Canada, BC Mountain Biking Trip with Seattle as an added bonus

I have recently finished a short week at work. Pleased it was a short week because I find it pretty tough sitting in an office after a holiday, especially one that involved the great outdoors, especially when we are talking about Mountain Biking, even more so when that biking is in British Columbia. Anyhow it all started uneventful enough. I got away with all the excess baggage charges at Ontario Airport (my local airport) and landed in Vancouver at 10.30pm on the 15th August. It always amazes me how easy it is to wonder through customs in all countries I have been to other than New Zealand. Immigration can be a little stressful but once through geez they don't check what’s in your bags in Asia, the US or Canada. I guess NZ needs to have tough Biosecurity measures due to our vulnerable ecosystems and the potential for invasive species getting in the country.

Anyhow Vic was there to pick me up with the other Kiwis (Jabez & Gareth) who had earlier landed from Wellington that day. After a good catch-up (we worked out it was Easter 2007 we last did a trip together back home) I put my bike together and attempted to get some sleep on the floor of Vic and Didier's living room. Between the hard floor and excitement for the trip to Whistler the next day I did not get much shut eye.

After fitting 5 bikes onto Vic’s Pathfinder we headed off to Whistler early the next morning with Sebastian (Seppel). He is a 'crazy' German, one of Vic's mates who says 'sick' more than anyone I have every met :-) Anyhow he was really hung-over and provided a quality insight into Vic's life since he moved over to Vancouver over a year ago. It was tough to decipher what was actually true but it provided much humor for the 2hr drive to Whistler which other than all the road works (2010 Winter Olympics) is a very scenic drive.

Anyhow Whistler was packed due to the Crankworks Mountain Bike Festival and the lifts were super busy as so we headed up the hill to the second lift and rode the trails on the top half of the Mountain for the rest of the day. The trails were wicked and we rode blue and black diamond runs with names such as: Goat's Gully, In Deep, Freight Train, No Duff, Duffman & Fatcrobat. This worked out well and Vic being a regular here threw us into the deep end taking us down what is or is very close to the 'hardest' track on the Mountain on our second run. Goat's Gully which is steep, mega technical, narrow and filled with rocks. I cleared it on my first run down this track. Something I never achieved again. I managed to break my shifter on the track after a crash the next time we rode it. Anyhow good times were had by all. After about 8 or 9 runs I was stuffed. I held in there longer than the poor guys from home. Especially Jabez (see the pictures) who had what was close to heat stroke. It was 35 degrees and we were exerting ourselves in full armor so coming from the NZ winter it was a big ask. I was use to it living in SoCal but still ended up really dehydrated.



The next day (Sunday) it was still super busy so we chilled and did Trail riding (ended up being a run of the Black Diamond track 'River Runs Through It') within the Whistler Valley itself. Didier and Henry came up for the day. The trails were 'sick' and were a good intro to skinny’s, boardwalk, seesaws Etc. I wish I had taken armor (Vic said we were trail riding, well I know his 'new' idea of trail riding now so will be prepared next time) but other than G nose diving off a wheelie drop onto his face, Jabez falling over a meter off a big skinny and myself also toppling sideways off a pretty high skinny due to my rear wheel not making the turn it was a day without major mishap. We had a great lunch at the local Whistler Brewery and also swam in a couple of lovely lakes in the Valley to cool off and clean up. Weird to think in winter these lakes can freeze up.

On Monday the weather packed up. Anyhow we hit the bike park for the next 3 days in mixed weather. The park being closed numerous times for a while due to thunder and lightning. We focused primarily on the lower runs where there were more tracks but still a 600 odd meter decent. Good times alright. My jumping improved so much it’s not funny. Tracks such as Crank It Up, ALine and Dirt Merchant did wonders for my jumping and being comfortable at times quite high in the air. They have some pretty big jumps but being all tables so the risk is low. You start slow and progressively hit them faster until you clear them and land on the tranny. Down ALine towards the end I was managing to clear all but 3 jumps at times sailing right over the trannys and flat landing on the other side. Quite the wee adrenaline rush until I crashed off the ALine rock drop because I hesitated.

