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Back to Canmore – Roadtrip Complete

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To finish off the three months of driving I decided to drive all the way back from Vancouver to Canmore in the middle of the long weekend. The logic there being that Jasper would be a zoo on a sunny holiday weekend & I’d be better off checking it out a little later when there were less people around.

So Saturday morning I set off on a wonderfully sunny drive east across BC. The traffic was pretty good & BC was beautifully forested – it really is a large province when you drive across the bottom in one day. After Kamloops I was back on roads I’d driven before & there was a half-hour wait near Shuswap – but I had the Kindle out so I wasn’t too fussed. Over Rogers Pass & coming into Golden there was an ominous big cloud of black smoke billowing into the sky. I was near the front of a queue for almost an hour as some poor family watched their RV incinerate. The rest of the drive was uneventful & I was soon driving below familiar peaks – just they had a lot less snow (almost none) on them than I remember. It was a little odd getting closer to Canmore – being away for three months & doing so many other things must have lessened the blow of leaving such a great place as I wasn’t too concerned that I’ll be gone in three weeks.

So that was it really, just under 22000 km, 87 days, 13 states, two provinces, 45 MTB rides totalling a thousand kilometres, at least 15 National Parks & 5 National Monuments, only 2600 photos & 435 gallons of gas. What a great trip! We were blessed by the weather – notably it never got really hot, as it did the last time I visited Utah, Nevada, Arizona & California in 2009.  Highlights are hard to list as there were so many. But I’ll try anyway:

A separate list for the riding highlights, which is even harder as I rode so much quality singletrack.

That’s that – thanks again Valerie for coming along for the ride & sharing the experience (& financing a lot of it too!).  I’m in Canmore until mid-August before flying back to London to catch the last of the English summer.  Mum’s coming across to England for the last few months of the year, so it’ll be great to see her & plenty of other friends & family in the UK.  From then on, I only have vague ideas as to what I’m going to do with myself… But riding better figure in there somehow.

Canada, city, family, friends, hiking, roadtrip, travel

No rain in Vancouver

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For a whole week I was in Vancouver & I didn’t see it rain once. I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. With mild summer temperatures it was quite pleasant. Valerie & I spent a bit of time Wednesday & Thursday on the North Shore doing pleasant little walks & enjoying the sun. Karin & I caught the final installment of Harry Potter one evening in the city – it really is a very good conclusion to the series & the 3D adds something extra.

Thursday night I said goodbye to my traveling buddy as Valerie flew off back to Sydney. It’ll be a huge shock for her to go back to work after thirteen weeks. It was great to have someone to share the such a large trip with & we really did see a lot & have some great memories – plus having a shuttle driver for my MTB rides was a huge bonus.

Karin took Friday off work for an extra long long-weekend & we tossed around various ideas for a hike close to town. The forecast was good, but the morning started off with a shroud of cloud covering the city. We eventually decided on walking to Eagle Bluffs from the Cypress ski area to hopefully get a good view of the city & out to Vancouver Island. The trail started by climbing steeply up to the top of the ridge & Black Mountain. There was a lot of snow to cross as we approached the ridge, walked along it & then went down the west side for forty minutes before reaching the bluffs. There were a few small ponds around doing their job of looking pretty well.

We did get out on the bluffs for a good view of the surrounds. It was still a little hazy, so the photos don’t show nearly as much as we actually saw. The clouds came & went & were replaced by various others, but it was worth the walk as most of the time on the top of the ridge we had clear blue skies.

From a bit further down the hill on the drive home

We took a slightly different route back to the car & were down after about four hours in total. After resting for a little while we pulled bikes out & went off in to the city to meet a couple of Karin’s friends to watch the sunset from Kits beach. The skytrain took us half way there & we had a very pleasant forty minute ride around the waterfront to the beach where we grabbed some sushi. After sitting & chatting on the beach for too long, it was rather dark for our return trip but we managed not to knock anyone over of get hit ourselves. A very fun little outing to cap the day off.

bikes, Canada, event, family, friends, roadtrip, travel

Whistler visit

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Karin had a Sunday daytrip to Whistler planned for us & a couple of her friends, Mark & Elise.  It was a rare wonderfully sunny day in this part of the world & the slow drive up Highway 99 through Squamish had great views of the bay & mountains.  It was the last day of Crankworx (a ten day freeride MTB event), so the village was pretty busy; but not nearly as crazy as Saturday apparently.  We wandered around the village (nice to have no roads through it) a bit, had lunch & then Karin, Mark & Elise went off to go zip-lining.  Valerie & I pottered around a bit more, managing to catch Ryan Leech’s trials riding demonstration.  A thoroughly likeable guy (the couple of times I’ve seen him at events at least), he has a very good little show demonstrating what trials riding is all about.  Basically it’s on a special small framed MTB & consists of insane feats of balance, hopping on to things at height from a standstill & so on.  Impressive to say the least.

