A hint of the future

Last Memorial Day, Scott first visited BC. He rode gears and full suspension. He rode baggies and a full face helmet. We went on our first date. A year later and another visit to Vancouver. Scott rode his single speed with front suspension. He brought a lot of lycra. We went on another date.

He also brought my new cross country bike over the border. A rhodochrosite red Siren with fluorite purple bling-bits. Color scheme inspired by the Colorado State Mineral type locality from the Sweet Home Mine near Alma. It's cool to be a geek.

Scott built. We rode.

Unlike my all-mountain Enduro, the Siren actually likes climbing. The 29" front wheel rolls like a dream and doesn't wheelie up at the first hint of steepness. The front fork is still enough for how I ride the Shore and the soft-tail takes the edge off the roots and rocks. I'm loving the Ergon grips.

Saturday we rode to the North Shore Bike Fest for the Marathon XC race. The race was only 40 kms. It started by heading out on a paved multi-use path before heading back to the start line on double track. The course then headed across to Seymour Mountain on technical single track before the double track climb up Old Buck and the Baden Powell. Then my least favorite descent on the Shore- Severed Dick, a hike-a-bike up C-Buster, follwed by descending single track and a steep climb double track climb to the start area. The finish line was a decsending, big chain ring ripping, 5 km crushed gravel path.

I doubt this will ever happen again, but as the start and finish were all about pushing the BIG chain ring I got in front of Scott. He just about caught me on the Old Buck/Baden Powell climb. I heard his voice part way down Severed Dick and stopped to give him a kiss. We rode together for a while until he crashed (not a bad one!). I stopped until he reminded me this was a race. The Siren *loves* to climb so I managed to reel in a few guys on the last long climb :) If I can't descend worth shit I should at least climb well! Scott finished a few minutes behind me. It was not a good course for a single speed. I almost felt guilty everytime I shifted to the big ring.

I learned that some people are bothered by chatting on climbs during a race... that there are a lot of sandbaggers in citizen class... and that riding home from a race is hard.

Just Cause

Sunny Weekend

Vancouver is having more frequent sunny and warm days. Satuday the company I work for, AMEC, had organized a work-party at the Richmond Fruit Tree Project's Farm. The Fruit Tree Project started with people donating extra fruit from their back yard trees to the food bank. The project in Richmond has expanded and includes a few hectares of an urban farm. The volunteer argo-ecologist working at the farm thinks the farm donated either 2,000kg or 20,000kg of fruit and veggies to the Richmond Food Bank last year.

We weeded the strawberries that were just putting out blooms and hoed a few rows to make raised beds in one of the fields. AMEC provided an amazing lunch from One World Catering! A box lunch with zero throw-away waste, organic ingredients, cloth napkin, real flatware, turtle shaped salt and pepper shakers. Lovely. Yummy.

Sunday I was attempting a dirt double-double-- 2 laps on Burnaby Mountain, 2 laps on Seymour. Good weather again. Left the condo at 8:30, ride to Burnaby, up Pandora, down Nicole's, up Dead Moped and the TransCanada, down Pandora.

Tires back on the North Shore at 12:10. Climb to the Lynn Canyon Trails, across to Bridal Path, up Old Buck, down Severed Dick. Actually, scoping Severed to see just how much of it I will be walking when this is part of the XC course in 2 weekends. I'll be walking a lot.
I also bailed on a second lap in favor of a trip to the garden store. Must have been feeling inspired from working at the farm. My track record with growing plants is poor, so it was important to keep the captial costs low and recycle the box o' wine for the single tomato plant.
The boys checking out the kitty dope.

Rain Free Spring Weekend

woohoo!!! So it is actually raining now. But not when I was on the bikes :)

Saturday, I took advantage of the not-rain and explored the sunshine coast on the road bike. The Sunshine Coast is only accessible by a 40 minute ferry ride from West Vancouver. After getting an early morning wake up call from Scott, who had his wheels rolling much earlier than me, I rode to catch the 9:20 ferry.

Time for coffee.

