Into the Mystic to Lord of the Squirrels

Lord of the Squirrels in Whistler has been on my radar for a while, since before the climbing trail, Into the Mystic, was built and it was ridden or pushed as an out and back. I was, and still am intrigued by large descents, even more so when there is a climb to race up to connect it. 

Nearing the end of summer 2020, I found that I was full of motivation to ride but felt like I was running out of time before the transition into fall, where you the first snows prevent you from riding in to the tops of mountains but aren't enough to allow you to ski. I assumed that any ski mountaineering races that winter would be cancelled due to the pandemic, so I wouldn't need any vacation days to take Fridays off to travel to races and I schemed up another week long trip to grab some remaining rides that had been waiting on my list for too long. 

I hatched a plan for a quick trip to Pemberton, Whistler, and Squamish, picking up my brother in Kelowna on the way. 

While the summer had been relatively smoke free, there was some smoke in the air as we drove to Whistler. On the morning we were to ride up Into the Mystic, there certainly was some smoke in the air, I figured that I could kind of see up the mountains, and not really smell it, so it couldn't be that bad! But it was bad enough that my brother's friend didn't feel like starting the ride.

I was going to attempt a hard effort up the climb, so we took it as easy as possible up the steep grind up the Flank trail from Function Junction. Not the easiest place to start this ride but we didn't know any better. Once at the start of the trail, the "race" was on. Absolutely flying on the traversing section along the bottom, powering up the steep switchbacks higher up and trying not to fade on the boardwalks up top. I reached the cabin at the junction of the trail and meandered up towards the actual summit of the On the Rocks trail at a much easier pace then turned around to meet Bill back at the cabin. I should have continued at a steady, but not hard pace but oh well. After regaining the summit, we decided to add on a loop of Rush Hour/Last Call. And we were glad we did. The trail was at a good difficulty for me and featured some fun, optional rock slabs to maximize the fun before heading down the Lord of the Squirrels. 

Lord of the Squirrels was a great descent. Never steep, but with lots of interesting rock and root features to keep you entertained on the way down. Below Chipmunk Rebellion, Industrial Waste, and Danimal Middle brought me to the roads, while Bill took harder trails. I wonder what an easy black option off the Flank would be? Roads and the valley trail brought us back to the car and our campsite where I could upload my ride and celebrate my KOM on the climb with a lukewarm beer and some pasta in the evening rain.

Lake O'Hara Alpine Circuit from the road

 The Lake O'Hara Alpine circuit could be one of the best hikes in the Canadian Rockies travelling through some beautiful terrain and following the trail mastery of Lawrence Grassi. I have never been one to bother with lotteries, or the concert ticket buying experience requiring multiple computers, phones, and a twitchy trigger finger to nail the 8:00am reservation start time to book a campsite or bus spot. The hike itself is around 12.5km with ~1000m of elevation gain from the lake, though the rough terrain of the route: boulders, steeps will slow you down. Easy access to Lake O'Hara is regulated by a quota system: limited campground and bus spots are available and cycling the 11km access road is prohibited. 

In 2020, the bus was closed due to the pandemic. While people could still hike to the campground, this meant that the area would be much quieter, although due to the previously mentioned quota, it is never very busy. As I had been increasing my run mileage, the Alpine Circuit was now an achievable goal for me. Access from the road requires a total distance of ~35km and 1500m elevation gain. I had been battling some injuries from downhill running in the past so I was nervous about whether I would survive the 11km exit uninjured. I was able to run this route in 2020, and it was so amazing that we did it again in 2021, and I added in a side trip to MacArthur Lake.

The 11km up the road was taken at an easy pace and didn't feel too draining.

As my favourite type of running is vertical K's, I took the opportunity to throw in a hard effort up the first climb to Wiwaxy Gap, a gain of ~550m in under 2km. Rising above the trees, it was hard not to turn around and see the blue lake below. The top of the gap came quickly and I had time to finally soak in the views. Looking across to Lake O'Hara and Lake Oesa, the rest of the route was visible. It snaked along ledges, sneaking its way through weaknesses up and down to avoid dead ends to beautiful meadows and lakes. In fact looking across at various points in the day made the exposure appear to be much worse than it actually was.

Once Jenny hit the gap, we traversed the Huber Ledges to Lake Oesa, at a much easier pace for me, with the rest of the day ahead looming big. Lake Oesa was a nice stop for a snack break although the horseflies were out. 