Of course being me and my luck with bikes I did of course not have any luck with my bike. To cut a long story short the wheels are rubbish and I had spokes snapping left right and centre on the rear wheel. There is now a large flatspot and I spent close to $100 bucks over the whole trip just keeping the wheels in working order. Other than all the creaks and groans, the snapped shifter and the need for 2 new wheels my rear cluster is also playing up. I have a feeling that the 'useless' bike shops left out a spacer and so it was free to somewhat float around on top of the freehub body. I was not alone with bike issues but I certainly had the most issues. Vic's forks were bleeding oil for the whole trip (A weakness of many Rockshox Totems) and Jabez also had fork issues which he got sorted at a bike shop. Yep they actually fixed the problem :-)


Whistler, Canada - Mountain Biking Video Snippits from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.

On our 4th day in the Bike Park on the 2nd run down the hill (we were doing one of my favorite runs from the top - Freight Train into Dirt Merchant - Close to a 1000m decent) I heard a 'yelp' behind me after I had cleared one of the jumps at the top of Freight Train. Anyhow I stopped when I could, waited a little bit and saw no movement and heard no sounds other than the soft patter of the drizzle. I ran back and found Jabez lying at the bottom of the tranny curled up almost unconscious facing up the track. He had blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. Pretty scary I gotta say. Anyway I got him out of the way of the track and other riders, G patrolled the track I sent another rider down to call the medic. Anyway long story short after a trip to the local medical centre, then an ambulance ride to Squamish for more tests, then another ambulance ride to Vancouver (Jabez said the lights were flashing the whole time) for a CAT scan and a stay overnight he had got himself a lung contusion (Bruising of the lungs). Anyhow it was not super serious after all these tests had ruled out blood clots which was wonderful. Every doctor Jabez told us when we picked him up at Lionsgate Hospital the next day in Vancouver was amazed he had managed to bruise his lungs badly (was still coughing up blood 10 days later) but had not broken any ribs. Pretty lucky aye. Sure is testament to wearing full body armor. The outcome may have been very different otherwise. Also goes to show that shit happens. We had ridden this track numerous times and Jabez had cleared the jump before. Just shows that it can still go really wrong if you screw up the landing. So all is well, Jabez is all good but his riding needed to take a backseat for a couple of weeks. He unfortunately missed out on the Freeride Tour Gareth and I did on the Friday for 8 days.


Freeride Tour

The next day we were picked up from Vic’s place by Chris. Our tour guide. We then picked up a couple of Duchies as it turned out. There were meant to be 4 of them but they had an even worse record than us. They had been in Canada for 2 weeks already and on their first day riding one guy broke his wrist and in the following days another guy broke his collarbone. Both headed home. Bugger aye. I can see how it is though. It’s very easy to get over excited at Whistler and push beyond your limits. So our trip was down to just 4 of 7 which meant we had lots more room in the vehicle to sprawl out (it would have been pretty tight otherwise, especially with all our stinking gear).

The first day we rode the North Shore of Vancouver. Both Cypress and Seymour Mountains. What wicked technical tracks. They are full on, super steep for the most part with many rock drops and steep rolls. Pretty awesome area to have so close to a main city I must say. Your riding would get so much better if this was your local playground. That evening we headed towards Vedder our riding location for the next day. Vedder was fantastic. We shuttled with locals and hit up numerous trails with many man-made features, technical steeps and wicked trail riding through the rainforest. I really wish I had more pics and video of all the riding locations. It’s difficult to stop and make the effort when you will hold others up and also when you are having so much fun riding. After a spot of lunch at the lovely Cultus Lake we headed back for some more riding.

At this point G was nursing a sore body. He had crashed in what was probably the most spectacular crash I have seen firsthand. We were sessioning this 8 foot drop off a log which then had a pretty sharp left-hander near the bottom. Anyhow he amped himself up for it, rode in, hesitated, went a bit slow, did not pull up the front of the bike and rode it like it was a curb. What ensued was G riding his bike like a clown on the front wheel with the back well up in the air for 4 or 5 meters before gravity and speed go the best of the situation. He crashed to the ground in a heap. His Specialized Demo wrapped round him like a scarf. Talk about painful looking and it proved to be just that. I managed to get the bike untangled and he managed to get up after a long while. Somehow he had not broken anything but had stuffed his shoulder up big time. This would plague him for the rest of the tour (Vitamin I or Ibuprofen) getting him through day to day. All I can say is G brought armor at Whistler and with the huge shoulder pads they have I would not have been surprised if he would have broken his shoulder without it. This video would have been absolute YouTube gold had a recorded it. I really need to get a helmet cam.



