Category Archives: travel

Canada, snow, travel

Survived Kamloops – wasn’t difficult

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Actually, I had a great week away working in Kamloops.  It’s a really nice little city – unfortunately I didn’t see a lot of it as was mostly dark when I wasn’t at work.  A big bonus of my little escape from the valley was that I missed the cold weather at the start of the week.  Word has it that it was appreciably below -30ºC in Canmore on Tuesday & pretty close to -40ºC at Exshaw (where I usually work).  It was comparatively balmy -20ºC in Kamloops that day.  Unfortunately, quite a few of the conveyors at Lafarge Kamloops are outside – it was pretty tough trying to write on a clipboard in the biting wind.

The plant itself is very small & almost cute (in an industrial way) – they have one kiln & three dinky little mills.  With a staff of only thirty to forty people, it’s just like a big family & they were all very welcoming & glad to have some extra help for the week.  There were quite a few out-of-towners working in the plant – which was good as it meant I had company for dinner at the hotel on some of the nights.  I even met a Kazahk who was very chatty – many Borat jokes ensued.  After it started to warm up a bit later in the week, we got some decent dumps of snows – which was OK until I had to walk down about four-thousand feet of conveyor on the side of a hill without falling over.

Being rather tired from the travelling & working, I gave up on reading the Hunchback of Notre Dame (very tedious start) after a couple of nights & went to the cinema a couple of times.  Somehow I saw Unstoppable – some sort of action-thriller about freight trains (not sure that’s much of a selling point) starring Denzel Washington.  It was surprisingly enjoyable – but then I quite like trains & it was neat seeing bits of Pennsylvanian countryside & industry – geek.  I couldn’t but help think of the three year old daughter of my friends north of Philly & her love of trains.  A couple of nights later I saw the Deathly Hollows (yes, I know – but that’s what my ticket said) – my perception of it suffered from too much anticipation; I think it was probably pretty good, but having read the book recently it was never going to capture the detail, humour, suspense or conflict as well.  On the plus side, the camping trip didn’t seem quite as long as my initial reading – & the scenery of said camping trip was great (except under the Severn Bridge, who goes camping there?).

Speaking of names, the few times I could be bothered venturing away from the hotel (their steak was fantastic & I just had to indulge in the NZ lamb chops), I managed to dine in such places as The Noble Pig, Senor Froggy’s,  Billy Miners & The Village Idiot.

Even though it was warmer by the end of the week, the first half of the drive home was harder than earlier in the week as on the BC side a lot of the snow & ice had thawed in patches & then frozen again in other patches.  One was never quite sure exactly where those patches were.  But this side of Roger’s Pass, it got cold again & the road was much easier.  Except perhaps for this truck – I was first in the queue to watch a bit of the salvage operation.

If anyone from warmer parts of the world (almost everywhere else last week) is wondering how I can say the road was good with so much snow around – these a part of the reason, I saw dozens of them.

This time through Revelstoke I actually managed to find the town itself & not just the Tim Hortons (a Canadian coffee & donut & other assorted fast-food institution) by the highway.  They seemed to have a lot more snow sitting around than both Canmore & Kamloops.  Also, the houses in the town are a lot older than in Canmore & with a lot more character.  The small part I saw was both very white & quite charming.

The rest of the drive was quicker & relatively uneventful – beside passing the odd car in a ditch, a not uncommon sight around these parts in the winter.  It was a lot clearer than when I drove through & the mountains were pretty stunning, this slightly wonky sunset picture will have to suffice as back-up for that statement.

Back home, Alex has gone & complicated our Settlers games by buying the expansion pack Cities & Knights.  There’s a lot more to the game now & it should keep us interested for quite sometime.  I had a lazy day yesterday after staying up too late reading this great (& insanely popular) trip report of a Belgian couple that drove across the Congo a couple of years ago.  Not sure I would make it – it was frustrating enough just trying to change the taillight (if I ever meet the person who kicked the previous one in I would very much like to kick them) & install a finicky lighter socket (but now I’ll be able to charge my iPod on the roadtrip).

