Cycle the Sunshine Coast, BC

As a forester, I get rewarded with working in great area of the Sunshine Coast.  Over the last couple of years, I've helped the pulp mill reconstruct the road to Lake 7.  I always thought that this road would be a great MTB ride.  The terrain is unlike anywhere accessible on the coast and usually, if you know where to look, you may see Mountain Goats, lazily enjoying the sun on the other side of valley. The road starts from the other side of the pulp mill and climbs steadily 1,150m to the lake.  The road is nothing to talk about except that is are some pretty punchy climbs.  My Strava profile has climbs of Cat 1 and 2 along its route.  Once you're back in the headwaters, the mountains show their true-form and stunning beauty. The 45% on the last hill at the dam puts you right on the dam looking at the amphitheater of rock and trees.  There was snow from the last winter and the water was way-down from what I was expecting. A quick s...

Well I just finished my first night ride last night and realised that this dry parch ground is going to become wet sopping mess. Will that be time to hang up the bike? Probably not. It will be time to put the fenders on, switch the tires and wear the leg warmers and jacket. Night rides are just part of this season. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the warm solitude of this Indian Summer and the gift it brings to us riders. Last night I saw a bard owl and was a little uncomfortable with riding along with the bats flying up and down the trail. It kind of freaked me out as they fly in and out of my tunnel vision of light going after the moths that my light attracts. They too will be readying themselves for winter I'm sure. This long weekend calls for more sunny weather and I have a few rides planned just for a sunny occasion. ---WAB1234--- - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

After 4 months of nursing my shoulder back to health - yes I finally healed - Summer just kinda of came and went.  It wasn't a total loss.  I was able to ride in Williams Lake a half dozen times and really enjoyed these trails.  Super flowy, lots of steep stuff (and I mean steep stuff), ladders, drops, platforms and such.   www.ridethecariboo.ca I was able to improve my skills, got faster and more fit.  I did enter one other race this year that helped me get over the mental part of my injury called the BRAT race.  It was great low key race that I can described it best as a pedally downhill.  It was great event to catch up with friends and have a great time riding.  Yes, I crashed - but my newly acquired knee pads has saved my white bloods cells from active duty this time. I was riding the other day, and my friend said that he was considering hanging up the bike for the season.  I found that remark super surprising.  He was down on hi...

It all starts with a whisper - a sown seed if you will - "Lets do the Triple Crown".  A year ago I was like a hard tarmac or dry, parched desert that any seed of a Triple Crown suggestion would be met with flock of hungry pigeons.  No f'in way!  But its 2012 and things haven't gone my way since my May injury.  An oasis in the desert sprouted a fountain of exuberance and it grew to a f ' yeah!  This trip gave me a purpose to train just a little harder, motivated to ride on the road again and start attacking the hills.  My friends thought I was nuts - "Are you crazy" was often in the conversation. We set off on the first ferry to beat the 30 deg C heat  and to get much of the climbing done by noon.  We rode along Marine Drive and because the day was a Sunday (on a long weekend), we basically had the road to ourselves for a good 4 hours.  The first climb is considered by most as the steepest and is the HC (outside category) of the Sh...

So my shoulder has been feeling great for the last couple of weeks and I've resumed my riding both off-road and on-road.  I went to my required x-ray two weeks ago and had the report read to me last week by my doctor. "Solid union is far from complete" What?! My doctor says to lets take another x-ray in 4 weeks and hopefully it will be healed more.  What?!  I'm flabbergasted!  3months to heal a bone that took 2-3 weeks to heal when I was  a kid.  I guess this is what they mean that we heal slower when we're older.  Sniff, sniff.... On another note, I had one of those weird incidents that I broke a link on my chain and it ripped my front derailleur AND my rear derailleur off!  Unbelievable!   It's my fourth hanger broken in 6 months. Of course I'm taking it easy! ---WAB1234---

Its been just over one week since my broken collarbone and been finding that its difficult to even tinker with my bike.  I have a bunch of tires that need patching and wheels to true, chains to oil and such, but I need the use of both my hands for it.  This injury so sucks! To add insult to injury, we've been having the best weather all year (mini heatwave) after the sucky-est winter and spring and I can't ride.... Just thought I write about where my headspace is at. ----WAB1234----

I'm sitting in a chair at the hospital waiting for my x-rays to be looked at by a surgeon.  My shoulder in a sling and elbow resting on the arm of the chair.  There doesn't seem to be a comfortable position to keep my throbbing collarbone from aching.   My mom just came in to give me crap on messing up my shoulder and my wife is equally as mad.  Both of my loves are angry from worry I suspect. It's always good to look at any event in post-mortem and waiting for 3 hours can do wonders on any reflection.  Racing the Sunshinecoaster Race was a goal of mine when I first threw my leg over the my new G bike in January.  Mountain biking was just the ticket to get a early start on this spring and summer road riding.  As I started riding, my confidence grew and my fitness gained quickly.  Two months ago I registered, and last month I started pre-riding the course.  The course itself is a very hilly course with lots of steady 12% grunt...

