I haven’t been to Squamish in a long time, and the last many times I was there were weekdays, so I wasn’t prepared for just how many cars and bikes are floating around town and the trailheads. It’s astounding. And, it was nice to experience that, despite the massive increase in participants and what you may read some places on the internet, that the vibe on the trails is still very, very, friendly. 

I’ll go as far as to say much friendlier than the North Shore. 

And yes, it’s a sample size of one day, and yes we do have the very odd all-good day riding on the Shore, but there’s a bold difference between mutual tolerance and a general appreciation of your fellow travelers. The Clairebarian put in an amazing effort on her first trip up the Legacy Climb and I can’t help but appreciate how supportive other riders were of her progress. 

We didn’t have a rider catch us, on a full-powered blender bike or under their own steam, who didn’t say hello and wait patiently for a safe pullout to pass. Not a single person tried to force their way around us, or otherwise put us at risk. More magically, it was more than just suffering through our presence and pace, there was a genuine “Keep Going!” or smile, or “hello,” or “great job” with every single interaction. 

And yes, we meet many affable people on the North Shore too, especially hikers and folks walking their dogs but also our fellow mountain bicyclists, but it’s a rare day on the bikes when we aren’t forced to interact with at least one total f*cking asshat, never mind a few unfriendlies. To make matters more malignant, generally, we’re riding the Shore on weekdays and this was a busy, sunny, Sunday in Squish. 

I don’t know how they do it in Squamish. Certainly, at one time it may have come down to having many more trails-per-rider but it was pretty freakin’ busy when we visited and we saw a lot of other riders compared to our average North Shore ride. It’s true that two-way access routes on the North Shore, like Bridle Path, get an awful lot of traffic but even taking away the singletrack v. singletrack experience the difference was indisputable. 

We didn’t undergo a single unfriendly overtake or too-close pass on doubletrack or forest road either. 

There were also more than a few e~bikes and plenty of Garmin’s too so it’s not like Strava or and plug-ins weren’t well represented. 

It was nice to feel so welcome on other folks’ trails and left me wishing for the same experience on our own. We’re always friendly, we always say hello, and honestly, we do have a majority of great interactions with our fellow mountain bikers but I can’t accept that all the sub-par experiences we’ve had come down to a one-off experience or a grass-is-greener situation. 

Thanks for being a friendly place to learn to ride bikes Squamish; I’m certain your mom approves.