Just got my touring-ski bindings adjusted & sent off the rego for an avalanche safety course – looking forward to getting out amongst the snow soon.

Canada, roadtrip, snow, travel

A weekend of driving

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It seems that I’ve been sitting in a car for much of this weekend.  But I seem to survived & have managed to conquer the reward huge-steak dinner & waddle up to my room (perhaps the first time I’ve turned down the chance of cheesecake).  Yesterday started well too early for a Saturday, with a drive to Calgary in the dark.  Perhaps against my better judgement I ended up babysitting a three-month old for close to four hours.  I’m sure this would’ve been a bit easier if it hadn’t been -15ºC outside & I had some idea what I was doing.  As it happens, I had to traipse diagonally across Calgary in search of a tail light for my car; the first wreckers didn’t have any & the only other one that was open was of the pick-a-part variety (that is, where you have to go & extricate the part you want yourself) & they wouldn’t let me take a baby in.  It must be said you get a lot of amusing comments when you turn up at a wreckers carrying a wee baby from the sort of people that frequent those places on Saturday mornings.

The drive back across town was somewhat interrupted by a forty-minute screamathon – of which I couldn’t pinpoint the cause.  Never mind, there were some moments of quietness – eventually just before we reached our destination sleep & quietness descended (not for me, I was driving – it was safer that way) so I spent the rest of the time until the rendezvous driving around suburban streets trying to drive over as much bumpy snow as possible (of which there was quite a lot).  Relieved of my duties, I made it back to the wreckers to try & track down the elusive tail light.  I eventually found one – but trying to remove it from the car was problematic.  Firstly, it was -15ºC and all the cars were covered in snow (inside & out); secondly, the nuts to undo were tiny & very difficult reach when one’s fingers are freezing & legs are at risk from the tail gate falling at any moment (I had to prop it up with the parcel tray as the struts were gone).  It wasn’t a complete waste of time – I got a lighter socket for the exorbitant price of $1.04; that will come in handy for keeping the iPod charged on the roadtrip.

Speaking of the roadtrip, after Air Canada being completely unhelpful (& too much time spent on hold) it looks like I will have to fly back to London for three or so days in February & come back on a completely different booking just so I can back to London when I want to in August.  Grrrr, that $1000 could be put to much better use.

Back in town in the dark & after a quick tea it was round to Alex & Megan’s for a couple more games of Settlers.  That’s only really worth mentioning so I can link to Megan’s neat little post with some delicious looking game boards.  I’m unconvinced that any of those would make it through an entire game (usually forty-five to sixty minutes) intact.  I had a shocker first up, reevaluated my strategy a bit & snuck in for a win before going home & pretending to pack.

I was out the door by quarter past nine on Sunday morning for the drive to Kamloops.  A tad over five hundred kilometres, I was hoping the snow & ice wasn’t too bad.  It turned out the biggest problem with ice was getting the trunk/boot open – I couldn’t.  So my luggage sat on the back seat through to Revelstoke by which time it had warmed up a lot (well, from -20 to -6ºC) & I could pop the lid.  The drive was beautiful with all the trees covered in snow & the cloud sitting mysteriously & low all around.  I was surprised that this drive was so much easier than in the summer – that was mainly because there was markedly less traffic (I went for about half an hour at one stage with no vehicles on my side of the road; this is a good thing as passing on the unused lanes is sketchy at best) & the extraordinary amounts of construction had been stopped for the winter (the TCH is now twinned all the way to Lake Louise).  Most of the rest-areas/turn-outs were closed for the winter, so there wasn’t any good places to stop for photos.  So these two snaps will have to suffice to give some idea as to what I saw for most of the day.

The rental (some sort of large Buick) was rather a mixed bag.  The big plush seats looked nice, but seemed to have forgone any sort of lumbar support for the airbags; consequently, I was rather sore after an hour or two & could never find a good driving position.  Also, the car seemed to inexplicably shake/vibrate quite often – this seemed to be independent of speed & road surface, perhaps the wheels were out a bit but that doesn’t explain the intermittent nature.  On the plus side, the large V6 (large if you come from NZ, probably just ordinary if you are North American) was quiet & effortless (and surprisingly economical – less than 8.5 L/100 km), the audio system was good.

