· So, what is up with that blog title anyway? Let me explain. :)
The first part is the name of a trail here, the second part is the sound I reckon a bear makes (coz I saw one today), the third part is the noise people make when they see a wild deer (I had to avoid one of those too) and the last part is the sound your front suspension makes when it ceases to function and dies. How about some more detail then eh? Ok, here goes.
I managed to roll out of bed at about 9 a.m. and get ready in time to arrive at the bike park shortly before it opened at 10 a.m. I hired body armour and a full-face helmet and although I didn't need their services today (i.e. I didn't crash ... well, I almost did) it's now easy to see why that stuff is recommended. The trails here are awesome!
The girl at the hire place suggested I completely ignore the green trails and head straight for the blues, in particular B Line and Crank It Up. I took her advice and had a couple of sweet runs down both. B Line is pretty bumpy and has a ton of perfectly built man-made berms which can be carved up nicely - my kinda riding thankfully. It was just off to the side of one of these berms that I saw the deer - cool! After that I tried to ride Crank It Up but found the top section was closed so I had to ride the top section of a trail called Fantastic to get to the bottom part of Crank It Up (called, ironically, Lower Crank It Up). It's really nice and flowy but is basically all jumps from top to bottom, something I'm not too good at. I got better though, through having absolutely no choice haha. In lieu of photos of Crank It Up here's a profile of the run ... as you can see there isn't a whole lot of uphill riding involved. :)
Fantastic > Lower Crank It Up > Heart Of Darkness run profile
And, because I like this sort of thing, here's what the run looks like from a satellite imagery point of view (I was carrying a GPS unit during the run - pretty cool I reckon).
Fantastic > Lower Crank It Up > Heart Of Darkness satellite imagery
I decided that there wasn't much point in riding these trails without having some evidence of how cool they are so I went into the hire center and had a chat to a guy called Jamie from a company called Whistler Action Cams. His business rents out helmet cameras so that riders can capture their own footage while they're out on the Whistler trails. Jamie is a great guy with a great business and I highly recommend going to see him if you're at Whistler yourself. Once again, that info is ...
Whistler Action Cams
http://whistleractioncams.com
Phone (Canada) 604-902-3789
Located inside the main rental shop as at May 28th, 2009
See Jamie and he'll hook you up - literally!
So, equipped with camera, up to the top of the gondola I went (the bear was strolling around underneath the gondola all day) and just as I started to ride down Fantastic ... the SNAP sound occurred. I found myself with no front suspension, something that had happened on my bike less than 1 week ago. They bike shop back in Melbourne "fixed" it and told me it wouldn't be a problem anymore - WRONG! I'm pretty pissed off about it too. At least the video will have my verbally graphic reaction to the event ... So there I was with a bike that wasn't working properly and about 3km of jumps left to negotiate. To cut a long story short I made it to the bottom and to a local bike shop who took apart the forks and informed me that they can't be repaired. Period. The problem is a defect in the fork and they'll need to be replaced. Normally this wouldn't be an issue but I'm in Canada and warranty replacements would be a pain to organise, let alone find time for.
I went back to Jamie and gave back the camera and we had a long pow wow about my bike breaking, his business etc. He then offered to let me borrow his downhill bike for the rest of my time here! WHAT A FRICKIN' CHAMPION! I haven't accepted the offer yet as it's contingent on him seeing if the bike's in working order but he could save me something like $1300 Canadian dollars if he can get the bike sorted. In return I'm going to do a bit of light advertising for his company (see above) by putting some links on the websites I have access to. Like I keep saying to everyone, Canadians kick ass! I mean, how generous is that? :) I'll update you all on the situation as it unfolds.
I still haven't got around to talking about the place I'm staying but it's not that important right now I guess. I'll throw some quick detail on here at some point but I'll wait until I've got nothing else to do.
I'll post again tomorrow - cya then!
