Hayward Lake Loop (Jan. 24, 2009)

I decided to tryout the Hayward Lake trail once again, hopefully without any difficulties from snow. I have never ridden around Hayward Lake before, which is around 17 km round trip. My plan was to start at the Railroad trail parking lot on the west side of the Ruskin Dam at around 10:30am and make my way around the lake. Unfortunately Friday night I discovered that I had a blown seal on my rear brake caliper and it had spewed fluid all over my rotor and brake pads. Of course none of the bike shops in Maple Ridge were open until 10am so my plan for an early start was shot. By the time I had replaced the seal and re-bled my brake it was noon.

Just like last week I had to be somewhere for dinner that night which meant I had to keep a solid pace. I had just bought a Schwinn bicycle computer from Canadian tire for 25 bucks, it is a pretty decent one too for the money, so now I can keep track of my progress. I gave myself three hours to complete the 17km of trail, I figured I could handle an average speed of 6 km/h. At this pace I decided I would stop every kilometer and take a picture of my ride instead of writing about it. So here goes.

1km: The remains of the old railway bridge sticking out of the frozen lake. My computer also has a thermometer which read a balmy 0'C.

2km: following a packed down path on the snowy trail takes some serious concentration.

3km: A nice view of the lake with the odd dead tree protruding. You can see frost covering the trees on the other side of the lake.

4km: Some more of the old railway.

5km: No more path to follow, but luckily the snow here is extremely crusty and actually holds the weight of me and Bicyclese. This was actually a lot faster riding on top of the snow than following someone's footstep.

6km: I got under the shelter of the trees here but unfortunately the path was now covered with patches of ice.

7km: The bridge crossing the river between the Stave dam and Hayward Lake.

8km: A view of Stave Lake from the Stave dam.

I had to throw in this pic because I am probly 60-70 feet above the ground riding on this grate material. My wife would hate this part.

9km: A little bit of drainage work.

10km: A nice bridge over a creek, infortunately there were many areas of this side of the dam that I could not ride due to the ice, but I manage to negotiate most of it.

11km: Another nice bridge, it would appear that I was exhaling during this picture.

12km: this would be my last shot before my camera batteries died.

I managed crank out the last five and a half km back to my warm awaiting car where Amanda was waiting to pick me up. The computer, and rear brake worked flawlessly and besides the ice it was a great ride. I am looking forward to trying this again with less snow and ice and hopefully get some pics of the waterfalls and the floating bridge that crosses a section of the lake.

Trans Canada Trail take one. (Jan. 18, 2009)

Canada Place: the TCT starting point.

Well I finally made my first attempt at riding the Trans Canand Trail (TCT). I figured since the snow was still plentiful on the mountains that I would give the tct a try since the weather was so beautiful.

The floatplanes.

My plan was to swap out my big freeride tires for a couple 2.1" xc tires. Prepping ol Bicyclese for this adventure was more complicated than I thought it would be. I decided to remove my dirty bike wheels from my bike and bring them into the house to thaw out to ease the tire swapping procedure. I litterally took the blow-dryer to my wheels to soften up the rubber in order to get the tires off. Once I had taken the big meats off the rims I put the 2.1" WTB Velociraptor and Tioga Psycho on and pumped them up to 40 psi thanks to the air compressor at the nearest gas station (the deep Mag30 rims make using a hand pump very awkward). Now with the wheels remounted, it was now time to bring the bike inside the house for some more power thawing. My rear derailer pulleys and my front derailer were frozen solid from one of my previous night rides.

A lighthouse at Stanley Park.

Bicyclese is all tuned up, I am all geared up and pedaling my way to the Port Haney train station to catch the West Coast Express bus to Waterfront station downtown. The bus arrived and didnt have a bike rack so I had to stow it away in the luggage hold underneath the bus. My bike route was to follow the sea wall around Stanley Park, into Granville Island, past Science World and along back roads and paved pathways through Vancouver until I meet up with the Burnaby section of the TCT. The Burnaby section would consist of trails on Burnaby Mountain and paved pathway through Port Moody until Coquitlam. Coquitlam would consist of trails through many parks, including Coquitlam River park and Minnekhada and the dikes along Pitt river. The last leg of the journey would include a long looping jaunt along the dikes in Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge before cutting through parks along pathways making it's way toward Kanaka Creek and the Albion Ferry terminal. I would finish my ride by cutting off just before Kanaka and pedaling up the hill to my home. A projected 79km trip overall.

Lions Gate bridge peeking above the fog.

After a lengthy bus ride I arrived at Waterfront close to 12pm. The air was cold but the sun was bright and off I pedaled towards the seawall. I began by zigging around some people who were filming for something, at this time I saw my first TCT sign and followed some people around a construction detour and down three long sets of stairs and out onto the seawall by the float planes, which were firing up. Soon I ended up in the fog and the cruz ships were blaring their fog horn "OOOH CAAA-NA-DAAAAAAAAA!" I was crusin along trying keep a solid pace. I was giving my self 5 hours to get home in time to meet up with Amanda at my parents for dinner, which meant that I need to keep up a pace of atleast 16km/h. Eventually a construction on the seawall detoured my up a switch backed trail to the lookout of Lions Gate bridge, which was just peeking out above the fog.

