North Shore, Squamish, Whistler - 4 days what to ride?

[t.odd]

personally I'd give CN a miss, and if you have to, do it as Lee suggested with Yummy/CN/Jeff's trail and sea to sky trail back to village. lots of better rides in the valley imo than traditional CN, plus one section of road has already been reactivated for industrial use, and by next summer there's a good chance a big chunk ot trail a third of the way in will be impacted by a run of the river hydro power project too.

[marving]

personally I'd give CN a miss, and if you have to, do it as Lee suggested with Yummy/CN/Jeff's trail and sea to sky trail back to village. lots of better rides in the valley imo than traditional CN, plus one section of road has already been reactivated for industrial use, and by next summer there's a good chance a big chunk ot trail a third of the way in will be impacted by a run of the river hydro power project too.

Hmm that sucks, I've always heard so much about CN. What would you recommend for a valley ride instead? Or would khybers/Babylon off top of the world do the trick for XC and better to spend other two days in the bike park?

Is it worth taking a day away from whistler to ride in pemberton? And if not but I wanted to squeeze in a quick ride on the way to kamloops would lumpys epic/tower of power be a good choice?

Lotta questions sorry

[xyz]

You're coming to a bike Mecca. Don't worry about the Fomo, you can't really go wrong. Just ride your bike...

[kevin267]

You said ideally you want to start early and be back at lunch time, most of the best trails in Whistler can be done in a couple hours from the village so that should work out good. Can save days where you have more time for a bike park day, or a top of the world to kybers to Kashmir or to Babylon (the middle of nowhere+Kashmir route is better imo) if you are up to that (pretty hard).

For quicker xc rides;

Could do a warm up of sorts through lost lake zappas and cut yer bars, easier than the rest of the valley but still really fun.

South end of town a loop of farside-see colours and puke-high side-high line business time is awesome.

Bunch of trails off the sproatt flank are awesome; pura Vida, high society, rock work orange+korova milk bar, and all the trails below those (three birds ACDC danimal beaver pass etc). Or further north howler is also great, pretty long crappy climb though.

The blackcomb trails are sweet too, microclimate is most popular of them. Or Yummy to the final descent of comfortably numb.

North end of town doing kill me thrill me then across the highway and doing out there would also be rad.

All that is single black kind of level and shouldn't take more than like 3 hours. If you're game for harder stuff green monster, wizards burial ground, hey bud, Bush doctor are all sweet.

Comfortably numb is cool but the whole thing is so damn long and there's trails with funner riding and better views that won't take all day. River runs through it is also a bit of a tourist trap kind of trail, flat with tons of old goofy stunts, it's alright once in awhile or adding on to some other riding.

[Jack Burton]

Great thread thanks for all the info. Headed for a similar adventure in Squamish, Whistler, Chilcotin, maybe Perberton then our crew shrinks to my wife and I. Is the Sunshine Coast a good candidate for a few days of riding? We are looking for big rides and big descents of course. If the sunshine coast is a go to, can someone recommend a town to find lodging in that is close to some favorites and a shop? If not Sunshine Coast for 2 1/2 days, where else should we be looking (really i think we are looking between Pemberton and Vancouver so we can get others to an airport shuttle in Whistler).

One more question - making a reservation for TOTW and plan on riding the park the rest of the day after that, then a full park day with a lesson and rental. For TOTW it's mentioned that a 140 mm bike is fine and that all in all it's a hard ride, im guessing that a rented DH rig is way overkill? just thinking that for the afternoon we would be better off on a big bike rather than the 140 - 160mm bikes we will have with us. BTW trip is based on seeing Lee Lau's Chilcotin photos many years ago, crew finally making it happen - thanks!!

[alewi11]

TOTW is just fine on a big bike as well. I also would disagree that TOTW is a hard ride. It's a long descent for sure but as long as you have some decent skills it's really not bad at all.

[toast2266]

Great thread thanks for all the info. Headed for a similar adventure in Squamish, Whistler, Chilcotin, maybe Perberton then our crew shrinks to my wife and I. Is the Sunshine Coast a good candidate for a few days of riding? We are looking for big rides and big descents of course. If the sunshine coast is a go to, can someone recommend a town to find lodging in that is close to some favorites and a shop? If not Sunshine Coast for 2 1/2 days, where else should we be looking (really i think we are looking between Pemberton and Vancouver so we can get others to an airport shuttle in Whistler).

One more question - making a reservation for TOTW and plan on riding the park the rest of the day after that, then a full park day with a lesson and rental. For TOTW it's mentioned that a 140 mm bike is fine and that all in all it's a hard ride, im guessing that a rented DH rig is way overkill? just thinking that for the afternoon we would be better off on a big bike rather than the 140 - 160mm bikes we will have with us. BTW trip is based on seeing Lee Lau's Chilcotin photos many years ago, crew finally making it happen - thanks!!

