Monday, December 1, 2008

Bike Rides, Baileys and Buddies


Eagleshead. Post a comment if you know where this landmark is!

Ahhhhhh the weekend. I had a great time playing this weekend! I love that my training falls often under the header 'playing'. The weather was warm, foggy and a bit wet...the trails were slippery, greasy and full of gumboot mud...my riding buddies were joyous and full of good spirits. And on one ride my thermos was full of hotchocolate and baileys! Woah- breaking all the rules!

Here is what I was up to:
Friday.
12:45pm. Pissing rain and windy. ALMOST bailed but Lene pulled me out of my moment of insanity and we rode on. Starting from Stotan falls we bike an old-turned-new trail right along the Puntledge rivers edge...Twisted Sister! Gnarly, rooty, muddy and pure greasy technical fun! We even rode through a dead fish on the trail- gross! We ended up playing and exploring new trails (to us) for about 1.5hours before having to get home and get back to work. Wet, worked and invigorated we had a great ride!

Saturday.
10:30am-1:30pm. Pissing rain but warm. Brad and I took off for the Comox Lake Dam to work on a 'special project'. Armed with a GPS, flagging tape, jiffy marker and a thermos full of warm your belly goodness we began our mission. Some of you may know about the mission that I have taken on this fall but some of you may not: Establish permanent kilometre markers along the Puntledge River trail network - with the dream of marking the entire 18kish loop from the Dam to Duncan Bay Main road and back. BCHydro and the Regional District have been fantastic and they have come on board with enthusiasm to support the project. So on Saturday we began the task of GPSing the kms along the river trail. We made it to Twister along the river trail and enjoyed the scenery along the way at Nymph Falls. We decided to pack away the GPS and marking gear and just RIDE the bike trails all the way back. We will complete the remainder of the route in the coming weeks with the goal of completing the project before the end of this winter! Here are some shots...

Our faithful companions...Brads super oldschool Cove hardtail(right) with those old fashioned caliper brakes and my super new tech Giant Reign...and guess who kicks my but repeatedly?


Nymph Falls fish ladder...and me enjoying a sip from the thermos:)


Beautiful fogscape at Nymph Falls....



Saturday 7:45pm-?. Went to the Waverly to see Dehli2Dublin perform! They were awesome! And the big news is I actually stayed up late enough to see them! I have wanted to hear this band for a while now but I have never been able to stay awake long enough:) Anyways, we had a great time and the house was rockin with electric fiddles and sitars. The band pumps out a fast tribal beat that combines Celtic and Bangrah (sp?) beats...super high energy! Check them out:

Sunday: 9:30am-12noon. Weekly Rat Ride. We made our way up Forbidden plateau road from Nymph Falls Park and deeked into the bush on a new connector trail that cut off a bit of the climb up to B21. Then it was all downhill on a brand new XC trail that was just amazing. It took us through dense dark forest, open rock bluffs and through forest tunnels that were once logging roads. V. fun. And we actually ran into the infamous 'Hughe' and his dog who have been working tirelessly for months and probably years on these fantastic new XC trails. It was nice to have a chance to say thank you to the man who has put in so many hours of work to create so many wonderful kms of trail! Thank you!

We spit out on the Plundge to our suprise and made our way home via Bears Bait. GOOD TIMES!

Looking forward to the week! I would LOVE to hear your adventures too! Where have YOU been playing in the woods??

Cheers,

Sarah.

3 comments:

Indigo Eve said...

Hi Sarah,

I don't have any adventures to share, but your thermos full of goodness reminded me of sharing mulled wine in the parking lot with my dragon boat teammates after the annual Boxing Day paddle in years past:) It's a very good way to warm up after a chilly hour on the water!!

Unknown said...

That landmark is just off Bears Bait and was one of my first 'drops' back in the day! Sounds like you have been getting some great rides in! I had a great run on Saturday after work, an awesome ride in Dodge on Sunday, and your 'killer' workout after noon hour hockey today was that much harder after the skate! Thanks again for the great program, I think it is already helping on the ice! I am going to sign up for Monday trail running!

Sarah said...

Hey guys! Thanks for your comments! I will have to plan to make the mulled wine next time Tara! And yes, Kelly that is the Eagles Head! Such a skilled logger that made that one...
See you gals soon! Don't forget to come for the partay this Friday night at Extreme Runners!
Sarah.