Category Archives: around home

around home, bikes, Canada, friends, MTB

Elbow

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After only two night shifts making bagels last week, on Thursday Alex & I were back riding up to Jewell Pass & then down the other side to climb up Barrier. This time we were riding with James & visiting Australian friends of Megan & Alex – Rich & Kylie. They had just been riding at Whistler for a couple of weeks & had hired XC bikes from the Nordic Center for this ride as their DH bikes weren’t really suitable for all the pedalling. Being mid-week there were very few people on the trail – I don’t think we saw any until we were more than half-way around. Even with Alex flatting (for once it wasn’t me) shortly after the Jewell Pass descent we were making reasonable time. The middle-ring grind up Prairie View was a bit more difficult this time as we had also climbed up Jewell Pass, but I made it well in front of the rest of the group. Stopping briefly to refuel & look at the view (it’s never been quite as good as the first clear day that we went up there), we headed up the last push/hike-a-bike to the lookout & then hit the nice rooty downhill section. With lots of stops we made it around in three hours & forty minutes – a good twenty minutes faster than the first & only other time Alex & I have down the same loop.

I’m settling in to my baking role now. While I haven’t had any absolute disasters, I’m yet to have a perfect shift – so there is still room for improvement. Because I only had two shifts baking last week, there were a few nights to try something else new – temping serving banquets. One was two nights at the rather cheesy dinner show – ‘Oh, Canada eh?’ and the other a large banquet at the Radisson. On Saturday morning the TransRockies rolled in to town to finish a week & 600 km-long event. It’s quite the multi-day epic event & from some of the trails that I was familiar with it must have been a hard, but rewarding week – the mud may have had something to do with that. Alex, Megan & I watched some of the riders finish at the line, then wandered up the street a bit to sip a chocolate chai on the Bagel Co patio. Alex & I managed to fit in a G8 loop – I was feeling decidedly slow & worn out from all the recent activity. The gig at the Radisson that night turned out to be the ceremony & prize-giving banquet for the TransRockies – it was pretty neat to be in the same rooom as 500-odd mountainbikers & supporters. One of my tables had the only two Kiwis in the event & their wives (to do the whole event you have to ride in pairs – that is my understanding anyway), so it kind of fun to hear some strong South Island Kiwi accents.

It was just Alex & I riding on Sunday, so we decided to do a loop in K-Country (as that doesn’t require a big car shuttle or a long ride on gravel roads). We headed to the Elbow River parking lot to do the Little Elbow – Big Elbow loop. I see now that this is where the TransRockies stayed on the second to last night. We had a 45 km loop planned, mostly fire road – the two guide books we had recommended riding it in opposite directions. We opted for anti-clockwise as that made the climbs more gentle, the descent steeper & the singletrack down (mostly). The start of the route was a little ambiguous in my mind, so we crossed the river on the bridge & then after a little confusion headed upstream on a muddy & boggy in patches (damn horses) path. We then had to ford the (cold, but not too chilly) river & then found ourselves on a fire road with a lot more traffic on it. It was a gorgeous morning & it seemed a fair chunk of Calgary was out here – there was a wide range of bikes & riding levels on display. The riding was pretty easy up the hill, so there was ample opportunity to look at the views.

I was glad for the little detour we took at the start, as it was a lot more interesting than the twenty kilometres of fireroad. Eventually, we passed everyone there was to pass on the trail & reached the top of Elbow Pass, looking out towards Mt Tombstone (which doesn’t look like one – but there may be one up there or maybe a change of perspective brings the tombstone-ness in to view).

Sick of the mosquitoes, we hit the really steep downhill on the fire road – the road condition deteriorated here & it was a lot of funny blasting down dodging the rocks. Making a left turn we got close to the Big Elbow River & finally hit some singletrack – which was a lot of fun. Mostly it was fast, but every so often there would be a big dip or a sudden appearance of rocks & loose gravel. Also, the vistas were starting to get nice & scenic.

