Bike ride to nowhere

into each life.....  but I think this should cover the rainy season. No more time for injuries for at least the next 5 years? A sudden slip on a rock and a titanium upgrade later, I am again trying to get off the couch too quickly.

Despite crutching around I managed to spend money at Simon's cycles, purchasing a bike trainer for the living room. This morning I spent a few hours putting it together (1 screw, a bit of wiggling with bike wheel, several extra parts that had me confused) and then listened to some comedy while I rode my bike to nowhere. My mom called about halfway through, so in a way I went to Ontario for a while. Pippa was all excited when the bike came out, then not so much as she realized that she could stand beside me as I pedalled. Mattie slept through the procedure, seeing no reason to be involved. Marc was teaching a mountain bike course for the morning, which went really well.

This afternoon the cold island is raining some more and I'm back on my favourite couch after a few hours of crutching around the Courtenay sidewalk sale buying Birthday presents for family.

So far our Momar team doesn't have a definite replacement for me, so I have an incentive to not eat too much, and enjoy some bike time.  Tuesday night is paddling night this week, and if I can get my leg in (and much more importantly back out) of the boat I am really looking forward to some ocean time!

Marc and Nikki's Moab Adventure

Better to blog late than never.....  our most excellent May adventure details!

Our last roadtrip adventure has been so long ago….  it was wonderful to get in the car and drive until we were in the land of sunshine and rocks with bikes and climbing gear. 

Friday night saw us on the ferry heading off into the great unknown of Moab. Vancouver was cold and rainy as we drove through, and we continued on through the night alternating shifts until morning. Breakfast somewhere in the US, and more driving - into Moab around dinnertime Saturday night. YAY! Sunshine, red rocks and dirt, dry desert climate - foreign and lovely. 

Sunday morning we started by heading into the bike shop to get some direction. Hearing we were from BC he immediately recommended we start with Amasa Back, down Rockstacker and Jackson Trail. We purchased a map and guidebook and off we went. On the way to the trail I read the guidebook, which basically stated that only crazy fools ride Rockstacker and Jackson Trail…. uh oh. Up Amasa Back - a great climb that I highly recommend to anyone that hasn’t just driven for 24 hours and lives at sea level, and out to a great arch on top of a giant lump of red rock. This ride was also the first time I’ve almost been knocked over by strong wind, which was quite exciting. Down Rockstacker, where I quickly decided that 1. the bike store dude thought we were from the North Shore and brought BIG bikes, not Superlights, and 2. if I thought every time I walked my bike or fell off it was a personal insult to my riding ability I was going to die in Moab. This realization made walking nasty switchbacks with huge rocks less distasteful, and I could ride the other 95% of the trail without wounds or a broken bike. 

Jackson trail was amazing - narrow fast trail with giant dropoff on the left to the Colorado River below…  “death on the left” became a fairly common theme. The trail ended at a flooded creek crossing, so we headed up-creek as instructed until we hit a rock wall going straight into the creek. Since the creek was still extremely deep (I believe up to a tall man’s armpits since we met his group later in the week and they “waded” through) we went up and over a most exciting hike-a-bike on a cliff wall. I managed to not fall in the drink and we found the proper crossing and headed back. 

Monday morning dawned overcast after a night of high winds and rain, and we headed to town as thunder and lightening played in the mountains. After being reassured that Moab really doesn’t get rain and it should all clear shortly we headed to Slickrock trail, just in time for another thunderstorm at close range. We sat in the car and fumed for a bit, and watched several groups come off the trail wet and grumpy and then drove around to watch the weather for a while. After another 15 minutes the skies cleared and we were on the trail, watching the amazing clouds all day while riding bizarre rolling rock. The first two “lookouts” were awesome, and the trail to the second one had a section so steep I couldn’t get my bike back up it, although I had ridden down. We skipped the third lookout and headed around the trail, trying to clean as many of the uphills as possible. I realized when my left leg wimps out I skid down on my right elbow sliding next to my bike until the rock hill levels out, and maybe I need an elbow pad for my right arm…. but the day was great. 