We filled in a bit more time with wandering around the Olympic Village & then getting a little lost walking to Lost Lake. I was expecting a nice quiet little lake surrounded by trees, & it was, but there were also hundreds of people on the grass around the shore enjoying the sun.

Blackcomb ski runs

The bottom of the main Crankworx course off Whistler Mountain & straight into the village

As far as I remember, we met the others & then returned to Vancouver, with a lot of other slow-moving traffic. It doesn’t seem as though we actually did that much, but it was a great day out & fantastic that neither Valerie or I had to drive. It didn’t take much of this beautiful sunny mountainous environment to have me dreaming wistfully of being able to stay in Canada longer – I’d put off thoughts of my departure with excited thoughts of the USA roadtrip.

bikes, friends, GPS, MTB, roadtrip, travel, USA

McKenzie River Trail & the Xen crew

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On my fourth attempt to ride the McKenzie River trail, I was finally successful. With the car in the shop having its engine pulled out & apart, we had a loaner that actually got us more than eight miles out of Bend on Highway 20 north. For most of the hour drive to the trailhead I wasn’t overly keen on all the rain that was falling, but as we started to go down the other side of the range it eased off a bit.

Starting at a recently sealed parking lot, the new trail signs aren’t quite up yet, immediately I was over the first of many log bridges crossing various streams & the river on the ride. There was a mile or so of nice wide packed dirt singletrack under big trees before I crossed another bridge at the head of Clear Lake. The east side of the lake has a lot of lava flow to ride over & it’s easily the most technical & tricky part of the ride – quite slow as well. The sun wasn’t out, so the lake wasn’t as clear as it may usually be but beautiful all the same.

The tricky rock continued for a while & I passed many hikers before the trail suddenly became sealed in the middle of a big lava flow – some quite tight corners here. After the lake the trail alternated quickly between smooth trail & rocks. After crossing a forestry road & then the highway in quick succession it wasn’t long before I happened across the river plunging over Sahalie Falls. There were a few vantage points to get a look (& feel – a little spray, but nothing like Yosemite) at the water thundering over.

The river disappeared for a while underground & while I was cruising down through the damp, mossy trees I caught up to a group – actually a pair from Salt Lake & another from Portland. After a bit of chatting (it turns out we all had Giro Xen helmets of different colours) we were riding up to Blue Pool where the river comes back out of the ground. Strangely still, it was even clearer than Clear Lake. Looking down from above it was very difficult to gauge its depth, but it was plenty stunning. We all traded cameras a little, so I ended up with a few photos of myself for a change.

Switching the order around a bit as we continued down the fun trail through more trees, rocks & moss I somehow found myself at the front. I’m not sure that that is always a good idea as I kept stopping for pictures like the tourist I am.

Just before the halfway point Rob & Kevin had to leave & head back to Portland. Jeremy, Pam & I continued on our merry way. There were a few small climbs, but these weren’t much of a bother – helped to break up the monotony of sweet downhill riding. The descents weren’t particularly steep, just good fun weaving in & out of trees & dealing with the occasional rocky section.

At times the forest became quite enchanted as the moss was even more mossy, the light darkened & it all became a little etheral. I was wondering where the Faraway Tree was & Jeremy was concerned that some gnome was going to jump out from behind a rock, put a big stick through his wheels & steal all his stuff.

We continued our way down throughly enjoying the ride – Jeremy & I had a good pace going & I was happy with a few little rest stops. Especially as I’d hit climbs thinking they’d be short & they were always twice as long as I expected. For quite a bit of the ride beside the river we’d noticed a mist hanging around the yard or two above the river – it was a little spooky seeing it so much.

There was a bit of riding near the highway, but the traffic noise was generally blocked by all the trees. The trail-goodness just goes & on & on and after five hours we were within a mile of the cars when both Pam & I managed to stack it. I was having too much fun & rode around a corner to find a white-bearded, bare-footed hippy in the middle of the trail – he was surprised as I grabbed a handful of brake, washed out the front a bit & stopped & fell to the left very quickly. From all accounts, Pam did a commendable impression of someone wanting to introduce her helmet to a tree – not sure how that happened. A most excellent ride all up & great to have met good riding buddies along the way.

Valerie & I took the scenic route 242 back to Sisters. It climbed its tortuous path up to over 5000 feet through a lot more rain & big trees. Valerie was particularly pleased to see a black bear cub run across the road in front of us, I was pleased that this time I wasn’t on my bike a few metres down the trail. At the top of the pass it was all volcanic rock again & just dry enough to get out of the car. There is a cool old viewing platform at the top with small holes in walls to look out at the various peaks. Alas, it was too cloudy to see any.