That last one is Mt Forgetmenot, & by this stage the trail had flattened out & we were blasting down in the big ring. In a different twist to a familiar story – I flatted near the end. However, it was my front wheel this time & that is unusual; I wasn’t going particularly fast & then all of a sudden had no steering & rode through a big puddle & got splashed well before stopping. As we were so close to the car & I knew that it’s very difficult to get the Nevegal off the front rim, I decided to walk/carry my bike out. This did mean that I would either have to walk up stream a bit to the bridge or ford the river – I got wet again carrying my bike across. A rush back to town to meet some mates I met working in Banff – they were coming to Canmore for me to show them the DH trails around.

While I was rushing around eating lunch & trying to replace my tube (it took twenty minutes to get the damn tyre off), I found that a small leak around the base of the valve stem (it was an old tube) – that explains why I pinch flatted, I’d lost just enough air pressure to increase the risk of a puncture. Dale & Adam had somehow managed to cram two big rigs in the back of a three-door Laser, so realising that that wasn’t really viable as a shuttling option I quickly arranged the kind loan of the Outback. Adam & Dale loved both Riders of Rohan & the Reclaimer (not the coal or PC type); I was tempted to ride, but was a little tired from the early forty-six kilometres & they were having so much fun I didn’t have the heart to get in there. Plus, I didn’t want to have a big stack in my tired state. With a bit of luck, I’ll be able to get over to Banff soon & go for a ride with them on their local trails (seems a bit funny saying that, as Banff is only twenty minutes’ drive away – but I just don’t go there that much now that I’m not working there).

around home, bikes, Canada, event, friends, MTB

Riding, riding & a bit more

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Well, looking back at my riding diary, it is apparent I deserve a night chilling at home – eight rides in the previous twelve days & the small matter of four hours of sleep on Saturday night & riding at two in the morning. Most of that time the weather has been pretty average – but the luxury of living so close to trails is that you can choose when you want to go out, knowing that if the weather is not great it will improve soon. The Sunday before last Alex & I headed back up Barrier Mountain from the lakeside, as we didn’t have all that much time. Not quite as glorious view as the previous time – but at least the poor forecast had discouraged all the hikers – we only saw a few other bikers. True to form, I got another puncture – but that didn’t really discourage me from having a blast down Jewell Pass again.

As I had worked that Saturday, I took Monday off & went exploring around Moose Mountain with James – he was keen to go somewhere he hadn’t been riding before. I of course am just plain keen to go riding anywhere in this great area. We had about a ninety minute drive through K-Country (incidentally, that big snow scene in Inception was filmed further up the Kananaskis Valley somewhere – if you haven’t seen that film yet, I encourage you to do so) before we eventually found a trail head. We are not sure we found the correct one, but we got a nice short ride (sixty to ninety minutes) on the Sulphur Spring trail – it was a pleasant change to riding on a trail that was mostly dirt & had noticeably less roots & rocks. The clouds did exactly make for great views & we got quite confused trying to work out which peak & valley was which. There are few more rides in the area I would like to do in the next couple of months.

After a couple days’ break (due to weather), on Thursday night Alex was keen to brave the showers (it had been raining in Canmore most of the afternoon) & head up to the Nordic Center to scope out the course for the 24 Hours of Adrenaline – an extremely popular 24 hr solo/relay event. Alex was lucky to get in riding for Megan’s work’s corporate team, as the entries tend to fill up within a day. We found the first half of the course & got stuck in the big climb above the Day Lodge. Quite a bit of this part of the loop was on freshly cut trails & with all the rain they were very slick & the roots were particularly slippery. It was an awful climb & I was glad that I was not racing – also, the laps were 17 km long – that’s over twice as long the Moonride laps & there were some brutal climbs in there too.