The road and (excellent) mountain biking starts from the ferry terminal and lasts all day. Some good views, lovely rolling climbs, some traffic but nothing like being in the city! I had hoped to get up past Earl's Cove to a couple of the provincial parks on the coast, but turned back to make the 4:30 ferry back to the mainland and to get home in time for my skype date with Scott. There is more exploring to do here SweeteSt.... Rode past this guy's place. He makes cool metal things and puts them in the forest....

Grasshoppers

Puppy

Bear

RAWR- Dinosaur

Yoga?

The POPE??

Back on the ferry with carrot cake to fuel the last 25 kms back to the apartment.

Sunday stayed cloudy but dry. I have been ignoring my mountain bike after experience the joys and happiness and pleasure of riding an actual cross country rig. The Enduro has gotten me back into the sport, but the love is gone for how I now want to ride (you know, faster on the UPS and the downs). Sigh, the Enduro doesn't want to fly and does NOT like to climb. I headed to Seymour for some north shore cross country. I miss the desert. :)

Ned's is a good xc ride. Most everything can be rolled and hucking not required. Not that I can clean the trail. It's still a tough ride for me.
The easier route... It's a fun roll!

Transport Space

Image: Press-Office City of Müenster, Germany

Slow, hungover touring on Saturday on surpisingly good snow. It felt good to be on the teles for the first time (!) this year. Plastic boots, touring bindings, forgiving skis and powder. mmm mmm good.

K swears there's a line. I only see a cliff. But that why she's K.

Trainer on Sunday. Commuting and afterwork ride during the week. Heading out of the office Thursday and realizing that I didn't have a rubber band to pull my hair back. Flagging tape was the solution. Yoga from home tonight. It took many tries to get this one...
For the last 2 Fridays I've attended a 60 min hip-opening class at 6:30am. The scheduling and focus of the class are ideal, but my inner yoga snob is fighting this decision. I have issues with the teacher since the first class I took with her months ago. I objected to her consistent use of the word 'booty' as the preferred label for glutes, bum, sitz bones, tail bone, etc and did not return to her classes. She's the teacher for the Friday 6:30am class and so I tried it again. The woman needs to return her thesaurus and check out a dictionary. She instructed us to 'palpate the earth with our fingertips' and to inhale a collective, juicy breath. When moving into a sequence of reclining postures, including reclining bound angle, she instructed us to splay our legs out, or was it flay, or fillet? I couldn't tell. Accoring to merriam-webster, none of those words really fit.

At 6:30 in the morning, she should also be using her inside voice.

The BCBR has added increased the race size to 500 and added new categories this year. There is a solo category and is enough folks sign up a single speed category. Of course, Scott will be riding HIS awesome Walt ss. I wish that I was strong enough/experienced enough to try the BCBR on a single speed. Based on the pain during yesterday's 40 km fixie ride I have a long loong long way to go before that is an option. sigh.

The race is also now starting in downtown Vancouver and spending the first day on the North Shore. That will be *interesting*. The logistics will be easier, but the "XC" on the Shore is a *bit* technical. Based on the written course description (no maps yet), the last trail of the day will be Pipeline. A great trail. Scott and I rode it last year on our first date weekend :) I also crashed and broke my elbow on it last July. A little less :) and a little more :-o

Work Day Daydream

The Ay-Ups, especially the helmet mount, make me practically invincible but the cars on my commute are getting to me this week. The rain has returned and the sunrise is at about the midpoint of my commute. I think that the transition times are when drivers are the shittiest: sunrise, dusk, time changes, a return to the rain after a few weeks of sunshine.

I wonder if bike commuting is making me a meaner person. There is no excuse for drivers that fail to see me. Helmet and handle bar mounted ay-ups, planet bike red blinkie, reflective jacket, reflective tights, reflect booties, reflective tape on bike, helmet and rack, and a reflective rear triangle. Every extra precaution that I take reduces my tolerance drivers. I have been lucky. I have never been hit by a car at speed or had items thrown at me or been chased/followed/confronted. But somedays, I wonder if it's just a matter of time.