Fall Lines - Sarah Leishman

My bags are taking forever to come out at the international arrivals baggage claim in Vancouver YVR. Man…I hope the customs guy isn’t going to want to go through everything. I have to catch a shuttle home – it’s been 20 something…maybe 30 something hours before I started the journey back to Whistler from the final two rounds of the Enduro World Series in Spain and Italy and I just want to get home. I've been away for over a month…


Once I step outside with my shuttle driver and one other passenger, I breathe deeply…Home. I can smell trees, ocean and a slight October breeze. Get me back up to Whistler, please.

I sleep on the way up the 2 hour drive to my house. I am a shell of the person I was back in March. The 2015 competitive season wasn't the kindest to me – injury and an overzealous workload made it a tricky balancing act. Even still, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it - even the hottest, longest, most difficult days on the bike had something to offer or teach me – but it’s been so long since I’ve been in Whistler I almost forgot what it’s like to ride my bike in the place that taught me everything.

Damnit – I’m supposed to go ride with Laurence in the park tomorrow.


Every bit about pulling my bike out of my bike bag, building it back up, putting my kit on and getting organized to head into my old stomping grounds of the Whistler Mountain Bike Park in the morning seems tedious. I’m sore…jetlagged and pretty tired of riding right now. Everyone is. Most EWS riders laugh on their way to their respective homes about how little riding and training we plan on doing over October and likely November. I don’t want to ride right now. Least of all in the rain. *Insert whiny first-world-problem-voice here*

As I upload with Laurence, my gear does its best to repel the rain. We used to call this ‘West Coast Mist', but I think we can easily downgrade today's conditions to 'Epic Downpour'. We chat about our summers, what our plans are next and we decide where to ride: Garbo upload.


The air is clean: washed clean of the summer's dust and the sounds of crowds of feverish pass holders are a distant memory.

I can't believe I have the luxury of being able to take this place for granted.


The bike park remains as I left it, only better, with every pedal stroke, berm roost and root gap. When Trail Crew's Big Pete and I moved here years ago from Alberta, we stopped at nothing to make this place our home. From day after day of hot laps on A-Line to the life I get to lead on my bike now - the Whistler Mountain Bike Park, Phat Wednesdays, Crankworx and quiet October weekdays in Garbo with a buddy have all played a key role in my life since I got here. I wouldn't have it any other way.


I rarely stray from the lines I learned on these trails some 8 or more years ago...No Joke ('Old Joke' - one of the surviving trails of the 2010 Olympic renos) stays perfect. Original Sin and the lower mountain top 40 wonders of B-Line and Bluezeum remain ever-intact. I've been away from the beauty of this place for what feels like years (one season on the road away from home can do that to a person) and it feels like my first day all over again.


The ground is shiny now. The precipitation has done its fall-time best to take the perfect conditions on the ground and turn trail features (including the dirt) into dangerous, unpredictable hazards - exciting as they are. The bike park settles into its sleepy, autumnal surroundings and waits for us...


Next year, we'll repeat the cycle and I'll wish it could have never ended. Again.


Whistler Mountain Bike Park mountain biking trails

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MENTIONS: @WhistlerMountainBikePark / @SarahLeishman / @Laurence-CE

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