Thanksgiving Weekend!

Sante with her Piggy

In case it's not obvious what I'm thankful for ... it's all wrapped up in my health, the people (and a smile-making Labrador) in my world who share time and adventures with me, and Mother Nature with everything that she provides my heart, mind, and body whenever I get to play outside!

I took an extended long weekend for Thanksgiving since I left myself some vacation days to play with over the fall season. It's been a great one with friends, biking, and hockey! 

Carl on the Peace Bridge

Friday I took my old high school buddy out for his first real mountain bike ride. We used to bomb around on our 10 speeds on Old Finch Road growing up in Scarborough together. Carl moved his family here last month and Friday was a good time to take him out and show him around on bikes ... we headed for West Bragg, where I thought I'd show him the Northern Flow Loop, but found a layer of crusty half-melted snow on the trails. We gave it a go but Carl's bike kept dropping him (I'm sure it was all the bike) so, after a couple minutes we aborted and headed back to the city to give the COP trails a try. They were snow-free but wet and slick .... we did a loop but since his bike still didn't want to let him stay on it for very long, we kept it to a short loop and decided to swap out the mountain bikes for cross bikes and do a river path ride on the asphalt. Carl's CX bike was in a better mood and no further bruises were incurred. Then that evening I had a few friends over for some pizza and bevvies.

Ranger Summit in the Snow

Muddy finish

Saturday was a great ride in West Bragg with Michele. The snow hadn't melted but we headed up Ranger Summit. It was grippy enough. The goal was to try out the newly-completed Bobcat trail, which was almost completely dry and snow-free. And a whole bunch of fun! The trail fairies have done an awesome job on that trail! Super high fun factor and lots of smiles all the way to Ridgeback. We then climbed Ridgeback which was also mostly dry. We had the trails almost completely to ourselves. Ran into one group on Ranger, and two folks on Ridgeback. We left Ridgeback for Moose Mountain Road to make our way back to the parking lot. Michele had intel on a super-sneaky-ninja trail connecting to Bragging Rights but ... we never found it. What we did find was a whole lot of soupy, deep, spongy mud and swill all the way down to the parking lot. So, I don't recommend that route at this time. I've ridden that route out from Ridgeback before in the pouring rain and it wasn't bad at all ... so melty snow must not bode well for MMR. Then it was back to the city to wash a mud-caked bike and head out to play hockey. 

Sully and Sante

Sunday was a Sante day. Lauren and Michele and I went out to West Bragg and we did the Northern Loop with the pup. We contemplated doing it counter clockwise to get the climbing over with faster and enjoy a longer descent but in the end stuck with the normal direction. We were glad for it too as a lot of the climbing was really greasy, muddy, and snowy. It wouldn't have been fun to come down that way. Instead we got to enjoy completely dry trails all the way down from Reconnect. Wee! The Sante-meister was loving the cool temps and had some speed in her long legs! I was testing her out on the descent to see if she was ok with a little more speed that I usually allow for when I have her and she wasn't even breathing heavy. Such an athlete! After that Sante and I went to hang out with Lauren, Steve, and Sully the Irish Wolfhound, for a yummy ham dinner.

Frozen Thunder!

That brings me to the holiday Monday. Lauren and I found dry dry dry beautiful trails out there today. At the 0 degree Celcius Canmore Nordic Centre. It was awesome! Feels like we're riding on borrowed time so this was a treat to find the trails in such awesome shape. The folks at the CNC are getting ready for winter though ... they're hauling the stored-snow out and laying it down to make the "Frozen Thunder" ski track to help the winter athletes get started with a jump on the season.

I've got one last day off tomorrow. I'll be running some over-due errands, then out to Canmore to ride with Martha for a couple hours before coming back to the city for hockey. Then my mini vacation will hurl me back into reality Wednesday morning with work. Le sigh. 

Hope everyone played outside this long weekend! Peace out!

Dirty Anthem!

Black and Blue!

Let's see, there've been two weekends since Six in the Stix ... a few games of hockey and some riding have happened since. The first weekend was spent with a fun day in the Crowsnest Pass with a couple of Spin Sisters and Christine guiding us on some UROC trails. After a finely-crafted Troy-style Americano, it was time to hit the trails.

I haven't been feeling great on the red bike since after Six in the Stix. The suspension and rotors got some love but still things were feeling off. (I've since found out the "freehub has blown bearings on the free hub body and the parts are sometimes seizing the body" - thanks Garry! ... While that's mostly Greek to me it makes me feel a little better. The repair on that set can wait; my second wheelset is on the bike now.)

It wasn't my day for feeling fit or feeling technically sound so I took it easy on anything techie, choosing to walk the giant house-sized bolder descent on School of Rock. Next year, on a dry day, when I'm feeling the bike love, I'll nail that jobbie. No pics from that day on the iPhone. I guess I was busy staying upright and warm on a chilly day. And the next day I just did a Bowmont spin on the red bike with Sante.

Still on the red bike, a club night ride was on the schedule after that. Six sisters in West Bragg having a fun social ride in the dark. It was extra dark for Sandy and I since both of us had issues with our handlebar light sets. We made it around the loop unscathed with just our helmet lights though. Fun!

After that it was time for the black and blue machine to enter my life. I've been doing some test riding of different kinds of bikes, including 650b and 29" wheels. When Martha told me about a deal on a 2013 Giant Anthem X Advanced 29er O in stock at Different Bikes in Vancouver (the woman has connections) I thought, hmm, good deal, but not a good deal if I can't try the bike. Yeah, Martha had an answer for that too.

A few weeks back she set me up with a friend's Giant Anthem to test ride at the Nordic Centre. Damn if it wasn't a ton of fun to ride. It felt very natural and completely different than the other 29ers I rode, one of which I really liked, and two I really hated. I thought maybe the Medium frame had me stretched out a hair though, so I was holding back on the decision. Then serendipity stepped in and, on that JP Cox ride we did last month, Lisa happened to be on a size Small Anthem. Yeah, one little spin around the parking lot and it was clear the Small was not kosher for me and the Medium was my size. That sealed the deal on the Anthem from Different Bikes. Monday we found out it was still available at a wicked deal and I put the wheels in motion. It arrived last Friday.

A beautiful new bike in a box! Yay! Thankfully I got an assist getting it assembled and ready for an inaugural ride Saturday. Martha's husband Jared picked it up from my place Friday and had it all set up for me to pick up at their place in Canmore Saturday morning and go ride at Minnewanka! So much fun! If the first ride was that much fun, without the bike being fully dialed in, I know I'm in for a great time with that beastie! It's since been on a tour of the Edworthy trail system, and another Sister night ride!