K2inCanada's Blog

May 29, 2019

From Hot to Cold – April

Filed under: Animals, Bike, Canada, Kayak, Racing — K2 in Canada @ 10:29 PM

In April, we paid for all the warm weather we had in March. Temperatures dropped below seasonal for most of the month of April – at least that’s what it felt like. It also was a bit wetter than May but still not too terrible. Most of our adventures were related to paddling that month, but for one bike ride.

April is the start to the TNR season. It started off with a nice evening on Apr 2 but it got consecutively colder each week. Mind you at least the rain stayed away from Tuesday evenings for the most part . The cold wind was just not nice after getting off the water all wet. Below a few selected pictures.

We spent half of the weekends paddling in Indian Arm. It was mostly hard work and long paddles. And it was cold and wet! Except for the last day of March where we happen to see a river otter play on the rocks. Very cool!

Couple weekends we actually raced.  A new one for us – D’Arcy Island Cash Dash on Vancouver Island near Sidney on Easter Saturday and an oldie we haven’t done in a long time, the Dan Harris in Bellingham, Washington, on Apr 28. Yep another trip into the US! Both of those days were incredibly sunny and mostly calm but what little wind there was was freezing cold!

The D’Arcy Island race didn’t go that well for us. Somehow we got out of sink in the 2nd half and were fair and square beat by Kathleen and Gareth as well as a couple single surfskis. But it was overall a nice event!  And there were cash prizes as well as long as there were at least 3 boats in a class. Unfortunately there were only 2 doubles. Hopefully next year there will be a few more boats from the mainland out. Majority of the paddlers were OCs since it was a Cora race.

The Dan Harris Challenge went a bit better. Lots of doubles and we came in 4th double overall. There was some tough racing going on. Overall Team Canada did quite well in this first leg of the Think International Surfski Challenge even though we did get beat by the US. The margin was the smallest in years though. And Team Canada actually won at the end because they did better in the Canadian race, the Board the Fjord Race in Deep Cove in early May. Jeff and I missed that one though – May is fishing season (for another post).

The first bike ride of the year (other than the daily commute to work that is) up Mount Fromme happened on Apr 27. We meant to go up all the way to the top of Grouse to see the bears but the snow stopped us. So we had to settle with seeing a male Blue Grouse. He tried his hardest to win my heart – dancing and cooing :-). Pretty darn cool! I used my new e-bike for this ride and it was a breeze to get up. Now Jeff is the one trailing behind – which gave me the time to flirt with the grouse. I get the feeling he might be regretting talking me into this new toy :-).

If you want to see more of my friend the Blue Grouse, check out this video:

Last but not least, a few odds and ends pictures from spending weekends mostly at home in April.

December 26, 2018

Christmas

Filed under: Bike, Canada, Home, Ski — K2 in Canada @ 9:31 PM

Christmas Eve morning had us drive out to Manning Park for our first ski there. They finally had enough snow and had all the trails groomed with the big machine. Condition were pretty good but at -11C a bit on the colds side. Even with the sun and hardly a clouds in the sky, the surrounding mountains kept most of the trails in the shade all day. Took my feet and hands an hour to warm up because when you start at Strawberry Flats you go down a lot first. But the climb up North Gibsons took care of it and as my feet and legs started to warm up my grip got better using my skins.

Christmas Eve itself we spent at home eating Raclette. We still had cheese in the freezer from a couple years ago and to my surprise it actually was still good. No tree this year either but we still had some real candles burning. Can’t do without those :-). It looked like it should be easier than the last but nope. The rest of the evening was spend puzzling again – an early Christmas gift to ourselves :-).