So I’m in Kamloops now & spent the rest of my afternoon (extended by going back in time crossing in to the Pacific time zone) napping & reading.  Apparently Kamloops is pretty nice, so if I’ve got time after work this week I’ll try to have a look around (in the dark probably, but better than nothing).

bikes, Canada, MTB, roadtrip, travel

A little more BC riding

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Making bagels seemed to go pretty well last week for the most part – I was able to get through the last of my three shifts with no little (or large) stuff ups, leave sixty-six dozen bagels in the fridge & finish earlier than I had been the previous week. A more-interesting-than-other-jobs opportunity came up at the temping agency – two or three months working at the cement plant fifteen minutes down the road. It pays a little more & I jumped at the opportunity to get back in to industry a bit & maybe get the brain ticking over a bit. It does mean that with my commitment to the Bagel Co (& a certain fondness for doing a little bit of baking a week), that I will be doing two (maybe three) doubles a week – sadly the first one will be on my birthday (that’ll be one to remember). Summer break is due to finish shortly, so the number of bagels required during the week should drop off & make life a little easier.

It seemed that a lot of the smoke from the BC wildfires had decided to visit Canmore on Friday morning & then sit in the valley for the rest of the day – it was pretty hard to see more than a few hundred metres across town (Calgary & Edmonton were worse apparently). Sitting around thinking about the possibilities of the next few days’ riding, I got another great job offer from PPP. This one was quite different – basically the owner of PPP (who works in Calgary) was going through town to Salmon Arm for a family reunion over the weekend. Having just returned from vacation, she had heaps of work to do & wanted someone to drive while she sat in the back & worked. So I played chauffeur for the weekend – & in return I got the weekend in BC, paid for six hours’ driving each way, put up in a comfortable hotel, the car for the weekend & more than enough spending money to cover the rest of my meals & a lift ticket at Silver Star (more of that later). So I jumped at the opportunity, with the one condition being that I could take my bike, for a weekend on new trails. So after a rush-pack, Nancy turned up at 4.30 on Friday afternoon. I had been dreading having to drive some huge SUV or pick-up for 400 km, but I was pleased to have a nice little turbo Audi (& a stick shift too) to drive around for the weekend (it went like stink). The Friday evening drive through all the construction was a bit of a drag, we eventually got to the family reunion at about 9.30 (gained an hour going in to Pacific Standard Time), I dropped Nancy off (after having been fed well by the rest of the family) & had the rest of the weekend to myself.

When I was riding with Quintin two weeks ago he was raving about the downhill trails (lift-assisted) at Silver Star & also mentioned how there was a good range of trails for different riding styles. So on Saturday, when the smoke didn’t look too bad I loaded up the car & made the seventy-five minute drive south to Vernon & up to Silver Star. Here I sort of joined the downhill set; sure, I didn’t have a full-face helmet, body armour, flat pedals & 8″+ travel on my bike – but I didn’t have to ride up hill for more than five seconds at a time so it was more ‘Downhill’ than I’d ever been. The day started pretty mild, but fine & I started to hit the blue trails. Super Star was my most ridden – it really did make one feel like a better rider. In parts it flowed really nicely & for once I was actually clearing & landing (modest) table-tops. Another trail, LTG, had lots of wooden features on it – about half of which I could ride. The snaky wall-ride at the start & this series of planks & teeter-totters were most enjoyable.

After ten runs on various trails my hands were pretty sore (by the end of the day I was having to uncurl my fingers by pulling them back with my other hand or the handlebars – I perhaps over inflated my (measly 2.1″) tyre in the hope of avoiding more pinch flats. Strangely, I was quite exhausted by 4 pm & as it was getting quite cold at the top of the chair lift I called it a day & headed back to Salmon Arm.