Friday was an absolutely stunning day & even though Alex was back up at the 24 hr course I couldn’t help but go for a ride by myself – the first one in over two months. I headed out to the Montane Traverse on the other side of the valley – this is one of the first trails I did when I arrived. The first hill was still absolutely punishing – but I must be a bit fitter & stronger now as it was more manageable this time. What I remember as a two and a half to three hour ride only turned out to be ninety minutes (riding my oneself has so many less stops) & I was back in time for the weekly dose of the IT Crowd. I thought too soon, as later that night Alex volunteered me to ride in a team from Cochrane & Calgary that had lost one of their riders to unfitness. I was extra pleased for the day’s sunshine after that – there was a chance the course may be in better condition.

Unlike the Moonride, this event started at noon in the blazing sun – but I was at work for that. Knocking off work early, I rushed home & organised my riding gear & rocked on up to find my team. I was promptly told that I was riding next & once we were at the RV I busied myself getting ready & fueling up. Once I had got the briefing from Peter (team captain it would seem) on the archaic timing system – lots of people in a tent with big sheets of paper writing down the time of each team’s baton change, I couldn’t believe it was so bad – I waited around for Rowan to come in. And waited, and waited – it turned out he had got a flat (usually my domain) & had to beg & borrow a tube – before heading out at 1815. I was lucky as it was starting to cool down. I had a great first lap & was pleased to do the 17 km in 64 minutes & only got passed by two other riders. I was even more pleased to be stomping on the big chain ring on most of the fire road & doing the rest of the lap in the middle ring – all that stubborn refusal to drop down in the previous two months was paying off. There was a nice long climb near the end on which I passed countless people & then it got brutally steep for a hundred metres or so – then I realised why everyone was looking so beat on finishing their laps.

There were some interesting comparisons with the Moonride. Firstly, it was summer (you couldn’t run a bike race in winter here) & that meant only about seven hours of darkness – a bit short changed on the night riding front. But it was dry & warm; it wasn’t quite the same as being covered in mud, waiting around at the team’s tent site wrapped in blankets – I missed the adventurous feeling. As I said before this lap was twice as long as the Moonride – which was good & bad. It meant we only got to go out three times each, good for recovery – but you get a lot of time sitting around waiting & doing nothing. It was a much more technical lap than the Moonride, but entirely rideable – this goes some to explaining the band of rider level, which was much narrower than similar events I have ridden in in NZ. It was much more just mountain bikers – there were no really really fast roadies burning around the track & there were far fewer novices & no kids riding. The lack of fast riders could be seen that I only got passed nine times in three & a half hours of riding – I’m not nearly fast enough to warrant that. The lack of children may have also been due to there not being a 12 event running at the same time; I like to see the kids out having a go & or being pulled/carried around by their parents. But the biggest difference was the lack of atmosphere – the Moonride is definitely a much more fun event. I think this was mostly because the lap didn’t go through where all the tents were set up – you just weren’t as close to the action – & the loudspeakers didn’t reach to most of the team sites.

Being so close to home, I was able to pop home for dinner – I forced the third burrito down, thinking I needed the fuel – then went back up to see my team & doze in the RV (Peter works for an RV company, so had the lend of a really nicely finished medium sized RV – but what would be massive back in NZ). My next lap was due to start at one in the morning, so there I was waiting & waiting for Rowan again. This time he broke his chain twice & pulled out of the lap. That third burrito came back to haunt me with a niggling stitch for most of lap, but I made it around in the dark without crashing & only eight minutes slower – I was quite pleased with that. Being nearly three I headed home to sleep in my own bed (luxury) for four hours before heading back for my last lap at nine – I was surprised I was only a minute slower than my other daylight lap (for which I was fresh) & it was still mercifully cool as well. After depositing my gear in the car, I was lucky enough to see a great big bald eagle circling over the road. We got one more lap in after my last one – we finished up with fifteen altogether – it was a pretty casual team that I was lucky enough to help out. A good event, but I was missing the Moonride & Team Santa Cruzin’ by the end of it. However, you don’t get views like this at the Moonride:

I sure don’t get tired of looking out my window, or walking back from the grocery store, or riding around town or on the trails & seeing those mountains around (not the best photos of them, but they’re always just right there). Have I mentioned I love this place?

around home, Canada

Stampede!

