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!

Great practice last night!

We (Hornby Island Fire Rescue) have had a shack donated to us that we’ve been running residential fire evolutions in for the last few weeks. Last night we got to run some bigger, live fire scenarios. Yes, we actually set a bunch of stuff on fire in the house, get it burning well, then go in and put it out. Super exciting, and what a great experience for the rookies! Learning what it’s actually like inside a room that’s on fire. Because we were a little short on crew I got to go in four times! My helmet got so hot that water falling on it became steam! Woot!

After all that excitement, I got up this morning and am packing the Old Brown Truck for a trip to Vancouver. Sasha and I have a demolition contract in Richmond for the next week or so. Taking camping gear (we’re staying at the site), food and bikes. Of course we have to get some urban riding in while we are there. Maybe even a trip to Seymour? Depends on how fast we’re getting the work done.

Got to run for the ferry. Yo Vancouverites, we’ll be seeing ya soon!

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!

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!

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!

Kim, that is…
Super stoked to go see her in Vancouver on Friday. Do some “hiking”, meet some of her friends, Sushi, Indian food, Dim Sum… I can hardly wait.

Hot as in chillies too. Here’s a lesson, kids. Wear gloves while chopping chillies to put in the dehydrator. And definitely don’t go for a bike ride right after so every part of your body you touch starts to burn up and the sweat drips it in to your eyes. Ouch! The next batch of chillies I get from Albini I’ll be wearing gloves for sure. Excited about the dried chillies though, makes it all worth it.

I did it! I managed to watch all 4 seasons of Battlestar Galactica in about 5 days at my moms place. If you were wondering where I’d got to, that’s where. Thankfully Gid and Sasha came down on Monday and rousted me for a ride. That’s what friends are for!

There’s a strange pattern emerging recently. Read more

Gid came up for a few days! It’s been fun. We got in a nice dinner on Tuesday night, went for a good ride on Wednesday. It was Gid’s first ride since we went to Squamish last fall. It was a good ride. I’m looking forward to  getting in to Vancouver for some North Shore rides with Gid.

The Notorious G.I.D. is jumping in to Unix with both feet. Tuesday evening we poked around on the command line on my machine. Cool stuff. Powerful, and to be treated with respect. Neal Stephenson wrote a powerful essay on the subject. Good luck and learn well, my brother.