It was a lazy start to Sunday with a nice lie in & then lounging on the couch reading a Rebus novel (Resurrection Men – pretty good so far, not sure how I’ve missed this one in the past) before checking out. The grey & wet weather didn’t exactly have me bounding out the door, but I was determined to check out some local trails before I had to pick Nancy up at five. Five minutes down the road were the South Canoe trails – I managed to start chatting to a couple of local roadies that had ditched the skinny tyres for the day & were heading up the hill on their Giant Reigns.

Once I finally organised myself, we all headed up the fire-road – they were planning on heading up to some lodge & then doing a big loop back to town. It eventuated that they joined me for a bit more singletrack than they were planning on – I was more than happy to have local guides & people to talk to. The forest was really reminding me of riding in Rotorua – damp dirt-based singletrack, through beautiful green undergrowth & big tall plantation forest, & it flowed well too. I was really enjoying it & trying to show the roadies up (not too difficult). After we had been riding up for about an hour (with a brief singletrack interlude), I realised that we were now above the trail network & if I went any further with my new riding buddies, I’d be on fire-road for ages – so I hit the first trail down (Lee’s it turned out – this one was quite new). The few features were super slippery from the overnight rain & that made the otherwise easy wood rather tricky to negotiate without losing one’s front wheel.

Coming back on to the road we had just ridden up, next it was on to the appropriately named:

This started out really mild & it got me out of the rain that had started to set in – it came out on to a nice clearing for a while that on a fine day would have given a fantastic view. The trail then changed in to a nice flowy section then suddenly there was a big switchback & the trail plunged steeply down for quite some time. I was pleased to get down there mostly in control & without bailing. All of a sudden the trail was back to being tame again. I was spat back on the road near the transmission tower that we had passed earlier, so in the rain I headed back up for ten minutes to reach Lumpy. This was also a very damp trail that had some nice steep, but easily rideable, sections piled in with some fun little features (also some I wasn’t going to touch). Although quite gloomy in the trees, it was still beautiful & nice to riding some smooth & sublime trails. Getting a little cold in my shirt & rainjacket I’d had enough climbing for the day, so continued down on to the lower trails (much tamer & wider) to the car. Of course, when I got back to the car it cleared up & nice warm sunlight beat down to dry me out a little. I wasn’t too disappointed – I had some great BC riding & was off to a local brew pub (they’re everywhere in North America it would seem) for a late & very large lunch.

We got back to Canmore at a reasonable hour (10.30) & I was determined to get to bed & get some sleep before what will be a sixty-hour, five-day week. Of course, as always when you need to sleep, I couldn’t. I think this was mostly trying to work out whether Megan & Alex’s sudden trip to Calgary was anything to be concerned about – hopefully it’s just precautionary & the little one arrives safely soon. Plus, with the spare car gone & a little confusion getting keys for the other Outback I had to find a new way to the cement factory for my new job in the morning. Steve came through for me & leant me his very new & very large Dodge Ram pick-up – I managed not to knock anyone over & was stoked to find the steering wheel heater – fantastic little device that is on chilly mornings. Despite my tired state, I enjoyed getting back in to an industrial environment & seeing things that are quite familiar to me. They have two kilns there (4 & 5), I thought 4 looked about the same size as one of the ones at NZS – then I realised that the other half of it was behind the building in the middle. It’s one long kiln! 5 is more the size I’m used to.

bikes, Canada, friends, MTB, travel

Kelowna & old friends

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It must have been a couple of weeks since my last musings, & that has mostly been a blur of (strangely) mostly work. Although, checking the Riding Diary worksheet there have been enough entries in those two weeks to keep the legs ticking over nicely. Rather surprisingly (& to my amusement & I’m sure the amusement of others) I managed to land a part time job baking bagels at the Bagel Company a two-minute walk from home (super convenient). I had a applied on a bit of a whim a few weeks previously & had forgotten about that application – along with plenty of others; the advertised full-time position somewhere along the line had changed in to part-time. So it looks like I’ll be doing two or three evening shifts mid-week of about eight to ten hours each (depending on how good I get). It’s nice to have a job where I have to think a little more than labouring or housekeeping & be pretty organised. I’ve had a few training shifts & am now solo baking some pretty scrummy muffins & fifty-odd dozen bagels a shift. Another advantage is the evening shifts – so far I’ve finished my solo stints at two in the morning, but I’m sure I can get that back to before one, at least with a bit more experience. So that frees up the day for activities – not crucial now, but come the middle of winter & eight hours of daylight, it’ll be nice to be able to get out & about skiing & such forth on the clear winter days. While I was starting training for baking, I was also working a bit at a construction site – so with a couple of double shifts & a day marshaling traffic at the Calgary Half-Ironman I pulled my first 60+ hour week of work in ages – it didn’t happen much at the steel mill as there wasn’t much overtime for supervisors, but I do remember doing six twelve-hour shifts back to back, this wasn’t quite as brutal (a word that I’ve heard a lot over the last few days – more of that later).