Christmas Day morning, well after sleeping in and having a slow start, we headed to Mount Seymour to try out my new electric assisted mountain bike I bought a couple of weeks ago (on a rainy Sunday). Jeff had finally convinced we to get one so that he doesn’t have to wait for me any more going uphill. Well, he sure does not have to worry about waiting for me anymore, at least not as long as I have battery power. I only used the lowest setting and still flew up Old Buck and barely started breathing on the steepest sections on Powerline. But Jeff the trooper made it up all those hills on his own power. I would have walked many of them on my regular bike. At least we can stay together this way since I can easily stop and start again. Well, downhill was just as hard as before, other that the thicker tires provide more suspension which was nice. Too bad you can power backwards :-). My hands and arms were aching from the long way down on Powerline till the turn off to connect with Bridle Path. The first part, Hyannis Trail, was nice and easy but I didn’t expect Bridle Path to be that technical. It sure got bumpy and I was trying my best to not crash, walked quite a bit of it even though with the electric assist it would have been easier to get over roots and bumps and rocks but my survival instincts = fear prevailed. It was hard work, not so much cardio but balancing and pushing the much heavier bike. Nevertheless, this bike will come in handy this spring and summer! Looking forward to some longer rides.

The afternoon and evening were spent with Jeff’s parents and some relatives. Maynetta’s turkey and all the many side dishes were wonderful. The baked ham Jeff and I did in the slow cooker was barely marginal in comparison. In either case, I did not work hard enough on the electric bike to deserve all that food :-). Merry Christmas!

October 27, 2018

Ladner Fall Classics

Filed under: Bears, Bike, Canada, Kayak, Racing — K2 in Canada @ 9:11 PM

Well, last Sunday should have been a fishing day but we decided to do a short kayak race in Ladner instead. The water levels at Jeff’s favourite Coho spot were really low and the nice bright sun seems to spook the fish. We did the Ladner race, put of by fellow paddlers Matt and Chris, before but that was in January – it was cold and wet and just plain miserable. Given that this race was held on Oct 21st it should have been cold and wet and plain miserable but it wasn’t. Bright sunshine and perfect temps around 15C.

But the race was not till the afternoon and so Jeff decided why not do a “quick” mountain bike ride up Grouse Mountain following the access road. How hard can that be? And we get to watch the bears at the top. I was actually thinking this could be fun. Well, we told super biking fit buddy John about our idea. He had been up there many times and said it was easy and he knew a good spot to meet somewhere at a mall since there is no parking near the top. Unfortunately that mall was at the bottom of a big hill up Mountain Highway. So by the time we made it to the start of the back road I was already sweating bullets. And all those cars with mountain bikes drove by us while I was struggling up that big hill! Turns out there was a perfectly fine parking lot! It was full by the time we got there but given the amount of cars that had past me grinding up the road that wasn’t a surprise. I am sure we would have gotten a spot if we drove right up rather than riding up and adding another 20min to our ride. Anyhow, I made it, but I was grumpy. So the guys, who were must faster than I anyhow, took off and said – see you at the top. I had just enough time to yell that I would turn around at the 2hr mark … before I lost sight of them. I know Jeff was hoping that when I see bears my grumpiness would go away … he knew I’d be grumpy all the way up. The trail, well gravel road, through the forest wasn’t steep but it goes up the whole time. I actually thought I can do this no problem as I got to the top of Mount Fromme. I even passed a few people slower than I – downhill bikers, what can I say. It went almost flat for a bit but when I turned the corner I saw Grouse way above me on the other side of this big valley. I was barely half way! Even lost a bit of elevation as the road wound its way along the valley further and further AWAY from the  final destination. Well at least it did not drop too much. Riding up the other side to the top of Grouse almost killed me. Up and up it went and each turn I thought I got to be almost there … but nope. I was ready to turn around but still had 10 min to go before the 2hrs were up.  Now, I did not want to be a quitter and I told myself to at least ride up for two hours before turning around. I made it to the top with a minute to spare. Jeff was wrong, I was still grumpy even when I saw the bears. Jeff was smart, he stayed away for a few more minutes while poor John got the worst of my venting. Sorry John! Only got to watched the bears for about 5min before it was time to head back down so that we could get ready for our afternoon race. What on earth had I been thinking….! The way down of course was much faster but my wrist got pretty sore. Apparently Mt Fromme has some nice downhill trail for the not so experienced mountain bikers but I just wanted to get off the mountain.

