September 10th (Morning)

With the golf game and the ACS middle management meeting yesterday (which didn’t finish ‘till 8:30pm), I didn’t ride home last night. However, Corrie and I did run up to work and picked up the bike so I was able to ride this morning. I guess I should consider getting another $20 pack of bus tickets for days like today, eh?

This morning’s ride was awesome. Even after 18 holes of golf yesterday (which I was pretty sore this morning, but walking muscle sore not biking). It was VERY windy, coming from the south. Mostly I didn’t notice any type of head winds, but the trees were blowing around pretty good. Unfortunately, I missed one of the hills at Rose Hill pipeline section as my chain decided to jump off the ring when I shifted to granny gear…

As I was going across the single-track trail on Frolek’s land and that bird I saw on my ride in on Tuesday the 7th was on a tree right near the trail. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice him ‘till he suddenly took off making a rather abrupt noise that made me think I was finally going to see an infamous bear! And the noise the bird made I was sure the bear was running AT me… Of course, all of that went through my mind in milliseconds before I looked up and saw the bird… Not sure what kind of bird he is, though? He was huge, about the size of an eagle. Very dark brown feathers, with a 2-inch white/gray tip along the ends of both wings. He has a bit of red and yellow/beige on this head/beak, which makes me think vulture. But vultures typically have an entire red head, right? So, I really am not sure what he is. But big, and he gave me a bit of a jump for sure this morning, hah!

Shortly after that, I came around a corner and hear a crashing in the bush what seemed like just over the hill. So now I’m REALLY getting jumpy! It was a very loud crashing, so I figure it must’ve been a tree falling over with the wind, as a black bear wouldn’t be big enough to make that much noise. Granted, if it was a bear, he was big and I am REALLY glad I didn’t see him in the end! Hah!

Of course, being jumpy already, with the wind picking up, I was rather nervous riding through the “Forest of the Dead” (as I have named it, see the second half of my July 19th (Morning) post). I made it through unscathed, so all is well that ends well!

I made it down and through the creek with good speed, and FINALLY made the climb up the bank on the other side again! Yay! The rest of the ride was good, I made the climb up without issue, made the two sandy sections (which I feel like I’m learning how to control much better now).

I think I’m finally going to be able to put through my MEC order today or tomorrow which means I should get the new mouthpiece for my water pack shortly and can stop having to live with the constant dripping on my knee… Plus, I will be ordering spare tube and patch kit as well, something I’m not very comfortable riding without right now!

September 9th (Morning)

For a minute this morning, I thought I was going to get a sunny ride to work. Amazing how much more light it is when the sun peaks through the clouds! However, even though the cloud cover is light and I am assuming it will dissipate pretty quickly this morning, I didn’t get any sun during my ride… Oh well!

I met up with the female commuter again just at the trailhead coming out of Juniper (first met up with her on July 30th). This time I rode with her ‘till Rose Hill where she went up the road and I went straight. Apparently she says she goes up and then across and then down through Peterson’s Creek into downtown. She says she tries to at least “make a ride out of it” rather than just going straight there. I always am unsure as to what to do when I catch people like this. Do I ride with them? Do I keep going? Am I being rude, or a show off, to just say “Hi” and blast by them? Anyways, it only added maybe a couple of minutes to my ride so no big deal.

The trails were in great shape with the rain yesterday and last night. The sand pockets were firmer and easier to ride through. I didn’t make the one down-and-up dip in the single-track like I did yesterday, though… I also didn’t make the west bank out of the creek! In fact, it was a pitiful effort, as I completely screwed up my line going through the creek and bounced over a few rocks which sent me totally wrong up the bank… I really need to concentrate on the right line on this bank. Miss it by a couple of inches, and it makes the difference between a good effort (and possible a successful one) and a pitiful, hide-my-face-in-shame effort!

I did notice my heart rate was close to the max a couple of times today, and I didn’t feel as good on the hills. This afternoon I won’t be riding home, as ACS is having a golf game/dinner/meeting from 11am to 9pm! Yikes! So, that should be a blast (the golf part, the meeting I’m sure will be whatever…). I hope to maybe come back up her after the meeting to pick up the bike so I can ride in the morning, but if not I’ll leave the bike at work and probably take a bus in the morning.

September 8th (Afternoon)

Thankfully, after a complete day of rain, I actually was able to ride home in dry and sunny conditions! The rain started around 9am, and stopped around 3pm, so that was a blessing that I was able to avoid it both coming and going…

I met up with Phil again today. In fact, it was right after the intersection of Howe and Hugh Allan (well, just past it). I came down Howe and saw him ride by, then I turned onto Hugh Allan and started catching him pretty fast. At first, I didn’t think it was Phil as it wasn’t his usual bike. Turns out his usual bike is getting repaired, this is his “old” bike… Jeepers, this bike alone is about a $2K bike, and only 5 years old he said. So he’s got at least two bikes that are 2-3 times the bike I have… Must be nice to be old and established with no kids!!! Hah!

