Christmas No. 1

Christmas was great. Scott showed me how to ride a fixed gear bike on the quiet back streets of Bako after a pancake and fake bacon breakfast and two lovely, thoughtful gifts (one is a really big picture book of geology type stuff).
We've been spending a lot of time with family on both coasts (recently) and work (always) and were looking forward to 4 days off. Scott booked 4 days (!) at a lodge in Sequioa National Park where the package included cross country ski rentals. It was time to get SS on Skinny Skis. There are 2 entrances to the park; one from Visalia that involves 25 kms of switchbacks, and one from Fresno that requires an extra 30 miles of driving, but fewer mountain passes. We brought chains, added a few hundred pounds of sand to the back of the truck and drove via Fresno into the mountains and an "epic" (rolls eyes) snowstorm.

The short version is that we got denied at the northern park entrance due to road conditions after watching a tour bus get stuck due to a broke tire chain wrapped around the axle and blocking the snow plows from progressing up the mountain. The only options was to drive back to the southern entrance where the road was only open to vehicles with chains *and* 4 wheel drive. Short story is we spent Christmas night at the Holiday Inn, Visalia eating Wendy's (the *only place open besides Denny's) and drinking beer at the hotel bar. :( NO SNOW FOR YOU.

Scott taking the turmoil in a stride with a smile and a beer.

The next day dawned bluebird and we launched our second mountain lodge assalt. Got to the park, got up the switchbacks, got to the lodge!!! The lodge has lost power at 8 am Christmas Day, the pipes were frozen and they were about 2 hours from evacuating all guests and employees. NO SNOW FOR YOU :(

We still salvaged the day (my SweeteSt is a consistent optimist) with a short hike in the snow texas style (blue jeans) with whiskey. A bit of snow for us. :)

BTW--- This snow was nice, lovely, light, fluffy, 30-45 cms of fresh powder. It was tormenting to not have ski gear. We will make up for lost winter recreation in the future, but tomorrow is back to the mountain bikes. Yay. I may even be trying one of SS's Single Speeds.... wish me luck!

We stopped at a produce market on the way home. What do you do with a squash this big? That would be too much, way to much, squash soup.

Drafting

I'm not riding solo these days.

Since coming to California a couple of weeks ago, we have managed a number of rides; dirt, road, commuting to yoga class, returning books-on-cd to the library.

This last Sunday, we drove to the east side of town and climbed up out of the central valley fog.

Out of fog and into sunshine. I hoped CA road riding would be like this.

It's fun and much faster to ride with Scott.

Oskar-cat during business hours.

The leftovers of our stuff

Northern Manitoba, contintal shield, beautiful country

Old mine from the WW2 era.

Old mine tailings. Acid generating mine tailings.

Metal leaching mine tailings. secondary mineral precipitates. ooohhhh colorful.

The importance of controlling erosion. The orange layer is already oxidized and most of the metals have already leached. The grey layer is unoxidized and has a higher metal content. When the grey comes to the surface the tailings oxidize and the metals are released into the environment.

New mines, just like this old one, create tailings that must be disposed of and managed. One of the biggest differences is that new mines are MUCH much much BIGGER. I think mining can be done responsibly to reduce environmental impacts and limit long-term cumulative effects. But the easiest way to reduce the impacts from mining is to buy less stuff. Everything comes from the field, the mine or the oil rig.

Up in the High Sierras

Thursday night we went for mexican food and margaritas and decided that we would not elope but maybe just get engaged instead.

Friday we picked up our backcountry permit and decided to make it a honeymoon trip. I love this door at the courthouse. Just don't use a fictitious name for your marriage license.
Getting mentally prepared (and hydrated) before finding a minister in Lone Pine, California. The Alabama Hills Cafe serves bottomless strawberry lemonade for $2.50.
Beverly (owner of the flower shop, photographer and witness), Scott, myself and Bob, the minister. When she couldn't reach Bob by telephone, Beverly walked to his house and woke him up from a nap to officiate our ceremony.