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Barely having recovered from the previous three days of hiking, I drove to Calgary on Monday morning to check out the Calgary Stampede – the biggest rodeo in the world & billed as the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth. Parking well away from the centre of the city, I took the C-Train (light rail) to the showgrounds & busied myself looking around for a couple of hours at the various agricultural exhibits, multitudes of food stalls & just generally all the people in cowboy hats & boots. The whole city seems to go Stampede mad for ten days in July – I’ve never seen so much cowboy attire in one place.

The first big event of the day was the rodeo – there are a series of heats for the first eight days & then two days of finals. It was slightly larger than the only other rodeo I’ve been to – in Raetihi, central North Island, NZ. After a few of the crazies that participate in this sport by trying to sit on the top of a bucking animal for eight seconds had had their turns, the rain that had been threatening for a little while started. This quickly began to empty the seats in front of me & the rain just kept getting heavier.

The thunder & lightning storm that followed was one of the best I have seen for many years – so close, loud & all round spectacular. I was lucky enough to be just enough under the roof as to not get too wet. After a enforced interval while the swimming pool drained to turn back into an arena & an injured horse was treated/euthanased behind a big black plastic sheet hastily held up by Stampede volunteers, the events were back on. There was bareback, bull riding, barrel racing (for the girls it would seem, although there was one woman trying to stay on a bucking horse), saddle bronc, steer wrestling & tie down roping. The last two, which were variations of catching an animal & getting it to the ground, seemed to have more apparent skill & some practical application. The funniest event was when three kids would try & rope a pony & one child would try to get on the pony while the other two tried to hold on to the rope. It was hilarious as a lot of the kids would end up getting dragged through the mud. All in all, the rodeo was three hours long & I spent a couple of hours exploring the rest of the showgrounds before the evening show. (I didn’t take many photos as it was pretty dark & I’ve still only got the small camera…)

The evening program started off with the Chuckwagon Races. This basically consisted of a team of four horses pulling a slimmed down wagon (think Oregon Trail) with a couple of things in the back (a barrel & two long sticks from what I could make out) doing a figure of eight in front of the grandstand before racing around the entire racetrack (with four outriders on their own horses having to finish within 150 feet of their wagon). It was quite exciting to start with, but after nine heats of the same thing I started to grow a little tired of it. There were time penalties for all sorts of things (hitting other carts, knocking the figure of eight barrels over, dropping cargo, outriders being too slow & so on), so often the first cart across the line would not be the winning team.

After the racing, a 520 hp John Deere tractor towed the world’s largest mobile outdoor stage in to place in front of the grandstand. At thirteen metres tall & weighing over one-hundred & thirty tonnes, this thing was sizeable to say the least. It is little surprise that it crept along the race track at 1.4 kilometres per hour.

The show’s theme was “World Party” & it started off with a horribly cheesy song that seemed to go on for ever about this so-called world party – the costumes worn by the hundred-odd performers were heavily African & Asia influenced & there were large pictures of acacia trees at sunset on African plains up on the screens. I found it slightly ironic that of the huge cast there was only one or two that were not of European descent. Once the cheesy start was over, the Ball of Death was wheeled out from the back of the stage & while a lot of singing & dancing was going on (with a more suitable & less-cheesy rock song playing) the first motorcycle stunt rider got inside the ball. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Ball of Death live, so I was suitably impressed as he rode all the way over the top safely. I was even more staggered as another & then another rider got in & they all started looping the ball simultaneously. With a fourth rider in there, it was neat to see three of the riders going around the inside of the ball pole-to-pole while the fourth rider was riding around the equator & they didn’t crash once. At the same time there also a few guys doing supermans & back-flips off a jump set up behind the ball. It was difficult to capture a good photograph – so you’ll just have to believe me about the third & fourth bikes being in there.