Tuesday we rode up Poison Spider, another amazing trail - and I started trusting the uphill friction better and climb well. The “fool’s variation” is to come down Portal trail, where a sign clearly states that three riders have died here, please walk your bike. A great trail, with the most amazing drop straight down 1000 feet or so to the Colorado if you mess up, so we rode carefully, walked the really sketchy bits, and had another awesome day. 

Wednesday had more thunderstorms in the forecast, so we decided to wait with the Porcupine Rim shuttle and do a longish xc day instead. We parked the car at an intersection just out of town and rode up to Flat Pass, through the cattle field and up a road which became progressively more rocky and ledgy. Several creek crossings, sand, great views and about 3 hours later we were back at the car, had lunch and headed down Pipe Dream, a new trail on the other side of the road from Flat Pass. Pipe Dream is fast and flowy with sudden switchbacks and dropoffs, and amazing rockwork! It feels fairly flat, with short uphill and downhill bits and overall runs fast and edgy. We headed back up the pipeline road, calling it a good day all around and time to eat and relax. 

Thursday - the long anticipated Porcupine Rim shuttle! The shuttle van had 3 “celebrities” in it as the driver repeatedly informed us, but I couldn’t get myself to ask them who they were since they chatted and ignored the advertising. The driver also offered $20 to anyone who could keep them in their sights, which did have some appeal, since I will do a lot for $20. Marc had to work on his bike for a few minutes, so we were behind everyone else leaving. Snow up higher meant the shuttle goes as far as LPS these days, so I know there’s more trail for us to explore next time! It seems any decent Moab trail needs some evil switchbacks to start a ride, and LPS was no exception. But after the initial entry - what a trail! Fast, rocky, smooth with small drops, nasty dropoffs, great views, bigger drops and sharp corners, long open sections that are ridiculously fast, short powerful uphills - the trail’s got it all! Halfway down we met the downhillers as they were checking out some “easy 4 foot drops” and declined to try it as well, and Marc tried to stick with them as they started up again. I was almost as fast, but Marc and I dropped behind as we hit more bumpy rocky sections and our poor bikes bounced like ping pong balls. Caught them again on top of a steep uphill, lost them again - but by now we were in full race mode and were ripping down the trail. I kept hucking rocks because I couldn’t see what the drop was like, and remarkably, living through the experience. Unfortunately this reinforced my belief that this was a good idea. The downhillers succumbed to a flat tire, so we passed them and continued on down progressively more technical terrain to exit the fantastic trail after about 1 hr. 20 min…. Luckily the road back into town takes a few minutes so the adrenalin had worn off a bit. I don’t know if the driver owes us $20, or how we get it - but it was fun! 

Friday - time for a day off to go climbing! We started on what I later dubbed “mall rat wall” - and left as soon as possible. Looking Glass rock in the middle of nowhere was definitely an experience - 2 rattlesnakes, one on either side of the start to the climb, exposed 5.4 climbing with 2 bolts per pitch as protection, but as I reminded myself, I think we’d been riding 5.6, so just don’t trip and you’ll be fine. Some leftover gear from where a previous party had bailed, and after 3 pitches you wriggle down through a keyhole slot to rappel 180 feet through the middle of a giant arch. I’ve never been scared on a rappel before, but I had to stare at the rope for a bit because looking around made me dizzy and panicky. Awesome ! I took lots of pictures of Marc squeezing through and rapping down. 

Saturday - running out of time! Having ridden most of the recommended trails, we decide to go back to Slickrock and run it in reverse. This is supposed to be much more difficult, and I have to agree. Marc changed from super laid-back ‘n relaxed mode to climb-like-a-maniac mode, and although I rode almost every up I felt quite ill from the effort. I think we were riding for an hour and a half, which is really not long enough for that whole trail. 

Then we went back to Arches National Park (our dinner spot) and perched on Owl Rock after climbing the 100 ft 5.8 to get there. MANY tourists got photos, and the lady that got Marc standing on top of the rock at sunset with the almost-full moon just above him probably has a very very cool picture. I rapped off but couldn’t get a picture of Marc on top because the wind was ripping the ropes sideways, and I worried they’d wrap around rockbits and we’d never get them back, so stayed and held ropes until Marc was down. Another plan for the fall….