Unfortunately, with the change in work schedule & Alex & Megan escaping to the Bugaboos (a provincial park in east BC) I’ve had to get used to a few more solo rides recently. Those have been pretty quiet & close to home – quiet mostly because I finally got around to replacing the bent brake rotors on my bike with nice shiny flat ones. Also I took my cluster off & gave the freewheel a good clean & grease – so with that & the Rock n Roll lube that came in the package from the UK my bike has a lot fewer sounds going on. That does mean that I’m starting to notice other ones that were previously masked. Early last week I started trading emails with a high school friend, Krysta, who seems to have been in Canada pretty much since university & is back in Kelowna, BC, after a year traveling through the Americas (drive through the North, backing through Central & South) with her (recently) fiancee, Steve. It worked out for all of us that the proceeding weekend was the best for me to visit – so with a couple of night shifts under my belt – & the (once again) kind loan of Megan & Alex’s second car I was off to spend my second weekend in BC. After packing up all my stuff (with a bike, I never travel lightly) I first had to ride in to Banff to pick up the car – of course, just as I was about to leave a huge thunderstorm storm rolled in & soaked town. Not overly keen to get struck by a bit of rogue electricity, I held off a bit before hitting the not-quite-complete Legacy Trail between Canmore & Banff (five rather crucial bridges are missing still from this bike path that runs alongside the TransCanada Highway). The trail took just under an hour & I was quite warm most of the way – over dressed in jacket & leggings for the rain that stayed away.

What started out to be a rumoured four-hour drive to Kelowna turned in to a bit of an epic. Up past Lake Louise the TransCanada goes back to single carriage way for most of the time. I stopped briefly at the Spiral Tunnels lookout to see where the Canadian Pacific Railway used two large spirals to turn what was once a 4.5% gradient (& incredibly dangerous) in to a much more manageable slope. Just as I got out of the car it started pissing down & I got pretty wet. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see two ends of the same train poking out different ends of the lower spiral. Shortly after my jeans got a good chance to dry out as I sat in the same queue for construction for about an hour and a half. Traffic management at roadworks on Canada’s main highway is poor to say the least – of course, when we actually drove past the bridge there was no work to be seen. By now I was in BC & driving through new (to me) national parks – Yoho, Glacier & Mt Revelstoke. Oddly, the speed limit for most of this rather wide highway was only 90 km/hr – but as in about one-thousand kilometres (the return trip) of driving I only saw one police car it was no surprise the heavy traffic sat quite comfortable about twenty percent higher than that. Turning off the TransCanada & on to the south bound part of the annoyingly circuitous (damn mountains) route I was back in to the land of strip malls & numerous billboards – also there must have been nice lakes close by as there were plenty of boat yards (& all to many houseboats on the lakes – Sicamous claiming to be the houseboat capital of Canada). Eventually I found Steve & Krysta’s house in SE Kelowna at a reasonable hour – this only really being achieved by gaining an hour from going from Mountain TIme to Pacific Time. Quite exhausted, it was nice catching up, sharing travelling stories, eating & looking around & enjoying the increase in temperature from being in the Rockies – not to mention being made cups of tea (not quite up to Trish’s five+-a-day!).

