Hayward Lake with Manda (Feb. 7, 2009)

Yay! My little wife Amanda finally had a Saturday that she did not need to spend on homework and she asked if she could come biking with me. "Of course" I said. So we geared up and prepped the bikes for another trip around Hayward Lake. Each time I ride around Hayward there is less and less snow, which has made trip times faster each time. However, although I have been routinely gettting out for a ride, Amanda unfortunately hadnt been riding since a trip down CBC trail on Seymour last spring and was feeling a little rusty.

Amanda riding the now rideable snowy stretch on the west side of Hayward Lake.

The plan of course was to complete the 17.5km course by no later than 3:30 pm. A late start and a casual bike ride pace meant that we would have to alter the game plan, so we decided to ride the 7.5km to the Stave dam and have our lunch and then ride back the same way for a total of 15km (still not a bad ride just to get some fresh air). The weather was nice when we were standing in the sun, but the wind was really chilly once we were riding (sorry Manda).

Amanda riding down the switch backs from one of the steeper sections on our way back to the parking lot.

Although the distance we rode was relatively short, we managed to pack in some scenic bridges to ride across and some fun forested sections amidst some monster douglas firs, and the melting trail conditions left a whole lot of mud splattered over us (a true sign of a great ride).

This is a poorly taken picture of a Peregrine falcon we saw perched near the trail side.

As I said earlier the wind was quite cold so the best way for us to keep warm was to keep up the pace and this is what we did for the last 4.5km back to parking lot. We were also trying to ride the last section fast because we came across a couple who had an ailing german shepherd and we were hoping that if we came across a BC Hydro worker that we could get them to drive down the trail and help the people get their dog back to the parking lot. Unfortunately we didn't come across anyone, I hope they got the old hound out ok.

15 chilly kilometers down and a warm car sure felt nice. Unfortunately next weekend is Valentine's day and I would be unwise to take off riding so I may have to delay my adventures for another week.