Mountain Biking in Whistler
August 10, 2018
When talking to my friend Charlene about our trip, she mentioned they were going to bring their mountain bikes and suggested maybe we could look into renting some. My family likes to bike, but we are by no means serious cyclists. We always have good intentions, but don’t seem to get out for rides as a family often. We have predominantly road bikes, but we are up for trying anything.
Mark did some research and we decided to rent bikes at Lost Lake and explore the trails between Lost Lake, Green Lake and Alta Lake. The trails were breathtaking, pedalling through old growth forests amongst the towering trees. We had been a little concerned about everyone being able to keep up and stay together so Mark set some ground rules. We established a leader and a sweep; whomever was the leader had to stop at every crossroads and wait till everyone caught up. We figured it might be challenging for Teva to keep up with the older kids, so I stayed at the back, to make sure Teva did not feel left behind, Aubrey took the position of sweep in case anyone got into trouble. I was loving every minute of it, until we started climbing up the hills.
First of all, I needn’t have worried about Teva: I was eating his dust. He was definitely able to mostly keep up with the older kids. I was the one who was not able to keep up. It was oppressively hot and I was not coping well with the heat, even in the shade of the trails. As we were climbing the hill, me looking like a tomato, I was seriously considering turning around, coasting down to the lake, jumping in and then waiting in the shade for the rest of the group to meet up with me later in the day.
Aubrey being the sweep, patiently climbed the hill with me, cheering me on the whole way. I told him the Plan B that I had formulated in my head. At least three times I told him that I couldn’t go on, and he would not let me give up. Somehow, I managed to climb the hill, recover, and then continue on for many more hours of riding. We stopped for about an hour and a half to eat lunch and swim. I chose not to swim at this junction, even though I was hot, because I was not crazy about the idea of riding with a wet bottom, while already suffering from some soreness from my bike saddle. I rested in the shade, had a delicious frozen fruit bar, and got back on the bike. All in all, we rented the bike for 5 and a half hours, including our lunch break. We biked through so many beautiful places. It was truly wonderful, even though I was definitely starting to feel my age.
We were sad to leave Whistler and our friends, but adventure was calling, and I definitely needed a little bit of recovery time before we would be embarking on our 4 day kayak trip off northern Vancouver Island.