Off to the honeymoon suite at Muir Lake.

My wife makes the BEST instant oatmeal!

This cliff looked very Patagonian to me (view to the northwest, husband for scale)

Top of New Army Pass

Scott and the ergonomic rock.

Sunbathing in the high sierras

And just to keep this post on topic with the original intent of this blog, I've signed Scott and I up for the 2009 BCBR.

One Day at a Time

Race officials weren't handing out blue books, but I'm certain that one day at a time is the only way I completed the BCBR. Getting into Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island for Day 0, seeing a heavily skewed segment of the population (I swear there was not a single person with more than maybe 3% body fat). Everyone looked fast and fit. DAY 1Day 1 was scary. My first time on a a start line since the Jasper-Banff relays during grad school. Thanks to some good advice, K and I were positioned towards the back of the pack off to one side in the start chute. We avoided the worst of the recently mowed grass, but experienced the full hurry-up-and-wait when a lot of racers hit singletrack early in the day. I don't remember much of Day 1 other than the heat. It was by far the hottest day of the year for southern BC. I wilted. Walking st that should have been ridden, looking at the computer and thinking how the hell will I finish if I'm already pushing my bike only 47 kms into Day 1? Thankfully K had her head on straight and pulled me through. The rest of the day was pleasant enough with a fast logging road descent the spilled onto 20 kms of rail grade to the finish. We had our first taste of mid-pack competitive at the end. We had joined up with a men's team and were riding the rail grade together and pulled through a co-ed team from Oz. They sat on our wheels until the last 2 kms when we hit road and then called out 'Thanks for the pull' and took off for the finish line. pffft. Wow, there are some FAST women here!!! Inspiring.

Day 2
Day 2 found us in the B start chute; being such solid mid-packers the B chute was to be our start zone each subsequent day. Day 2 was a long, hot ride that was all about putting in kilometers and getting further up island. Nothing much to say other than being thankful for all the road miles during the spring. We managed to get into a few pace lines early in the day. Yeah for drafting. We probably rode the final 40 or 50 kms by ourselves. The heat was taking out a lot of people though we managed to stay strong. My, um, personal race manager had counseled me to eat more and drink more than I though I needed. Very good advice. Kirsty kept rocking with the ipod. The day was filthy, dirty from the dirt road dust. Yeah to getting through Day 2 which according to my computer was 135 kms. K had terrible allergies from all the dust of the logging roads. It was also the furthest I've ever ridden on a mountain bike and the furthest (by 30+km) that Kirsty has ever ridden, road or mountain!

Day 3
Day 3? All I remember is still being on the Island. That and 2 stream crossings. The first of which was chamois deep...
...and I remember some shitty st. A bunch of kilometers of new, soft, energy sucking, bumpy, no-flow, exhausting, upper body burning st was built between snow melt and the race. The given names for the trails were steam donkey and entrails (?). Steaming pile of donkey entrails? The more established st was pleasant enough; a few bridges, some fat skinnies, lots of roots (thank goodness it was dry). K has wicked skills and I wish I could say I bombed down following her awesome line, but it was more of riding at my edge, pushing myself and still loosing sight of K. Also, I started to freak out from the social/people aspect of 400 riders + support. I like people, some of the time, but actually skipped dessert (ice cream cones!) and left dinner early to get some solitary time.

Day 4
4:30 am wake up call. Bus-ferry-bus-ferry-start line at 11 am. Actually the day was great. Canada Day. Lots of powerline climbs today, hot, exposed but the good rewarding descents for the climbing effort and great views. My first complaint about the race was dinner. After 3 great days of food on the island there was NO veggie protein at dinner! I actually went back to the tent and forced down a protein bar. ick. The race organizers remedied the problem by ordering a handful of veggie pizzas and wondering around tent city calling out for the vegetarians. What happens to the mid and back of the pack when 400 riders hit singletrack within 10-15 kms of starting. There was steep climbing today. K and I had our groove on and were riding great together. Her soul is on st and downhill so she'd go ahead and get her woohoos of bike happiness in on the downhill. My slower, but still woohoooing self would catch up on the climbs and road sections. By the time the next st section came I'd let K roll through. Rinse and repeat for 5-7 hours.

