Bloated Skiing: September 22, Whistler - Into the Mystic and LOTS (Lord of The Squirrels)

Gorgeous up high in the alpine

Whew, what a day. After being woken up by the room below us last night at 2:30 with music and partying voices, and calling the front desk twice to visit their room to get them to quiet down, we slept in till 8am. That got us out the door a little late to head to Whistler. Traffic was a breeze, compared to yesterday. Parked at Function Junction and started the serious grunt up the Rainbow Sproat-Flank Trail (Westside) to a serious climb on Don't Look Up to Into the Mystic. Into the Mystic is a new climbing trail that starts at 3255 feet and climbs to 5,377 feet in 5 miles. We started in Function Junction, at elevation of 1947 feet. We basically grunted and hike-a-biked up to the start of Into the Mystic. I would expect to see some new climbing trails being built, that will take some of the punch out of the climb to the start of Into the Mystic.

Into the Mystic is a georgeous climb up Sproatt Mountain. It is machine built, and sometimes on an old road, but it will take no time for the vegetation to grow and seriously narrow the trail. The dirt was perfect. I can't imagine how dry it was before the rain. The scenery was great and it was an amazing climb with many steep punches.

At the top of Into the Mystic, we still had to climb on On The Rocks Trail, which climbs to 5883 feet, before a fun descent down to Lord of the Squirrels trail (LOTS). On The Rocks Trail only climbed 500 feet, but after all the climbing we had done, it sure took a toll on the legs.

At the intersection of (LOTS) and Happy Hour, we were kind of toast, and skipped the out and back on Happy Hour Trail up to the tower. We were told there were about 25 bikers at the tower/lookout. I guess going to the top of Happy Hour Trail would be riding the complete route, which it looks like we didn't do.

Lord of the Squirrels (LOTS) was definitely a Blue trail, by Whistler standards, maybe a dark Blue. Thank goodness for the rain. I can't imagine how beat up, dusty and harder the trail would have been during this dry summer. The whole loop only officially opened on August 4, 2017 of this year, and the paper said 4,000 bikers rode it in the first 6 weeks of opening. It is definitely a bucket list ride when you come to Whistler. Kevin pretty much rode everything, as it is a Blue trail, by Whistler standards. Francine had many sections to walk, but rode tons more sections that last year, when we hike-a-biked up LOTS, and then rode back down. Last year, it was raw, new, soft, loose and did we say new?

We were pretty worked when we finished LOTS and popped out on a flat spot, like an old dirt road. Here we went left, and continued right, down on Into The Mystic to the Rainbow-Sproatt Flank Trail. We continued down, passing Pura Vida (black trail) on the left to a new trail that must be bypassing a steep section of the Rainbrow-Sproatt Flank Trail. When we hit Industrial Waste Trail (blue) intersection, Kevin went left to take that to Danimal Middle to Lower Sproatt to Piece of Cake to Lower Sproatt to Westside Power Lines to Alta Lake Road to Millar Creek to Function Junction and the car, where Francine was waiting for only about 5-10 minutes. Turns out his route was all downhill, and a better way than the painful waste of elevation Francine took retracing our steps down the Rainbow-Sproatt Flank Trail ( Westside) to Function Junction. Now we know, and it looks like Kevin's route is common on Trailforks.

6714 elevation gain in 17 miles.