carry much in the way of deserts - so we HAD to go to "True Confections" for desert. It ONLY does deserts and wow - how good are they!!!!This is Kathleen just about to scoff an enooooormous piece of Devil Cake(?)
...and of course, there was birthday cake - well actually, birthday pie - strawberry and rhubarb pie to be precise and wow was that good pie! - mmmmmmm pie
a perfect end to a perfect weekend. Thank you people, I had the best birthday ever :-D I can hardly wait for next year ;-)
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