Well, what do you know? A Toonie race through the Lost Lake trail system — including a junction where leaders and mellow riders had to make a faux crossover — and yet, nobody got lost.

It was Aug. 9 and the 15th Toonie of the season, sponsored by the Whistler Real Estate Co. Ltd, Race & Co. and Merlins, was on. There were signs, there were arrows and there were marshals. Nobody was going to get lost around Lost Lake this time around, and it all worked.

We started off from behind the maze in the Blackcomb Base Adventure Zone to grind our way up to Base II. From there, the service roads took us all the way to Lower Yummy Nummy.

OK, let’s pause here for a second. If you wanted to ride Nummy all the way up to Comfortably Numb, you would have to stay on the gravel road and ride much higher from the point where we turned left into that single track. So, for lack of a better name, the trail we took that goes above the condos and then cuts back in front of them might as well be called Lower Yummy Nummy.

Once in the park properly, all was well and very clearly signed (as mentioned before) and we ended up making a typical Lost Lake loop all the way down to the Nick North Bridge and back to the PassivHaus using mostly Zappa Trails. A classic, in other words.

Tonight’s race (Thursday, Aug. 16) will be completely different, with all of us checking out the southwest trails for the first time this season.

Regrettably, one of the planned sponsors of the evening has fallen victim to the current economic climate, which should remind us that all the Toonie sponsors are local businesses that need our support — especially during the offseason.

The good news is that a new sponsor stepped up to the plate. And so, tonight Fanatyk Co and the Southside Diner will be doing the honours. Both the start and the finish are relatively close to the diner, making getting to and from the race a lot easier.

After signing up in Alpha Lake Park, we’ll make our way south along the lake and cross the railway to the starting point. Once the race has started, we’ll ride up the gravel road to Cardiac Hill and continue on to the top — to separate the boys from the men.

We will then make our way from the Cardiac Gate to Lower Sproat for the serious grind of the evening. Lower Sproat is basically a glorified creek bed, so expect some loose rock on your journey.

We’ll be riding all the way up Sproat until we’re within sight of Beaver Lake, after which we’ll turn around and head down 99er — a relatively advanced single-track trail that’ll hook us up with South Danimal. The animal will drop us onto Industrial Disease for a bit until we reach THC for the finish. I haven’t even been on THC yet and I look forward to the introduction.

Next week (Aug. 23), Skiis & Biikes and Dusty's will show us the way from the Interpretive Forest to Creekside. Dusty's will be our après destination.