More singing & dancing later – all the kids were pretty cute & really well choreographed – it was time for the big fireworks finale, which was very impressive. For most of the big fireworks displays I’ve seen recently & remember (July 4 in San Diego & New Year’s in Sydney [that one is going back a while]), one is quite some distance from the launching area of the fireworks. Here the fireworks were set off from the infield of the racetrack & as they were so close & so loud I really quite enjoyed it.

With the show finishing a bit later than I expected, it was back on the C-Train to the suburbs & the hour long drive back to Canmore finishing at 1.30 am – I was slightly tired at work yesterday.  It was a good day out though, & I’m glad to have seen the Stampede. Having said that, I’m not sure it lived up to its claim – the Sydney Royal Easter Show is a much better agricultural show & remember enjoying it much more when I went a couple of years ago. As a stage spectacle, I’d easily keep going back to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo – it is fantastic; on the other hand, I have no pressing desire to see the Stampede again.

around home, Canada, friends, hiking

More hiking than riding & new animal sightings

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A couple of rides last week, of which the highlight was my first bear sighting. Thankfully, the young black bear was a couple of hundred of metres away from us at the Nordic Center & we saw it first. We hung around at a distance for a little while watching it before altering our intended route so as to avoid provoking it or its mother. Earlier that evening, Alex & I had rode up the road & come down the Reclaimer a lot more confidently than our only previous ride down that trail. Thursday evening was spent taking both of Alex & Megan’s cars to the Mt Shark trailhead in K-Country & leaving one there for us to ride back to Canmore in at the end of our planned hike. Much of the rest of the evening was spent otherwise preparing for our upcoming three-day hike. We were to walk from Sunshine Meadows (over the back of the Sunshine), past Mt Assiniboine & then past Mt Shark to the car. As it’s only about six weeks before the baby is due to arrive, this was planned as being the last big hiking outing for Megan & Alex for a little while.

Friday dawned nice & clear & James took us up to Sunshine Village (he works at Sunshine too), saving us a walk up a big hill. Here’s what the village looks like out of season:

We were walking by 7.45 that morning & quickly up past where the old Strawberry lift used to be (it’s being replaced this off-season with one that was used in the Vancouver Olympics). It was a bit strange walking up ski runs with no snow oblivious to the fact that a few months ago I was skiing down them & then suddenly recognising different parts of the terrain. The trail across the meadows was wide & easy.

As the day was so still, we took a short detour to Rock Isle Lake to have a look – it was worth it.

All along the meadows we were amused by the antics of the multitudes of ground squirrels popping their heads out of their burrows to watch us go by, chasing each other around & generally just running around in an amusing manner. Before long we had a climb up through a few snow drifts (nothing major – definitely not waist deep as Parks staff were advising) & we could look back over the meadows.

Looking the other way, we could see Lake Howard Douglas (foreground) & Citadel Peak (just beyond the lake) & our first view of Mt Assiniboine (largest peak in the centre rear). We next walked up & over Citadel Pass (just to the left of Citadel Peak) – the highest point of our hike (2360m).

On the way there, we looked down & eventually saw Citadel Lake (which hid from us for quite some time).

We lunched at the top of the pass, with a lot of day walkers also thinking it was a good spot – which it was, the view was pretty good. Alex & I scrambled up a bit higher towards the peak & got a great view down towards where we were camping the first night & further on to Assiniboine.

Looking back towards the meadows, one of the small lakes still had a large percentage of its surface in ice.