We had an hour rest before we had to load the boats and drive to Ladner Slough. The usual suspects showed up and we had ourselves a good race with Shane and Chris and Connor in the front pack. But the 10km felt much harder than they should have. Apparently I do use my legs when I paddle since I could feel them complaining after the morning bike ride. Well, Shane and Connor were on their 2nd race of the day too so none of us was going too crazy. Jeff protected the inside line on the last lap almost driving poor Connor into the pleasure boats as we passed the marina. Poor Connor, he is still young and doesn’t yet know all the dirty tricks :-). We won the sprint to the finish line by a hair over Chris and Shane and Connor in 51:34, beating our January time by almost 5min. The nice weather sure helped. The best part thought was the pub afterwards with good food and beer in great company.

September 9, 2018

Some biking, some hiking, some camping, some paddling

Filed under: Animals, Bike, Canada, Hike, Kayak — K2 in Canada @ 6:54 PM

Labour Day Long weekend last weekend, Sep 1-3, and we managed to squeeze in all our favourite things to do except campfire nights. Fire ban is still on. Apparently we should have brought a propane fireplace with us as every other person camping at Coldstream in Manning Park on Saturday night had one. We had packed up “most” of our camping gear on Saturday morning for an overnight car camping trip to Manning Park. Only forgot the drinking water canister and our camping chairs :-). Obviously we survived without both. We also brought our mountain bikes along. For Saturday we had a trip up Blackwall Peak planned. It’s 16km up, 8 of them paved with an elevation gain of 650m. We ski this up in the winter every so often – there is an actual race that for some odd reason I like – and it is hard work. I am not sure why I expected it to be less hard work on my bike. Well, it wasn’t! Jeff of course was flying up the mountain. We met up half way up at the Cascade lookout. Actually he turned around to keep me company for the last 2-3km. Views had improved from 3 weeks before (Windy Joe) as most of the smoke had cleared out even though you could still smell it. So this time, the views were actually worth all the hard work :-). And I was ready to keep going after a short break taking pictures of yellow pine chipmunks and Cascade Golden-mantled ground squirrels. The rest of the road, yep there were cars passing us once in a while but it wasn’t too busy, was gravel which was okay for the way up. Once at the top, by the way it took less time than skiing up for me at least, we did a short hike around the peak – Heather trail – hoping to see some wildlife and wildflowers. Both were scarce – the flowers because it was late in the season, the wildlife, probably because there were tons of people up there. We did get to watch some yellow-bellied marmots and pika though on our way down in the rock scramble just below the upper parking lot. That was cool! The way down was almost as tough as the way up. Not so for the legs but for the bum and wrist and shoulders. Flying down the washboard gravel road was torture for those parts of the body. I guess that only evened out things.

We rode our bike right into the pub at Manning Lodge for food and beer which was desperately need since I finished my drinking water bottle on the way up. The friendly server even filled our water bottles up for free :-). The only problem, we had to ride the bikes back to Coldstream on a full tummy. It’s not much of a hill but it felt like one. Anyhow, it’s only 2 km and I managed. We sat around a bit and played dice by the light of our headlamps. Gets dark so early now 😦 and it was actually COLD! I think we managed to make it till 9pm before crawling into our warm sleeping bags.

Woke up to another nice, sunny and cold morning. We loaded everything back into the truck  and drove to Hope where we were to meet John and his buddy Miles for breakfast at Rolly’s. Today’s adventure was to ride up the old train trestles from Portia – exit #202 along Hwy 5 – towards the summit at Coquihalla Lakes, which is part of the Trans Canada Trail. John had done it before and always talk very highly of it – but he also is an avid cyclist and does a lot of touring on a bike as well as some mountain biking. So whatever easy meant to John could be torture for me. But it was a great sunny day and despite my bum being a bit sore, I was ready for another bike ride. At least, there shouldn’t be any cars! This section of the TCT – Trans Canada Trail – was a designated hike, bike and equestrian trail only. But apparently ATV’s don’t adhere to those rules and find a way through the bush around the gate. Oh well. Despite a few ATVs the trail was awesome. Easy grade, mostly on gravel surface, a bit of single track through the forest at the beginning, a bit of BC history (old snow sheds and train bridges) and most of all awesome views of the valley and surrounding mountains! It was a bit longer than I expected, 25km one way but it was well worth it. Jeff and John were always ahead pushing the pace while Miles and I traded places on the uphills. Miles is a crazy downhill mountain biker but does not like hills, even less so than I do :-). Not much in regards of wildlife but the scenery more than made up for it.