Sunday we headed to the Top of the World, and much to our surprise this involves a LOT of climbing. Not interesting ledgy difficult climbing, no - the boring continuous crappy climbing that suits me quite well. The ride from the first parking lot to the top is 10 miles and several thousand feet of elevation - for the most amazing view of the week.

Downhill was unfortunately disappointing since it’s the jeep road and gravel road out, and the loose rocks made it dangerous but boring. I hucked a ledge - only to square my front tire into the rock in my landing zone, my only endo for the week. Marc’s tubeless tire ate a stick, and we got another snake picture, and missed a snake picture as well as a giant anthill picture. 

We decided to drive back that night rather than Monday morning, which was wise since my car is stupid hot in desert temps and night driving was very comfortable. Another 24 hours, 2 snowstorms, one ferry, 2 hours of sleep (3 - 5 am I refused to try to drive) some more great landscapes and we’re home again! Very happy to see our pets and get a hot shower, sleep in my own bed - and repack for next weekend! 

Sproat Lake Marathon

Wow - it's been since March since I wrote anything!!!  Lots has happened in the meantime - we went to Moab for a week, and I do have a write up with pics but it'll have to come in after today's because I still need to read it through. We went to Penticton to ride and climb with some very fun friends, and that was awesome too!

Marc went to Squamish this weekend to subdue the Chief.... and should be home shortly. I had too many options - Squamish, which I was very sad to turn down, the party for the Incredible Anne Marie in Victoria which I was so very sad to not get to, a girls-getaway on the Sunshine Coast that I am also very sad to have missed, and the Sproat Lake marathon xc race in Port Alberni.

Lots of regrets that I am but one person and unable to time travel, but I've been hoping to be able to ride this race all winter, and since so far every "goal" has had to be postponed because my knee just wasn't ready I felt it was time to actually try to accomplish something. We did do the Snow to Surf - but my short 8 km xc ski was really not stressful enough to count as a race. I don't think it's really ready for this, but since it's essentially stopped getting better I thought "no time like the present" - right?

So, for my first race of the season......

Sproat Lake advertised a race much like the Campbell River 50, a sufferfest that makes you stronger providing you live through it. Being a longer (40km) race I thought it would be less intense than a short effort like Hammerfest, and therefore less likely to injure me. Lack of sufficient training aside, I think it was a great idea!

Gorgeous sunshine this weekend, and really the first hot days. I talked my friend Chris into riding a lap as well, so we drove out of Comox bright and early this morning and got there well ahead of schedule. A brief warmup followed by the anxious start line. Generally I look at the people around me and back up until I'm beside people that look like me - unfortunately I didn't see any. I don't know what the slow people were doing this weekend, but I could really have used some assistance! Out the field and into the trail I made sure to stay near the back of the pack, and before long we were all riding smooth flowy trails through amazing green forest. The first 10 km were super fun and flowy, and I can't wait to go back and ride again.

The bridges were AMAZING! There was scads of bridges - sometimes 1, sometimes 3 or 4 long bridges in a row, they were 6" wide or 3 feet wide, they were flat, over swamps, over deep creeks, uphills, downhills, there were skinnies with big bumps in them, and skinnies with little lumps sawn into the wood, and there were straight skinnies, or skinnies with giant corners. You get the picture - there were a LOT of log rides and I loved them all!

I caught up to Dave on his single speed at an aid station, and we chatted riding up the next bit of rocky doubletrack, which turned into a hike-a-bike rock river. Unfortunately while chatting we missed a turn - but not wanting to go back we headed onwards thinking to link back in to the trail although going further. Unfortunately it turned out we took a faster line that the race route, and as we hit the trail riders we'd been behind came into view. We waited for the rider Dave had been with, and then cut back in. That really took the "race" effort out of me, since no matter who I caught it wouldn't have been fair, and until now I'd been riding quite hard. In the long run that detour was my saviour because I slowed down, sniffed some roses and had a much better ride for it. Because this race certainly wasn't over for a long long time!