Anyways, we rode the entire way together (I wasn’t a jerk this time, and just stayed with him). Going down into Peterson’s Creek he was very fast. He was across the creek by the time I was coming down the final descent on the Billy Minor trail. The rest of the ride I was able to stay with him on the descents, but had to keep braking to keep his pace on the hills and flats. I don’t think he’s in worse shape than me by any stretch. But he just enjoys a slow, spinning type ride. It was a decent ride nonetheless, and I did talk with him about 29er hardtails versus 26er full suspensions (he figures for my route, the 29er would be perfect, as did the guy at Spoke ‘N Motion).

Anyways, it was a good ride. Slower times and speeds, but I guess time socializing isn’t a bad thing once in a while…

A bit of ranting about downhillers…

Ok, I was getting a bit worked up today about downhill mountain bikers. Now, I know I shouldn’t generalize like this, but in my short summer back into the world of mountain biking, I’ve made one observation of most downhillers.

Downhilling is the ONLY type of mountain biking that exists, anything else is crap.

Ok, well not all feel this way. But I feel that this trend is way out of hand. Seriously, when I got into biking, cross country was where it was at… We had idols like Ned Overend, John Tomac, and Juli Furtado. These racers embodied what was great about the sport. Do anything and go anywhere with all the energy you could possibly expend! They pushed themselves beyond the limits, riding their bikes harder than anyone else would or could, going up and down. It was, in my opinion, the best mountain biking era there ever was.

Now, I don’t have anything against downhilling as a sport in itself. In fact, John Tomac was one of the first to get into it hardcore! It is a good and fun sport. Just like I think a Harley is a decent motor bike, Macintosh makes good computers and Starbucks has decent coffee. What I have against it is the “image” people are trying to achieve by getting into it. As it, by some magical osmosis, because they bought and ride a downhill bike, they’re in this “cool” group now. Very much like many who buy Harley’s and sit in Starbucks on their iMacs… Sure, there are those into these “fads” because of their personal choice based on likes, dislikes and actual research, but so many are seemingly into it because of the image they are trying to portray (I mean, seriously, why else would someone willingly pay $5 for a cup of coffee???).

Ok, so back to downhilling. What bothers me is the attitude. The typical downhiller attitude is the very same attitude that drives me nuts about so many people today (kids and adults alike). There seems to be this prevalent attitude of “me” that goes beyond the typical human natured selfishness. Like they can’t see anything BUT themselves and what they’re into, which is downhilling. Go onto any mountain bike review site and read a bunch of reviews of local trails. The majority of the trails are rated based on their downhilling aspects. “This trail is pretty lame. Maybe the odd 2’ drop at the most, but that’s it.”  “Not worth it. You have to walk your bike all the way to the top for only a 15 minute ride down, most of which isn’t even that gnarly really.”  Seriously? I have ridden some of these trails that have received poor reviews from downhillers and they are excellent cross country trails! Tough climbs, flowing single-track, with a few steep downhill sections mixed in. Sure, for a downhiller, probably not the best choice. But for cross country, a great trail! As cross country riders actually ride their bikes to the tops of the hills, this throws in an entirely new aspect to the same trail that a downhiller can never appreciate.

Of course, my best example to date was when I went looking for a flat bar for my bike, and the kid at Taboo cycles (a downhiller) looked at me blankly and just asked “What for?” That is a classic example of the short-sightedness that gets me hot under the collar. What for??? I ride cross country, ding bat! Oh, right! There are other disciplines of mountain biking out there…

But really, the reason I got worked up about this subject this morning was the Tom Moore trail. A couple of downhillers appeared to have taken a ride down the trail last night. As such, the corners, the sandy sections, and many other portions of the trail were quite ripped up with deep trenches from them sliding and skidding their way down. A typical cross country rider usually understands the importance of riding controlled and balanced, leaving little to no traces of their passing. A typical downhiller only knows speed, and as such is willing to rip up a multi-use trail for a few seconds of fun. Sure, that’s great, but not so great when they start banning bicycles on city trails because of this type of disregard! And, not to mention that there are so many people on these trails at any given time, no one can safely ride at such speeds without putting others at risk. You cannot see around the next corner, but you’re willing to slide around it at a speed that will not allow you to stop in time for that little girl hiking with her dad?

Ok, time to get off my soap box. I have ranted enough for today and will go back to work now… Thanks for listening!

September 8th (Morning)

Dang it but it’s getting darker fast… This morning the Juniper street lights were pretty much all on… Uh oh. I need some lights pretty quick I think! The temperature was good, though. I started with my jacket again, but by Frolek’s gate I was ditching it again (meaning I probably shouldn’t have put it on in the first place).