We finished off the trip with a beer and early supper at a Pub in Hope, the south side of the Hwy. Jeff and I had never been there since a bit off the beaten track but the food was good and the beer very affordable. Plus we could sit outside and enjoy the sun for a bit more. For more pictures go here.

On Monday, we did our last training paddle for the “Indian Arm Challenge” on Sep 8. Finally Jeff’s wrist was feeling better again and we put in an exhausting 3hrs in bumpy conditions (2 x 25′ on 5′, 6 x 18′ on 2′). It did not feel like a great performance but that’s how it should feel like in the last big session before the race … a week of “rest” ahead. Except I still raced my single at the TNR and went running with a colleague of mine on Wednesday night.

August 27, 2018

Meant to take it easy

Filed under: Bike, Canada — K2 in Canada @ 6:52 AM

But I wasn’t really thinking Saturday night after our 3hrs very tiring paddle in Indian Arm (6 x 25′ on 5′) when I proposed to ride up the access road on Cypress – called BLT on the mountain bike maps. Even though Cypress isn’t really a mountain but a high bowl surrounded by peaks, the base is still 910m above sea level. Okay we did not start at sea level but we started at the bottom of the surfaced road. The surfaced road is 12kM long! Our trail was supposed to be 5+km long but at the end both cover the same elevation. I never ever wanted to ride up Cypress Rd thinking that’s way too much up. Now here I am talking about riding up Cypress on a mountain bike trail that has a 9.9% average grade while the surfaced road averages 5.6%. I really must have been tired but didn’t change my mind Sunday AM either. It finally had cooled down this weekend and we actually had rain. Saturday it rain all morning long (our paddle started in the rain but there was no wind and the water was calm with some current) and this morning it drizzled till about 10AM. Clouds were hanging around in the mountains all day. My original plan was to do Elfin Lakes but for that one I want nice weather since the views are spectacular up there. Hence a cloudy, 14C day was the perfect day for a grunt up Cypress. And a grunt it was. It starts out on Eagle Lake Access Rd with it’s many signs telling you to stay out. Well we didn’t and not just us. The road was already steep but surfaced and relatively easy to ride up. Than you hit a really steep gravel road which was torture until you finally get to the old access road, more like a trail, which wound its way up the powerlines. Again, there were plenty of times I pushed my bike and cursed Jeff who rode out of sight immediately. I don’t know how he can just ride up all this steep stuff. But I didn’t quit and the trail actually leveled out a bit near the top which was nice. So by the time we reached the ski lift area we were still able to continue on for a bit on the Cypress Creek Trail, a part of the Trans Canada Trail. Unfortunately we did not know that this trail would actually connect with the Eagle Lake Rd again. Hence we turned around when it started to seriously loose elevation. The way back down, well there were some ups, was in parts very steep and fast. Twice I got off my bike rather than sliding down the gravel sideways. Maybe some day I build up enough courage to ride downhill :-). 2hrs up, 1hr down. No animal encounters other than a flicker. Not much of a view anywhere.  Once we saw the sun break through the clouds on the Cypress Creek Trail. Glad though we made it outside and no injuries other than some minor scratches from attacking bushes :-).

 

August 21, 2018

Smoke is back

Filed under: Bike, Canada, Kayak — K2 in Canada @ 9:55 PM

As promised the smoke was back this weekend. And on Monday BC was rated at the worst for air quality in the WORLD.