The middle 5 km became a bit burlier, and I stopped making it up all the hills, then the last 5 km of singletrack was truly evil when you're tired. I hadn't managed enough food and reminded myself that I was 1. just out riding my bike, not racing and 2. was going to call it a day after the first lap and have a beer. Of course I headed back out, but I did ride quite slowly and refused to feel inadequate about it.

The second lap started great and flowy again, and I realized the end of the first lap really was evil, not that I was just too tired to ride. And in all fairness, it was all rideable - I just couldn't ride up those hills that tired! By this time I was riding with Dave, the single speeder from Campbell River who would ride ahead, chat up the trail volunteers, and stopped at the aid station for some quiche and a beer. I would love to say I rode up all kinds of hills and made them look easy - but I didn't really do much better than lap one.....

I was pretty happy to see the finish. I had gotten into a flow, but my knee started complaining around km 35, and the total ride was 44 km, leaving a slight discrepancy. I tried to think if this was an adventure race could I continue - and thought that as long as there was no riding or running for a bit it would actually be totally okay. Paddling perhaps? But then I ate a veggie burger and some amazing salmon and we drove home before we were worried we'd fall asleep. Chris had a great lap - loved the bridges and the flow, felt the same about LazerShark trail as I did, and hopefully we'll both be back for next year!

Best race parts:
- the clearcut slash EVERYONE (including both me and Chris) walked into carrying their bikes following irrelevant blue ribbon
- all the pretty flowers, flowy trails and all the cool bridges
- the awesome BBQ at the end with salmon and veggie burgs!!!

Thanks SO much to all the volunteers, my partner in crime Chris, my other partner in crime Dave who I chased for a lap and a bit, and who then gave me a Tshirt, and Jeff at Trail bikes who made the whole thing sound like a good idea. Huge thanks to  ZZtop and his aid station partner, Lee and the team of  volunteers for the awesomely organized race, great trails and especially the encouragement.

SPOT sucks....

Drove an hour. Bought a SPOT for my mom so she can ride her horse in the woods and get help if something goes wrong...
tried to make SPOT work. Took hours. Spot's website NEVER EVER EVEN ONCE managed to email out my "i'm okay" messages. or the "help" messages, or the "custom message"
Lots of customer service phonecalls and several hours later........  cancelled SPOT
Now we get to drive another hour in a snowstorm and return SPOT

DON'T EVER BOTHER BUYING ONE!!! I think a whistle works better
 international.findmespot.com sucks

Mt Cain Telefest

This weekend Mt Cain telefest was the place to be! A group of adventurous skiers that we know from Vancouver and Victoria were all converging on Mt Cain, so Marc, Joan and I had to go and check things out! What started as a very small community event has gradually increased in popularity at this small skihill and on Saturday the hill was "packed" - with 400 skiers! Lift lineups are apparently unheard of, but given the perfect sun and snow I didn't hear a lot of complaining - after all, we all came on the busiest day of the year on the hill by choice!

The last few weeks the snow has been awful here on the island, so in time for the festival it cooled off and snowed for a week, which was greatly appreciated by everyone. Perfectly clear nights with a full moon and a great starry sky and sunshine all Saturday, no wind to speak of and tons of fresh light powder was enough to have Marc and I giggling all weekend. Since we don't know how to tele ski, being able to turn in giant fluffy snowbanks was amazing.

Saturday - the annual tele-race. Not just for people that know how to ski, somehow Marc and I were in this....  It was super fun, and we made a solid showing at the back of the pack. Did I mention we don't know how to tele-ski? The draw prizes at the end of the day were truly amazing - for a $5 race entry we ended up with a great ski backpack and a pair of bright nepali mittens!

Marc at the race start area

Marc, Suzanne and Meaghan on lunchbreak

What can I say about this one? 

