Trails Update: Oct 22, 2021
Post-NCES thoughts and actions
I spent last weekend chasing mushrooms while 300 eager racers chased national championship glory. At the fungus among us display, I discovered some peculiar “new to me” specimens while the racers discovered their kit should have included more gore-tex and a snorkel…
When the dust had settled (haha: does anyone remember dust?) I set off to inspect the trails.
I must admit that racing is a pretty harsh test of craftsmanship and I looked forward (with trepidation) to see how our trails would fare. The weather clearly made the test harder than we imagined. The trail crew mirrored the course the next day to collect the “grades”. While some of the trails barely looked bothered (High Side, Chipmunk Rebellion, Foreplay) others took a beating (After Hours, AM/PM, Beaver Pass).
Our pre-event assistance with the flagging helped mitigate a darker side of enduro racing: cheat lines. The bold liberties to leave the trail (flagrant course cutting) by racers are to enduro what doping (and motors) are to road riding. No cheaters were caught red-handed, but the evidence in the moss remains. Some of the lines we found from practice days were shocking. We can block the braids, repair the tread and re-shape berms affected by the race, but renewing the aesthetics of a trail takes years.
We proceeded to literally clean up the messes that had not already been washed away by rushing water and repack softened and mangled berms. This work was eerily similar to what we experienced in the spring of 2020 (scraping deep black muck). For those of you still riding your bikes despite the dropping mercury, you’ll notice the freshly cleaned roots offer less grip than ever… Pura Vida might be back to “crazy-slippery”.
Most of the race course has been revamped, and we snuck in a few upgrades here and there. We have made work plans with the OG trail maintainers for the (shrinking) trail crew to assist on AM/PM and After Hours. Both of those trails will remain closed until repairs are completed by the way. That should keep us busy until snow blankets the valley… and probably into next spring.
Thanks Ben and Darren
Darren’s skills are needed back in Pemberton where the digging is good ‘till opening day (for skiing). Benoit is starting a new winter job with BC Transit that will likely involve less heavy lifting than the trail crew. I’d like to thank Ben and Darren for their stellar work this season! No project was too big for your skills and Whistler riders will rejoice for years to come at the solid transitions and berms you’ve built.
What’s the best carrot?
I was a shift manager at a fast food restaurant in the 90’s. This experience taught me that the customer is NOT always right and that it can be difficult to motivate 16 yr olds to do work that they hate. However, when they buy-in to an outlet, they can become a force to be reckoned with… we successfully reached (some of) them by creating the hamburger 0lymp1cs and witnessed some passionate performances.
Week 2 on the Up Shit Creek extension project had a similar narrative... The section we benched out last week needed some serious dirt capping so I set-up several great mineral soil pits. The weather was cooperating and buckets were ready to fill, however, the students were slow to get moving. At first, I assumed it was the chilly morning air, later, I came to realize that laying beautiful gold dirt on the trail was not as satisfying to them as it was for me. Assuming the “rocky No-Flow” digging was too difficult, I spent the session frantically trying to make their tasks easier without any noticeable effect…
My alarm went off signaling to wind down digging and stash the tools.
I began spreading the “back to school” word and noticed a frenzy of digging and bucketing at the far end of the trail: they had decided to build some jumps! That was the hook. Despite the “bell”, there was no stopping this class until the jumps were done. I’m already thinking of a more “descendy” project for next year’s WSS session.
These features will help manage water and add some texture to the trail... for some uphill flow?
See you on the trails!
Dan Raymond
WORCA Lead Trail Builder
