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PANORAMA 2005
August 2005. Gord's MTB Club's second visit to our favorite gravity assisted MTB venue. We straped our bikes onto two trucks and drove from Winnipeg to C.O.P. (Canada Olympic Park in Calgary) and then on to Panorama, B.C. This was our second visit in so many years to this place we all love. Sure there's Fernie, Whistler and others... but Panorama is our home away from home. Ryan and Ken take such incredibly good care of us and let us get away with a few things to make our stay so very enjoyable and memorable that we wouldn't think of going elsewhere... So in the interest of full disclosure... Here we go:

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Saturday Night Update: I forgot how boring the drive out to Calgary from Winnipeg is... Not to mention the third-world pavement we have to drive through between WPG and Regina.

An somewhat uneventful drive (if you consider the fact that my truck did no better than 120km/h and the accompanying 9 mpg fully loaded with 18 bikes uneventful) ...I learned that Husky has some of the most disgusting washrooms I've ever visited.

We pulled out of Gord's parking lot at 8:50... and arrived at the Econo Lodge in Strathmore ($69/night for pretty nice rooms) 13 hours later with our four vehicles and 15 people well traveled.

We all bribed Matt to sleep in the truck overnight in order to safeguard our bikes... He gladly took our money and is probably enjoying the creature comforts of my F-150 crew cab as we speak. I would have not done it for less that triple the amount we paid him... having just driven the entire drive in a stiff headwind (ergo the obscene gas mileage) and being so incredibly tired...

Tomorrow It's C.O.P. we're meeting up with Jeffrey, Carmen and Dean II.

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Monday Morning Update:

C.O.P. was a blast. What a smart thing to begin our expeditions with a warm-up day at Canada Olympic Park. The trails have been MUCH improved, the stunts were lots of fun and the locals were quite friendly. Not to mention the staff were very professional and helpful. We sprawled-out on the parking lot and sorted out our gear... making sure everything was present (I forgot my full-face helmet in Winnipeg) and Dave's car refused to go into 'park'... always a good idea to figure stuff like that out while close to Calgary (yes, I purchased a helmet at full retail)...

Up onto the mountain (if you can call it that) on the cool high-speed detachable quad and our MTB trip began... I rode my Norco SIX and was simply amazed at how well it helped me negotiate the steepest, most technical terrain. Tomorrow I'm riding a bike four times more expensive... I can't imagine it being four times as good.

Leanne decided to stress-test her shoulder and the cartilage in her nose by slamming her upper body against Alberta soil as hard as anyone could ever remember seeing... got up... and survived to joke about it. Needless to say the next few days will consist of lounging and hot-tubbing for this particular blonde.

Post ride saw us visit our favorite Mexican restaurant on Bowness: It's called Salt and Pepper... We discovered it last year and keep on coming back. We showed up only to realize to our dismay that they were closed... CLOSED? Happily, after much knocking and pleading they opened early for us and served us, as they always do, the very best Mexican food any of us have ever sampled... They always do. The place is a staple on any trip we have that brings us to CGY. Simply delicious. I highly recommend it. Especially the pork chops... mmmm.

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Tuesday morning Update: I'm sitting outside on the patio (a little groggy from last night's drink fest... Yes, I got drunk... thanks Shawn and Jeremiah). We're all looking out onto the mountain with happy anticipation... Matt, Annandale, Gavin, Paul, Jenn and Shawn all are sitting with me... having coffee, breakfast and sharing stories of Anuj and Jeremiah's adventures in partying. Everyone's having a great time... Here's what happened Monday: After a full morning of becoming acquainted with the mountain and it's new trails (over 50% more terrain than last year) we broke our large group into a few sub-groups... the most hilarious one being "Team Patio" who at the end of the day consisted of Team leader Paul, Jenn, Ming and Anuj.

Amazing this place. Great people, great riding and besides two injuries: Leanne on Sunday and Jeremiah yesterday... Everyone's doing alright... OK, I got drunk last night and now I feel like my eyes are endeavoring to pop out of their sockets... But besides that... we're all doing fine.

My highlight from yesterday was seeing a moose for the first time... High up on the mountain (probably one of those mountain goat/moose hybrids I've never heard of) ...and the sheer amazement I'm experiencing on this Rocky Mountain RMX that Keith from Rocky lent me for this trip... Simply FANTASTIC... The Fox 40 shock on the front of that thing is allowing me to do things I didn't think this 39 year-old body could do... I'm actually (kinda) keeping up with Jeffrey and Dave - Team DH as they are affectionately known... Who knew!

