British Columbia, Canada. Considered by some to be the epicenter of mountain-biking in the world. Legendary locations such as Whistler, Squamish, Pemberton, and the mecca... the North Shore of Vancouver. Freeriding was practically born in this area of the world, and the resort of Whistler-Blackcomb leads the world as the benchmark of lift-accessed mountain biking.

It also has a bit of a reputation as a nice place to go skiing as well... but when my wife and I booked tickets last year, we had no idea that we would be traveling around the world to experience what has been coined as the worst ski season in western North America that has been seen in the last 30 years!

Luckily though, my wife and I are more into mountainbiking than skiing anyway, so weeks before hopping on the plane to the land of towering coastal mountains and lush green forests, we were already making our plans of how and where we were going to ride our bikes when we got there.

Some things were working against us though. Whistler was still in it's ski season (albeit barely...), so there wasn't going to be any lift-accessed biking for us. Our other problem was that it had been years since I've ridden in BC, and we really needed a guide to show us around and cater to our expectations of what we wanted from our time on our bikes.

That's when one of our friends in Pemberton introduced us to Tavish Sutherland, one of the guides for EPIC Travel, a new company based in Whistler. EPIC offers a variety of packages for mountain bikers. From comprehensive coaching to simply guiding and taking you on the best trails the province has to offer (EPIC covers Kamloops, Pemberton, Squamish, Sun Peaks, the North Shore, and Whistler), EPIC's instructors/guides are not only certified in coaching and first aid, but their local knowledge is staggering, as were about to find out later! In fact, all the resident coaches are long-time residents of the Whistler/Squamish/Vancouver area who have made their living for years coaching sport (summer and winter) in British Columbia, so they know where to take you for exactly the kind of riding you want to do. And with guest coaches such as Wade Simmons, Richie Schley and Thomas Vanderham, it seems your only limits to how heavy you want your day of riding will be determined by your skill, equipment and bravery (or foolhardiness!).

However, being that the EPIC's mountain biking season hadn't started yet, we were out of luck in getting a full package. But EPIC came to our rescue and offered us an impromptu two days of riding/guiding to give us a taste of what we could expect.

Tavish had his work cut out for him. Penny and I are two fairly different riders. Penny was an intermediate biker when we met Tavish. Starting to get comfortable with steep roll-ins, moving around on the bike and beginning to experience airtime, she still was still apprehensive of many advanced riding skills, such as riding skinnies and stunts or doing wheelie-drops. And the idea of riding advanced terrain on a trail she's never been on before didn't help her confidence. I, on the other hand, had twenty years of riding behind me, and ready for some silly ideas and chances to scare myself. How Tavish was going to balance this and cater to both of us, I wondered?

During a normal riding session with EPIC, riders of similar abilities are grouped together. But in these circumstances, that wasn't possible. But Tavish already had a plan...

Our first day of riding was going to be a shuttle run in Squamish. Roughly about halfway between Vancouver and Whistler, Squamish has been the longtime quiet achiever in terms of outdoor sports destinations. Along with climbing, kayaking, hiking, and a multitude of other sports, biking has become a major drawcard for this town. And it's easy to see why. With ourselves and our bikes loaded up in one of EPIC's shuttle trucks, we started driving up a logging road that climbed upwards up the mountain. And climbed. And climbed. And then a bit more! To give you an idea of the height we were going to start our descent at, look at the picture below to see where the snowline was on the surrounding mountains!

We started our ride down on a trail called "The 19th Hole". The 19th Hole was one of the steepest, rootiest sustained downhills I've ever done in my life! You were in a constant position of staying behind your seat, and the first 200 meters of the trail were steppy and burly to say the least! Drops, steps, and roots galore, mixed in with slowly decreasing amounts of snow, and the resultant small stream that was coming down the trail at the same time!

Once through the toughest section of 19th Hole, Tavish gave a little coaching session on how to deal with wet terrain, especially the treacherous wet roots! He was very hands on, and his coaching method was simple and concise. When we started riding again, Penny obviously absorbed everything Tavish talked about, since she only slipped slightly on the first few wet roots, then never seemed to have a problem again. Why won't she listen to my coaching like that? ("C'MON!!! TRY HARDER, DAMMIT!!!")