Day 5
Another early wake up. This time was 5:30 am wake up for an 8 am start just to catch the ferry from the Sunshine Coast back to the lower mainland that afternoon. This was the first day with hard cut off times at the second aid zone. If you didn't make the first cut-off time you missed the glorious 12 kms of pure st descending and had to ride down logging roads. If you missed the second, hard cutoff then you didn't get to ride at all and were trucked to the ferry terminal. Missing either cut-off meant getting a blue race plate and no official result (the nice way of putting the dreaded DNF). I think we rolled through with 40 minutes to the first cut-off!!! Yeah and onto the AMAZING SINGLETRACK. 12 KMS of amazing single track. banked corners, small ramps and ladders, smooth track, new chickenwire on the logs and bridges, dry trail, tight switch backs all under beautiful green canopy of the rainforest. My teammate is crazy fast descending and kept passing people. I was trying to ride safe and within, but at the edge, of my limits but I get very stressed when there's people on my back wheel. After passing another women's team, the stress manifest as a bad line and I took my biggest crash of the race. Kind of wrapped myself backwards in an arch around a tree... knocked my organs around a bit but got back on the bike and kept descending (no other choice really) but some of the pure glee has evaporated being replaced by practical, sensible riding. I actually went to the medics directly after crossing the finish as I had some concern for kidney damage/internal bleeding. It was a hard crash. No damage, just gave the body a good shake and stir. I really must stop crashing. The computer cable got severed at some point during the day when I laid down on a sandy switchback.

Day 5 ended with the ferry ride from the Sunshine Coast to Horseshoe Bay. I hadn't really thought about how close to home we would be...only 25 of my favorite road kilometers and I could be at my new condo with the kitties....and the new washing machine for freshly laundered lycra....

Day 6
Lots of reasons to smile today!! The Gear Jammer and Test of Metal mash-up. The BCBR wake-up call involved a rubber chicken and a megaphone. My personal wake-up call was a sweet text message originating somewhere in the armpit of California. Today I woke to the chicken but not a text message :( Uuntil I noticed it was a 5:40 am and not the scheduled 6:30 am. Oops. The chicken got quiet quickly.

Less welcome was the sound of rain on the tents. Rain + roots + man mades = snotty ridding. The rain stopped and thanks to the previous week's warm weather the ground soaked up the rain and the trails were actually in great condition, possibly even better as the moisture kept the dust down. I'd been having trouble with my front wheel and had the front skewer/quick release thingy replaced two day previously. But the front brake was still rubbing and the quick release kept coming loose necessitating 3 annoying stops before the first aid station.

Riding familiar trails was great and even *I* was passing people on the downhill. When we hit the puesdotsuga trail I failed to get my ass far enough past my saddle and did a running-over-the-handlebars dismount to which some random (and patronizing?) man said "need to get your ass further past your saddle, sunshine." The two feed zones were at the same criss-cross point of the course. The leaders had rolled into the second feed about 5 minutes before we got to the first!!!! The last challenge of the day was 9-mile hill, of which there is no need to remember. Then nothing but the technical goodness of Powerhouse Plunge, the flow of Crumpit Woods, and the finish line! The finish line was where SS was waiting with smiles, a quarter pound bag of peanut m&ms and Colorado whiskey! So many smiles.

Day 7
Only 47 kms today! Only one big, sustained climb. Heck the course profile almost looked flat. Day 7 was FREAKING TOUGH and cold. Started with a drawn-out climb up the Peak-to-Creek ski trail. 15 nice tight switchbacks, wiggly lovely goodness along the Cheakamus River then a joy-sucking road climb that finished with climbing a set of stairs (grunt, Enduro heavy, grunt) to access the st descent to first aid zone. Another day with hard cut-offs. We rolled through with over an hour before the cut-off, I think. Anyway, more cold, more road climb, more stairs (!), more short steep climbs to prove there was nothing left in my legs. But, Scott, thanks for smiling so brightly when you were walking along side of me as I pushed my bike up the hill, telling me how long and steep the hill was and how everybody was walking. I think you may have even giggled a little when saying how it got even steeper around the corner. Thanks, darling.