From Lake Oesa to the Opabin plateau through the Yukness ledges was possibly the slowest section of the day, mostly because it required lots of going up and down over small boulders before hitting the dirt trail right at the Opabin plateau. 

I decided to burn off what was left of my climbing legs on the traversing scree trail heading up to All Souls Prospect. Once topping off on the shoulder of the mountain the trail dropped straight ahead and steeply down the other side on a dirt trail with rocks embedded to keep you on your toes (or on your heels). 

The second time I did the Alpine Circuit, I added in a detour to MacArthur lake. The trail climbed and traversed in a similar style as the rest of the Alpine Circuit, breaking through a cliff band before heading down to the lake. 

Now the slog out begins. In 2021, we had the option of taking the bus, but being "only" 27km into my day, and with bigger routes on the horizon, I wanted to test myself by continuing on with the exit. 

Fernie Trail to Ale

 

The logo of the Fernie trails alliance features 3 prominent mountains as symbols of the wide range of trails in the town. In reality, the extensive network of trails occurs on more than just three mountains. The Fernie Trail to Ale challenge tackles three trail summits: Project 9 on Mt. Fernie, Hyperventilation on Castle Rocks, and Swine Flu on Mt. Proctor, and finishes with a free beer at the Fernie Brewing Company at the base of Mt. Proctor. On any given weekend, you are bound to find some early risers tackling Project 9 and encounter some still optimistic riders either starting or finishing with Swine Flu.

The only problem with the Trail to Ale challenge in that in its quest to tag three trail summits, you end up riding by other just as good trails. Why skip a climb up Lactic Ridge to S-Bomb, a descent off of the ski hill, or a lap through Ridgemont? The first time I did the Trail to Ale ride, I rode the minimum: Project 9, Hyperventilation to Southern Comfort (at the time Hyperextension was closed for logging) and finishing with a Swine Flu. It was in the middle of a long weekend and of course I had time to ride the other trails on other days. It ended up being ~44km, 1560m vertical, and took me 3:45 elapsed (definitely not a race pace).

The ride through town to tag a lap of Swine Flu after a wonderful descent off of Hyperventilation seemed anticlimactic and left me wanting more than just a Swine Flu lap.

A couple of years later, with a full day open to riding, I started towards Project 9, with the intension of doing a fast lap up the climb. Getting the KOM on the climb at the time and descending down the trail, I met up with my girlfriend Jenny and started up Stove trail to Mushroom head, to Red Sonja, her favourite descent in Fernie. Well that was the nature of the plan, but in my style, I raced up Stove, Mushroom head, then Lactic Ridge and then down S-bomb, back to Mushroom head. A female group ride had just started up Stove, I'm not sure if they appreciated me racing by, but that's the way it goes. Jenny wasn't at Red Sonja yet, so I descended Red Sonja to where it intersects the Phat Bastard climb and then climbed back up to Red Sonja to descend with Jenny. After climbing back up to the campground for a lunch, I felt the urge to throw in a hot lap up Hyperventilation. You can probably guess where this is going. Well, after a wonderful descent of Hyperextension and Roots Extension, I felt like I should finally get a ride in on Contra, a jump trail.

After casing all of the jumps on Contra... It was time to finish off with Swine Flu and get my free beer. The legs were tired and it felt like a victory lap, especially with a huge crowd near the top of the climb. I grabbed my obligatory Trail to Ale selfie at the sign post and then dropped in. I had caught an older lady on the descent and she let me by when the opportunity arose, but yelled something at me. 

After finishing off Swine Flu, I rolled over to the brewery for a First Trax Brown Ale. As I was getting back on my bike to ride back to the campground, the lady rolled up and told me that I should have waited longer at the top and given her more space before descending. I'm sorry, but I had time to finish my beer before you got to the bottom! Other people use the trail, some faster, some slower, you have to accept it!

Riding back to the campground, I still had some energy left, and the altimeter was showing that I was approaching 3000m of climbing on the day, although the battery didn't have much life left. Why not add in a final lap up to the ski hill, up Gorby, and finish off with a Black Forest, Mega Hurtz, Happy Gilmar and back to the campground to start making dinner. 

75km, 3000m climbing, 7:35 elapsed. A proper ride!