The drive into Whistler was tough. With 13% grades over two hours, it was an exhausting drive and I’m thankful Derek was handling the tough terrain. The road winds alongside the turquoise river for most of the way with no service. Once again, all is quiet in the woods….until our brakes overheated and started smoking. WTF can happen next? While it wasn’t fun sitting on the side of the road cooling down with slight panic, we can now look back on this as another learning experience.
Turns out, we had the Tundra’s integrated brake controller set up improperly … We were only off by a few thousand lbs??? Glad it only took us 6K miles to figure it out. YouTube saved our asses again. Are you shaking your head with disgust, laughing hysterically, or just wondering how we function daily? Good – we are too!
We have shared some deep laughs with all the craziness that’s gone down in the last two months and it’s what keeps this shit real. Most people do not grow up learning how to tow, attach a hitch, or dump your shit, so here we are learning as we go and laughing our asses off along the way. Now, back to our drive and the road into Whistler.
With switchbacks and sometimes single-lane roads, it can be tight with a camper. As we got closer to Whistler, a large black bear wandered in front of our truck across the road. I was once again thankful for Derek’s cautious driving that usually provides me secret laughs — and thankfully the brakes were good as new.
We reached Whistler and just as I had imagined, it was crawling with MTB bikes. It was the motherfucking Catalina wine mixer of bikes!!!!
Every bike brand you could imagine, every age of rider from 2 to 92, and one common goal — to shred!
We found a spot with full hook-ups directly on the trail and settled in. With Livi’s wrist still broken, we opted to keep the girls off the dirt, which meant occupying their time in other ways. We ate the best pizza, took a short bike ride on the pavement (my Yeti cried a little) to watch the seaplanes, and allowed the girls to have some serious electronic time courtesy of the RV resort’s wi-fi.
Derek and I took advantage of a few local rides when we found time to sneak away. With all the rain, it was a huge effing bummer to skip the bike park when we’ve been looking forward to it for years, but I know it will happen. With kids, a dog, and remote work-life, we all have to make sacrifices and it just wasn’t the time. Instead, we watched the last group hop on the lifts and the invited riders make their way up the upcoming Crankworx ramps which takes over Whistler this upcoming week.
Next summer, we’re heading back up with adults only. Who’s in?
Until next time, Whistler!
Jamie
