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Yipee I'm in Whistler! Just about to have my second day in the park, which is an incredible amount of fun! DH bikes are just insane!
Looks like the weather and holidays plans align for another day riding on Sunday and I'm thinking about options for some exploring with some pedaling up hill as well!
Looking at the trail maps is love to have a crack at a loop including lord of the squirrels but I think I'm way too early in the season? So any ideas where to go for days exploring? I've got access to komoot or Strava to cobble a route together to follow on a Garmin to avoid getting lost.
Failing that, it's unlikely I'll be back here within 10 years unless they magically invent zero emissions long haul flying, so screw it and have another day in the bike park?
My best friends nephew is living there and I'm sure he's done a lap of Lord of the Squirrels already this year. You could head up it and if it shows snow take the half way cut off? I've done that before when there was still snow up high and it was great fun.
I personally think the bike park wasn't a patch on the trails elsewhere but I get bored easily just repeating myself, if it were me I wouldn't be going back in the park again.
Have you got trailforks because everything is on there and when you get to trail heads everything is extremely well signposted? You can even plot a route with trailforks and send it to your garmin?
Yep, I have trailforks for finding trails.
So much more to Whistler than the park , Kill Me Thrill Me , Comfortably Numb for epicness A River Runs Through It for woodwork . For a completely different vibe head down to Squamish there's excellent stuff down there 👍
Lord of the squirrels is marked as open on Trailforks. It does seem early, though. That said top of the world is also marked as open.
contact WORCA, the local trail association via their website, or ask in a bike shop.
I have a riding buddy who has a place there he likes micro climate, thst is listed as closed.
the whole if comfortably numb would be hard to recommend, but the descent at the end is good and is close to the bottom of micro climate
Where else in Canada are you going on your trip?
Yeah, definitely going to ask in the shop where we are renting our DH bikes. They've been great so I'm sure I'll get a trail bike from them, and certain they'll have ideas on what's good / open.
Heading to salt spring island after whistler. Not sure on what riding well get done there, maybe just some exploring the island on bikes rather than any "proper" riding.
Yeah as @LAT said CN is a long old haul if you do the entire thing as I said epic .
I recall riding up from the village looking for the final descent. Came across a bunch of "senior" riders 😉who said they'd been out there most of the Summer building a fun descent back into the village and to follow them and they'd show me. We kept climbing and climbing I began thinking it was a wind up then they just stopped. They got off their bikes and said before we drop in we are having a safety meeting? Then they all sat down and proceeded to light up spliffs ! !!!
I was thinking they are going to leave me to die ! When they finished their smokes one of them said follow me it's all mellow and fun ? Another one grabbed my arm and said don't listen to him he's talking crap stay behind me and when I get off you do the same ! He was right ! Couldn't even see the entrance to the trail they had made but it ranged from mildly terrifying to you got to be shitting me ! No wonder they'd lit up first!
Yummy numby to foreplay and back through lost lake gets the best of the CN descent, but you've got to be into technical climbing to get there. On of my favourite sub 90min tech loops straight from the village.
All the Blackcomb stuff is good.
LOTS is good when open but it's a mission getting up to the into the mystic start, then it's either average descending or super tech to get back down to the valley floor after finishing LOTS of LESS. If the alpines closed, LOTs isn't the best use of a day pedalling imo.
Didn't do loads outside the park when I was there, but River Runs Through It had some fun bits. I was living in Creekside and explored some trails over that side a bit, plus some of the blues around Lost Lake were fun too. Personally I'd just make the most of having awesome lift assisted trails, but I love park riding.
You can get a trail map from the bike shops I think.
Last Lord Of The Squirrels update on Trailforks was last October stating that it was closed for the winter. No ride logs since. I'd be absolutely amazed if it is open!
Given options I'd either just bang out another day in the Park, or head down to Squamish, rent an E-bike and do some Alice Lake laps.
Talking to a few folks on lifts, I think I'm going to head up the flank just high enough to get to chipmunk rebellion as a loop, then pedal some easy stuff around lost lake. If I've got the legs left maybe head up towards comfortably numb, but I'm riding alone, so pushing my descending limits might not be a great idea, so I suspect that's unlikely.
This is a photo of the "half way point" of Lord Of The Squirrels from 4 days ago....not a chance LOTS will be open!
If you want a flavour of Comfortably Numb, just do the initial climb then drop into Out There. Out There is one of my favorite descents in Whistler. That loop should take about 1.5-2 hrs. Great meandering techy climb followed by slabby descent which is all rollable (though you either need to follow a local who knows the lines or stop n scope them first)
Wow, those climbs up through sirloin and Darwin's are steep. And the climb before that wasn't just a fire road bimble either. Totally worth it though. Had a great day on the West side, glad lord of the squirrels was closed, I think that would have done me in.