Things Are Heating Up !

This is my current cooking system for most adventures.  My reality is most trips are one or two nights and I find this setup compact, fast to boil and very fuel efficient. What more do you need? Sure I could save a few ounces by using my pop can stove, but it is slower, less safe and a bit nitpicky to operate.
I am sure when I am able to adventure further afield and availability of canisters is in question I will choose a different setup but for now this is my go to!

All packed up

The stuff

Cooking mode

Ridin the Rails

The idea seemed to suck me in, ride the unused E&N railway from Victoria, my home town to Courtenay, then ride the remaining 50 odd kilometers home on the Duncan Bay Mainline logging road for a total distance of 285ish KM. Somehow that morphed and I added the Parksville to Port Alberni for a grand total of 400 KM. What was I thinking?
I started in Victoria at 5am at Mile 0 and rode about through town into Vic West hooking up with the rails by the front doors Trek/Pro City Cycles. Using a paved walking path that parallels the rails we easily made our way to the first section of true rail riding. Bang! The balloon  burst, riding the ties is rough, very rough, fricking rough! 400 odd K of this? But I am optimistic there has to be some bad with the good, and so it goes. The thing is as far as a riding surface there is a lot more bad than good, a lot more. But the quality of ride has many measures and for me this was a very grand experience. I prepared gear poorly, forgetting a spare tube, forgetting to put some Stan's sealant into my tubes as planned, and forgetting my little pill bottle full of various over the counter drugs I always carry in case of lower back muscle spasm, I would need them all, I would have none.

As a child growing up in Victoria I remember walking the tracks in early August looking for for a perfect patch of blackberries, ah shit! Blackberries, and there they were, and where there are Blackberries there are thorns, thorns you could not avoid, oh those effin thorns. By Shawnigan Lake I had a flat, it was barely holding air, I had removed all the thorns I could find from my tire and patched the one hole in the tube I could find, but still I needed to stop and pump it up every 45 min or so. No worries, if I can make it to Duncan there are three bike shops and hopefully I can get a tube and some Stan's, no luck all the stores are closed, I ride on. Just north of Duncan I am having to pump up the tube every half hour, then things get worse, I stop and pump up the tube AGAIN, and it goes flat almost immediately, What the Ffff!
Once again I take out the tube and search it and the tire for thorns, this is the fourth time, lots of thorns in the tire  but I can't find any holes in the tube? I reinstall the tube and tire, it holds air? WTF? I ride on an hour and a half or so later it is flat and so it goes. The tire goes flat the riding gets rougher, much rougher. I am thinking to myself, surprisingly all the grief has been from the front tire the back has held air like a champ! I am still optimistic perhaps there is a bike shop in Nanaimo open on Sundays?  I am just arriving into the small town of Ladysmith and my front tire now only holds air for about 15 min, my back is on fire from the constant pounding from the irregularly spaced ties, this is a low point, I think of calling for a rescue ride, I don't, I would not be able to forgive myself, I ride on but I have abandoned the rails for pavement. I have a plan, if I am lucky the gas station up ahead will have one of those cans of auto tire sealant, no luck. So I sit in the grass eating a Teen Burger and drinking a Root Beer Shake pondering what to do. It has not escaped me that my decision to post hourly photos via Instagram and Facebook has made my failing visible to anyone that cares to look. Then it happens Facebook comes to the rescue, Bryan posts a question, "how is the ride going"? and through that thread I am rescued by Andrew, new tube, some Stan's, some organic chocolate, a beer, and a bit of catching up about solo life with a bike.

Samsung S3 photo

Holy Crap! I am good to go and so back to the rails. The next bit of riding is fairly uneventfully rough, I pedal on. My back is not my friend but I am stubborn, at the next food stop Jamie from Destiny River Adventures, walks up and offers me a ride home, it is tempting. At this point it is hard to lift my leg over the bike my back wants to stop me. I ride on, more rails, more pounding. It is dark, I pound on, no I am pounded on, pedal, pedal, pedal, and so it goes. Another flat, the rear tire this time, I pump it up hoping I can get to Parksville and fix it in the light of urbanness. I have to stop three more times before I find a well lit spot to make the repair, more thorns. I install the last tube and admit defeat, I am broken, it must show an employee cleaning the store comes out and asks if I am OK. With defeat comes a loss of  some motivation, the remaining 120 KM home will be on asphalt and with that I pedal on into the darkness without and within. When I arrive home it has been more than 27 hours riding a bike, ya I did stop and nap twice for 10-15 min each time, and there were those "breaks" to repair flats. And considering the distance was not great and the average speed was slow, I am happy, i have new knowledge about me and my gear, and I will but it to use on bigger adventures.

Phat, Stiff and Single!

That is,  29" wheels with 3" tires (29+), single speed and fully rigid, that is it, no dropper post, no chain guide, no problems and little maintenance. Why ride fully rigid single speed, I am not sure, I know it feels good. I like to ride solo, long remote routes and often at night, a mechanical can be more serious with out the support of other riders and shared group gear. A single speed is simple.
The single speed experience is also intoxicating for some, you simply pedal, big hill up ahead? save a bit as you approach it, short steep hill? give it everything you got, long flat section? spin spin spin! It is surprisingly freeing, but not for every one, is it for you? Try it you might surprise yourself.
29X3 tires is that thing a Fat bike? No, as I said it is a 29+. Is it made for snow? No, it is a trail bike. The thing is the tires roll over everything with ease, have gobs of traction and supply a fairly comfortable ride for a fully rigid bike. You NEED to try one, it is haunting, intoxicating the bike geek in you will obsess and finally you will break down and buy one.