Sunday had a lot less people, and we were floored by how tired our legs were given the easy day we had on Saturday! My left leg was definitely not up for anything anymore and spent the day snowplowing - snowplow left turn, attempt tele- to right, snowplow, repeat....  apparently works just fine! 

So, halfway through the day we decided to go ski the West Bowl! Brilliant idea! We had avi gear and the risk was quite low, the bowl "skied out" by fussier people's standards, but we have no preconceived notion of what it should be like so it was AWESOME! The east bowl and other areas were still pristine powder, but we had to stick to the easiest terrain for obvious reasons. 

Top of the saddle

View down the top part of the run

and then it got a little steeper!

Joanie giggling 

Coming down the bowl

View back up the bowl

 Wish there were more pics of Joan and Suzanne making it look pretty and easy! For obvious reasons my camera was buried in the bottom of the pack as I anticipated faceplanting and tumbling in my near future!

Looking back at the West Bowl and surroundings from the ski out

Suzanne never seems to be having fun. 

spring on the island?

Pick the sport - CAREFULLY - and if you picked the right one for the weather it's going to be awesome. Last week I started with skate skiing Monday - poor choice as the trails were very icy and the going pretty awful. Tuesday I thought a road bike ride would be best - and low and behold - I get the little sticker that says "you got it right!"

I took my camera and spent a fair bit of time trying to figure out where on my bike to attach it since I'm not wearing a backpack. If anyone knows the right location....   I was also feeling very green, mostly due to my bright green bike and my new green sugoi jacket. The sun was really warm when I stopped, and as soon as I was moving the super cold wind was trying to cut through me - but I was perfectly dressed for once! That never happens, so it was quite memorable.

Kye bay stop - I always have to stop here and just pause...

Comox Glacier

Happy Donkeys and Horses, thinking of my mom! (it's not an insult - she has donkeys and horses...!)

Swans in the meadow

it IS spring!

Then I picked work as the ideal way to spend my day - and despite some goings on didn't get any pictures or good stories.

This weekend - we picked tele skiing today! I guess we could have picked worse - I didn't do the skate ski race because I really haven't been able to train - and in a blizzard that would have been a poor choice. Mountain biking was probably wet but okay. Tele.... wellll..... not quite sure what to think of the day. But we really wanted to learn to tele a bit before telefest, and there was no lack of snow.

A bit snowy... Mattie trying to stand on Marc's skis as often as possible. Pippa stayed in the car snuggled on a warm oatbag. 

My pretty skis!

more lovely snow

trail breaking on the island

The way up actually wasn't bad, unfortunately the fluffy snow actually weighed a ton and coming down just wasn't steep enough and I could see my ski tips when I'd hauled them out of the snow, then I'd glide a bit but despite everything they would slowly start to sink - and sink - and then I was past my knees sliding and stopping - and the slog to the next steeper section took forever, so we had to flail back to the up- trail and follow it out.

Next week is telefest at Mt Cain - maybe I'll learn to tele then? I sure could use some tips.....

Winter on the island...

It feels like spring - and I haven't added any pictures from the winter yet! And what I really REALLY should be doing is organizing Big Dog Biking accounting....  oh what fun.

So I thought I'd post some pictures from the winter instead :o)

Way WAY back in January Marc, Joan and I took our tele gear to explore Mount Becher in winter. This is the easiest summer hike, and we've all done it multiple times, but I've never gone there in winter. Thankfully the pouring rain stopped on the drive out, and the weather was foggy but nice. 

The snow was not so nice, as you can see from the icy sheen.... but it was pretty!

 

 Matilda led the way, which unfortunately meant dropping through the snowcrust and she was really tired by the end of the day. Pippa was luckier, and she could run along the top of the snow surface without ever breaking a sweat. 

A well dressed dog is a happy dog..... Pippa showing off her winter coat

Marc on the summit

Joan, Matilda, Pippa, Marc - with me stalking behind. 

A good day was had by all. Pippa and Mattie slept for the next day but looked very happy..... Our next tele destination is Arrowsmith - but since the white stuff has turned to an icy blue we've been putting it off and going skate skiing and biking instead.

Till next time, I have to stop procrastinating now!