It's incredible (and frankly reassuring) how only Dean II and Demetri are riding without protective gear ... all the rest of us have turned into full-faced gladiators... Nothing beats the security of protective gear... It saved my ass several times as I [a] crashed and slid to a stop on my face (thank you full-face helmet) and [b] side-checked a tree doing with my chest plate (thanks, flack jacket) ...worth every penny.

OK... gotta go get ready for day three... More later as I remember.

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Wednesday Morning Update:

Tuesday was another one of those fantastic days on the slopes and trails of Panorama... The group suffered a few 'incidents' (we're not calling them 'casualties' for the obvious reasons) [a] Gavin did not quite make the gap between two doubles and proceeded to sheer off the front of his helmet... (He's OK) then, later on in the day, Dave decided to cull the herd by removing himself by way of a crash that would make his beneficiaries rub their hands greedily.

Besides these two events that, in hindsight, should probably have remained untold (in order to ensure continued growth of our favorite pastime) we've been having a tremendous time. Personally, I've been riding like I never have... With skill that I can only attribute to that superb RMX and it's Fox 40 shock (forgive me as I gush some more about the damned thing)... No superlative is strong enough to convey the affection I have for this contraption.

Carmen has embraced the Norco SIX (man, is she riding well on this trip... fearless, this blonde) as well as Annandale, who managed to get her hands on the other Norco SIX on our trip (she stole it away from Gavin as he laid in the ditch, asking for peach smoothies and rambling on about the bolt-count on the Eiffel tower. No doubt about it... These bikes are monsters out here... Soaking up everything, making us all look like superstars.

Our great big communal BBQ tonight was delightful. Eric and Lauri have arrived and tomorrow's day on the hill looks like it might be gobs of fun ... or not. (the forecast is calling for rain). I'm prepared for the worst... and fully intend on enjoying it to it's fullest, muddiest.

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Thursday Morning Update... Sitting inside our favorite coffee shop with Brad (a.k.a. Barry White) Shawn and Michelle... We're inside because it's STILL RAINING! We're planning on doing an XC ride this morning followed by more DH riding... We found some trails yesterday that simply blew us away... hopefully it dries up a bit today so we can tackle them with a smidge less horror... 'Cause you've never truly lived until you've slid off a man-made "feature" sideways doing 40 on a mountain bike.

Yesterday was fun-challenging-annoying-wet-scary-beautiful-wet-wet-wet-cold... We started the day with some valley trail (paved twisties with crazy downhill sections followed by the obligatory insane climbs flanked by scenery to make your jaw drop) in the morning... Then suited up and rode the mountain until the rain became lateral and the temps dipped into the single digits... Participants dropped like flies until it was just Eric (who showed up for the day with Lauri) Matt and myself... sloshing about, riding flowing creek beds, covering ourselves in mud yet having the time of our lives... slip sliding away... Oh, the fun... until we couldn't handle the cold any more.

Then it was off to the hot pools, sauna and waterslides... While rain pelleted our heads ... Massages for some, naps for others... Much needed rest for our injured parties. Everyone should be good to go for today (Thursday).

Wing night last night saw me throw down the gauntlet, followed by some outrageous claim that I'd eat 100 wings... needless to say that after 25 I sheepishly picked up said gauntlet and shut the hell up. Went for ice cream and then went to bed. Half the crew stayed up and enjoyed the Crazy Horse bar... Me, I was exhausted from riding in the cold rain and the many excursions to the hot-tub.

Zzzzzzzzzz...

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Friday morning recap:

Well, all good things must come to an end. As I look up the mountain from our before-mentioned coffee shop I see nary a cloud... what a superb morning... I can't imagine a more beautiful way to start every morning but to sit here and watch the sun rise. Too bad today is the day we pack up and go... I'm almost all packed-up. 4 hours of riding to go and we're heading home.

Yesterday saw a large group of us start the morning on our XC bikes and head out into the valley along the Bow River ... 2 hours of great riding to kick off the day. Jeremiah was able to ride with us for our morning jaunt on Delphi Loop... Great to see the guy with us again. Next year I hear he's getting more protective gear and four large rolls of bubble wrap. After our A.M. ride we went back to our rooms, geared up and hit the quad chairlift... More sensational riding was to be had.