My mental game was thin today. I knew that there were only 22 kms left after the first aid zone; a totally doable distance, less then my daily commute. When we exited a bit of st at a road crossing and the course marshal cheered us on with "good riding! only 12 kms left!" I did cry. Thank goodness I didn't have a computer anymore or I would have fixated on how slow the kms were passing. However, the next section, A River Runs Through It (ridden backwards), was very very technical with lots of lifts and required total concentration. Pant, Enduro getting very heavy, pant. K is ahead of me since we just finished some st and there is a small climb so she keeps rolling and I start chasing. Until the full grown black bear walks onto the trail between us. There was some tough, old school very rocky riding right before the second aid zone. that was actually fun.

The second aid station was not only 5 kms of riding from the finish, it was also only 200 m from the finish as the exhausted rider pedals. Here's the crazy bit. K and I had been making the cut-offs, not by a lot, but consistently getting through so we were jaw-dropped flabbergasted that there was only 5 mins before the cut-off! That meant that a lot of teams that had ridden well all week were headed to DNF land. uber-disappointing (spoiler- race officials admitted they made a mistake and added 30 mins to the cut-off time and let a big group or riders go back and finish the course with official times! Very cool). But, we finished42 hours 25 mins and 57 seconds after the first start gun. Only 10 hours and 13 mins or so behind the first place women's team. SS was there with beer (such a good man!!). Yeah to finishing!

more delays

I was hoping to have the BCBR write up finished this week...there were even going to be pictures as someone turned in my camera!!!

But I crashed ridding Mt. Fromme yesterday. My right radial head is broken. No cast, but a sling, lots of tylenol 3s (with codeine!) and physio starts next week to keep my range of motion and to keep from having to see an orthopedic surgeon. Crap. Movement hurts. And being right handed, i broke my right arm. of course.

I probably should have changed from clipless to platform pedals. I knew that the trails we were on were the edge of my ability clipped in, but I had wanted the extra kilometers of riding the Enduro from the office in Burnaby. time to re-evaluate this whole 'fitness' thing?

The upside, aside from the painkillers, is that my knees will get a good break from cycling!

Survival

Kirs n Em Bikes survived the BCBR and made our goal of finishing with an official result AND with smiles and friendship and bikes intact! It was a great challenge and some of the riding, especially in the last 4 days, was amazing. ... like the solid 15 km of descending to the Day 5 finish line on the Sunshine Coast.


Right now the race is still a blur and I'm nowhere near having processed all the events. The two weeks leading up to the race included taking on a new project at work, moving into my new condo, as well as having my grandmother and sister visit. Dear SS was here for the last 2 days of the race and then spent the weekend in Vancouver. All this equals not enough sleep the last 3 weeks and having a brain that is about 3 days behind the calendar date.

We finished in 8th place out of 14 women's teams in 42 hours 25 minutes and 57 seconds. Thrilled to have a mid-pack finish as there are some VERY fast women out there! No pictures to post as my camera fell out of my camelback on Day 5 :( I'll try to add a short write up of the days but really need a few nights of good sleep first!

Disgusting!!

How dare they!

Finally 100

It's now less than 3 weeks to the BCBR!?!? Shit. I already had my first bad dream about the race...I should be used to this and know how to get my mind under control but I still have dreams where I think that there is some required coursework from undergrad that I never went too and turns out I didn't actually graduate from Mines. Then there was the night before my yoga teacher training final practicum. The dream was that my teacher pulled me aside and said, "Emily, we're sorry but you just don't have what it takes to be a yoga teacher." Argh! Who dreams about failing yoga teacher training?? The stupid part of this mental state is that our goal is to finish the race with the more smiles and woohoos than any other team. We're not looking to be the fastest, just have the most fun.

