“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

Kurt Vonnegut

Yesterday I was in my first bike race for 24 years, the Squamish “Test of Metal”.  I think its a great race, not because its long (67km of hilly single track mountain biking), or technical (some ‘black’), or hard (it starts with a vicious 300m climb), but because of the spirit of the competitors and volunteers.  People are really good about letting you past, or asking if they can overtake on the narrow sections.  They stop and help each other.  It feels like the whole town is involved somehow -  handing out food, or doing first aid, or racing.  My favourite part was ‘Roller Coaster’, you are aware of hundreds of people cheering you on, but can’t actually look up from the twisty trail!  The biggest rush was making some of the bridges on ‘The Plunge’.  The hardest part was the top of ‘Bonk Hill’, which mercifully had a food station at the top.  I can’t believe how much fruit, cake, gel, and sport drink I consumed at the 5 feed stations!  The most embarrasing part was overtaking a lady on ‘Endo’ not realising that I was potentially pushing her close to a cliff-edge (sorry!). I nearly cried twice, not in pain but joy, once going past the Smoke Bluffs which reminds me strongly of the time with the whole family last year, and the other was at the start.  The enitre 1000 people observed a minute of silence, and listen to a beautiful solo rendition of ‘O Canada’ by a young girl.  No flags, fights, or flashy patriotism, just 1000 people on bikes proud of the country they have, and intent on enjoying it.

When the song ended the racing seemed to just begin (a couple of minutes later for me seeded to do 4.5 hours) While riding I saw sally, Tessa Amy, Dave, Kira, Mike, Peanut, John Helig and Adam, all cheering me on like they meant it -  thank guys.  And thanks to all the people I have never met who volunteered to hand out food, and be there if I had a real crash.  During the race I caught up Dave S, and Brian on the hill, but Dave got past me at the top feed station, and I never saw him again!  My time was 4 hours 11 minutes (450th out of 1100 odd  registered from the results), which is about an hour quicker than I was expecting.  It rained all friday night, so the trail was very muddy.  If I do it again I’m going to take clear glasses, as I had to stop many times to get mud out of the eyes.  I am also going to seed myself higher up, and go harder up the first hill to try and avoid some of the bunching up.  Finally thanks to some other riders who dragged me around some training trails recently: Maureen, Scott, Kira, Demelza and Tarquin, and a huge thanks to Dave and Karen for putting Kira and I up.

Today was the SPC Howe Sound ‘Toonie’ race and I got to paddle Daves fast new surf-ski.  Loads of fun, but colder and flatter than I am used to!

Tomorrow

Back in Canada

Kira and I are back in summer for a few weeks.

 

Here is our Alice Lake base camp

 

 

 

And our car loaded up with the toys at Dave’s house

 

And Kira riding to school (on a trail she helped build in winter).  We saw a black bear on the cliff just after I took this photo!

Tark would prefer the new BMX track though…

 

Sea Kayak to Garden Island

Back in Fremantle now, with a new toy.   To see it watch this 2 minute video of the first recorded ascent of Mt Haycock (40m)   ha ha ha on Garden Island which is about 10km offshore.

Mt Haycock

Final days

Today we packed up our house and stored, sold or shipped stuff.  Here are some recent shots…

We still had time for a quick game of nighttime/daytime

Time to go…

Big Snow

There was a huge dump of snow this week (35cm in our yard).  Its hard to believe I was climbing on this with the kids a few months back!

The car looks cool like this though

Today

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The sum of us!

1.1.11 Update

Wow, no updates for a while.  Time flies  — or I am a bad diarizer.  December saw the start of the skiing seasons with the healthy and PC Callaghan Valley fighting it out with the quick fix of Whistler for our attentions.  Both are great in there own way, especially with friends and family.  This photo of the Black Tusk was taken on the downhill  day Kate and I had alone on Whistler (great day,  complete with Waffles at Crystal Hut).
Squamish is interesting in Winter, it seems to be either really wet, or very cold and dry, or snowing. Nothing by halves.  Its still possible to fit in the odd ride when there is enough rain to wash the snow away.  Some of the best riding during the really cold spells when all the puddles freeze solid, and the rock is bone dry .  This photo is of a winter walk in the Smoke Bluffs with the kids a few days before Christmas.   For the Solstice, Kate and I treated ourselves to a night in a cross country ski lodge – it was snowing very heavily for both days, and we had to ski a difficult route out as the grooming machine hadn’t done the easier one!  Here is a picture Kate took of me trying to make tea on the way in. 

 

We skied at Callaghan (in the rain) on Christmas day, and then had a truly great dinner at the Berrisford’s house with way too much to eat and drink, I think I rode home after.  Boxing day we went sea Kayaking in the Howe Sound which was a lot more fun that it sounds, the views were amazing,  Kate loved it – I was under-dressed and got cold!  Then we spent 4 days in Tofino, so I finally got to see Vancouver Island.  (I had to try surfing one time – I’ll never complain about Margs being cold again).  The kids invented a new beach game, which was smashing inch thick sheets of glass pulled off the top of the rock-pools.    We enjoyed staying in the worlds best Hostel in the Botanical Gardens, and met a great German/English family.

George who runs it even lent us a Canadian Canoe – we couldn’t leave Canada without paddling one at least once.  Ok we got stuck in the mud when the tide changed, but it was surprisingly easy for us (well Demelza) to push us out.  A sunny cold ferry ride saw us back in Squamish for an awesome NY party again at the Berrisford’s house (thanks guys).  New years day we skied in sunshine on Whistler (film coming soon).

Birthday Weekend Video

Here is a 3 minute movie shot on my Birthday weekend with my present…

Thanks to Dave, Tyson and the Squamish Paddling club for taking Demelza, Kira and I down the Mamquam on the Sunday.

Montreal

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