Trails Update: October 12th, 2023
Magician Crematorium?
No, seriously, it’s still the Wizard Burial Ground! We’ve worked our way down to Whip Me Snip Me armouring holes and supporting the trail where needed. Our goal was to return the trail to its original steep smoothness. There were a few spots that I was excited to modernize: the chunky chute exit had a harsh 90 degree turn for an exit… we discovered a granite berm that was begging to smoothly send riders to the next feature. Riley got to play tetris with some heavy granite and Vera scrubbed the moss while Josh anchored the off camber turn at the top of the chute. I was distracted by some Pileated Woodpeckers laughing and drumming up high in the towering trees that make this trail so “magical”. We also fixed a few spots on A Cut Above before giving the Wizard’s exit some smoothing over.
What a finale!
We held our last Tuesday Dig Night of the season and the atmosphere was so Octoberfest! Chromag helped us close out the season in style by bringing their family and SWAG! 45-ish volunteers battled the duff until polka music and the smell of bratwurst lured us to homemade pretzels and Coast Mountain Brewing’s finest potent potables. With completion of this section so near, I pretty much needed to drag some enthusiastic diggers out of the dark woods with headlamps on!
I want to once again thank everyone that participated in our volunteer trail work events this year! From the sponsors funding the program and the diggers sweating away to build every meter of sweet new trail, to the Turkington and Hryciw families cooking every week to feed all that effort. And last but not least, to WORCA trails Director Ben Hryciw who tied the entire program together by herding all the cats 14 times this summer! “Many hands make light work” and everyone should be proud of what we accomplished this summer: together, we added 1700m of Adaptive-mtb Blue rated trail to our shared network!
The trail crew will continue upgrading Farout 3 to complete phase 1 of our A-mtb project and we’ll also put the finishing touches on Flashback 5 in the coming weeks. Please be patient as the trail gets capped and bedded in.
Comfortably Numb is 20!
It was time for my annual ride down memory lane with another installment of the Samurai of Single Track (Remix). I was excited about all of the changes that have occurred along this route in the last 20 years. The 2003 course began with climbing Rick’s Roost to Binty’s/Billy Epic, but recent Cougar encounters closed this entire zone. For the first big change, I started in Cheakamus and climbed up Don’t Look Back to replicate the Flank trail’s uphill suffering. Pura Vida seemed like the most similar descent (to Billy Epic) and gave me the opportunity to maximize single track riding on the Dessert Platter to make my way back up to Cheap Thrills. Climbing above Stone Bridge to access the Flank was a game changer for riding in Whistler. Sirloin and (later) Darwin’s made it possible for mere mortals to ride multiple westside laps in a single ride.
My 2023 samurai lived up to 2003 vibes in the skinny department since modernization efforts on Cheap Thrills and A River Runs Through It replaced and added features instead of simply retiring them. I managed to ride through Cut Yer Bars and Nick North before a Grizzly Bear closed these areas again this week. I headed north riding some newer slab trails towards the highlight of the event: Comfortably Numb.
I clearly remember the experience 20 years ago. The Al Grey memorial bridge had just been completed and a last minute work party flew in to connect the last bits of Chris Markle’s masterpiece. The trail was a daunting commitment. No shortcuts, no exits, no cell reception! It was a full on “green room” experience. The trail was so soft that you needed to stand and pedal hard for most of the 24km route.
C-Numb has certainly changed! 2 sandwiches deep into my ride, I started up “Secret North” which featured some new singletrack (an extra kilometre) that avoids the re-opened FSR. I appreciated all of the fresh woodwork and firm tread. Fatter tires, disc brakes and having a dropper post are massive advantages of the modern age! I enjoyed another sandwich and marveled at the bridge over Wedge creek… plans are being drawn up to replace it soon. Onwards, the tight turns and demented roots tormented me into considering escape options… “I’ve never needed to use the Golden Door”; “Bring On the Weekend would be fun right now”; “Descending Wish You Were Here would be soooo fast”...
I pedaled on, appropriately driven by Genesis’ Land of Confusion. By the time I passed Yummy Numby, I had eaten enough Sour Patch Kids for my enthusiasm to grow. Blood sugar and adrenaline provided laser focus to carve down the Foreplay descent. Pondering “What would Tony Horn make us do?” I completed the remixed course by riding all of the new east side Zappa trails that didn’t exist in 2003. I finished The Grand Wazoo elated as the sun set.
“Where can I find another sandwich?”
See you on the trails!
Dan Raymond
WORCA Lead Trail Builder
