Solo ride (Oct. 15, 2006)

Today my little ridin partner (my wife) Manda was feelin under the weather and couldn't go biking. Considering the short notice to find others join in on a bicycle adventure I decided to go about the adventure on my own. Destination: the Woodlot.

Here's the Vibe and my bike "Bicyclese Mark II" (Bicyclese Mark I died unfortunately at Whistler on Dirt Merchant) ready to be unloaded.

I decided to hoof it up to "Blood Donor" and rip my way down to the parking lot. I decided to take some shots of the scenery of the hike up.

I thought the contrast of those bright red maple leaves looked amazing against the dark cedar forest in the background. If you look closely you can see Bicyclese posing against a stump in the center of the photo just below the red. "Bicyclese you are such a ham!"

Here is Bicyclese posing again at the ol' log resting spot. There is normally a small stream running across the road here but the long dry summer has drunk it all up. These quiet resting spots in the forest are one of the things I love the most about mountain biking. So peaceful!

Bicyclese and I at our final rest/water break before we head up the connector trail between "Crazy Carpenter" and "Blood Donor". As lazy as I may look at the moment it is no "stroll in the woods" making your way up the maountain at the pace that I go. The sooner I get up the mountain the sooner I can get to the good stuff: the downhill.

Here we are finally at the entrance to " Blood Donor". I didn't see a single other human being on my trek up the mountain, which is a rarity now that the Woodlot has become such a huge destination. Just above the yellow trail builders sign you can still see the remnants of a black and yellow birthday hat from nearly three years ago when my cousins, uncle Jim, dad and Manda and I came up here for my birthday ride.

I managed to catch up to some riders on "Blood Donor" who were visiting from the shore. They were very courteous riders and made way for me to attempt the 6-7 foot drop into the "dip" however I caught my shorts on my upper fork crown in mid pedal stroke while I was up on the elevated ladder bridge and nearly fell off. Lucky for me I reacted quickly and did not fall, so I took another run at it and landed smoothly and caught up to the "shoresies" near the ol canoe drop. The canoe drop is not very big, maybe 5 feet if you really launch it but it used to be made of a hollowed out log ,like a canoe, and if you werent careful you would catch your pedals on the sides of the canoe!

I proceded to "Giant killer" next, one of my all time favorite trails, I will have many more stories to tell of that trail, which I raced down and sped on to "Shotgun" a fun and flowy trail that takes you right back to the parking lot. Total E.T. from parking lot to top and back: 1 hour and 15 minutes. Phew! Pretty good time considering picture breaks and one crash on "shotgun" oops! Hopefully next time I can share a bike adventure with someone.