BC in May – Part 2 – Whistler Valley
The last time we went to Whistler, we spent all of our time riding DH in the bike park (and getting married, of course). This time, our plans would be more exhausting: after our very successful Day 1 ride in Squamish, we decided to ride the “Comfortably Numb” trail in the Whistler North area.
Let’s just say there is a *reason* the locals call this trail “Uncomfortable bum”.
I wasn’t at all intimidated by the Black Diamond rating this trail was given on TrailForks and Bike Pirate though the physical rating of “extreme” did make me a tad nervous. From our hotel in Whistler Village, there are two ways to ride to the Comfy trail-head: one is on the paved bike path adjacent to highway-99 and the other is linking up from XC trails in Lost Lake area to the Green Lake Loop trail. I thought, “hey what the hell, might as well get some trail riding in and take the scenic route”…. I am an idiot. Comfortably numb is hard enough as it is without having to use a good portion of your legs on the ~300 meters of extra climbing you will have to do if you take Green Lake Loop. 1.3km into Green lake loop gave us the most amazing view of Whistler valley… and we had only climbed 275 meters!
Around 6.6km, we finally made it to the comfortably numb trailhead and began our 24km long ride of pain. To be honest, the views were so amazing that we didn’t even notice. The trail had a little bit of everything from rolling rock slabs to massive roots and even some amazing bridges over a couple of raging rivers. The entire day was about 30km of riding from, and back to our hotel in Whistler Village with about 1200 meters of total climbing. It was a slog but absolutely worth every minute and definitely a trail I’ll be re-visiting when I go back.
Word of caution: Pack extra water if you ever do this trail in the mid-day, 3L at the very minimum. I would also pack an empty bottle and water purification tabs so that you can fill up at one of the many sources you’ll come across.
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