Jer’s Continuing Adventures…

What a great turn out this year! Can you believe 28 riders showed up? Everyone seemed stoked on it and there were some good times. A couple of crashes with no injuries kept it exciting for the crowds. Strangely, the whole field was slower this year than last year. Maybe the trail was different for some reason.

It got interesting as someone had to run the shop, so I did the first run, jumped in my truck and drove to the shop so Irah could come up to race. Then we swapped again so I could do the final run. A little slower than my 1:45 last year, I came in at 1:53. Guess I have to practice more this fall and next spring!

Anywho, on to the results!

Men’s Category:

First Place
Tom Anderson
1:41.16

Second Place
Kees Vandervalk Jr
1:41.56
(2009 result : First Place – 1:33)

Third Place
Sasha LeBaron
1:42.18
(2009 result : Second Place – 1:36)

Fourth Place
Irah Vet
1:43.72

Fifth Place
Miles Bagger
1:43.90

Women’s Category

First Place
Carmel Ecker
1:57.03

Second Place
Christine Jensen
2:06.53

Third Place
Amy LeBaron
2:09.66

The complete results are here:
results2010

Honorable Mention goes to Jaden Legante for being the Youngest rider at 6 years old!

Thanks so much to the timing volunteers and all the participants. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Looking forward to next year! Same day, same time, same place. See you there!

Not directly related though.

Had a lovely evening last Sunday at Rob and Amanda’s to celebrate Rob’s birthday. What fun! Fantastic food, great conversations and a few tasty libations created by DC squared. (That’s Deputy Chief Doug Chinnery). While I brought a simple Ground Venison, Beer Tomato Spaghetti Bolognese; there was a yummy Homemade Caesar Salad, Grilled Steaks and Roast Vegetables, and Grilled Prawns with Spicy Miso Sauce. Mmmmmmmmmm. And Lindy is back! She’s looking good and taking a break before her new job starts now that she’s done school. Way to go!

Speaking of bikes, this Sunday is the 4th Annual No Horses Challenge! Come on up to the top of Strachan Road at noon on Sunday to either race or cheer on the competitors! We’re expecting a few more riders this year and lots more spectators. Lee will be riding his new Banshee Wildcard and is super stoked about it! Even Arly is coming back to improve his time. Thanks to Jody and friends for timing! See you there!

Sweet ride last weekend! Sheldon of NSRide fame connected with me and we arranged a group ride out of Cumberland last Sunday. They got there for a full day of Cumberland trails on Saturday, and I met them Sunday morning to shuttle Forbidden Plateau. We got in two good runs and a tasty lunch at Tarbell’s. The trails were challenging and we got a bit spanked by the girls in the group. It may sound like an excuse, but riding a hardtail in that technical terrain is a lot of work!All had a fun time though. And drifting the gravel access road on the way down in my truck was a hoot. Nearly didn’t make one hairpin turn over a drop into a clearcut! Woot!

After all the riding, I stopped overnight in Comox to visit Melissa and Andy. Nice folks and very generous with sharing their house. We had a simple dinner and watched some Top Gear. Great stuff! Thanks for the couch and good times.

I had a couple stops in town to activate my iPhone and a brief visit with Savannah at her work, (nice uniform! ) then rolled for the ferry home. All in all a great couple of days. Now it’s time to knuckle down to get the shop ramped up for summer. Ride on!

Well, we finished up at the Richmond warehouse demolition project on Saturday last, packed the trucks to the limits and headed out. Sasha went straight for the Tsawwassen Ferry, but I had a few stops to make so I opted to stay at Big Green for the night.

One of my tasks was to be combined with fun. I had to return the keys to Kyriakos at his store. He owns the Parthenon Mediterranean Grocery on West Broadway. While there I spent a good 45 minutes shopping and exploring all the amazing flavours he has. He tipped me to the best feta cheese I’ve ever tasted (I got a full block of that) and hooked me up with 5 litres of top notch kalamata olives! Among the other treasures I picked up were some great balsamic vinegar, some truffle oil, nice prosciutto, a can of escargot, two kinds of dried chilies, chick peas, cous cous, a huge can of dolmades, nice flatbreads and some amazing sweet roasted paprika!

