Trails Update: June 05, 2020
(Re-)Newing Pura Vida
15 celsius is the perfect temperature for trail building. You can really exert yourself without sweating too badly.
15 celsius is the perfect temperature for black flies. They are ravenous, and annoying. They fly out of every hole in the ground aiming for a kamikaze dive into your tasty(?) eyeballs.
It’s the perfect storm really… to keep us moving.
So the bug nets are on as we take on a serious renovation of Pura Vida. Being so close to the exit of Lord of the Squirrels has not been kind to PV, as hundreds of exhausted adventurers thought to themselves: “How much harder can this really be? (compared to LOTS)”.
This situation should be less common when the Chipmunk Rebellion Pt 1 gets completed but that’s for a future trails update... and Pura Vida deserves the upkeep.
There’s already a new bridge and countless holes/roots armoured up with more to come next week.
Bottom feeder!
Last month, in my effort to quell the snow shovelling of trails, I designed a trailforks badge that would encourage you to ride, not dig (snow). The Valley Bottom Feeder badge includes 59 lower elevation trails (71km!) scattered all over the valley to keep you busy while the upper trails naturally melt... and dry.
I gave you 2 months to get after it. This week I noticed that trailforks user KJFW was the first to complete the challenge!
Here are some snippets from our online conversation:
DR: Well done! What is your actual name? I'd like to give you props in the WORCA newsletter!
Hi Dan, Thanks. My name is Kelly Wilson (KW).
DR: In Chasing the badge, what was your favorite "new to you" trail/zone?
KW: I had ridden everything except the trails south of Cheakamus (Runaway Train, End of the Line, D-Railment) at least once in the past 5 years that I've lived in Whistler full time, so very little was truly new to me. I had only ridden Azrael once before some number of years ago in the opposite direction, so that felt like a completely new trail. Last year I started riding and enjoying the No Flow zone more than when I first moved here. A combination of better skills and mindset make all the difference there.
DR: Which trail/zone part was the worst? hardest to get?
KW: For me the worst trail on the list is Ridge. I normally ride it once a year during the Chromag toonie. So much baby-head chunder and erosion (on both upper and lower Ridge). The best part of Ridge is probably that large low-angle granite section, but even that is kinda sketchy with all the tiny pea gravel in that area.On the topic of least loved trails: Blueberry is a nice trail, and on my way home from southerly rides, but I'm always annoyed with the climb at the south end (so close to being reasonable until you’re near the top) and the stairs at the end.
DR: Do you know how many riding hours it took to get the badge?
KW: I live in Tapleys, so the trails at the far ends of town are the "hardest" to get, but nothing unreachable in a 2-2.5 hour ride. I almost always ride from home, but I did drive down to Cheakamus for the south-of-Cheakamus trails and up to Wedge for the last ride with North Secret and S2S. I've been riding almost every day in May, probably averaging about 2 hours per ride. So I'd guess around 40 riding hours in total to get the badge.
DR: Would you do it again?
KW: I'd definitely do it again. I like to ride most everything at least once per year. It’s possible I took this whole badge thing a little too seriously. But it was enjoyable in that it gave me more of a purpose to ride each day, got me to ride trails that I wouldn't normally bother with, and it was fun strategizing a ride plan to maximize the number of trails I still needed to check off. The number and variety of trails in the valley is amazing, not even including the numerous "secret" trails.
Congratulations Kelly!
If the Bottom Feeder badge seems out of reach for you, consider the more reasonable challenge of our bi-weekly Virtual Toonies.
See you on the trails!
Dan Raymond
WORCA Lead Trail Builder
