Heaven part 2

Ok so where was I? On Thursday it was Kelly's birthday, happy birthday hunny, again! We were planning on going white water rafting, however since it was early season there wasn't enough people to go rafting so we had to postpone it till Friday. On Kelly's birthday we went to the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre. It was raining and there wasn't much else to do since we had done enough shopping on Tuesday. It was pretty sweet but wasn't all that large. We watched a 20 minute video and then a 20 minute tour of the place we were done. We stopped out front and watched a guy carving a totem pole. That was pretty sweet and he asked what were were up to and if we were locals? Sweet, he thought we were locals. He was probably pretty confused as to why locals were at the museum, since 90% of the locals are either ski bums, bike bums or both and probably don't frequent the museums that often. Nothing else really stands out in my mind, except that we ate at Ingrid's Delicatessen for like the 2nd or 3rd time. It was this sweet little deli that wasn't too expensive and Kelly really liked their turkey sandwich. Oh and her parents sent us a delicious chocolate cake, 2 beer glasses and a 12 pack of beer from the local brewery, Whistler Brewing company. It was awesome I ended up drinking most of it since Kelly only liked the Grapefruit Ale and there were only 3 of those, haha. The beer was great and definitely a step up from the Cariboos I had been drinking but heck I had to give it a try if the STUND'd boys are drinking it and sponsored by it and they are shredders, maybe it could help me out. hahaha and it wasn't really that bad. I'd buy it here if I could and it was only $7 bucks a 6 pack when everything else was $10-20!

On Friday we finally got to go rafting. I was super amp'd to get out there and see what the Squamish River had to offer. We have rafted in Colorado a couple times and in Tennessee and Kelly had rafted the Kicking horse River in Banf Canada so I had pretty high expectations. We weren't disappointed. The water was freezing cold! Fresh from the glacier up there and it was moving pretty quick. The hits were pretty big but fairly spaced out. There were a few good runs and it totally left me wanting more. We lucked out and had some cool people in our boat. An older couple that was with us did a multi-week trip in the Grand Canyon and our guide Bob was from New Zealand and he was pretty dang funny! He reminded me a lot of Sam Hill from he interviews I've seen. After the trip they had this huge spread for us. Chips and salsa, fruit, vegies and these bomb ass burgers! It was a great way to end the day and the cherry on top was that we were at this farm in the Squamish valley and we had such an amazing view of the mountains and the glacier!


Here we go, this is what all you bike nuts have been waiting for and what I waited patiently and drooled over for 5 days! It was time to ride! We got here at 9:30am, 30mins before the lifts opened so we could fill out all the waivers and get fitted for our gear and bikes! I was so ready to get on that sled and shred the mountain.
Kelly also was going to ride. I was so proud of here! She was being really brave, because she hated going down hills on our bike ride, I was a little surprised that she wanted to give it a go but it was awesome!  We decided to go with the 4 hour bike rentals with a 3 hour guided. It wasn't too much more then renting all the equipment and lift ticket so it was a good deal at $174 bucks.
My guide was a dead ripper and it sounds like Kelly had a shredder too. They split us up by our skills. They gave us all a quick interview and told us to be honest and then had us ride around in a circle for a bit. Then they split us up. It was me and a girl from Scotland. She had been out there for a few days and done a couple clinics. She was pretty good but definitely still a beginner but better then the other 3 in the group.

We met some of the guides buddy out there. Two of them we local pros, Trish was from the UK and rode a sick Green Transition 450! I was so jealous! But my bike was pretty sick the Giant Glory 2, my guides bike was really bad ass, the Giant Glory World cup! We watched Trish and not sure either her coach or boyfriend ride Fade to Black it was sick. I really wanted to try it. It had probably a 7 or 8 foot tall  10 or 12 foot long road gap with a hard right right after it. It was the turn that freaked me out.
Really I only rode blue trails. I only got 6 runs in 4 hours. It takes about 10-15 minutes to get to the top and then 20-40 mins to get to the bottom. It depends on the trail you took, how fast you were riding and if you took breaks or not. I would have to say that if you were a dead ripper and pinned it, you could probably do it in 12-15mins but I couldn't do that.

It took all of 4 runs before I was feeling comfortable and my 5th run was the best. We shredded Crank It Up for the second time and I was really starting to send some of the jumps and really whip it out.
On the day I rode about every blue and green trail that was open in some form or fashion.  We started on B Line and then moved to Ho Chi Min, Karate Monkey, Ninja Cougar, Long Horn, Crank It Up, and even more then I can remember. I really wanted to do A Line and Fade to Black but I just wasn't feeling comfortable on my bike. If I had more time to ride say another day or two I would have definitely been bombing some of the sick runs. The infamous Dirt Merchant opened the day after we rode. I've heard nothing but good things and you know it must be bomb when they put the opening in the local paper, haha.

Only if I could live some place were mtb was that big of a deal! and my guide lives the life. He lives next to Richie Schley and rides and knows tons of local pros like Brandon Semenuk and the Athertons!
I had such a blast. I could have been out there and rode every day but there is just so much to do there that a week just isn't long enough. After the biking we did he Peak to Peak Gondola. That was sick, great views and there is still 5-6 feet of snow up there! The odd thing is that its only 7000ft high, you can get higher in SD but they don't have snow year round. Mother Nature is a strange bitch but I love her!

On top of the bike park they have a sick public dirt jump park, pump track, skate park and skills area about 5 blocks from the village center. I took lots of pictures and notes because I really like the lay out of the jump park and might use it in some of my future projects. It has to be good, I heard that Brandon Semenuk had his hand in the design.

On Sunday we just hung out, packed our bags and wandered around the town as we got ready to end out trip. It was a great week and I would highly recommend heading to Whistler and I will be back. We have talked about celebrating our 5 year anniversary out there. I'm all for it!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Keep it real!