Whistler Conquered!
Sea to Sky to Sea Permanent Ride Report
Permanent Brevet #65, 201 km
Ride date: May 26, 2018
by Barry Monaghan

After a bumpy start to the brevet season with two DNF's I decided that the sweet dish of revenge was on the menu.

To make up for my abandonment and ride home via taxi and Greyhound during the April 28th 300 km brevet to Whistler I decided it was time to look Hwy 99 straight in the eyes once again and give him a good old kick in the teeth! The Sea to Sky to Sea Permanent was clearly the best way to accomplish such a feat.

Unlike a month earlier conditions were about as close to ideal as possible.
No rain, not too hot, winds mostly in my favour, and beautiful scenery. I especially liked the 'Do not feed the bears signs'.

With a slight feeling of trepidation I headed off at 9 am from the Starbucks at Caufield, West Vancouver.

Some highlights:

In the last month my fitness was noticeably better. The climb from Squamish to Whistler was a lot easier than before, plus I actually got to Whistler this time. Yes!

Saw two cycle tourists north of Squamish (not bike packers) they were really loaded!
They looked like they were going to take on the Duffy Lake section. Yikes!

The best thing about this road is the scenery. It's hard to beat Howe Sound and the views of the various mountains to and from.

Overall a great ride with virtually no problems. The only flaw in this entire gig was that my Starbucks oat bar fell out of my jersey pocket but I decided not to go back and get it. Otherwise the ride was as near to perfect as you could get.
The biggest highlight of all was settling the score over last months disaster.

I rolled into the Caulfield Starbucks just 4 minutes before they closed in a time of 9 h, 56 m.

The lesson here is if you suffer a defeat get right back there, look him right in the eyes and give em a good old fashion kick in the teeth!

Revenge is a sweet dish indeed!

June 7, 2018