TOTW: I'd say a 160mm bike is ideal. 140mm is slightly undergunned, but you'll be fine. 200mm is overkill (but you'd also be fine).

Sunshine Coast: If you only have a week, I'd skip it. I think the trails in Squamish, Whistler, and Pemberton are better, and SSC is a hassle to get to.

For big rides with big descents, Pemberton has some really good options. Up Happy Trail / Nimby / Middle Earth and down whatever looks appealing is a great ride.

[regct]

Dang why no love for coast BC? I love Roberts creek. Great mix of tech and flow with fucking loam for days. Alice Lake in Squamish wasn't my style, although credit line and ruperts are really fun. What's with the up tech? Giribaldi is sick. Angry Midget FTW. Just avoid the Wednesday night toonie, or join them.

[Jack Burton]

sweet - thanks for feedback, we are all close enough to the ~ 160mm travel camp. coming from Tahoe fucking LOAM sounds incredible, will need to find a way to get at least a Pemberton day of not a handful. wherever the adam craig trance video is looks like a dream (shocker) http://www.pinkbike.com/news/video-a...ance-2016.html

[LeeLau]

Great thread thanks for all the info. Headed for a similar adventure in Squamish, Whistler, Chilcotin, maybe Perberton then our crew shrinks to my wife and I. Is the Sunshine Coast a good candidate for a few days of riding? We are looking for big rides and big descents of course. If the sunshine coast is a go to, can someone recommend a town to find lodging in that is close to some favorites and a shop? If not Sunshine Coast for 2 1/2 days, where else should we be looking (really i think we are looking between Pemberton and Vancouver so we can get others to an airport shuttle in Whistler).

One more question - making a reservation for TOTW and plan on riding the park the rest of the day after that, then a full park day with a lesson and rental. For TOTW it's mentioned that a 140 mm bike is fine and that all in all it's a hard ride, im guessing that a rented DH rig is way overkill? just thinking that for the afternoon we would be better off on a big bike rather than the 140 - 160mm bikes we will have with us. BTW trip is based on seeing Lee Lau's Chilcotin photos many years ago, crew finally making it happen - thanks!!

Sunshine coast aka SSC is good but watch for ferry lineups this year which have been unpredctable. Make a reservation.

Roberts Creek West and the section 102 Sprockids areas area are superb as always. Sechelts Sunshine Coaster route is also good. Look at trailforks suggested routes to find some nice routes or check in with Spin Cycles. Stay in Gibsons or Sechelt if you'd like to be close to shops. Both are nice towns.

Personally I'd ride in Squamish instead. Trail conditions there are now amazing.

For Totw the 140mm bike is fine but if you get the whole bike park day tix you might as well get the dh rental package. If you've got a group get the package and hire Kevin267 for the day for tips and local knowledge. The cost is utterly reasonable when spread out

[LeeLau]

sweet - thanks for feedback, we are all close enough to the ~ 160mm travel camp. coming from Tahoe fucking LOAM sounds incredible, will need to find a way to get at least a Pemberton day of not a handful. wherever the adam craig trance video is looks like a dream (shocker) http://www.pinkbike.com/news/video-a...ance-2016.html

Ah if you want loam then SSC is it. Pemberton and Whistler trails are dusty now fyi

TOTW: I'd say a 160mm bike is ideal. 140mm is slightly undergunned, but you'll be fine. 200mm is overkill (but you'd also be fine).

Sunshine Coast: If you only have a week, I'd skip it. I think the trails in Squamish, Whistler, and Pemberton are better, and SSC is a hassle to get to.

For big rides with big descents, Pemberton has some really good options. Up Happy Trail / Nimby / Middle Earth and down whatever looks appealing is a great ride.

[Jack Burton]

Great, PM'd Kevin and will plan to line up with him.

Thinking we will plan to ride Squamish day 1 (Friday, Sep 9), we fly into Van mid morn, build bikes, ride maybe Alice Lake then head to Whistler for two days of riding then off to Tyax/Chilcotin through Friday AM, probably ride there on Friday as well, will head to Pemberton Friday AM if it calls to our crew. Maybe we can fit a Pemberton ride in Sat AM then Gracie Law and I drop a few people in whistler to catch a shuttle to Van airport on Saturday, or just drop them off there if we decide to hit SSC. G and I don't fly out till Tuesday evening and it's looking more likely that we are SSC bound Saturday for 3 days of riding will check out the above rides and towns.

Thanks!

[Jack Burton]

Thanks for the input, what a blast. We ended up going with big bikes and the full park day with Kevin (thanks for spending the day with us at Whistler Kevin).

From town we rode Comfortable Numb & out to Jeff's which was one of the most unique rides I'd been on in a long time then Chilcotin for perfect weather in-between storms.

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...p-to-Chilcotin

A sampling of Squamish, angry midget, nelson, and ruperts.

We ended up going to SSC which was good to check out and a pretty chill way to wrap up our trip. We missed Pemberton but will head back for sure.