After a weekend with visiting family members necessitated short 2 hour rides last weekend, this weekend provided two lovely rides. Saturday was a road ride. It was great for four reasons. First, it didn't rain. Second, I finally climbed Mt. Seymour on the Orbea. Third, it was my longest ride ever on a bike -- 173 kms. Fourth, I actually ate enough during the ride to stay reasonably fueled. I've been too intimidated to climb Seymour since moving to a compact. Last year (still on a triple) I passed a guy when on Seymour and he made a comment about how he wished he still had a triple. Since then it's been in my head that it would be really really tough to climb this 1040m in 12.5 kms with a compact. It was a steady climb and there were a few times I noticed I was reaching for my shifters looking for another gear, but it wasn't an absurd climb. The downside is that it was cold, probably 5-6 C and foggy at the top. The leg and arm warmers were not sufficient and my feet were like bricks at the bottom of the decent. The rest of the ride was just lovely and pleasant and solitary; lots of time with my thoughts which have been lovely and pleasant the last couple of weeks. :) Rolled back home to North Vancouver in just under 7 hours of ride time (6 hours 55 min).

On Sunday I rode Fromme with my co-worker Andrew. It was raining and cold. Andrew has been in the field too much this last year and smoking to many cigarettes when in the field, so the climb was an easy spin. My legs didn't feel too bad but I was riding platforms so there is just no comparison with being clipped in. The plan was to ride Upper Oilcan, Oilcan and Lower Crippler. Oilcan is good singletrack, a little old school, with some excellent low consequence skinnies. From gutsploder.com....I didn't take a camera b/c of the rain.

On Sunday, with the rain, I cold have sworn some giant sneezed on all the skinnes and covered them with snot. If you even thought about touching your brakes your back wheel would instantaneously skid off. snotty. slimy. slippery. Lower Crippler was a new trail for me, having been previously scared off by the name. But Andrew is very encouraging, not too cheerleadery, and drops one or 2 little nuggets each time we ride that helps me get better. He said that I'm at the point now where I'm rolling most everything including the drops meant to be hucked...After the BCBR it may be time to go to a bike park and rent a super squishy ride for some true DH skills. I really want to ride this once the June Monsoon is over (I was just too scared this weekend and not willing to risk injury before the race).

Also from gutsploder.com

Field Work and Midweek Ride

I've been low on chargeable work for the last few weeks (although this is dramatically coming to an end the same week I move into my new condo, have my g-mom and sister visiting and the week before the BCBR). One of my girlfriends at work was looking for someone to set up 2 evaporation stations at the Nickel Plate Mine near Hedley, BC. Hedley is about 4.5 hours east of Vancouver on Highway 3A and is the place with my favorite rock outcrop in the province on Stemwinder Mountain. Lovely layered sedimentary units, intermediate intrusions and skarn metasomatism. So I volunteered. The plan was to leave early in the morning, drive to site, set up the stations, and drive home. There was plenty of space in the rented truck (I've only had a car for one year out of the last 14) so I brought the Trek.

View to the west of Hedley and Stemwinder Mountain from the Mascot Gold Mine Instructions for the scenic route to the mine from the valley bottom highway visible in the previous picture: For the adventurous soul with a good car: On Highway 3A.....blah blah local geograhpy you don't know...This road is a single lane, dirt, steep, winding road not for the faint of heart, but with spectacular views. Stay on the main road, past the tailings facility and turn into the gate at the NPM mill facility.
I didn't get to the mill facility because of this. Who doesn't like mass wasting events?
I had to backtrack and take the long way around to the mine. Once on site, the set up went well with only a couple of hiccups (literally, airlocks in the lines between the evap pans and the water level logger). Got off site around 6 pm and went for a short 30 km road ride near Penticton. This areais the main produce and wine region in BC. It's also host to a large international ironman tri (read lots of good road biking) and Skaha, a great climbing area.

Spent the night in Penticton. It was raining when I got back to Vancouver Thursday morning. The June Monsoon is right on schedule.