The downhill trail network in Squamish is extensive, so it was definitely a relief to be riding with someone who knew it like the back of their hand. After watching us struggle with 19th Hole, Tavish adjusted his trail choices accordingly. The next trail we entered was called Psuedo Tsuga (pronounced "Soo-doe Soo-gah", which, moments into the trail, had raised our spirits considerably. Rolling, flowy, fast and fun, we were soon had big stupid grins on our faces that would stay for the rest of the day. As well, the views were amazing the flora was beautiful... not that we slowed down enough to enjoy them!

After popping out of that trail, we started to traverse across the trail network to Powerhouse Plunge. Tavish took us to some "roadside attractions" as we passed them. Stunts just off the main trail that are concealed from general passer-by, and with good reason! It blew our minds to see the kind of riding that's pushing the envelope nowadays. Needless to say, we were happy to walk to the edge of some of these drops and jump to enjoy them....

When we reached Powerhouse Plunge, this was by far one of the most fun descents I've ever done. Super long, it dropped down the mountain in a series of zipping straightways to a series of switchbacks... ranging from corners you could whip through to tests of our balance to keep from dabbing. Mix in several ladder bridges and plenty of airtime opportunities, by the time we reached the bottom of the Plunge, we were completely spent. Tavish finished the day for us by taking us to his favorite pub in Squamish, where we enjoyed some of the biggest meals we could find and some of the nicest micro-brewery beer we've ever drank, followed by Tavish driving us back to our accomodations with us sleeping the whole drive back.

The next day Tavish picked us and our bikes up, and we drove to one of the all-time classic trails of Whistler... A River Runs Through It (which I'll call ARRTI for the rest of this article). ARRTI has been part of the Whistler mountain trail network for seemingly forever, but the trail definitely hasn't stayed the same. More of a XC trail, ARRTI was reknowned for it's infinite number of tricky routes (roots?) and natural problems, and was nearly devoid of man-made stunts/bridges. The name of the trail comes from the fact that a small river really does run through the trail, splitting it into two halves, and that the only way to cross it without getting wet was to ride (or walk) across a large fallen log that spanned the entire river - about 10 meters long and almost 3 meters high - not for the faint of heart or riding skill! After returning to the trail after my last ride on it, which is nearly 7 years ago now, it was a sight to behold. The amount of man-made stunts and bridges on this trail is staggering! It is truly one of the ultimate freeride trails that doesn't descend. It has just about everything you could want. Teeter-totters? Check. A-frames? Check. Curved ladder-bridges? Check? Long skinnies? Heck, there's a series of connected skinnies on this trail that amounts to over 100 meters long, and varies from a foot of the ground to a couple of meters! And I haven't even mentioned the oddball or ingenious stunts, which I'll leave to your surprise when you see trail for yourself!

We were riding with Tavish's dog today, whose name is Endo (which is ironic since this dog, like most, can do most things a biker can do with half the difficulty!), and another friend.

As if this trail wasn't tricky enough, there was still a layer of recent snow on the ground and all the stuntwork.

Tavis took the time to ask us what we felt comfortable with and what we didn't and what we wanted to try. Like the consummate coach, he would do a demo first, talking to us while he did it and making sure we noticed key points in the technique. He'd then get off his bike and walk along side us, coaching us as we did it, while providing support if anything when pear-shaped. Even with the snow and the slippery conditions, we felt like our skills improved dramatically from his tailored instruction for us.

Tavish even rode the intimidating log across the river (with slush on the top!!!), which now has guide wires installed (due, no doubt, to all the people falling head-first into the river!). For a trail in such a small, contained area, it apparently has the record for the most trail per square foot (does that make sense?). The forest is riddled with trails like a circuit board on a microchip! At the end of it all, we had an amazing time EPIC and Tavish let us make the most of our time biking in BC for those two days, and let us really improve our bike riding skills at the same time. In fact, we were so stoked with our riding in Canada that as soon as we returned to Sydney, we couldn't wait to hit the trails with our new arsenal of riding techniques and skills that we've picked up.

My only regret of our trip is that we didn't go during prime biking season so that we could have booked into a full package with EPIC. We won't be making that mistake the next time we go to British Columbia! We're going to book them to give us the tour around the North Shore of Vancouver next time! (Considering that Penny will never let me choose the trails again after I got us lost on Fromme Mt. after nightfall... but that's another story...)

If you want to make your mountain bike trip to British Columbia the best it can be, check out EPIC Travel at http://www.epicridebc.com/, or contact:
Craig Hamilton
Epic Travel
7288 Spruce Grove Circle
Whistler, BC,
CANADA V0N 1B7
email: info@epicdirt.com epicride 2005

Watch some movies of the trip. Quicktime is needed to view these movies.


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