Jer’s Continuing Adventures…

With the 110 km/hr winds on Friday there is a huge amount of trees down on the trails. Dean, Sasha and I got out there this afternoon with the chainsaw and loppers for a good 3.5 hours of trail clearing. Even that barely scratched the surface of the work to be done. I’ll be getting back out there tomorrow to do more of it. After the HIRPC info meeting at Sandpiper beach at noon.

Adam, Andrea and offspring are up for a few days so I’m looking forward to having them over for lunch on Tuesday. It’ll be nice to catch up with them. I haven’t seen Adam since last summer. This is certainly the sign of things to come, lots of folks I haven’t seen since last summer are up for the holiday. Elisha and Charo are up for a couple days. I’s good to see Elisha again. Maybe I’ll get to raise a glass with him soon.

Unfortunately with the power being out on Friday and Saturday the shop was closed so I didn’t get to see my regulars and help folks with their bikes. We HAVE to get a generator, maybe one for the whole Ringside? Thoughts…

Sasha and I are going to be in Richmond starting this Friday for a demolition contract. We’ll be there for about 10 days taking apart a photography studio. We’ll be coming back with a couple truck loads of good building supplies which will really help me get the studio built this fall. And I’ll get a chance to go for dinners and have visits with the beautiful people in Vancouver that I hardly get to see. Christine, Kim, Marika, Gid, Leif, Caroline…

What’s up with that? Sounds crazy, I know, and it tastes damn good! When I invited Dave and asked for suggestions for cooking the venison, he came up with pine needles in the marinade. Sweet! Let’s do it! Dave came over early and we marinaded the steaks with fir needles (no pine trees nearby) and dried cranberries. After Dan and Tereza showed up we got the steaks cooking. So yum! I’m definitely doing that one again! And the lemon meringue pie for dessert was a killer. A few beers, some very engaging conversation and I’d call that a success. I’m liking this dinners with friends thing. Got to do more of it!

Looking forward to going for a ride with Steve tomorrow. We’ll ride the sections of trail I cleared today and see how they are. Stoked! I haven’t gone for a ride with Steve for over a month. We’ll see how the young feller holds up. Just kidding, he can ride the legs off me on a good day.

With a belly full of beer, good food and sweets, it’s time to say good night. Sweet dreams and bright days, y’all!

Wicked solo ride today. After a hard day yesterday, very emotionally draining, it was time to get some alone time on the bike to refresh the spirit. When I woke up the sun was beaming down and the right thing to do was get on the 29er and hit the trails. I was out there for a good 4 hours, including a bushwacking/creek crossing session on the Downes Point property. I followed the trail to the upper meadow, forgetting that with the creek running, there’s no dry way across. All part of the adventure. I also found at least 7 trees down across trails that will need a chainsaw. Looking forward to that too!

I was planning to be at the Firehall for practice, unfortunately the headache I’d been fighting all day started to win. What with getting on the first ferry tomorrow on my way to Vancouver, I figured it best to head home. Speaking of which, time to hit the sheets and get my beauty rest. I’m going to need my sleep. Going to see Kim tomorrow! Super stoked!

All y’all have sweet dreams and bright days!

Having a great tiime these days! Socializing some, getting ahead on a bunch of stuff, y’know life is good.

My biggest excitement these days is the progress we (HIMBA or Hornby Island Mountain Bike Association) are making on the Bike Park. within a couple weeks we have cleared two acres and are getting dirt delivered. The community support is almost totally positive. With a great crew and many donations of machine time (Island Landscaping, JAB Excavating, Brynco Tree Services) we are really speeding along. The next bit is the design phase and I’m hoping all the HIMBA Board members can see eye to eye on the layout.

Stoked on getting a new location for my trailer, somewhere more longterm. There are three maybes so far and one of them is shaping up to be a really good option. It’ll cost a bit to get a power drop and I’ll have to source running water. That should be totally doable and then I’ll be self sufficient!

Coming up in May we are doing our Second Annual No Horses Invitational Speed Run. Best two of three times racing down Chris & Brads and No Horses. Sasha and I were up there yesterday practicing and we’re getting together there at 5:00 everyday to practice. Join us!

I have my truck back! Old Brown was in the shop on Denman to have a whole list of issues dealt with. The mechanic, Roger Jane, is really good and very reasonable. The work he did for $500 would have cost $1500-2000 in town. Thanks, Roger!

