Vancouver and Whistler

My wife and I took a vacation to Canada this past weekend. I hectically tried to pack my road bike just before the flight, decided to bail, then packed my road gear but not my mountain gear. Of course in Whistler there were no road bikes to rent and very excellent off roading. I made the best of it.

For 3 days we were in Vancouver. We rented some hybrids and rode around Stanley Park, a nice park poking into the sea/bay/sound/whatever. Check out the rig!

Vancouver was a very cycle friendly city, at least the downtown area. Not much car traffic, most of it pretty slow, some good bike lanes - it just felt super mellow compared to riding in SF. And when you are crossing a street you know if there is a bike lane from the street signs.

We hiked this trail, it was very technical. I considered riding it later when I rented a mountain bike, but wearing my Teva's and having not gone offroad in many moons I chickened out. I think it might have actually been easier than the ski run I did come down, which started out pretty mellow but ended with a steep descent with loose rocks ending with a sharp right. Next time I'll have proper gear and try out this technical run called "Old Timber Run".

This was a slightly more "technical" run I also didn't "find time" to try out.

I did go down the ski run a few times after riding a bit with my wife. The place where we were staying was on Kadenwood Drive which the ski run and Old Timber started off of. I also therefore rode up Kadenwood 4 times for a good workout. It would be an excellent climb (and fantastic descent) on a road bike. The last time down the ski run I saw another rider coming down from another trail. It was an easy trail with a winding hairpin. He got off his bike and cut off the hairpin on foot. I couldn't figure out why he would walk this clearly easy section (while I was navigating the steep part on my own trail). I looked up and figured out why he cut the trail. You probably can't see it from the picture, but there is a brown blob just above the hairpin bend. It was a bear, and he cut off the hairpin so as to not go whizzing by!