Rubber Side Down

Jumpingpound/Cox Hill

This was a first fully dry weekend in about 3 weeks so that meant only one thing, mountain biking. I struck out to do the Jumpingpound-Cox Hill combo. The only problem with my plan was, I was hungover and it was hot out (high 20's). Powderface road was freakin dusty, everytime a car drove past, I had to hock out all the dirt I inhaled.

The first real climbs were making me think this was a very bad idea, but I'm stubborn and I refused to let a little thing like Jagermeister-tainted sweat ruin my day. The ridge was beautiful, wildflowers were in full bloom and the sun was shining be-ritely. I took it pretty easy coming off Cox Hill mainly because I didn't feel like bailing hard with noone to ride down to the bottom if something went wrong.

Half way down the mountain I came across 4 neat steaming piles of bear shit going across the trail. I had been pretty quiet coming down, but as soon as I saw the crap I was screaming "yo bear wassup?!" "Homie bear where you at?!" "Who's your daddy bear?!" "Foschizzle my bearzizzle ma dizzle!" "Sheet bear, no bear's gonna run that chump rap on me ya dig?" (bears speak jive by the way)

Needless to say, either I scared the crap out of the bear or just confused the hell out of him/her because it didn't show its oh-so-cute-but-deadly furry face as I went by. The only problem with the whole ride was I didn't pack any vitamin P in a cooler to have after a sweet day.

Here's the fotos:

Don't move to Calgary without a place to stay....seriously.

Yeesh. I'm sooo happy we bought our house last year. And no, I don't have room on my (half eaten) couch.

The Xtracycle

Here's something for you non-cyclists out there. The Xtracycle. Better known as the sport utility bicycle (SUB). That's definetly in my future. Check out the slideshow on the main page.

Cooler in another way is work cycles in Amsterdam. Some of the coolest bikes known to man!

Great Idea, Stupid Weather

Friday night I had a company function at a boss's place on the Elbow River. It was a great night with live music and free booze, which invariably leads to drunk Geoff. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, but ealier in the week I had talked myself into riding out to Canmore for a wedding.

When I rolled out of bed Saturday morning, it was already an hour past my original planned departure time. I debated for a couple of minutes as to whether it was a good idea to start the ride later and with a rather significant hangover. A quick look at the weather forecast helped make up my mind. Partly cloudy 20c with almost zero wind. Sweet, wind is almost never calm in southern Alberta.

I threw my crap together and zipped out the door, leaving Maria to haul my good clothes and overnight stuff in the car when she came out later. The plan was for her to call me when she got to the hotel, just to make sure I would arrive with enough time to get turned around.

It quickly became apparent that the wind forecast was about as truthful as a politician taking questions about what he/she plans to do with public money. Instead of calm winds, I ended up riding 110 km into a  30-40 km/hr headwind. I had to pedal down Scott Lake Hill just to keep moving forward. What should have taken me just over 3 hours to do, ended up taking me 4.5 hours. By the end, I was pretty delusional, mainly because I hadn't eaten enough for a 4.5 hour ride (I had planned on 3 hours). I think I let out a maniacal laugh when I saw another cyclist heading the opposite direction, knowing he had to turn around and face this wind at some point.

I got to our hotel in Canmore with barely enough time to change, down a coke and a burger (quality post ride meal) and head off to the wedding. I was expecting to be a wreck at the reception, but instead I found my second, third, fourth and fifth winds on the dance floor, thanks in no small part to a steady flow of cupcakes and Budweiser.

So Fast

Did I mention the Flying Machine was fast?

Proof:

La Máquina del Vuelo

At long last here's pics of my new commuter/do everything bike. The Flying Machine!

Here it is in all its glory in the backyard.

The lucky number 13 frame plate makes it faster.

I've added a few custom touches, like these skull valve caps:

and the quadraphonic horn, that ensures this mofo is pathway legal:

I have no idea how much it weighs but rest assured, this thing ain't designed for Mont Ventoux. That being said I haven't had to walk it home yet.

In The Woods

I woke up yesterday morning with no real plans other than to get to the mountains and do something. There was a ride heading out from Canmore and doing the Goat Creak-Canmore to Banff and Back route, but they were meeting at 9am. I had slept like crap all week so homie was playing dat start time. I brewed some coffee and starting flipping though trail guides trying to choose a good trail for me and the mutts. (I was flying solo since Maria had the unenviable duty of watching over graduating high schoolers all day.) I hummed and hawed over trails for at least an hour and finally decided on Ribbon Creek.I was initially kinda bummed at this choice because I was hoping to do something with a little more exposure but being early June, there's not a whole lot out there that still isn't partially covered in snow. In the end it turned out to be a great day.

I hiked almost the full 13 km up to Ribbon Lake (and back), but had to turn around at the cliff since Yoho and Rawley stubbornly refused to scale the cliff with me. Dogs are probably the best hiking companions you can ever find. Once you've hiked with your own dogs, its like Neo taking the red pill in the matrix, except instead of waking up to find the world has been taken over by machines and they are feeding off our brains, you find that the woods are full of things you never noticed before. Yoho and Rawley are big explorers and get excited about everything. For example, here's a sample of what must be going through their heads while running around in the woods:

Rawley: Holy crap! You see that rock!? It like, smelled like squirrel pee!

Yoho: This tree smells like bear! No wait! It smells like deer! No wait! It smells like bacon!

Rawley: There's so many places to take a crap out here, I can't decide! I'm freakin losing my mind, man.

Yoho: This grass tastes way better than the grass in the back yard. Maybe, because Rawley hasn't peed on this grass....yet.

Anyway, here's some photographic evidence of our sojourn: