The heat from the sun beats down on my body, the sweat, now dripping into my eyes and forcing me to squint in order to clear it, is salty and relentless. My heart begins to slow as the persistent orders my stubborn mind gives my legs to keep pushing begin to wane. I’ve been hammering myself uphill for 30 to 40 minutes when I reach the crest I’ve been so looking forward to, but the breeze I begin to enjoy is so subtle it’s difficult to decide whether it’s real, or simply my body exhaling in relief as I let off the gas for the first time.
It’s at this point that I realize something is very odd and different in the woods today. Between injuries and travelling, this is only my second ride in five to six weeks on the trails I usually frequent so often – my first during a weekend in that time. Even so, I’ve ridden this route enough to quickly realize that there is more to it than the sense of coming home, or the relief felt as I slow on the pedals. I look at the woods surrounding me, up ahead, familiar; to the sides, also familiar, even behind, knowing full well I had just come from there; yup, familiar. It’s really dry out, much more so than the last time I rode at home, but that’s not it either, especially considering the dust bowls recently being played about in.
After pedalling a little further whilst in my own mind with my own thoughts, it suddenly becomes dauntingly clear what the difference is – there’s no-one else around! Aside from the odd car on the road up through the Highlands and a fire warden bombing by on the dirt road leaving me to choke on his dust cloud, I had not seen a single person, let alone a bike. Thanks to the amount of traffic normally in the Diamond Head trail network on a weekend, I normally completely avoid the area, but being as out of touch as I have been I somehow ended up here without even giving it a second thought. Thankfully it doesn’t appear that traffic will be an issue this time around.
The Squamish Valley Music Festival (or SquamFest as some affectionately refer to it) has removed everyone from the trail networks, including the locals from how it appears. And a good number that may have ridden despite the festival are up in Whistler absolutely thrashing their trail bikes on one of, if not the best enduro courses of the Enduro World Series. You would be forgiven for thinking that the festival would also bring its fair share of outdoor enthusiasts to town – many of us did – but they either rode earlier in the day or were already on route back to the party. The other half of the visiting riders – those that were not interested in the music festival – may well have decided that the highway, or the town, would be too busy and opted against heading up, leaving the trails quite vacant for local riders.
Heading back up a section of the forest service road after sliding (yes sliding, it was really dry) down a couple of shorter, downhill favourites, I rounded the bend to see the first two riders of the day, and my heart sank a little. It’s not that I don’t want to see other riders enjoying this fantastic network of ours, but I had grown fond of the idea that the woods were mine for a little while. Knowing full well that there was likely at least a few riders out there, I still enjoyed the serenity in the little dust-globe I had built myself. After riding by and calling hello to the riders I continued on, back in my dust-globe, not seeing or hearing another rider for the rest of the ride.
With the Squamish Valley Music Festival not starting until mid afternoon most days and the key acts for most fans not performing until early evening, mountain bikers now have a prime time to hit the trails. The thinnest weekend crowds, and even quieter than a late afternoon ride in many cases, is something many can get excited about. Get out, have a good rip, fuel up and hit the party for the evening! Even if a number of readers do just that during next summer’s music festival, it will still be quiet and there may actually be people around if something were to go awry. Great live music minutes from home and the quietest mid-summer trails of the year, thank you SquamFest, I’ll order double!
