So the adventure has started! I am now sitting in a peaceful apartment in Whistler village listening to the rain fall gently against the window looking out onto Blackcomb Mountain. Most nights we get a bit of rain here but the rest of the time the weather is pretty good, a little on the cold side though. I arrived late Wednesday night after a draining 24 hours of traveling and have spent the last few days unpacking and settling in.

I had the first taste of mountain biking in Whistler the day after I arrived with a quick 2 hour spin on the cross country bike with Shelly and a local guy we met on the bus from Vancouver airport to Whistler. The trails were even more amazing than I had expected, sure we have all seen movies of how great the riding is over here but it wasn’t until I had ridden the trails that I then saw how much we are missing in Australia. The tracks we rode were like highways over jagged rocks and slippery roots winding all over the hills.

Yesterday just got better. The morning started with a 4 hour trail ride exploring a network of trails starting from our back door. We found a black diamond trail, hardest trails on the hill, that headed up the Blackcomb Mountain. It was steep with some next to impossible pinches where I found myself having to push my bike up then…we decided to make it our goal to be able to climb the whole trail before heading home, we’ll see! We climbed for about an hour before deciding to turn back as the storm clouds rolled in. The decent was like nothing I had ever ridden before, there is no better feeling being able to bomb down what you just groveled up. From massive rock slabs to skinny wooden bridges its had it all.

From there we headed home for a late lunch before setting out again for another 2 hours of trails. This time we rode another local trail a few kilometers down the road. We nearly turned around when we came to a few hundred metres of deep snow but decided to push through with the hope of getting through to clearer ground. Thankfully we did find hard ground again and continued on to trails of slimy roots and ladders. By ladders I mean ladders made from carved out trees across anything physically un-rideable. It was just out of this world the trails they have over here.

Today we headed out for another 3 hour ride in the same direction as yesterday afternoon. We rode a trails made up of ladders and tree rollovers and a bit of ground. The ladders snacked around trees and over creeks as wide as 8 meters, once again nothing like I had ever seen. I have to admit my heart nearly stopped at the creek ladder…if I slipped of the side I would have fallen 3 meters to the rushing water!

Anyways that will do for now but be sure to visit back soon for more stories and pictures…