different type of music video

the good mrs. dr. showed me this one which is making the rounds with the music types. funny stuff.

reprise

another year another bad bout of poison ivy. as with last year's bout with the evil weed, it was bad enough again to force to me race in full tights in the middle of summer day. sometimes the challenge of racing singlespeed is just not enoug; sometimes you need the challenge of racing a singlespeed bike while suffering the discomfort of sever poison ivy and being dressed all in black on a hot sunny day. you would have thought i would have learned my lesson last year???

poison ivy sucks

and mosquitoes do too. it appears that jeans and long sleeve t-shirt are not enough protection against poison ivy spread through the weed wacker. it will be a cold day in hell before i ever work on the bur oak trails again in anything but 2 layers with outer layer being completely water-proof. although not as bad as last year it may be bad enough to require another trip to the doctor. f*#k

ughhh!

so tom and i headed off to the bur oak trail to do some maintenance and we were determined not to put ourselves in the same poison ivy predicament as last year - some of you may remember.


of course i wish i had taken some of the same precautions at the bring a friend event. this is behind the knee - lovely.

surfacing...

after too many questions it feels like the right time to bring the blog back to life. the first order of business is a little recap of interesting items and moments form my recent trip out west and back. in the form of a few photos and captions....

mrs. dr. was working at an opera training program in edmonton earlier this summer and she was staying with a lovely couple who lived near the u of a. on the walk to the u of a, where the program was held, she passed by this house where every two or three days the recluse owner would post messages on his garage door; this one was worth noting. if fgbc every considered changing their mission statement this one would be worth considering, but in the plural tense.


also on the walk to the u of a were these two cats, sasha and checkers who greeted mrs. dr. on her way to or home from work. the evil magpie in the picture would torment the two cats by
pecking at their tails - crazy bird.

while in edmonton i tried to find some trails to ride. to help me with this endeavor i dropped into this local bike shoppe and asked for directions. they told me that the trails were hard to find but if i showed up at the coffee shop across the road at 6:30 i could join them for their group ride - enjoyed 2 hours of riding with a bunch of really nice guys and they didn't even charge my $25 to join their club. if you are ever in edmonton, look up the guys at redbike, helpful, and nice shop to boot.

while in vancouver i spent one day riding the trails at simon fraser university. great trails that are xc friendly, while still having some fun stunts to fool around on.

traveling on the lion's gate bridge on my way to squamish

a picture of the back of mike trueloves head. here is pointing out the trails we will be using for the test of metal. at this particular moment he is showing me where i will be bonking.


a picture of some of the forest trails in squamish. there are plenty of trails in and around squamish and they are much more biker friendly for the xc crowd than most of the trails around whistler.

some more of the trails. i think the trunk of the tree that the bridge is built through is a bit on the tiny side

on the way home i stopped in canmore to ride the trails. i spent the night in a campground beside the highway (thank god for ear plugs) and had the classic campfire snack of oka cheese and red wine.

some of the single track trails in canmore. i only had a little time to spend on these trails and would love to spend more time there next year.

after spending some time on the single track in the forest you come out into this nice open field.