The last few days had left my wrist in an unusual position --- the chafing from the watch had gotten to the point where I had to switch wrists for my Fenix 5X. What I should have done was to bring a bike mount for the watch but it was now too late for that, so I had to switch wrists, try mounting the watch higher on my forearm. It was all in vain --- by the end of the day I'd stick the watch into a pocket to give my wrist a rest. Brad would tell me that the proper solution would be to switch to the lighter Forerunner series with a plastic case that wouldn't have the same problem.
The bike shop couldn't fix the brakes on my bike (even after replacing brake pads), and so gave me a new instance of the same Rocky Mountain Slayer. Bowen would choose to spend our warm up run doing Beeline, after which the lines were so long we opted to ride the gondola all the way to the top to get started on Una Moss.
Una Moss, Midgard, South Park, and Midgard all proved to be no problem for Bowen but my rear tire was going flat! I borrowed a pump from someone but it made the situation worse --- I pumped up the tire, but when I unscrewed the pump from the presta valve the valve core came out with it! I screwed back the valve core and another biker with a press on pump showed up and I pumped up the tire and then proceeded to descend Earth Circus as quick as I could as the tire was still going flat!
Once in the village I went over to the bike shop and they took care of the flat while I had lunch with Bowen. They must have considered it their fault because I got a partial refund for the rental right away. We went back up the Creekside Gondola after lunch and with the new, fixed bike, we did Una Moss and Blueberry Bathtub and then went back up the Garbanzo express for Blue Velvet.
Blue Velvet gave Bowen a lot more problems. First, he got spooked by the drop. Then, he got stuck on a few of the more aggressive ramps. Fortunately, an instructor he'd met earlier ran into him and gave him pointers, but he would refuse to do Blue Velvet again, doing Una Moss and then exploring new trails. I'd never seen him so enthusiastic about riding a bike before. He was clearly out to make the most of our last riding day in Whistler.
Our last run into the Fitzsimmons area, I let him choose the route again, and we did two runs, once with Easy Does It leading into various technical trails, and then once with Beeline leading into Ninja Cougar, Samurai Pizza Cat, and other intermediate trails. I was very happy to see him ride the trails with confidence and that he was out to find a challenge, not just ride the easiest thing.
We finished the day at 5pm, returning our bikes and walking back, picking up more Gelato along the way. That night I had more laundry to do, and we started packing for our day in Vancouver.
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