Gooey mooey round twoey!
Whistler, British Columbia
We had a relaxing morning at the campsite - went for our morning walk, worked on the blog and wrote out wedding thank cards
We started cleaning the camper and then realized we were going to be late for check in, which was an hour before our intro course, at the Whistler Bike Park
We drove to Whistler Village, checked in, picked up our lift ticket at guest services, got outfitted for gear and bikes and met our instructor, Pablo … in addition to the full face helmets, gloves and knee pads, they offered us elbow pads, but figured we were too cool for those (bad move)
They split us into two groups - we were in the very beginner group with Maddy (firmware engineer for Meta that works on Oculus from Seattle)
Pablo taught us how to rack out bikes on the open air chair lift - he still had the operator slow it down every time we approached because it usually took us a couple of tries to fully seat the bike properly
As we approached the top of the mountain, we saw a mama bear and two cubs in the grass
He taught us the basics - the proper stance (neutral position, ready position) and how to ride the corners
Then we hit the trails - we started on EZ Does It, which was a flow trail; we stopped several times to get acclimated
At the beginning, we had no fear and flew around the corners and down the trail; throughout the day, Matt was jumping moguls
On the second run, we saw a cinnamon bear on the path leading to the trail; it crossed the ropes barrier and made its way down to the river; we started on EZ Does It - Liz rounded a corner too fast and didn’t correct her line in time, so we wiped out on the edge of the trail near a culvert - it was a pretty soft landing, no scuffs; we continued on a incorporated some green technical trails and easy blue trails (B Line, Longhorn)
On the third run, we ran the same course, but included part of Ho Chi Min - another easy blue trail; Liz wiped out again, this time rounding the corner way too fast and leaning into in, she dropped and skidded on her left side and the bike flew up from underneath her; this time she scraped her left arm
After that Liz was a bit gun shy, but we road the course for our fourth and final time; same route and trail combo as the third run
We debated going at it on our own after the lesson concluded, but turned in our gear and went to COW for a well deserved ice cream (Gooey Mooey, Apple Crisp, Caramel Moochiatto, Sea Salt Toffee)
Went back to camp to clean Liz’s wound, make dinner and have a movie night; watched Ready Player One
Campground: Whistler RV Park and Campground
