Day 15 May 28

More travelling. Caught the 7.45 am bus out of Victoria and then had 1.5 hrs to wait for the bus to Whistler. Finally arrived at 3:30pm and checked in to the hotel where I am staying. I was most impressed with the view from my window - I can see the lift and the jumps park they are constructing for Crankworks in August.

Day 16 May 29

Whistler, what a great place. The incredible thing is that as we lined up to take our bikes up on the gondola, the skiers and snow boarders were taking the same lift but going higher. The snow base is still 130cm up higher.

Took it pretty easy first off and did a few blue runs to see what they were like. Even these were pretty technical in places, but nothing too bad. Finally did my first black run on A line as my last run before lunch. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might have been and if I could jump tabletops, I would have been in heaven. Throughout the day I was getting a bit better and was even getting some air, but compared to the downhillers, I must have looked like an amateur.

DISTANCE TODAY 48km TOTAL DISTANCE 353 km

Day 17 May 30

Got out a bit earlier to try to miss the crowds but it didn't matter as they had opened up the chair lift as well as the gondola. Every second chair has had the seats taken out and a 3 bike rack that you just wheel your bike into. There is also a hook one one side to hang your bike on so you have 4 bikes followed by 4 riders on the normal quad chair.

I was a bit more confident today and was getting a bit more air over the jumps but it was only about 10% of what the locals were doing. I found a few trails that I missed yesterday, but it was mainly just having the confidence to go faster on the trails you know.

I came around one corner into an open field and was looking at the trail ahead when I sensed something just of to the side. I looked over and there was a decent size black bear about 3 metres from the trail. I was passed it before I had a chance to poo my pants and I stopped a bit further down the trail to take some photos. The funniest thing was to watch the faces of other riders as they realized that it was there. The bear was not fazed by it at all and just kept on eating the grass and having a look around every now and then. That is as close as I want to get though.

DISTANCE TODAY 52km TOTAL DISTANCE 405 km

Day 18 May 31

I found out that there were some cross country trails in another part of the village, so I decided to go and check them out, as you are not allowed to ride uphill anywhere in the MTB Park. Had an early lunch and headed over there and they weren't too far away at all. The trails that were in there were quite nice with quite a few raised boardwalks to ride on. There just wasn't enough of them and to do some of the extra bits meant riding on multi use groomed trails. I wasn't so bad seeing that the scenery was great with trees everywhere.

On one of these groomed trails I had to go past Lost Lake and saw a pontoon going out from the edge. I stopped and was about to walk out there when I noticed that most of the people out there were nude. I'm sure they wouldn't have appreciated me taking my camera out there so I took a shot from the trail and continued on towards the lake beach where I could see lots of people. It was strange to see all these people sun baking when it was only 21 degrees and a couple of kilometers away others were catching chair lifts to go skiing.

A pretty cruisey day really but I a least had to make the legs work a bit.

DISTANCE TODAY 34km TOTAL DISTANCE 439 km