Anyhow, that does not stop us from doing the things we love – live is to short to wait for stuff you can’t control to go away. Saturday was a long training paddle again but unfortunately Jeff injured his wrist on the last interval which made it for a slow, frustratingly inefficient paddle back (5′ Wup, 2 x 25′ @ 70%, 5R, 12 x 4′ on 1′,5R, 70min “steady”). The smoke wasn’t too bad that day. It was way worse Sunday when we were going for the views in the mountains. Actually, we ended up picking a route with less views but listed as a mountain bike route, vs just picking a logging road up the mountain. We did 9 Mile Hill right out of Squamish, which essentially is a logging road and there were quite a few cars going by us – no other bikes mind you. It should have been an easier climb than Windy Joe but again my stamina for hills is not good to say the least. I was determined for the first half but after we got the taste of a short downhill midway up, my body refused to go up again any steeper grades. And there was no excuse to stop for the view or any animal sightings – rats! Anyhow, we made it to Nine Mile bridge over the upper Mamquam at which point we could have taken the same way back or try to find the Ring Creek Rip route. We decided on the later and found a road called “Ring Creek Main”, figured that must be it. It was steep and full of loose boulders – not rocks, boulders – and it went UP. Later on I learned it’s call “Lava Flow Hill” and is part of the “Test of Metal” mountain bike race (not to myself – never sign up for that!). Somehow Jeff managed to ride most of it but I didn’t even make an attempt. I was actually afraid that this type of road might even be hell to go down on and down we had to go at some point. The downhill was slightly less scary, no boulder but a mix of loose rocks and gravel and sand. Tricky like hell for me and I was working as hard down as I was going up – what the … Again no real views to distract me – very smokey and eerie looking. There were narrower trails going off into the trees here and there but they all said “more difficult” which at that point sounded like impossible to me since we were on the “easy” trail. Then we came to a big intersection with no signs. Looking at our maps we decided to go left still down a logging road. At some point there was another trail to our right going into the trees and we got onto a nice level pine-needle soft trail called “Ring Creek Rip”. Yeah, I thought, almost home. I could not have been more wrong but I didn’t know that at that time. We were just glad to be able to just ride and not slide and buck and curse. We even got to a large trail map which told us to just stay left, go over a bridge and you are home. We turned left onto a narrow still nice even and soft trail but then got to another junction (which had not been on the large map). One way was marked “Powerhouse Plunge”, accompanied by a black diamond for advanced skilled riders only and the other way went – nowhere, dead end. Now we had the choice to go back up to the road or commit to the “Plunge”. Well you probably guessed it, we took the “plunge” and it was actually a decent hike. No way I would ride it on a bike but hiking it was nice, through the forest. I was only a bit worry about where this trail would spit us out. Hard to tell direction without a sun or view of any of the surrounding mountains in that haze. But at least down was the right direction in general. And we eventually did make it onto a bigger road again and came to the bridge over the lower Mamquam River that had been marked on the big map but to date I still am not quite sure where we went wrong. The way back took longer than the way up this time. We sure deserved the big plate of nachos and beer at the pub in Squamish afterwards. The drive home along Howe Sound was spooky – visibility was so low and the sun, at 5PM, was a glowing red ball in the sky. And since traffic was bad and we were going very slow I managed to take a few pictures during the drive (with full zoom!).

August 17, 2018

Fire Season

Filed under: Bike, Canada, thoughtful — K2 in Canada @ 11:16 PM

Well I guess we no longer have summers but fire seasons. Even though we are not anywhere near the record fires from last year (one starts to think how much is actually left to burn) Vancouver had been under a blanket of smoke for 5 days. But of course that did not stop Jeff and I to do stuff outdoors. Last Sunday we went for our 2nd mountain bike ride in Manning Park (see previous post). This time we went up Windy Joe. More elevation than Poland Lake but a bit less steep. The most challenging part for me, it was up the whole time for the 8km on a fire access road. My legs are just not used to this and I walked most of the last 2kM. On the top we saw and smelled nothing but smoke. It was pretty sad. The descent was fast though, fats enough that we added on the Similkameen Trail at the bottom. That trail is almost flat but very narrow with lots of roots and logs and water hazards. I would call that quite technical. Earned a few bruises when the bike hits unexpected obstacles, stops dead and the body keeps going. Good fun though but I was tired at the end. Good thing we could have a beer and food at the Lodge.