After a much needed sleep-in due to the evening shifts, long drive & time zone change it was up for a breakfast of bagels (I wonder where they came from) & planning for the day. Various ideas were floated – eventually we decided the weather wasn’t quite hot enough to go tubing down at Penticton (the weather was warmer than I was used to but overcast & a lot cooler than Kelowna has had for most of the summer). So, Krysta took me downtown for a brief look there & a small hike up Knox Mountain to help me get a better understanding of where Kelowna sits in the Okanagan valley.

After a quick bite to eat at home, the bikes were organised & loaded on the trailer & Steve shuttled us (another mate, Tyler, joined us) up to the Kettle Valley Rail Trail. The trailhead near the Myra Canyon Trestles was packed with cars & as we road along the wide gentle trail we passed many groups of all ages on bike & foot.

It sure is a popular place. There eighteen trestles where it got a bit steep for the railway to stick just to the canyonside. We managed to get over these without knocking anyone over the side (they could get a bit congested with large groups on the bridges). One could still easily see the damage done in the large wildfire in Okanagan Mountain Park in seven years ago.

After about half of the twelve kilometre section with the trestles, the crowds began to thin significantly & our speed picked up. As we didn’t have to ride back to the trailhead, we dived off the side on to the Myra Bailout singletrack. It was great to be riding down (mostly) gentle dirt track that just flowed. It reminds me of home a bit – smooth trail, no rocks & few roots. Of course, I flew off a little lip & landed on the only pile of rocks – knowing straight after landing that I would get a flat. A minute or so later here I was:

I am at least getting a lot quicker at changing tubes & we quickly back enjoying the trail. Somehow, this part of the park had escaped the fire (it’s odd how there can be localised sections that are unharmed while everything around them has been seriously burnt) & it nice riding through the greenery. Reaching the FSR (Forestry Service Road seems to be a common TLA on maps around here) where we were supposed to head back in town, we decided after some consultation with the family group we kept seeing on the trail to carry on down the signposted singletrack hiding at the edge of the parking lot. None of us were too impressed with the odd pinch climb, but soon we were shooting down more singletrack.

I swapped cameras with Tyler so we could actually have some riding photos of ourselves. It wasn’t entirely successful, the first time I was just about to come in to shot I ended up riding through a wild rose bush & I think this is where I ripped the lockout dial off my forks – grrrr (although it’s mostly cosmetic). Here are a couple of the best of Krysta & I ripping down the last little bit – I didn’t realise that this went straight on to the road, just as well there were no cars coming for me to T-bone in to.

We didn’t come out of the trails as far round as we feared we might, so we had a pretty cruisy ride home through some of the Okanagan Valley’s famed orchards.

It’s never a good sign when you turn up to a barbecue & there is no one home. After confirming that the BBQ was actually half an hour or more up the other side of Lake Okanagan, we hit a local pub for dinner before arriving at the house of Steve & Krysta’s friend – Clint – to watch some UFC. My first time watching UFC was quite cold as Clint had lined his basement & decked out almost entirely in Edmonton Oilers hockey memorabilia & started the themed painting of the room & one of the massive TVs were down there – along with the beer fridge. UFC was funny in parts, but after one guy dominated the big fight of the night & then lost in the last minute I was left feeling rather cheated. Once again, trying to find the equivalent Canadian word for ‘bogan’ came up – Clint’s younger half-brother being a case in point. Still no success. Either way he drives an RX7 batmobile & was quite pleased with it & its acceleration (140 in third on suburban streets was enough for Steve – & I can’t say I blame him) – that’s just a little odd after growing up in the Bay & studying in Palmy – rotaries engines are just so annoying & have so many bad associations in my mind. Steve didn’t really get the English humour of Top Gear’s South American episode – but I thought he & Krysta might enjoy seeing a different adventure in that part of the world. Not quite as amusing the second time seeing it, but still good television all the same.

Up a bit earlier on Sunday – Krysta & I were off to do the done thing around here take a look at some of the many wineries. It was a bit like being around the southern lakes in NZ – mountains surrounding lakes & vineyards perched on the side. The first one, Mission Hill Family Estate, had clearly had a lot of capital sunk in to it – the architecture was pretty impressive, as were the views. We did an hour tour & tasting session – there was a very cheesy video at the start & Krysta & I were cringing every time the ex-Montana Wine Chief Winemaker opened his mouth, it was pretty bad Kiwi accent. Obviously, it was rather cool in the cellar & all the arches & darkness made it feel like I was back under a big old cathedral in Europe somewhere.

