Hiking/Mountain Biking Extravaganza! Day 4:

Dave says: On Day 4 it was time for some more mtb action. In Squamish you can go for days without riding the same trail and mid-week there was hardly anyone out there. I thought that after three monster days my legs would be completely shot but actually they seemed to get a little better each day after the initial punishment of the Black Tusk hike. We hit some of Squamish's most famous trails today including Half Nelson which is like doing a bobsled run on a mountain bike with tons of big banked turns, jumps, flow, and speed. It's definitely a must ride classic and on my all time faves list (also the Pseudo Tsuga trail) I was having way too much fun to stop for pictures though. Instead, you get to see me riding up one of the climbs on the way to the trail head with the beautiful background that surrounds you in this area.

After lunch we were ready for some more fun. As you can see, there are some fun obstacles on these trails with ramps over logs and narrow no-rails bridges over streams (which didn't seem to scare Alisha now that her skills have improved). We ran out of easy trails and got on some burly stuff mid-afternoon. At one point, we briefly split up so that I could hit the black diamond Cheshire Cat trail. Nothing was unrideable but I was hanging way off the back of my bike grabbing tons of brake and feeling a bit of adrenaline. I didn't even try any of the double black trails in the area which no doubt are some of the world's toughest technically (when there are entire routes devoted to hucking your bike off huge granite slabs you know you've found some legit riding). The rain was coming in during the afternoon and we decided to cut things a bit short.

Of course, after a shower and a 30 minute rest we couldn't sit still and went out looking for more adventure. This time, it was on a nearby Whistler trail which leads a few miles along the river to the site of an old train wreck. It's kind of interesting to come across half-demolished train cars in the middle of the woods that are now colorfully decorated by graffiti (some of which is good enough to be considered real artwork).