I’ve been up in Whistler for two months and I’m nearing the end of my visit. The next part of my trip will see more posts here as I think it will be more of a daily-updating adventure. Temporarily living in BC, Canada has been wonderful. It’s mostly been about bike riding on the mountain of course but that has not gotten boring. It has also been nice to not have a car and not have to drive anywhere. Whenever I find somewhere new to live I’d like it to be somewhere without cars (at least in my life).

Riding has been so good to me lately. Feeling strong and relatively agile on my bike and that makes me very happy. I’ve come a long way from my post-surgery state of barely being able to pedal 13 years ago. It has also been a luxury for me to have a lot of time to figure out different downhill trails bit by bit. It is of course super fun to follow a rider down a trial you don’t know. Trusting that your skills will be adequate for whatever is around the next corner is super exhilarating! On the other hand, I enjoy slowly picking a trail apart and learning all the nuisances of it. I used to be the same way riding ramps. I could spend months riding one ramp figuring out every detail. The trails I’ve been riding a lot, like A-Line, I can play through my mind in enough resolution that I could tell you where rocks are poking out in which corners and what line to take to avoid them– a result of riding a hardtail in the bike park I guess!

I’m in a coffee shop typing right now and one negative thing that needs to be mentioned about Whistler is how bad the music is in its coffee shops! It makes me wonder if there are some weird copyright laws in Canada that prevent them from playing anything good and they’ve turned to AI-generated pop to fill their speakers. The playlists sound like the soul-draining music you find when sifting through stock (royalty-free) music sites.

Enough of that… let me hop off my soap box! Music aside Whistler has been good to me. Weather has been wonderful during my stay and the warnings I heard about muddy conditions in spring weren’t a problem. This place desperately needs rain and the blown-out trails show it. I’m running into friends in the lift line most days and that is great. I head out to ride alone and seem to always end up riding with someone. As usual, I choose to do a lot of solo laps too. It is amazing to me how much I can ride here. I’ve done multiple 6+ hour days in the park and I don’t seem to get tired. It is just coasting down hills I guess but it does take a lot of work to keep the bike fighting through the terrain, and a lot of mental focus to deal with the high speeds. The adrenaline reward seems to keep me going though.

Speaking of rough terrain my poor bike has been getting rattled to death by it. I’ve spent several thousand dollars trying to keep it rolling during my stay here (and I’ve had a lot of help from friends with parts too). Riding the bike park is fantastically hard on bikes. Taking the gondola to the top and firing down trail after trail at high speed is like months of riding at home. Home? That’s the usual small talk subject with strangers in the gondola, “Where’s home?” I don’t have an answer for that question anymore as home is just where ever I am right now.

I’ve been writing a lot and my creativity is surging. Plugging away on a couple of books and doodling stuff most days. Also working on Fairdale stuff and we’re already thinking about 2026 bikes. I also wrote a full review on mountain biking I will post soon. It seemed funny to me to review “mountain biking” as a whole. For now, I’m off to enjoy some more bike park laps!