Back at it! Goodbye Whistler :(

by Drew Starks

Well the end of Whistler has come. As eager as I was to get home to my wife and harry child, I am now at my desk reminiscing on the weeks past and the mayhem that went down wishing I was still there. Came away with a lot of memories, nicknames, inside jokes and not to forget my body that now looks like I have survived a direct attack from a family of starving R.O.U.S‘s.

I was all proactive on updating this blog each day I was up there, but as time went on and I slept in more and more it was just too hard. So here is the recap on the last few days I was there. Saturday was amazing. When you ride back to back to back etc. you really build on your skill and learn new skills to survival. I see it as going into battle and every one you win (or survive) the more confidence you gain along with strength and ability to overlook fear. That is how Saturday was. Nice and sunny and everything just flowed. We rode that mountain so many times and the jumps got bigger while the speed increased. So amazing!

Sunday we were beat. We ended up taking a day off. I got up early and headed to a local church. It was fun to see another church with their music, style, perspective etc. I really enjoyed it and could see their heart for people on the mountain. I hope they are blessed. The whole experience got my heart pumping and my mind moving towards ministry again. I have always been one who is drawn to extreme sports and especially those who do them and wanting them to know Christ. Mostly because being an adrenaline junkie myself, I see how addictive that lifestyle is and how, if I did not have the Lord, I would be totally messed up in my life looking, searching, craving the next high. Most find it in these types of sports weather snowboarding or Mt biking, but when off the mountain they tend to fill it with drugs, alcohol and sex. My heart breaks for them as the Lord fills these holes and helps the balance in my life. I desire to share that with others. I have been without that ministry for some time now. Hope to someday enter that type of again. The speaker that morning was one who started the church up there called Whistler Community Church. He had moved to Whistler in the 70’s. He was working one day and a coworker asked him why he was there to which he replied for the skiing, drugs and sex. He then asked his coworker the same question to which she replied to share Jesus with others. She then invited him to a midweek bible study and shortly after that he accepted Christ into his heart. It was an awesome reminder of how “simple” it can be. I have a new prayer and focus because of that simple story. We will see how the Lord answers it.

 The rest of Sunday was spent at Lost Lake. Not really in the water though as the lake is filled from snow runoff. Makes you cry like a girl if you get in. So we were on the beach just talking. It was good as there was a lot of “skin” displayed by others I had the chance to be different. I think as the time went on the boys have noticed my lifestyle and how I do not partake in going out at night to clubs with them, getting drunk, and not looking at women. This was made evident by one of the guys asking “so Drew how’s married life?” I replied with “is this a reminder for me or for you to stay accountable to our women back home?” to which he replied “both!” This opened the door later to talk about marriage and how it’s a blessing and a curse depending on how you look at it. I really got to share my heart on marriage and how it is so much more then the world views it. I did not get spiritual even though I wanted to, but did not hear the Lords leading into it, but I believe it really did show Christ without using words as my description of marriage is one that is found in the example of how our relationship is with Christ. I believe this really has served to open the hearts of my friends. I look forward to seeing how God uses these interactions. I just pray that I am a good tool for him.

Which leads me to my time in the word this past week. Went through 1^st Peter during this time and really enjoyed it. Was encouraged and strengthen by the words, the discipline and prayed that I would have a hunger for truth. My goal and prayer is to continue in this practice while back here and to really strengthen my walk with the Lord. I have been convicted as of late of how am I to know Him if I am not spending time with Him. I have known this and have not been doing this, but really have taken a proactive step to pursue the Father now.  I have needed a little help though and my prayer has been that he creates a hunger in me to do so. I believe he has been doing this and I hope it continues till I die. (after a long and fruitful life I hope!)

Monday! Well Monday was our last day on the hill. At this time in our trip I was sore, beat up, scratched up, but really had not taken any falls. Which, was now my fear on the last day. 90% of accidents in sports of this nature have taken place on the last day or the last run. When your beat up, but you want one more run. Knowing this I was pretty proactive in keeping to what I already knew trail wise. We took a few runs down A-Line which is a pretty fast, crazy black diamond trail

A-Line

that many get hurt on, but by this time I already knew it and had ridden it over and over again so I was confident and did just fine. We then proceeded to head up to the peak of the mountain for another black diamond run. Once at the top though a couple of the guys wanted to do Goats Gully(a double black diamond trail) instead of the trail we had been riding called Freight Train. I did not really want to do this as I was tired and afraid of the statistic stated above. When asking what the trail was like they said it was really rocky and full of roots. Real technical trail so it’s slow. I thought “slow” and agreed to the trail thinking that if its slow then I can proceed with caution and if it’s too much walk my bike down the nasty parts. Well, it was sort of slow, but really you want to maintain a speed so that you can actually get over the rocks which were like 2 foot boulders everywhere and the roots that were like train tracks waiting to introduce you to the ground.

Not us, but the trail

 This said. I met the ground 3 times. Won’t go into detail and nothing broken, but sure am feeling it this morning. I have ace bandages tightly wrapped around both wrists. I have learned in my life of these sports to tuck and roll, but the one that got me was in a place where it was just a blunt stop where you could not roll out if you wanted to resulting in my arms taking the force. I am ok though.

Goats Gully Trail. Yes there is a trail there.

Packing up and a trip back home on Tuesday. It was hard to leave, but good to go. Good trip home with no incidents and great conversations. Happy to see my beautiful wife and stinky dog once again. Now back to the grind dreaming of next year’s trip already.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the words of Lloyd Christmas: “Goodbye My Love”

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