After popping in to Quail’s Gate & doing a bit more tasting & trying not to spend too many dollars we headed out for another little hike.

This time it was about half an hour up Boucherie to get a view from the west side of the lake back to the city. It was quite warm in patches, we were surprised at how few boats were out on the lake – obviously these people are spoilt by good summer weather, it wasn’t that bad. This hill had also taken a hit from a fire & as it was so rocky hadn’t really recovered too well. Over the weekend I was learning a lot about trees & forests from Krysta who works in the industry. As I was in BC, this continually reminded me of not wanting to do this, but rather wanting to be a lumberjack. Leaping from tree to tree as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia! The giant redwood, the larch, the fir, the mighty scots pine, the smell of fresh cut timber, the crash of mighty trees, with my best girlie by my side, we’d sing, sing, sing… A bit more relaxing at home introducing Krysta to slightly newer Brit comedy in the form of The IT Crowd before heading out to their weekly dinner at Steve’s parents. Great food, nice homegrown raspberries & good company. A few episodes of TBBT when we got home – the early ones with great lines such as: “as much chance… as the Hubble telescope does of discovering that at the centre of every black hole is a little man with a flashlight searching for a circuit breaker” and “Our babies will be smart & beautiful” “Not to mention, imaginary.” and “What if she ends up with a toddler who doesn’t know if he should use an integral or a differential to solve for the area under a curve?” “I’m sure she’ll still love him.” “I wouldn’t.”.

It turned out that Krysta had to start back at work on Monday with a ten-day field trip. This worked out well as I could meet up with Quintin – a friend we used to car pool with to primary school in the Mount back in the eighties & one I have not really seen since. Quintin seems to have been chasing the ski season around the globe for the last few years driving snow cats (the groomers) & is finally enjoying a summer in BC while he does a firefighting course (more learning about bushfires for me). He’s recently bought a full noise DH bike & with its Fox 40s it stands in loud contrast to my tame little 4″ softtail. We had to find something suitable for both of us. Popping in to a bikeshop, we soon had a map & some local advice. We ended up back near where we had ended up on Saturday’s ride – just a little further west. It was mostly climbing up a hill for an hour in overcast conditions – I obviously had the advantage there with a bike that was probably fifty percent lighter & legs that are now well used to climbing. At the top we met a guy from Nelson (NZ, not BC) who had only been in town for a month – the only other biker we saw. We rode together for a while until he went off exploring further up the hill & we hit the Vapour Trail. It was great fun & a little pedally to start with so I was able to keep up. The middle section got a lot more technical & rocky & dusty – I was doing pretty well trying to chase Quintin. But I should’ve been a bit more wary, I completely stuffed up the last little technical drop at speed & landed quite heavily on a whole heap of flat, loose rocks on back of my left shoulder & my left hip. No damage to the bike & hopefully just bruises & scratches that will heal up in a week or so – but my shoulder is pretty sore, but usable. I was noticeably slower over the last of the descent – but all in all, it was another great ride & the trail was really neat. It’s just a while since I’ve had to chase someone who is a lot faster than me downhill. After more catching up over a beer & pizza, it was back to Steve & Krysta’s to clean up & hit the rode. Thankfully the trip was only five & three-quarter hours this time; it’s a long time that I’ve driven five hundred kilometres straight through, but in Canada it doesn’t seem to be a long way. Fog in places made the road works & general lack of reflectors (that’s not just in the construction zones) even worse than usual – but I made it home safely. I must also note that Canadian drivers have an annoying tendency to drive behind you with their lights on beam – it’s dazzling, even with the mirror dipped, & makes looking forward even more difficult.

So a great weekend excursion & I must get around to getting my own vehicle soon so I can continue to explore this great area – wheels are in motion, my Albertan driving licence is on the way.