Scion Whistler Report Ep. 7

I had planned on writing some of this along the way during my roadtrip, but as it turns out I’m sitting across from the ocean in sunny Long Beach California and will give you a brief update from a few thousand kms away.  I didn’t want to imply I was somewhere I wasn’t, so this is more a summary of happenings than me doing things in Whistler!

  Callum Jelley in orange and Jim Montrose in red enjoy a recently smoothed and sculpted B Line.

The big news in the park this week is the opening of Garbanzo on Thursday. Yep – yesterday. Blue Velvet is going to be the go to Upper Mountain trail, with sections of freight train and the rest of the trails below Creekside Gondola having been open for the past week or so for those willing to go for a walk up the access road. Brian Finestone promises cool, wet, and muddy conditions, and probably some really big snowbanks along the trail on the top.  So cut up an old tube for some ghetto fender action, put a healthy dose of lube on the chain and go check it out.  No-stopping top to bottom laps are pretty much the best thing to do in the park, go get some!

Last week saw the second Phat Wednesday go off with a fun course down Upper A-line, After Atlantis, Crabapple Turns, World Cup Singletrack, and Ho Chi Min. In both the Men’s and Masters categories we saw repeat winners from the week before as both James Dodds (Open Men) and Mathieu Hebert (Masters) took the victories. In the Women’s category it was Casey Brown besting a really close race besting second and third place by less than 2 seconds. In the Juniors in was Zander Geddes with the win.

  Freshly buttered berm.

The 2nd annual Pumptrack Challenge will take place Friday July 8 in the evening, and judging by the looks of the course, I’m really sad I’m not going to be back in time to take part. The mens and womens winners will both gain entry into the marquis pumptrack event during crankworx.  Looks like the format will run ‘Jam’ style; 2 heats of 30 minutes where riders will have a chance to post their fastest one lap time. The 4 fastest times then go head to head in the semi-finals with a best of 3 run format till we get to the finals. Should be some good racing on a big track which should provide a lot more opportunities for jumping and margin for error, and recovery, than last years course. The finals will also be best of 3 lap format, hope your fitness is good, this course is gonna be a long one!

If you’re in Whistler tonight, and a WORCA member, head down to Function Junction, and join the Chromag crew for a ride on some sweet Riverside trails, and then check out sweet Chromag bikes at the 6th Annual Show and Shine apres. The all-womens Betty vs. Veronica event is totally sold out at this point, with 180 ladies signing up in less than a week. That being said, if you didn’t get in in time it doesn’t take place until the end of August, so you can still get on the waiting list. If past events are any indication, people will either get injured, or I guess for the ladies pregnant, and there could be spots opening up. The next WORCA trail day is July 9, and the fine folks at Bear Back Biking will be hosting. Looks like they’re planning on doing some much needed work on Shit Happens in Emerald. Trail gnomes should meet at 9am at the pullout on the north side of highway 99 just past the new Rainbow Subdivision. Come out and give a bit back to the trails!

  B Line. Do it chainless. Of course.

A few weeks back I mentioned that BC Parks was going to be soliciting feedback on South Chilcotins Provincial Park, they’ve posted the new link where you can submit trip reports for your rides up in that area. You can find that here. It’s pretty important that you take a moment to submit a report for any trips you’ve done, Parks will be using this as a way to assess the use in the area and start updating the management plans.  This area is extremely important for riders and really an incredible gem and asset for riding in the Sea to Sky Corridor.  There are some in that area that would like to see riding restricted, so lets be proactive on this and show them that we really care about the area. In trail news from that area, the southchilcotin.ca site is reporting that the wildflowers are in full bloom at Spruce Lake, although anything higher in elevation likely is very snowed in still. Access is likely up gun creek trail. Be bear aware if you do venture that way, with the snowpack the way it is, big hungry griz are probably down along the creek and in Gun Meadows.

   Roomy banked corners to enjoy with friends.

I also noticed some pics on the Bike Co. Blog of the Della Trail south of Lillooet being in fine shape, Brad Holmes snapped some sweet pics, so you should check them out here.  Lee Lau has written about this ride before, and while it’s remote and a long drive from anywhere, it’s worth it. Lillooet could use the tourism, so maybe fill a truck, go camp up there for the weekend, buy a bunch of stuff in town and have a blast!

I think I’m am going to call it good for this abbreviated Whistler Report.  Hope that you have plans to ride some sweet trails this long weekend, and that you guys get some sun.  I had to leave town to find it in Oregon and Southern California, and it is sweet, although we did get snowed on pretty heavily at 10,000 feet in Yosemite National Park yesterday!  Till next week, happy trails.

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Have you sampled Garbo yet? Any Whistler gems to share? You know what to do…