Far Out / Flashback
New Trail Construction Project: Far Out / Flashback
The Far Out / Flashback trail will consist of 8.5kms of blue grade singletrack that connects Whistler Interpretative Forest singletrack around the Cheakamus river (Farside) to the Cheakamus Lake BC Parks trail and back.
Far Out is a blue-grade 4km climb (approx 145m ascent) to Cheakamus Lake Parking lot. The uphill route will be on the lower side of Cheakamus Lake Road and be uphill primary (bicycles uphill only, hiking two-way).
Flashback (Part one, part two) is the blue-grade 4.5km long descending trail. It will be downhill bicycling only, no down hiking (downhill hiking route will be using Far Out, connecting into the Farside trail).
The intention is to provide a nearly 20km continuous singletrack loop for a wide range of rider skills and has a long season (April-November). Both the Cheakamus River and Cheakamus Lake trails are truly world class experiences that provide an incredibly intimate connection with nature all along the fun, flowing singletrack. Currently these two networks are only connected by logging road that can become dusty and busy with vehicle traffic in the summer. We hope to get people out of their cars and experiencing some of Whistler's finest vistas and magnificent old growth forest and managed forest. This will be Whistler's true backyard epic loop.
We believe this experience will cater to a very wide range of skills and physical abilities of multiple user groups. The trail will be low gradient and relatively narrow but smooth. Very fit riders looking for an XC loop after work will be rewarded with a quick jaunt to Whistler's near backcountry. Novice to intermediate riders will find the distance an attainable challenge but not overly technically challenging, and the well signed, easy to follow loop will make it an easy looping trail. And parents wanting to share an easily accessible and safe loop with many points of egress will be pleasantly surprised at last.
Photo credit: Tourism Whistler/Mark Mackay
The buildout of this trail will be considerable. We aim to complete it with maximum community involvement and minimum expenditure. We have hired Howler Contracting to flag, clear the corridor and prep the worksite for us. The construction will be predominantly achieved through the WORCA Trail Nights. The area is very easy digging compared to the rest of Whistler. There's bountiful dirt rather than feet-deep layers of organic material, which makes for quick, easy and rewarding building. In 2019 we constructed 400m of fresh trail for HiHi (adjacent to this area) in just two trail nights. We expect a similar build rate if we can run decent volunteer trail nights over the duration. A small crew of locally motivated, experienced builders will be providing oversight on Trail Nights and additional volunteer hours. Expected completion date will be sometime in Fall 2022 unless we really start moving.