Bicyclese and Science World.

I stopped for a sandwich and some water at the lookout as well as removing a tshirt since it was getting warmer. I put my long sleeve jersey and Goretex jacket back on and carried on, this time along the road through Stanley park before cutting off on a gravel path and blasting down the hill past other cyclists and those out walking their dogs. Cutting across the grass I plunked overe a little retaining wall and back onto the seawall. The view now was nothing but fog as I made my way along English Bay before ascending the pavement to the Burrard Streeet bridge. Crossing this bridge brought back memories of watching Chris Holmes riding his unicycle along the concrete sides of the bridge in the North Shore Extreme movies. The fog was now behind me and I was pedaling out under the sun onwards to Granville Island. I have been making pretty good time so far. I soon rode past Science World and was now riding through Chinatown. I ended up riding through quiet residential neighborhoods in central Vancouver.

Burnaby trail?

I had been pedaling for quite some time through the neighborhoods until I fanally got to actual dirt trail. " Alright, I'm now on the Burnaby section" I said to myself. I was soon climbing some good grades and then actually climbed up some really steep sections on crusty snow. This must be the big climb up Burnaby Mountain, I thought. Eventually I came out of the forest and onto East Hastings near Willingdon! I just finished the Vancouver section. The last section of trail was four inches of slushy snow and a real chore to even ride at all let alone at a pace of 16km/h. I rode up to the base of Burnaby Mountain and realised my lack of energy and time. This was not going to happen. I would be lucky to make it to Pitt Meadows by cutting out Burnaby Mtn and the entire dikes section in Poco and PM. I chose to take the Barnet Hwy and take the paved paths through Port Moody.

The crusty snow climb (traction wasnt bad)

Of course I forgot to realise the the north side of Burnaby Mtn hasnt seen sunlight in two months and it was literally freezing. I was only shorts, a thin jersey and a my gortex jacket. Luckily I brought my Goretex over-mitts which I wore over top of my full finger bike gloves. The salt from the road was splattering all over my face and sunglasses. My legs would have been burning from the effort I was exerting just to get through this long ugly stretch of highway, but the cold was numbing my legs and I didn't notice the burning. I ended up calling my wife from a pay phone in Port Moody to come and pick me up at a Burger King in Coquitlam near the late Black Dog Bikes. I waited for an hour at BK pounding back hot chocolate to try make my shivering stop. And there she was, my little knight in shining Pontiac, there to save me. I shoved my faithful steed into the back of the Vibe and we drove off into the east, in time for dinner with my parents.

BBBB (January 10, 2009)

Since my last tour de Fraser valley posting I managed to sneak in a few short early winter rides up at the Woodlot before all the snow hit. Then came December. BAM! Four feet of snow, relentlessly falling for a week, mixed with a long stretch of sub-zero temperatures. The initial snowfalls wouldnt have been a problem, in fact it would have been ideal for some awsome snowbiking, however it was the roads which made getting to any mountains near impossible.

Cory finally coming to a rest after a long run through the slush.

Finally the snow stopped, and the rains came. This is where we begin the first bike adventure of the year. JordanK coined this particular ride the quad "b" or B.B.B.B. which stands for breakfast, beer, biking, beer. The day began with JordanK and I driving out to CoryS's place for breakfast and beer. After a lovely morning meal we loaded the Kantola Van up with bikes and headed out to the Railroad trail at near the Ruskin dam in Mission.

Jordan overlooking the snow-covered Hayward Lake.

It was raining out and the snow was still fairly deep and slushy. I have to say, the riding conditions were quite terrible. There was a packed down path in the middle of the trail that was very slick. The problem was staying on this slippery packed down part of the trail because if you started to slide to eaither side you would get stuck in the deep slush. After the first initially trying section we came to a nice viewpoint of the lake where the trail wasnt so snowy. We continued on along the trail cutting in and out of the forest and back out near the lake. After some time we decided it was best to start heading back before we had left ourselves with too long of a trudge and too little daylight. We decided that a wooden bridge along the shore of the lake under the shelter of a huge fir was as best a place as any for the last "b".

Mountain bike rockstars: Bicyclese Mark II, Bigfoot, & Hoss.

With brews uncapped, we had time to reflect on the awsome creations that we have the luxury to call our playground. Unfortunately the cold beers didnt make our cold wet carcasses any warmer so it was back to work grunting through the snow. Of course on our way back to the van it started to snow again. We made quick work getting back to van and firing up the heat. And thus ends the first adventure of 2009 and the first BBBB. I am looking forward to riding the full Hayward lake trail when the snow melts.