Yesterday - I rode a good 2 hours in West Sechelt - it was fairly good, but I couldn't get a good rhythm going.  It actually hailed at the end of the ride.  Cut short by Mother Nature.  Still any ride is a good ride. So I had this plan today. It was a beautiful day and I was going to put a 3-4 hour road ride. It started great and I was developing the so-called "Zen-state" (or maybe it was the Black Eye Peas music?). Around Beach Ave, I feel a sharp bump from the road and looked down and it was a flat. If you follow my blog, you'll know that I ride tubulars. I get out my Vitoria Pit-stop and "hiss" into the tire I spray the sealant. Still leaking....Great...back home I go, plan ruined and zen lost....the good news is the sealant semi-ass worked as I got home (I pumped the tire up again, and after half a day, its still fully inflated. Go figure). So, I jumped onto my G-Spot and off I went for a 2.5 hour ride. The ride was interesting as I...

So Pinkbike is doing "Video of the Year" competition and I've just been viewing and voting for my favorite video.  Most videos are of riding down fast, or of flips and shit.  I AM in awe of these riders and of their stunning video photography.  The efforts that riders and their photographers do are amazing.  I came across one video that really almost defines "Epic" - "Into Thin Air" posted on Pinkbike.com -  http://www.pinkbike.com/video/228500/ Reading the comments one reader posted this definition of Epic -  " I read in a magazine "The word ""epic"" is defined as a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation. In the mountain bike dictionary, the word steals ""the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures"" and adds ""while on a 30 - 50 mile mountain bike ride"...

So I had this great idea.  This weekend I started to film myself riding a trail that I particularly like. I'll film different sections during the year and my thought is that you'll see a change in seasons and probably clothing.  Hopefully it will work out.  Below is my first little bit of filming of the trail crossing over Langdale Creek - The Lunge. I rode with a great group of people today and I seem to be a bit of an historian having come to Mountain Biking from being away for 15 years.  I would say in 1997 there were maybe 25% of the trails that they have today...and the trails now are so much nicer.  I went on about these new trails.  I think that we are definitely blessed with some of the great mountain bike trails in Canada.  Thanks to all those trail builders out there! Caution - Explicit wording in the music - You've been warned. ---WAB1234---

Two weekends in a row I've been sidelined by malfunctioning equipment.  Last week was a broken derailleur hanger and this weekend was a broken hose for my dropper post (RC Reverb).  The derailleur was more my fault as the chain link broken and wedged in the cage...ting the hanger broke off.  Luckily I had more spares (the shop threw a couple in the box; hey wait a minute!!!!!).  Yesterday, the hose barb from my dropper post broke off, leaked fluid everywhere and I haven't a clue how it happened.  I was hiking my bike across 100m of forest lands, through creeks and steep slopes and....ummm...maybe.... Aren't these bikes built for that??? March 26, 2012 - Update - Broke another....fail.  This time the branch had to be cut cause it was really stuck.  The derailleur is still all good! ---WAB1234---

I don't know why I didn't start mountain biking sooner than a couple of months ago.  The fun and the satisfaction of each ride is such an awesome relief that I can't wait to ride again.  The trails on the Sunshine Coast are so diverse and numerous that you could ride all day and not ride on one single trail twice.  However, there are trails that I exclaim "Let do that again!". I have to pause sometimes during my rides to ask the question, who were the harden few to build these trails?  We know of the modern trailbuilders like Brad Proctor, Glen Ellingsworth, Cap University guys, Rod Camposano, and Guy Bullen.  Also the numerous others that built a couple of trails and add those to chain of trails that we call "Sunshine Coast trail riding".  We're they the first? No I say.  A lot of these trails were old pioneer trails, oxen roads, and skid trails of logging of yester-year.  A lot of the trails of Roberts Creeks were because of historic logging a...

The title of this post might mislead you into thinking that I re-entered father-hood.  Nope! A new girlfriend? Close!  I got a new bike - the Cove G-spot.  I have been looking for a bike for while but was not prepared to buy it as I swore that I wouldn't (couldn't) afford two passions.  Road riding and Mountain bike riding. It started out with small ride with friends when I rode a Cove Hummer.  I was immediately hooked and bought a Brodie Awl for my son.  The brodie is a big free-ride/all mountain 5in travel bike, but is 35-36lb.  It was all I could do to ride up the hills.  The downhilling of the Brodie was like riding a lazy-boy and very good.  So I wanted a bike that could climb and had the plush travel downhilling.  Enter the G-Spot - its a better climber than Cove's Hummer (XC bike) and has 6in of travel for the big downs.    Click this link to see G-Spot riding in Spain  http://www.basquemtb.com/cove-g-spot-re...