MOUNTAIN BIKING: Naming Rights

NAMING RIGHTS

TRAILBUILDERS TELL THEIR SIDE OF THE STORY ON THE NAMES BEHIND THE TRAILS

STORY BY ALISON TAYLOR

MOUNTAIN BIKERS TAKE IN THE BREATHTAKING SCENERY WHILE THE WILDFLOWERS ARE IN BLOOM ON THE EPIC ALPINE ADVENTURE THAT INCLUDES THE APTLYNAMED INTO THE MYSTIC, ON THE ROCKS AND THE LORD OF THE SQUIRRELS DESCENT.

Can a name influence the way you ride a trail? Is it sweeter to climb a trail called Piece of Cake or Whipped Cream? Do you feel as though you’ve made it when you get to Cherry on Top?

Arguably, yes. That makes this deliciously fun group of trails on the west side of Whistler, affectionately known as the “Dessert Platter,” an even sweeter ride. They’re blue, or intermediate, designed on the lower end of difficulty by Whistler’s standards, and therefore accessible to almost everyone.

The yummy names were born of the first trail in the area, Piece of Cake, a climbing trail so named because it was easier to ride than the road. It was followed by À La Mode. It only made sense to stick with the sweet theme.

“There’s space in between À La Mode and Whipped Cream for another ingredient,” says Dan Raymond, lead trailbuilder for WORCA (the Whistler Off-Road Cycling Association), musing on some potentials down the road.

“I might find some Gummy Worms,” he laughs. “Maybe some Sprinkles.”

Local trailbuilders, who have shaped Whistler’s dirt and rocks into hundreds of epic rides, spend a lot of time alone with their thoughts. Such is the nature of the work. >>

If you don’t know where you’re riding, you’ll quickly wonder how some of these trails got their quirky and odd names. Names like: Zoot Allures, Dwarf Nebula, Dinah Moe Humm, Son of Mr. Green Genes, Toads of the Short Forest.

In fact, they all have something in common. These are all Frank Zappa songs and the riding area is called the Zappa Trails. This is one of Whistler’s riding gems, tucked close to the Village in Lost Lake Park and full of amazing blue and green trails.

According to a municipal spokesperson: “Those trails are the brainchild of Randy Symons, a quirky, creative and passionate RMOW Supervisor of Parks & Trails for decades until his retirement in 2011.

“Randy was a driving force behind the creation of these trails, and a Zappa aficionado. The spirited, twisty and playful nature of those trails reflected some similarity to the themes of Frank’s music, and when Randy suggested that nomenclature, it felt appropriate.”

NADINE CAREY

“FOUNTAIN OF LOVE” IS ANOTHER SONG FROM PROLIFIC ARTIST FRANK ZAPPA AND THIS TRAIL IS PART OF THE ZAPPA TRAILS.

DAN RAYMOND

DAN RAYMOND

WORCA’S LEAD TRAIL BUILDER, DAN RAYMOND (TOP RIGHT), HAS BUILT SEVERAL WHISTLER TRAILS, INCLUDING ROCKWORK ORANGE, KOROVA MILK BAR, WIZARD BURIAL GROUND, ROBIN! YER EGGS AND SKWENKWIN. ROBIN! YER EGGS WAS BUILT WITH VOLUNTEERS FROM THE WHISTLER WALDORF SCHOOL, WHO NAMED IT AFTER AN EGG-ROBBING RAVEN THEY SAW. SKWENKWIN WAS NAMED BY LIL’WAT FIRST NATIONS.

Over time, as the trail begins to morph into something rideable and epic, its name begins to evolve too. From the obvious and the perfectly fitting to the inside jokes and puns, Whistler has hundreds of trails, every one with a unique story behind its name.

“I feel like it deserves a great deal of thought,” says Raymond, who has his stamp on several iconic trails from one end of Whistler to the other.

When you put so much work into a trail, he adds, the name is really the finishing touch, the icing on the cake. Rockwork Orange. Korova Milk Bar. Wizard Burial Ground: these are all born of Raymond’s imagination. The first two are a nod to the cult film Clockwork Orange, the last refers to the stumps of old growth trees in the gloomy forest close to the local cemetery, that looked like old wizards.

He is perhaps best known, however, for christening what has become Whistler’s epic ride — Lord of the Squirrels.

Alone in the woods, high above the Flank trail, Raymond was hard at work on the fast and fun blue descent trail. Every day, a squirrel would visit, fearless and determined, unafraid of chainsaws and this human moving into his old-growth territory. Lord of the Squirrels was born. The name is also a nod to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, given that the alpine loop was a three-year project, WORCA’s biggest to date. The name is often shortened to LOTS.

So, when trailbuilder Zander Strathearn was working on another descent in the area—one that would cut the climb significantly, therefore shortening the ride, it was a no-brainer to call the trail LESS. LESS joins the lower portion of the LOTS

descent. The name says it all. It works as a short, self-explanatory moniker, or you can draw it out to its full meaning—Lower Elevation, Shorter Squirrels. LESS.

Like Raymond, Strathearn has his stamp on other trails too. Years ago, he began to work on a trail above the Alpine neighbourhood. It was a passion project, born of what he saw as a gap in the trail system. His goal, working from the bottom up into the alpine, was to find a connection to Screaming Cat Lake.

Almost every evening, as he moved rock and earth, transforming his vision to reality, Strathearn would feel the wind gusting up over the ridge.

Howler was born, a fitting name for a trail that also offers a “howling good time,” he adds.

The name is short and catchy and ties into the trail above. Most importantly, it means something to the person who dedicated hours to its birth, so much so that Strathearn named his trailbuilding company Howler Contracting.

Just as it made sense to call a nearby climbing trail Cultured Climb, a trail that runs beside the gruelling road. Like Piece of Cake, Cultured Climb was designed to ease the climb.

“The road bed is savagely steep,” Strathearn explains of the old-school way up. “We were looking for a more cultured experience to climb up to the Flank.”

And sometimes all the stars align for the name. Take Pot of Gold. Municipal trail crews built this trail as Whistler worked to develop the high alpine area around the epic Into the Mystic/Lord of the Squirrels. Pot of Gold is an out and back trail that sits at the very end of the hiking-only Rainbow Trail.

But it wasn’t just called Pot of Gold because it was located at the end of the Rainbow Trail. According to the municipality, one of the trailbuilders on the job was nicknamed “Goldie.” The trail crew also felt this was a “pot of gold” kind of riding experience. W

TRAILBUILDER ZANDER STRATHEARN COINED “HOWLER” AFTER SPENDING HOURS BUILDING THE TRAIL, LISTENING TO THE EVENING WIND BLOW OVER THE RIDGE, A FITTING NAME WITH ITS CONNECTION TO SCREAMING CAT LAKE TRAIL.

ROBIN O'NEILL