That evening we had a pretty long drive to Silverstar past Kelowna where we were to ride the next day in the Silverstar bike park. A smaller different version of Whistler. The next day dawned nice and clear. Other than Gareth's shoulder we were all feeling ok and he was drugged up determined not to miss a day riding which he did not. This mountain was more trail orientated than Whistler with a number of runs being more like a DH race track. They were really enjoyable with names such as Downtown, Rock Star, World Cup DH, and Pipeline Etc. I would have liked another day here since there was so much stuff to do and they were fun tracks with a real chilled out more laid back atmosphere than Whistler. We finished the first day just as the heavy rain hit. I do have mixed feelings though. This is where I picked up my injury from the trip. I messed up the landing off a little sideways hip jump (just meters before was a much bigger one I did fine) landed into sand and proceeded to tear my right ankle to bits. Long story short I was now joining G on the Ibuprofen for the rest of the trip and 12 days later there is little improvement. Unfortunately I have been here before with my ankle and I think this will take ages to come right. It’s still swollen and sore to walk on let alone run or hike. Luckily the biking due to its lower impact nature meant I could keep riding though I was careful for the rest of the week off drops especially not putting too much force through it. Its strange thinking as you approach a drop to spin you peddles to land on your non favored leg. So all 3 of us Kiwis now had injuries to deal with, all with effects that I think might last for quite some time. Argh… The joys of Mountain Biking aye.

Next up was Kamloops where we rode for 2 days shuttling the local trails. They have some great riders here and testament to this is that both the women and male top riders at the Olympics both come from this town of 70000 people. The tracks here were dry and very different than others we had ridden. They had some very very steep sections which I loved as well as some good structures, jumps and skinnys. Not to mention some tracks which simply had good flow. Gareth managed to catch a pedal way up high on a structure. Next thing I saw was him falling 8-10 foot to flat off the structure. I thought OMG here we go again. Anyway I got up to him and his was fine. In fact the first thing he said to me was "I thought I was going to crush my n*uts, how did I not smash them..." Hehe got me laughing again. It was amazing, he had just sat on his bike and used it as the big squish machine that it was. After a couple of good meals here in town each night we crashed in our dodgy establishment the night before heading through some very scenic areas on the 300km drive to Williams Lake, our most remote destination. The drive was wonderful with massive, massive trains snaking there way through the countryside past many lakes.

Williams Lake for the most part is natural terrain with less man-made structures than other areas, I really really liked it. I wish we had done more riding here really. They have local trails just above town which are pretty small runs but lots of fun. A bunch of skinny’s to play on too. There was one just a foot or 2 above the ground but was real narrow (~6 inches) that I managed to ride on my first shot. It was at least 40m long. I could not repeat this feat again unfortunately. Many of the tracks here had sweeping sections which swoop down a gully going from one side to the other. This is serious fun. It allows you to take corners really fast (Like a Velodrome). Add jumps and hips into this and we are talking wicked fun ‘sick’. Helmet cam vids of this would have been amazing. We also shuttled a big Mountain called DeSeus. It was well out of the way but worth it even though the turnaround was well over an hour. It was big mountain natural terrain riding with tight trees to negotiate and serious loose steep trails with super tight steep switchbacks. Being clipped in here I found it really improved my riding. Unlike others with flats who would drag a leg basically as an anchor to control speed and direction being clipped in meant you needed to be super accurate. Wicked times that’s for sure with some great natural flowy sections through trees when you weren’t busy burning your brakes out on the steeps. Sure would be a good hill for brake manufacturers to test out new products on.


Riding in Bristish Columbia, Canada from Kurt Janssen on Vimeo.

On the Thurs evening we did a massive 550km drive through rain and storms all the way back to Vancouver. Unfortunately we needed to do this as the Duchies needed to be at the airport not long after lunch the next day for the flight home. This meant that G and I would ride the shore again. By this stage we were pretty wore out especially after a poor sleep the night before due to us crashing in the basement of Chris's parents place. Anyway we rode at Fromme which involved an hour long push up the hill to get to the tracks as you cannot shuttle this mountain. The tracks were wicked. Full of manmade features all over. Skinny’s, drops, jumps, steeps, cobbled areas, log rides the list goes on. It certainly is a place I really want to go back too. It also really amazes me that even though it was raining the wood is reasonably grippy. Unlike home they have lots of hardwoods such as cedar to build with.

So yep all in all a great time. The tour I have mixed feelings on. The riding was great (cut short at times) but the accommodation and organization was not how I expected it to be for the money I paid. I was skeptical doing a tour to begin with since I have always travelled off my own back. I do not regret it; unfortunately some of my worries did come to fruition.