Now I’m off for a morning coffee social and then on to the Bike Park for more progress. Have a great day!

The crew I’m on has been doing a lot of different tasks over the last few days. Yesterday we were running a concrete saw, today I’m using a chainsaw to make chocks from skids. In between we moved a D9 Cat down the Haul Road to the Willbros Laydown by Ramp Zero.

It’s interesting how every industry has it’s own language. I’ve learned new meanings for spool (a section of pipe with flanges on it), stud (a length of threaded steel used with two nuts to hold flanges together), dogbone (threading a nut on each end of a stud).

This morning I went over and chatted with the ERT on site. That’s Emergency Response Team, by the way. A nice fella, Andre, walked me through their equipment and systems.
They have three halls, they do medical as well as fire and rescue, and they cover the airport. The pumper I looked at had an enclosed pump operator area, a REALLY BIG monitor up top and carried all foam. Andre also showed me pictures of their airport attack truck. The thing looks like a spacecraft, has ten wheels and does 125 mph! That’s right, over a hundred miles per hour, fully loaded with 3000 gallons on! As Andre put it, “The runway is very long and when a plane is burning, we need to get there fast. Sweet rig! They have an auxillary program, I’m going to see if I can get in to it. Sounds like fun!

Awesome crew came out on Sunday for the big push on Slickrock. We had a dozen all told, and Betty even made an appearance. With such stoked folks we finished the whole thing in 5 hours. Some of the lads were in for the heavy lifting, some were more about the finishing work, everybody had something to do. Even the kids, Arly and Ruby, helped by collecting pin flags. I was stoked to see so many people thought the trails are worth a few hours of their time, and I am looking forward to many more successful work days.

Well, I got all stoked this morning to try out my new Dakine Builder’s Pack. I loaded it up with the chainsaw, an axe, gas, oil, snacks, chaps, water. I had my trenching shovel in one hand and hardhat on my noggin as I walked up the Watertower trail to Jesse’s. The pack makes it easy to go solo and get stuff done.

One of the projects I dealt with was to fix the ride around I’d made on a downed tree/rootball in the fall. The approach and exit are now smoother and less tight. Project 2 was to add a little booter on the wide open part of Jesse’s. The beginnings of options on our trails to make them more interesting to ride.

It was really nice to work on the woods in the quiet of the morning. What a great way to start the day!

All done! Moving the Sawyer/Watertower Trail off the Snarch property and back on to the right-of-way is complete, thanks to the many volunteers we had. Let’s see…

There was Jer, Angeleah, Andrew, Lynne, Oliviar(sp?), Dale, Darian, Jan, Jim, Karen, Sara and of course Marley the Dog. With Andrew leading the way we powered through it in less than 3 hours, decommissioning the existing trail a bit and pushing through the new section. We had representatives from the cycling community, the horse riders and the hikers. Thanks so much to everyone who lent a hand, or a paw.

While I was up there with my saw I hiked up to Jessie’s Trail and took care of the three downed trees on it. One of them had pulled the trail up with its root ball and I had to reroute the trail a bit. Another had come down right on the little booter on the open section. That took a bit of doing as well. All clear now!

When you get a chance take a trip up the trail and see the work. It will take a bit of time to really pack it down, though it is all there. Ride on!

So there I was, manning the fort at the bikeshop on Saturday, when Sara Vipond strolled in and said, “Ride, tomorrow, 2:00″. Well, how could I refuse? Though I did have to pass on a road ride with Doug. I met Sara and Roberta, a recent import from Brazil, at the top of Slade. Turns out that Roberta raced in Eco Challenges down in Brazil. Very cool. Anyhoo, off we went and had a lovely ride up. The only tree down that requires a chainsaw is across Colddeck at the entrance to Freefall.

At the top the view was awesome! It is my temple, my recharger, my meditation. Namaste.

At the top we bumped in to Bob Nixon who was out for a walk. We all had a lovely visit before the three of us headed down the mountain. Roberta did excellently on her slick tires. Sweet! And it looks like Sara will be in to a ride every Sunday. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel.

This was the first time I’ve taken my camera along. I have to learn to stop the sweet riding and set up spots for getting shots of people. But, the riding is so good! Hmmmm, a challenge methinks.

Tomorrow is a trail day. Andrew, Lynn, Sara, myself and others will be working on Watertower/Sawyer Trail. Meeting at 0930 at the watertower near Sandpiper, we’ll be moving it off the private land and back on to the right of way. See you there!