Knee-deep

Tav found some fun yesterday. I've no idea where he got the idea this would be fun from :)

We had a baby, bought skis, picked a pumpkin, did a cyclocross race, and had a birthday.

And it looked like this:



Welcome to the world Aiste Jean Dye.

So many things

So what's been happening?

Riding bikes has been happening. After a bit of a smoky and slightly unsatisfying summer, things have picked up considerably.

There was an extremely high quality trip to Revelstoke, which involved carrying bikes up to the top of Standard Peak and considerable old-skool freeriding to get back down again, then there was  deluxe truck shuttling with Wandering Wheels, and this to top it off we got dropped on Mt Cartier in a helicopter. No bad at all for three days.

It looks steep, because it is

Ricardo riding a bike like the one I bought.

Not a bad place to get dropped with your bike.

Following that, I bought a new bike and christened it by riding the "hardest trail in Vernon" in the dark. Then doing that again the next week. I've been avoiding buying a really expensive bike made of plastic for a long time, but seeing as the next thing on this list of recent occurrences is my 40th birthday I decided that I was old enough to stop caring about it and buy a "dentist's bike". Incidentally, I just went to the dentist and paid him a lot of money. I also go mountain biking with my dentist and he has a nice bike. There's some kind of connection here - if only I could figure it out.

Then we went to Nelson, where we did a "half triple crown" as a warm up to one day maybe going there for the actual whole triple crown ride.

Family train - all aboard for Nelson

Then we went to Whistler and Pemberton. Unconventionally I spent most of our time in Whistler in a ballroom, but I did get out for an after-work ride on Microclimate. Then on the way home squeezed in a Pemberton shuttle with Chuck which provided every type of trail condition imaginable.

And most recently, it was Thanksgiving. Big thanks to Canada for that. We weren't able to go to Mazama this year due to it being horribly expensive to have a baby in America and us being quite imminently having a baby. We had a baby nearly two years ago, but he's all grown up now and rides bikes and stuff, so it's just as well we're getting a new one next week. Eeek.

Monthly blog post

The Wrong Way

We went for a hike. We almost didn't go for a hike because we went the wrong way. I blame maps where most of the roads are just labelled "road". Still, we did go for a hike and it looked like this:

The curse of the August long weekend

August long weekend. It's a tricky one. If you haven't booked a camp site prior to the invention of the August long weekend, you're basically out of luck. And now we live in a holiday destination (of sorts) you can't even stay at home without being over-run by tourists. So what do you do? You find the most obscure camping spot you can, at the end of a closed road, and paddle there in your canoe hoping for the best.

In this case we did alright - particularly with our companion band of Vancouverite and New-Westy friends. Our flotilla set sail from the western shores of Arrow Lake, bound for the unknown. Luckily the unknown was hospitable, though we did find ourselves in the company of some typical forest-service campground clientele (who were from Vernon, so they were literally my homies). They thoughtfully passed out from over-consumption of Hey Y'alls and Bud Light by 9pm, so were actually pretty considerate neighbors. And they were from Vernon. During our adventures we discovered a pretty excellent sandy beach that can only be paddled to, which will be worth revisiting another time.

Tav enjoyed most of the experience, in particular the parts that involved throwing rocks into the water...



In other news Tav has his name in wood - somewhere in the temperate recesses of Hampshire. It's like having your name in lights, but more environmentally responsible.

Canada 150 and Jungle Hill

Here's a picture from a Rail Trail excursion with Tav a few weeks ago.
It has nothing to do with Canada Day, or jungles.

Post-cruise we are back in Vernon and enjoyed a week with Mum and Peter - who were with us to celebrate Canada reaching 150 years old. Cue matching red T-shirts.

Alternative behavior for Canada Day

Appropriate behavior for Canada Day

Next on the agenda was a trip to the throbbing metropolis of Ione Washington, where Chris is currently living in a tent. Tav enjoyed doing impressions of farm animals and there was a winning combination of bike riding and jumping in lakes. You really can't go far wrong with those two things (three things if you include the animal impressions). 

Although I didn't make any photo evidence of it, the ride on Kettle Crest down Jungle Hill (actual real name) was an exceptional thing. I think we'll need to head back there some day for more.

Tav likes standing on things, and bike pumps.

In Ione, this is how one rolls