From the pass it was three hours walking (mostly) down to the valley floor to Porcupine campsite. We were all pretty tired, even though it wasn’t such a difficult walk – Megan carrying a baby, Alex with a super heavy pack, & me carrying a pack with a tent & sleeping mat in it for the first time & just generally weak & not used to carrying a pack. After the first & only rain all day falling as we put up the tents, the rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, purifying water (an involved process with the borrowed pump-filter & UV SteriPen), cooking & eating. A bit later on a couple of English guys from Cheltenham wandered in to camp – they had started at Sunshine Meadows a few days ago & were on their way back from (next to-) Mt Assiniboine. They were able to give us a few pointers on the trail ahead – get through the Valley of Rocks before it gets hot & so on – & I was able to update them on World Cup results. It was a couple of days after I said I would come on this hike that I realised I would miss the final, I was disappointed – although it turns out I didn’t miss much. We hit the hay early (nine-ish) & I slept very well, only briefly woken by a heavy shower of rain when it was still dark. It was a stroke of genius taking my trusty Air NZ eyemask – as it’s only dark at night here from about 10.30 through to 5.00. For most of the first day we crossed over the Alberta – British Columbia border time after time, eventually ending up in BC for the night & the next day & a half.

We got away at about eight o’clock on Saturday morning. It was a climb for thirty-odd minutes away from Porcupine & in to the Valley of Rocks. While we avoided the heat that the guys had had the previous day, it was quite warm & really humid with the overnight rain still sitting around on the foliage. The Valley of Rocks started out rather disappointingly, but eventually the rocks got bigger – but not as big as I expected from various descriptions & not too impressive as they weren’t really standing alone. We surprised a moose (the first I have seen) having its morning drink – that was neat; a little later on we also had a good look at a porcupine (also the first I have seen) stationed in a tree after we happened upon it – they are a lot bigger than I expected.

As we got close to Lake Og (a convenient lunch spot), Assiniboine came back in to view again.

From the lake, we had an easy climb up to Og Meadows – which did take quite a while to get through & it’s for good reason that that walk is nicknamed the Slog of Og.

It threatened to rain on us as we sat on a big rock & watched the ground squirrels try to get up to us. As soon as we came down off our high-spot, the rain took off. We were by this stage getting close to Assiniboine Lodge & the junctions, & therefore signposts, got quite close together. This was a good sign as we only had about four kilometres to go to reach our campsite at Lake Magog – right underneath Assiniboine. Once again, we reached camp at three o’clock. This campsite was a lot bigger with a cooking shelter, about thirty campsites & a few toilets (that were even cleaned daily & had paper). Strangely, none of the sites gave a good view of the mountains. Once tents were pitched, I was keen to pop across to the lake as the sun had reappeared. I wandered off, leaving the others to relax – as I was feeling rather alone with just my water-bottle, camera & bear spray I took to singing the Philosopher’s Song to warn bears of my presence – a song that I realised I knew most of when we broke out in song some time on the Friday. It was a pleasant walk along as far as the trail would take me before I hit too much snow. I was well rewarded too:

Having done fourteen & sixteen kilometres of walking the previous two days, we had 27 km to walk out to the car on Sunday. We were up before everyone else in the campsite – but it wasn’t really that early (6.30-ish). There was a bit of cloud around, so no great early morning photos – but here’s one of the tent I borrowed off Megan – a macpac to go with my pack & most of the clothes I was wearing, not quite sure how that happened.

After briefly detouring to see what the lodge looked like (nothing special), we had an easy climb up to Assiniboine Pass & then back in to Alberta. Most of the rest of the day was spent walking down hill, first steeply down the valley & then reasonable mildly as we followed the Bryant River.

We must have made enough noise playing various alphabet games (first countries, then capital cities, then people of [debatable] historical significance) as although we were in bona fide grizzly country, we did see any. Lunch was before noon again on a convenient bridge, here is the pizza-esque pita bread that was my staple lunch for the trip.

We crossed the Spray River & then had our last big steep climb for about an hour – by now we were all pretty tired (Megan especially) & the final gentle decline to the waiting car took a long time. But 57 km & three days later we made it (still can’t believe Megan managed all that – what a trooper) – what a great weekend & with excellent scenery, weather & company. (There are quite a few more photos, & even some of me, in Alex’s smugmug gallery and also in Megan’s.) We saw another moose on the drive out from the trailhead – very cool.