The trails were nice and tacky from Thursday's drenching... But still a little slick in some parts, especially roots. But the RMX handled everything with aplomb. Easy to maneuver these beasts when pointed down. I'm constantly trying to justify to myself the acquisition of one of these things... so incredible the advantage they afford on this terrain. Ok, enough about the bike...

How about the quality of the trails, how about the crew of amazing people who maintain them? It was 8:00am and here they were, loading up their quads with gear to clean up the aftermath of the deluge that occurred overnight... So by the time we hit the trails everything was ready to go. I can't imagine better maintained trails anywhere. They even clean up the man-made bridges and features. One cool thing they have looks like a weed-eater cross-bred with a push mower and something out of a car-wash... They use these things to sweep the runs... and what a great job it does. I've spoken to several die-hard riders who assure me this is turning into some of the best lift-access riding anywhere... I can't see why that wouldn't be true.

Other than the few minor accidents we've suffered during our week everyone has had a great time... Brad, the guy sitting across from me this morning, confessed to me a few minutes ago that this was his most favorite vacation ever. High praise indeed.

OK... I have to run now. I need to see if I can get a late check-out for our floor. I can't wait until next year.

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Saturday Afternoon update:

So Yesterday is a bit of a blur... After typing the above verbal pablum, eating my breakfast, settling up with the fabulous girl who I assumed to be the manager of our little deli/coffee shop next to the Crazy Horse (I never asked her name but she took such great care of us every morning) I returned to my room only to hear that Leanne had secured a late check-out for our gang YAY! On went the armor, I jumped on my bike... last day with my beloved RMX... sniff!

Brian, Dave, Jeffrey, Carmen, Dean, Gavin and I hit the trails for the last 3 hours of our amazing vacation at Panorama... We hit a few new trails, namely "Get in Line" and one of my favorites "Insanity"... While on the subject of favorites... Here are my top five runs http://www.panoramaresort.com/local/gfx/pdf/biking_map.pdf : (in no particular order) [1] Punisher [2] Insanity [3] Quadzilla [4] Lookout and [5] Denali's Drop... And then there's the paved switchback by the golf course leading down to the Bow river... sweet morning cruise.

We packed-up post-ride in record time and left the parking lot at 2:45pm... Posed for one last group picture, Hugged "DH machine" Matt G. and "Made in China" Ming goodbye as they drove to Seattle... Hit the road and arrived in Calgary 3 hours later, Had dinner in a Home Depot parking lot after saying goodbye to Carmen... and then bid adieu to our most favorite riding buddy, the aptly named Dean Rideout who kindly drove Jeffrey "studmaster" Barrit to the airport for us. We left Calgary at around 8:00pm and arrived in at Gord's at 8:30am... I still have yet to go to bed (it's 2:40pm right now)... Soon enough... soon enough.

All in all a sensational trip... The post-mortem woul read like this: Next year, we're booking a bus to go out, the drive is simply too much of a hassle for a group as large as ours. The new trails are sweeeet... we can't wait to come back and check out the new stuff for next year... amazing! DH bikes RULE although not as much as PROTECTIVE GEAR. If it weren't for the few dollars most everyone invested in Mace, Dianese and sixsixone gear and full face helmets, we'd have had substantially more serious injuries... It's simple: Gear made this somewhat dangerous endeavor quite safe indeed.

And while on the subject of injuries; here's the tally: JF: Damaged ego - Leanne: Bruised shoulder and face - Carmen: More bruises on her poor legs and a good Charlie horse - Brad: Face and body bruised - Gavin: A few minor head injuries, two busted helmets - Dave: Shoulder - Jeremiah: neck and knees - Barrit and Coppens: Innocence lost.

Thank you again, Ryan and Ken, for your tremendous hospitality and our apologies for the mess some of us (who shall remain nameless) left in our rooms... I can't even begin to express what a wonderful time we all had... even those who got bumps and bruises, all want to return.

I highly recommend Panorama to anyone wanting to challenge themselves or to simply kick back big time and relax... It's an island of recreation in the beautiful Purcell's that begs to be sampled... The hot pools are to die for, the rafting rocks, the tennis is simply amazing, the hiking is superb, the food was good and the golf... well, let's just say that the golf course makes even me want to pick up a club. Superlatives everywhere. Just don't expect 20 to 30 something single women out there... they don't call it Manorama for nothing (hehehe).

Thanks for reading, we're taking names for next year starting in September..