We made it to Canada hey! So good to be back here. We got here a week before the Crankworx craziness sets in, and it has been such a treat to experience Whistler that is a bit more quiet than during the actual festival. Except this week, they had a massive Wanderlust yoga festival in the village and everyone was walking around with a yoga mat and neon colored hot pants.. don't get me wrong, I love yoga, and I teach yoga, but this seemed a bit showy for my liking, but you know - don't judge, that is very un- yoga like of me, but it did make for some great people watching. I'm just not a fan of practicing yoga with loads of people watching you and taking holiday snaps while you're down dogging or in some other vulnerable type position.
This will be my 10th year coming to Crankworx festival - o my word, where has the time gone to? So, needless to say, you become a bit blase about everything up here and you do take it for granted. This was the first year however that I didn't throw my bags into a corner of the hotel room and rush up to the park to get as many laps in as possible - what the hell was wrong with me? All I wanted to do, was get out on my trail bike for a spin through Lost Lake and take in the beauty of this place, and stunning it is. Am I just getting older? Have I just been here too many times? What gives? Not sure why, but all I wanted to do was explore all the fun, never ending trails around the bike park. They are steep, technical, fast and o so much fun. I find them way more technical than the park trails and you get to jump into one of the many lakes on your way home.
Anyhow, last year I did my first trip to the Chilcotin mountains and I desperately wanted to go back and share that wonderful backcountry experience with Sven & some good friends, so we planned a spontaneous float trip out there. It is a 3 hour (bumpy as) drive from Whistler to get to the Tyax lodge where we stayed over for the night and caught the float plane in the morning for a 9am drop off at Warner Lake. Once dropped off, we were equipped with our map, bear spray & bear bells and singingly made our way up & down the singletrack (as to not scare the grizzly bears) towards Windy Pass, then Lickey Trail and then down the most amazing singletrack trail back to the Tyax lodge, 7 hours & 41km later we jumped into the lake, drank beers, ate fries & burgers and jumped back into the rental car (beast of a truck) to head back down the bumpy gravel road (that ruined all our bikes) to Whistler. A must do experience and definitely my highlight while out here in Whistler.
O, and on a side note: how do people that live here afford to buy groceries? It is mind blowingly expensive!
Next up is the 5th round of the Enduro World Series this coming Sunday - it's going to be a killer, one big day out on the bikes - they're going to kill us, I cannot wait & I'll update you once we've conquered Sunday.
Peace out, Anka xxx