My numbers weren’t very good today. Slow overall time, slow average speed, slow maximum speed… And yet I didn’t feel nearly as bad as these show, nor did I feel slow… Guess that’s not a good thing? Other than not being able to see much, it was a good ride. I finally made the one down-and-up dip in the Frolek’s single-track trail (with the rocks). This is the first time I’ve done it, so I was pretty stoked! This means that if I can do that and the west creek bank both in the same ride I can make it to work with 0 stops! Won’t that be sweet!!!

I thought maybe I was actually going to make the west creek bank this morning, but powered too hard (jeepers, now that’s an issue?) over the first few rocks and cranked myself far too right and into the bushes, rather than being able to pull back left for the final section.

The rest of the way up to Summit was really good, I still don’t think my maximum heart rate was near as high as I’ve been here in the past, so that’s cool.

I saw three deer, but not where I expected. I was on my final climb up Howe Road and they were having their breakfast in some guy’s back yard! So, as I was spinning up the hill by them, I pulled out my phone and snapped some pictures… Not the best shots, but hey, it’s a cell phone, there was bad lighting and I was climbing a hill on my bike!

This maybe was the Mama dear? A bit bigger than the other two and off by herself a bit.

 

These two were a bit smaller, and maybe a bit more skittish so I’m assuming their the fawns but what do I know?

 

Well, taking pictures of deer while riding I have determined to be a good way to not realize the pain my legs might be feeling. While I was taking these pictures, I didn’t even really think about pushing up the hill. But as soon as I put the phone away and started focusing on the ride again, I realized what I was doing and my legs started hurting… Hah!

September 7th (Afternoon)

Another good ride this afternoon. Often after a good morning ride, my afternoon one is painful but not today so that was good!

As I left work, there was a rather large downpour coming into Kamloops on the West end. Seeing that I was just on the front end of this system, I figured that I’d better “lay the hammer down” or I was going to get soaked! From work ‘till about the old Merritt highway, it kept spitting at me here and there, but by the time I got to the trails, I was out running it and riding under beautiful sunny skies!

Going down into the creek was good, but the back brake was a bit noisy and squealing a lot… I did make it through the creek and up the first root, but no where near as far up the next section like I know I can do. Even the climb up out of the valley was a rather poor effort, as I failed to keep the bike straight and had to bail way sooner than I normally do…

The rest of the ride was great, though. I, again, took the two new gulley trails down to Frolek’s lower road, and by the time I got to the bottom, the back brake was at least a bit quieter!

Up ‘till Juniper, the trails were pretty quiet (minus my own squealing brake!) However, on the Juniper trail I met up with about 7 hikers/joggers/bikers… All with dogs of course! A really good time though in the end. Not a record, but pretty close to it and better than I’ve done for a long time for sure.

September 7th (Morning)

Well, fall is coming if it isn’t here already! Corrie actually got a fire going last night, and Taryn starts her first day in Grade 1 today. Yikes! It seems the summer has flown by! Although, I’m into my 7th month of riding already and I have more than 2100 kilometres logged, so it has been a great summer for riding to be sure. I hope to continue well into November and maybe longer if the weather cooperates, so we’ll see! I will be needing lights soon, as the ride is definitely getting dimmer…

It is getting harder to take a decent picture with my cell phone camera now. It takes horrible shots with dim lighting, so I may be getting to the end of pictures from the phone for a while! I took this shot to show the amount of street lights still on in the valley, and they don’t even come through into the picture…

The ride this morning was a good one. I felt great and had a pretty good time of under 60 minutes in the end. The bike ran pretty well, although I did have to stop and do some quick barrel adjustments on the rear derailleur to get the downshifting to happen quicker. The brakes were pretty loud again as the trail and brush were pretty wet from a rain last night. But, it wasn’t raining on me this morning so that was good! Coming up to the top of the east side of Peterson’s Creek I think I saw a vulture of some sort up on a tree. I did take a picture, but with the lighting mixed with my shaking hands, I can’t even see a dark spot on the picture where he was…

I didn’t make the climb out of the creek, but I did make the next steep hill that somehow foiled me on Friday. Coming up the rest of the ride on Tom Moore I met up with a guy that looked quite out of place on these trails. He had jeans on, a leather jacket, headphones and a seemingly permanent scowl on his face. Needless to say, he didn’t respond to my “Good Morning” greeting. But then again, he also didn’t pull out a switchblade to stab me, so I should look at the positive side of things, right?

In the end, I don’t think I reached more than 95% of my maximum heart rate, so it was a really good ride. On the road connecting Frolek’s lower and upper roads I only hit about 92% at the most, and then up Tom Moore is where I noticed 94% and then 95% at the end. Pretty good, considering that both of those hills I usually am sitting close to 99%! I’m sure that by Thursday this week I’ll be hitting the high percentiles again.