Refinding the Love

Words & photos: Joe Houghton

The love of bikes is a unique one, I feel everyone has a different idea of it in their heads but to me it’s always centred around the feeling. The feeling of flying down a trail or battling your own head to push on a climb. There’s few things in my life that I can say have compared to my love of bikes. Yet coming into my first Whistler winter I can say the feeling between me and my bike was anything but love.

I think in all honesty I was just done, mentally done. I felt like I’d lost the love, riding had become a chore. Double summers of riding, training for an Everest and bike backing across Europe had left me done. Saying this I was still nervous, I’d never experienced living somewhere, not being able to ride my bike before, something I’d done almost every day for who knows how many years. I didn’t know if mentally and physically I’d cope without riding.

Then the snow started falling, and learning to ski became my next big focus. I don’t think anyone was surprised that I took to skiing, but I think people were surprised with just how much I fell in love with it. Suddenly the only thing I wanted to do everyday was ski. Everyday day was either skiing or working to fund the ski bum lifestyle. For 5 months my bike sat untouched in the garage while I fell in love with skiing, winter and everything that came along with it. Mates would offer rides down to Squamish or Pemberton to go biking and all I wanted to do was Ski. At one point I skied 42 days in a row, making work and life all fit around days on the hill. And then the snow started to melt, bike trails started to reopen and still I kept skiing. From the 19th of November to 14th of April, 146 days, I hadn’t done what was the most constant activity in my life, and I honestly hadn’t missed it at all.

Then one afternoon after a day spent skiing, I was sitting at home, and thought maybe I'd go for a ride. Dusting the bike off and spinning up a hill was like a trip back in time... and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

My fitness wasn’t too bad, everything on the bike still worked, and mentally I felt so much better. 146 days without riding had been exactly what I needed, and now coming back everything felt fresh, new and exciting. What followed was one of the best months of my life, back living in the van, biking every morning and skiing every afternoon. What a life.

Soon the bike park reopened, it was time to put the skis away for good and bikes were the only thing on the menu. Only this time it felt different, all the riding needed to be was fun. There was nothing to train for, no real goals to hit, it was just about pure fun.

Which brings us to present day, living in a van and riding bikes in Whistler BC. Being grateful for the lifestyle I’m getting to live and knowing it won’t last forever. I’ve tried to apply the carefree enjoyment from winter into the summer, and honestly it’s worked a treat. The best laps so far of the summer have been ones shared, whether that's riding with mates who are just getting into it, showing people new places and sneaky trails or just getting some after work laps in before heading to the pub. It’s all about the feeling of fun and that’s all I need it to be.

At least until it starts snowing again…