So we meander through the interior, usually with the goal of ending up in Roberts Creek, where my grandparents reside (also known as the hippie-haven where I spent my first four years on this planet). We camp and enjoy the scenery and (better than Alberta) weather along the way, then race through Vancouver to catch the ferry (the Sunshine Coast is on a peninsula north of Vancouver that is only accessible by ferry; Bruce still thinks it's an island, but it is actually on the mainland).
This year, our meanderings took us west from Canmore (where I had just finished participating in Dirt Series) along the TransCanada Highway. We had carefully planned our route so that we would pass through Kamloops, an area reputed to have excellent XC trails. After much online exploration of the area, we had decided to book a room at the nearest ski resort, Sun Peaks, and enjoy the ski lift (after all, we're on vacation; why should we have to do any climbing?).
Unfortunately, I had injured myself while biking in Canmore. On the day we should have been biking, we went canoeing to give my knee more time to heal. This is the cool think about Sun Peaks - there's so much to do there!
On our last day in Sun Peaks, I really wanted to bike, pain or no. We purchased lift tickets and rode to the top.
Not being experienced DH riders, we took the greenest route to the bottom. It was a good thing we did! It was a fun trail to ride, but there were a lot of switchbacks (which, as has already been discussed, I am no good at). I wiped out on a little bridge and I still have a very nasty bruise on my right butt cheek a week-and-a-half later.
We gave the bikes a once-over at the bottom and rode back up. Our purpose had been to try out the Big Rock Ride, which is an XC trail from the top of the mountain that had just opened up this year. Here is my GPS data from the ride.
BRR was really fun! I just wish it had been longer. The top section was pretty technical. Lots of rocks and roots and logs and bridges and whatnot. The trail is really well-signed. Oh, and there are cows up there.
They seem like pretty friendly cows, but then I was raised on a cattle ranch. If you're uncomfortable around large animals, watch out for them. Also, don't feed them. And steer around their poop if you can.
It's all downhill, which is great. At some point the technical bit ends and you just ride a doubletrack road the rest of the way down (the signs go from blue to green). We got going pretty fast there. The bike shop guys had advised us to duck into the nordic trails for more riding, instead of following the road back to town. This is where we encountered more cow poop and I flatted very undramatically.
Luckily, the hotel we had been staying at had a bike-washing station, so we were able to clean up our bikes before loading them up and heading for Vancouver!
Our time on the Sunshine Coast was brief but nice. It's always good to see my paternal grandparents and my aunt and cousins. We didn't do any biking here this year, due to my injury and the DH nature of most of the riding, but we did try stand-up paddleboarding in the Sechelt Inlet and it was pretty sweet too.
And now we're home. Back in Alberta and back to work!
