Trails Update: September 23, 2022

Renovations

The crew continued on our creative carpenter theme in A River Runs Through it this week. We replaced the old A-Frame through the trees with a “long bike friendlier” design. The weird up and over thing was also getting hammered by chainrings so we built transitions on both sides. Another old feature got replaced and re-designed to work around another large fallen tree. You can expect another expert log ride to eventually appear (once the fire rating drops enough to use the big chainsaw).

Scott put his recycling bug to creative use too: he re-purposed some of the large boards from another expired stunt to make a roller-coaster skinny! We also simply retired a few small rotten features that were unremarkable and unnecessary.

I re-inspected the wasp nest feature from last week, hoping that a bear had destroyed the colony… the nest was actually growing.

Kevin from the RMOW crew will also add some new flair to the trail in the coming weeks. 

Racing

The WORCA crew was once again recruited to flag the course for the Norco Canadian Enduro Series National Championships. This is a hefty responsibility… most Whistler trails have been built in pleasant wide open forest and feature meandering turns, while enduro racers are always seeking the fastest (straightest) path to the finish line. Flagging the course serves two purposes: keeping all of the racers on the same track, and protecting the trails (and their periphery) from braiding and tread widening. 

What we always expect to be a mellow day pre-riding the entire course turns into a few days of mentally and physically exhausting work. We take the stewardship of the trails seriously, so we creep down, constantly scanning for any potential “cheat” lines. It’s non-stop on and off the bike to lay out flagging and/or choke the trail. We literally rolled out 7500 feet of pink tape (50 rolls!) on just the timed descent segments. Good luck to all of the racers! I hope you enjoy Whistler’s turns.

Like Scott, I also love to recycle… hopefully I can repurpose all of that flagging tape on Flashback for the return of Tuesday Dig Nights!   

See you on the trails!

Dan Raymond

WORCA Lead Trail Builder