Wow, that long eh?
Hmph, August 21st! Geesh…I must have been getting bored with this or something. The last real riding post was middle of July!
Well, never did finish counting how many days I rode, but with 54 on the board and at least 15 in my drafts section…I’d say it’s fairly likely I hit my goal of 100 days of riding. Of course, I didn’t document it, so I’m probably back to trying again next year. Why? Who knows…but it seems like an accomplishment to me to ride 100 days in a year while working full time.
I did reach my original goal for the season though. I set out wanting to ride each of the BC Bike parks, those glorious places which allow you to ride the chairlift to lap after lap of riding goodness. We hit Whistler all the time so it feels like it almost doesn’t count. Mount Washington, Sun Peaks and Panorama or easily taken care of due to the racing schedule. I’m pretty confident that Panorama is my favorite place to ride for racing. It’s a weekend that feels like a fun bro-trip but has an awesome race rolled into it as well. I raced it again this year, but missed the podium by one spot. That left Kicking Horse and Silver Star to finish off my goal for the season. We nailed down Kicking Horse by taking a day of work and stopping in on the Panorama Trip. Pano is 10+ hours from Squamish, and Kicking Horse is just one hour towards home…so it makes perfect sense to combine the two. Connor, Trevor* and I loved it, but agreed that with the upper alpine closed while we were there, it was only good for about a half day. And with that, it was silver star.
Connor joined me for a bro-trip on the final weekend for the ’star. We rode endless laps with little to no lift lines for two days. Berm after Berm after berm. You cannot do any better then SilverStar, and I highly encourage all of you to continue riding the braking bumps at Whistler…leaving the buttery smooth SilverStar for those of us who ‘know’.
Yup, it’s pouring rain in Squamish now, the trails are snowy and we’re into winter. Yee haw… 
-Dave
*Apologies to Trevor for forgetting to include him in the original posting. The kicking horse day included Connor, Trevor, Kyle, Craig and I. By my initial recollection Connor and I were the only two who didn’t complain about paying $35 for essentially 3 or 4 laps of the bike park before heading home. Trevor maintains that he was not one of the whining individuals both at the ticket booth and in the suv later…so in fairness I now include him.
It does, however, make me wonder if Connor wasn’t one of the complainers when we initially arrived or during the parking lot picnic lunch. Hmmmmm…
I simply maintain that _I_ did not ONCE complain about the day, the park or the ride.
Your interpretation may vary 