 

 

Today was the first sunny day but they say the smoke will be back soon. There are more than 550 fires burning all across the province by now, many of them started a week ago. Interactive Wildfire Map – snapshot from last Sunday.

WildfireMap_2018-08-12 (Medium)

Being able to look straight at the sun high in the sky during the day and the red glow may look cool but sure is not. It is very scary.

 

 

On Wednesday, the Province declared a State of Emergency to get federal assistance. https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/bc-wildfire-provincial-state-of-emergency-poor-air-quality-evacuations-fire-bans/108223/.

The most scary part, most of those fires were caused by humans. Well to be honest, in my mind all of the fires are caused by humans. Maybe not the start of a fire, lightning is a common cause, but the way they spread. A profit driven logging industry replanting dense mono cultures of evergreens rather than natural forests. Winters getting warmer allowing more pine beetle larvae to survive and spread killing off trees over large areas in new growth forests. Summers getting hotter and drier. Lots of dead trees in those dense forest making it easier for fires to start be it due to lightning or carelessness. Less rain means weaker trees more susceptible to beetle attack or fire or wind. How long until “Super Natural Evergreen BC” will look like the Baja Peninsula? My lifetime? I hope not. I love our trees and mountains and coastlines and all the animals that call this their home like I do.

Thanks to those >3000 fire fighters out there that are trying to stop or at least control the blaze. And a shout to all of us to be conscious about our actions in these very dry conditions!

There is a great article in BC Magazine about “Controlling BC’s Wildfires“

Tricked

Filed under: Animals, Bears, Bike, Canada — K2 in Canada @ 11:15 PM

Jeff tricked me two weeks ago. On Friday afternoon, Aug 3, he asked me about a hike we did a few years ago: “How steep do you think Mt Outram was to below the peak?”. If I had know what would be coming I would have said very steep but I remembered the first 2/3rds as a relatively easy grade, even though it was long and probably 1200m elevation gain (1700m to the top) so I said: “Wasn’t that steep” thinking that would be a nice hike to do on the BC Day long weekend beginning. “Good” came the response “I want to buy a new mountain bike like yours and need a reason for it – riding up Mt Outram is the right reason”. I was stunned! We did see mountain bikes below the peak when we hiked it a few years ago. I only use my mountain bike for winter commuting and to get around on logging roads during spring fishing. I never “mountain-biked” ever. I was even more stunned when I heard myself say “That sounds cool”.

Luckily I did a bit more research on the Saturday after our training paddle in Indian Arm (10′ Wup, 20′ @ 70%, 5R, 12 x 3′ on 2′,5R, 20′ @ 70%). I found some other more mountain bike designated trail options around the lodge in Manning. And buddy John always talked about Poland Lake as a great bike trail up a fire access road rather than a narrow hiking trail. So we did the sensible thing and picked Poland Lake as our very first mountain bike adventure.

It was a hot sunny day. The trail started out level for a kilometer or so through trees starting from Strawberry Flats. But soon enough it started climbing and I started sweating, huffing and swearing but Jeff was too far ahead to hear me. Lucky for him he spotted a bear when we reached the first opening with a great view over the valley bottom already way below us. That made me forget about all the pain getting here and I had renewed energy to continue on. Well, it only got steeper from there and I had to walk quite a few sections. But once we made it up to the top of the chair lift (I should have known it would be a steep ride) the trail level out for the last 4km to Poland Lake and we were in the shade on and off. At Poland Lake, we hiked around the lake leaving the bikes behind – no bikes allowed around Poland. Nice spot. It is a designated wilderness campsite and people were camping up there. Tons of wild flowers in the meadows around the lake too. The way down started going up again for a bit. My legs were complaining but once we got past the ski lift it was a nice fast down, not too scary either. I was tired though after the trip which took us about 3hrs. We cooled our legs off in lightning lake, watching the ground squirrels and then had a big plate of nachos and beer at the lodge watching the humming birds. A great day and a first for me! I climbed a “mountain” on my bike!

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