Venting on Renting

With only a month to go and tickets booked, one of the clouds looming on the horizon is renting out the apartment. We have had several people come by and see the place, but so far no dice. We have had some great feedback on our amazing apartment, but that doesn't really help matters.

So we are remaining positive, and putting it out there: "Rent me!"

In case you haven't seen this amazing place, I thought I would share - who wouldn't want to rent it?

 

Ooh la la!

Tour de Golden Tears

It was Friday around lunch time when we actually realized that the week-end was upon us and that we hadn't made any plans. Not wanting to let a beautiful week-end pass us by, Pete and Travis decided to investigate cycling trips that were 50-60km away and that allowed for camping and fishing. Golden Ears was the winner with a 60-70km ride, a lovely lake full of fish and over 100 campsites...how could things go wrong.

We set out Saturday morning on fully loaded bikes containing tents, food, water, fishing rods and high spirits. The Central Valley Trail was fantastic with smooth riding, no cars, limited people and tons of dragon flies. The first 24km was a breeze and then we hit highway cycling. Cycling on most highways in BC isn't the greatest but it's usually not too bad as most contain shoulders wide enough to 'comfortably' cycle on. Let's just say that cycling on Lougheed highway with massive amounts of construction, lane closures and dust clouds floating everywhere caused for a pretty uncomfortable ride. Luckily we weren't on the highway for long and the rest of the journey more than made up for this section. I kept wondering if this was somehow training for cycling in Vietnam...lets hope not.

We continued on our ride through back roads that were surrounded by fields of cows, horses and lamas with the mountains as our backdrop. It was quiet enough to hear the birds chirping..now this is my kind of cycling. We eventually made our way into Golden Ears park and were pretty excited to get our tents setup, go for a swim and start fishing. As we worked our way though the hilly roads to enter the park we came across a sign indicating that the park was full! Now in all of our planning, we hadn't really thought that this would happen. I mean how can a campground, about an hours drive from the city on a beautiful lake be fully booked on a sunny hot week-end....hmmm putting it like that we probably should have known better! There was a sign indicating that the park ranger station was 4km away so we decided to push on and see if we could somehow sweet talk our way onto a campsite. When you've just traveled 50-60Km on a bicycle an additional 4km doesn't really seem like a lot except of course if it's all up hill and your granny gears just don't seem to be granny enough. To add to all of this, someone wielding a water-gun in a passing car sprayed us in the face with water...who does that?! If it hadn't been so hot outside, I'm sure I would've been mad, however after such a long ride in the sun it actually felt pretty refreshing. We saw the turn off for the park ranger station and followed the sign to....nothing. There was no station. Behind a 'No public access' sign was a place where the park rangers could park their cars. We decided to take a break and sit in the shade for a while. After some discussions and laughter (I mean what else are you going to do!) we decided to head back home.

Making our way back did seem a bit quicker and easier and that 4km uphill turned into a pretty sweet downhill ride. We all started to get bonked somewhere in Port Coquitlam and decided to stop in a park and do some pseudo camping by unpacking our panniers and eating veggie/hot dogs and ichiban. We made it home around 8pm, ate dinner watched reruns and pretty much immediately fell asleep.

All in all a pretty great adventure :)

Tour de Golden Rears

This marked the second grand tour from our doorstep (the first down the Galloping Goose Trail on Vancouver Island).  A late Friday afternoon survey of google maps showed that Golden Ears Park was within 70kms of our doorstep, and that there were some city trails and quiet roads that we could take to get there. So, with a quick shop for the essentials (hot dogs, ichiban soup and PB&J wraps), Travis, Monica and I set out with fishing rods and camping gear for another adventure.

We followed the Central Valley Greenway out of town, which is a combination paved and gravel path that goes for about 24km through mostly green and wooded areas. It is always a surprise to find gems like these around Vancouver, and as we left the trail, we prepared for some highway riding.

The highway riding wasn't great, as there was a lot of construction, but passed fairly quickly. We got onto some more trails through Port Coquitlam that passed by various streams and rivers, which the locals were out at in force due to the great summer day that it was.

With a big lake at our destination, we pressed on over the Golden Ears Bridge, and through some picturesque farmlands. We stopped in at a farm market which had some great cherries, which we quickly ate before riding on.

 This is where the plan began to unravel: Hannibal Smith and the A-team would have disapproved. As we cycled into the park, we noted a small sign indicating the campground was full.

Being the eternal optimists, we pressed on for another 5km to the Park headquarters, where we confirmed that indeed the sign was correct, and that we would not be able to camp there for the night.

Travis cracked a beer as we consulted blackberrys and iphones to assess our options. As the beer slowly emptied itself out, we came to the agreement that riding home would make the most sense.

We did stop briefly at a park to refuel on hot dogs and ichiban, and eventually rolled in home after 10 hours in the saddle and perhaps 130km, marking the longest day of touring that we had done. Carrying all the extra weight certainly took its toll, and the evening was capped off with pizza and falling asleep on the couch watching Magnum P.I.

Map of Tour:



View Larger Map

Highlights: Central Valley Greenway, Poco Trail, Farmstall on Dewdney Trunk.
Lowlights: Realizing the campground was full, getting sprayed with a watergun by rednecks passing by in a large truck
Funny moments: Peter falling over with bicycle still clipped in.

Readers Challenge: post a link in the comments to your favourite park/destination within a 70km radius of your home.

Suddenly Seymour

Over the past weekend, I had decided to try my hand at randonneuring. For those that don't know, randonneuring is ultra marathon cycling. A sort of sadistic way to pass many consecutive hours with a bicycle saddle jammed up somewhere uncomfortable, eating gel energy shots, and drinking carb sports drinks resulting in pitstops like the below:

The Suddenly Seymour Route is a 205 km ride called a brevet, the first in a series of rides that gradually increase in distance to 300km, 400km and 600km. The point of the ride is not to race, but to finish within an allowed amount of time. The 205 has to be completed within 13.5 hours to qualify.

BC Rando: Suddenly Seymour

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Dave and I set out with a group of about 30 other riders at 7am on a route that took us from Vancouver up to Alice Lake, then back down to North Vancouver, where we climbed up to the Seymour Demonstration Forest, and back down to Vancouver. There were control points where we either had to get a stamp, write down some information off of a sign, or count picnic tables -  a way to prove that you had actually ridden the route.

It was a pretty gruelling ride, but at the end of the day you can see that Dave and I were still smiling pretty hard after 11 hours in the saddle.

The next ride is a 300km on July 24th through some parts of the US  - The Whatcom Wambler. Still on the fence on whether to ride it