On my last night in Vancouver we met Vic in town and had a big night. Was fun but we were so tired eh. You know it’s been a big night when you walk home (45min walk - poor poor ankle) and stop by the local McDonalds Drive-in to order a Big Mac combo. Hehe they served us too :-)


Seattle

After just a few hours sleep we were up and moving by 8.30 as we were heading to Seattle for the weekend across the border. The lines were pretty big at the border. We spent 2hrs in them even after going to the duty free store which allows you to cut the line somewhat. Anyways after going past the Peace Arch (Symbol of Friendship between the States and Canada) we were on the Freeway heading to Seattle. What a great city. First up was visiting the best REI (Outdoors Store) I have seen. It’s a 'green' building set amongst bush with tracks to test out Mountain bikes on, with a huge climbing wall inside. The range of equipment was awesome and like others I have been too for the most part the prices are great. That afternoon we checked out the waterfront, sculpture park and took in some sights before heading out to our motel. There are great freeways here that go through many tunnels and also floating highways. It really is the city of water. It’s surrounded by water and unfortunately the city only gets 70 or so properly sunny days per year. Yikes... That evening I had the best Thai food I had had since leaving Thailand. Super nice and it was actually spicy hot. Mmm yummy, yummy. That night we wondered round town a bit but were all pretty shattered from the night before and had a relatively early night. My ankle was very happy about this since it had been throbbing all day.

On Sunday we entered into the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (http://www.empsfm.org/). We really didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. Its set inside a very funky building (check out the pics) and has many awesome exhibits like the evolution of the guitar, a whole room dedicated to Jimi Hendrix who comes from Seattle. Not to mention exhibits on the grunge era originating from Seattle with great bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains & Candle box. They had a sound room and many small studios where you could jam with mates on drums, keyboards and guitars. In the Atrium was a huge funnel made from 700 guitars. It was fabulous. They also had the actual flying police car from the Film Noir Classic Sci-fi movie 'Bladerunner'. This brings us to the Sci-fi museum. Pretty cool. Basically it goes over the evolution of Sci-fi novels, thinking, movies and history. They had many original exhibits such as robots form famous films. This place is well worth the visit. Steve this is your dream come true. You wouldn’t know what to do with yourself in this place.



We also went up the Space Needle, an iconic Seattle sight built for the 1962 World fair. We went up both during the day and night on the Sunday. What great views of the cityscape. I really was impressed with Seattle. Great eateries, markets, shopping, views, waterfront Etc. Certainly reminds me that I want to live in such a place again where the CBD is vibrant and actually exists rather than the urban sprawl that is LA. Though we got there as it was closing the Public Market in downtown along the water front was a cool spot with fresh fish, craft stalls, funky shops and also home to the World's first Starbucks. Downtown the shopping was good though we just walked around. We did stop in Barnes & Nobel where I picked up a dirty jokes book. Suffice to say that after 5 mins I had tears rolling down my eyes and Vic couldn't handle it he had to leave to wipe the tears up a few isles down. I ended up buying the book for 'future reference' when one needs a good laugh. Dam it’s making me smile just thinking of some of them right now. Put it this way one super funny section was titled "Euphemisms for Male Masturbation", god I only flicked through the 3 solid pages of them and had not even looked at the Female pages and it had us rolling round. After a big Calzone for dinner and a nice Iced Mocha it was off to sleep. The next day I left late morning and much to my joy got some wonderful views of Mt Rainier and Mt St Helens out of the window of the Air Alaska 737.

Anyhow that was an epic write-up. I am thinking only about 10% made it this far. I appreciate your enthusiasm or maybe it was the strong coffee you needed to stay awake. I leave you with a reward. One of the not so dirty jokes from the 'Dirty Jokebook'. Enjoy :-)

* A hunter goes out looking for buffalo and hires an Indian scout to help him. After a while the Indian gets off his horse, puts an ear to the ground and says, "Buffalo come." The hunter scans the area with his binoculars. "I can't see anything," he says. "How can you tell?" The Indian replies, "Ear Sticky!"

* What do you call a farmer with forty lovers?
A sheppard

* What did the hurricane say to the coconut tree?
"Hang onto your nuts, this is going to be one hell of a blow job!"

* Why is Santa's sack so big?
He only comes once per year.

Now I know some a crude and maybe not that funny but I know everyone of you smiled if not laughed...