I also had to indulge in just a little downhill bike park stuff at Whistler- limited to one day, with a nod to not ending my vacation prematurely, and with an eye to the fact I haven't downhilled in quite a while. OhmiGod. Whistler is wild and crazy- totally more rooty, washboardy, and just mad than anywhere else I've tried. The easy and intermediate runs are wonderful and challenging, with lots of jump parks and play stuff. What got me was the black diamond I shouldn't have been on called No Joke. They should have called it Brake and Die.
The beer-reeking righteous dude on the chairlift advised that the only way to do the run was to just keep up your speed and not get pysched. Braking is not your friend! Well of course I did eventually brake, fearing the steep rocky lunge at one point, which of course did cause the predictable endover into a boulder field, but body armour really is your friend. After living through that, I figured, Squamish would be a day in the park. Relax, speed up, and who needs knee pads?
Which brings me to an Internet cafe in Tofino, waiting for my x-rays. Uhhh... Squamish got my over-confident number and called it in on some famous bike trail called the Plunge, and that header was sans armour. When I landed I had to decide whether to agonize over my leg or my hand. My thumb was already swelling up and it won. For the ghoulish, I got a nice pic of the bloody leg, although dissapointingly, I missed the high point of the golf ball of purplish swelling.
Two days of ignoring both injuries didn't help. I went into Emerg this morning for my tibia, but they're more worried about my hand, which I'm pretty sure while dark purple and spreading is just a sprain. Anyway, if I'm not in plaster, surfing is definitely happening!
What's after this, I do not know. I did book the ferry for the Queen Charlottes on the 27th, but I think it is just too late up there for the tour operators, and I need one to get to the Haida site on the National Park to the South. I'm kind of consigning myself to leaving something for the next time, which feels kinda good. This is exactly the kinda place you want to come back to.
So here, the plan is to kayak Clayoquot Sound, Meares Island, and the Broken Islands, and hopefully, some surfing.
For now though- I'm due back at the clinic. Adios!