I’m super excited to use these flavours. As a matter of fact, James and Jordan are coming over tonight and we’re going to cook up some tasty gourmet food. Along with the amazing food, I stopped in Chinatown and got a dozen nice plates to practice plating on. They are all angles and white to really show off the food. Dave Bishop said it well, “Good food is about all the senses, and the first experience the guest has of it is the visual display. It’s worth spending the time to do it right.” I’m so looking forward to practicing and getting better at the plating side of food, as my cooking ability grows at the same time.

In other news, Irah and I are opening the shop three days a week now, and getting really excited about the coming season. With a new kayak trailer built, thanks to Rob, and bikes being built, we’re really ramping it up. Wait till you see the new signage and logos!

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!

These days, if I want to get in a ride it seems like I’ll be doing it at night. With that in mind, I taped a flashlight to my handlebar and rode the trails to the Firehall for Fire Practice. It was quite fun, even though the light I’d taped to my helmet was pointing nearly straight down. It just made it more of a challenge. There’s a decent headlight coming my way on loan to really try the night.

Stoked that my plans for many dinners are coming to fruition. I think the trick is to invite interesting people in the right quantity and see what happens. Looking forward to the first of many tomorrow evening. A local chef is coming early and we’re going to experiment with venison steak. Yum!

So good to get off the rock for a couple days. To take a deep breath of city air and (gasp, choke, cough) realize how sweet life is on a little island. Seriously though, there is a lot more noise, light and people in the city. And it doesn’t stop. On the other hand, there are a lot of really good restaurants, stores and things to do. Where else can one have Dim Sum for brunch, shop at a Middle Eastern grocery, and have really good sushi for dinner? Mmmmm, sushi.

Spending time with Kim has been realy good and I’ve enjoyed it immensely. We spent part of Saturday baking a cake for her friend Angela’s birthday party. Double chocolate Rum Cake! To die for! Not to mention all the other fantastic appies that were there. Oh my aching tummy! This is why I avoid All You Can Eat situations, because I usually Eat All I Can! Totally worth it though. The company and conversations were very interesting (who’d have thought I’d be talking about sewage treatment technology? Shit – in layman’s terms).

Sunday we walked up to my sister’s place and met her for Dim Sum. The place we went to didn’t have the usual carts milling around with food to choose, so the task of ordering off a list fell to me. Apparently I had no idea of the amounts I was ordering. The table was full, we were full and there was still 5 more dishes to come! Oh god! I tried to send stuff back but it was unstoppable. Oh well, Kim and Caroline have lots of food for lunches this week!

Later on we met Gid and Fin at Zipang Sushi on Main. Great to see them both and as usual, the conversation was lively and engaging. Somehow we got to talking about Google, hiring practices and the difference between Discoverers and Explorers. Good times! And the Toro was awesome. The conversation continued outside the restaurant for awhile longer, it just seemed like we were caught in the flow. It was almost with regret we called it and Kim and I walked back to her place. I’m looking forward to the next one.

Now I’m back on Hornby and ensconced at my folks place. Apparently the hot tub is fixed! I’ll be cleaning and filling that puppy tomorrow. I may be posting the next update from the tub! If you want a soak drop me a note or give me a call. Now I’m off to a well earned rest. Sweet dreams.

While I was working at Norco Bikes in 2005 I was a ride leader with the Pedals and Pints Bike Club. We would take groups out riding on Mount Seymour every Tuesday evening throughout the winter and always stop at the local pub after for beers. One of the other leaders was a great guy named Sheldon.While Pedals and Pints is now faded, Sheldon and others took the membership and created NSRide, a North Shore Mountain Bike Club.

Out of the blue Sheldon gets a hold of me on FB about riding Hornby. Turns out Cumberland’s trails are mostly snowed out and their plans were awry. That’s one of the reasons Hornby’s trails are so awesome, you can ride them almost 365 days a year!

Anyhoo, after a couple hours of splitting firewood at the new clinic site, I met up with Sheldon and crew. Nice folks and into riding, there were 7 of us all told. I got to be the tour guide! We were out there for a good 3.5 hours in the rain and wind. Along the way Sheldon, The Silent Gardener, filled the time with off colour jokes and good conversation. Actually everybody was in on the conversation so there was never a dull moment.

It seems they had a good enough time that they’ll want to come back. Sheldon is already talking about bringing the crew up here next year!

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!

You may be wondering about the title. Well, there was a great gathering at my place (my folks place, actually) with a Mexican theme. I provided Read more