Cumberland For a Beer at the Wave

Just a gravel ride to Cumberland for a beer, seems simple enough, right?
The Waitress/bartender at The Waverly were kind enough to let us put our bikes inside. The Wave is a great bar supporting cycling in their community for quite some time. The Wave is also a live music venue, I have been lucky to see many bands there, DOA, The Hansen Brothers, NoMeansNo, White Cowbell Oklahoma, The Supersuckers, BCDC, The Skatalites, Shane Phillip, The Real McKenzies, and more, add friendly staff and could there be a better mid ride stop? At 90km into the day about 2/3 of our ride a beer was calling my name

Airport Mainline start to ride

The Hof at the top of Forbidden climb, looks flat from here!

Always looks less chundery and steep in photos!

Just down there a bit past the end of the lake, is food!

At 90km into the day about 2/3 of our ride a beer was calling my name!

My proposed Oregon Outback setup for this year, more on that in another post.

Actif Epica Fail

I had such positive feelings about this event, and I was not let down, however I didn't make it much past the first checkpoint at about 30Km.
The trip to Winnipeg started off with me getting a head cold during the flight from Vancouver, and ended with my bike lost when I arrived in Victoria. In between things were good, ya I failed to finish (possibly the first event i have never finished where I actually wanted to continue), but the experience was spectacular! -41 with the wind chill, a frozen bike that took every bit of strength and will power I had to inch forward, and absolutely soaked in sweat clothes from that effort to the toque frozen to the stubble on my head and my inoperable camera covered in ice under my jacket. At -41 things freeze and fast, after heading out of  checkpoint one, I was blasted by a stiff head/cross wind that immediately had me uncontrollably shivering, I could see no way out of this condition due to the effort I was producing to pedal my frozen Krampus singlespeed, any clothing I wore was wet and everything wet freezes at -41, I made the decision to abandon and turned back to the checkpoint. Pretty much end of story, the event was well organized, and the incredibly flat lands of southern Manitoba were strikingly beautiful in a barren sort of way. Due to bike/environmental conditions this was by far the hardest 30km I have ever rode nothing else was close. I will go back, Actif Epica and I have some issues to work out.

From pre event ride only -14

In hindsight leaving bike outside to fully freeze was a bad decision!

Three wheels Fat bike insanity!

Flat

Mascot

The Memorable 2014 Moments

Of the many hours spent outside on and off the bike a few always stand out in 2014 there were a few that were head and shoulders above the rest. These three happened over three consecutive weekends.

Oregon Outback
My first bikepacking "race", I was hungover at the start, I hallucinated prehistoric bears, a talking raven and more due to lack of sleep a condition I do not do well in. I fell asleep on the bike while out of the saddle climbing a hill, needless to say i hit the dirt, so I curled up in the dirt, gravel and dry grass for a short nap. All said and done I loved it.
Lessons learned:
   Don't for get to use chamois cream before you need it.
   Sometimes  you only need 5-10 min sleep to continue.

Solo Bike & Hike
This was a ride out to hike up a minor peak, camp over night and ride home. At the end of the logging road I was exhausted, I thought about not continuing, just set up camp and sleep. However I hefted my pack and marched on stopped shortly by a lake and cooked up a real meal. Feeling much stronger I continued into the alpine when I was an hour or so from the summit I was stumble tired. I set up camp more real food and sleep.
During the night something grabbe my calf, I was being dragged out from under my tarp, panicking, I struggled fuck, eyes open! We could die here! Sleep was to strong, my last thought"ah fuck it I'll just die" and I slipped back to sleep. I awoke startled, to, well nothing out of the ordinary? I looked down at my sleeping bag expecting it to be shredded, covered in blood. What the? it looked fine. Later I realized, I had endured a calf cramp without really awakening. I hiked out and rode home.
Lessons learned:
   Sleep can feel more precious than life, you need sleep.
   Push your self to breaking and then a bit more, I still regret not sumiting.

12 Hours of Cumberland
Fourth year, I think.  Riding solo, single speed, fully rigid, 29+, the last two. Four hours in and I feel great physically, but I am BORD, I cant subject myself to 8 more hours of this. I stop start drinking beer and gain Wizard status, by Campbell River rules, drink your height in beer cans, taping them together to form a staff. Bonus point for Whiskey shots. I was all in,  and out in the grass.
Lessons learned:
   Three hard events in a row may leave you very tired mentally, fight that shit, continue.
   I can make it through the Tour Divide.

The Others

Two trips to Bend/Sun River/Sisters Oregon one to visit friends, one with friends. Both Awesome
The Oregon Stampede, reverse of the normal route. Great.
Dead Squirrel Pass, Shotguns, flipflops made from a beer box, great riding with Geoff and Hogboy.
Bike and pack raft to Marble Meadows. Shit weather, trip didn't happen.
Chilcotin Bikepacking trip. Didn't happen, poor life skills, no time off, no money.
Lessons learned:
   I need more time off and more money.
   Check "routes" on your GPS before event start line.
   You can get by with out a GPS.
   People "bail" on trips often, always be prepared to go solo.

Not my legs, to much hair!

Around Mt Bachelor dust

Williams Beach sunrise

  

Road Soup

One of the best things about gravel rides is the uncertainty of conditions. The road surface can vary from hard pack that feels like asphalt or fresh plowed softness to chunky chundery blast rock sometimes even road  soup. These changing conditions can at times crush you. They can also be what inspires and makes a ride memorable. Red sauce was a low point for me, it seemed to go on forever. Add rain, wind or freezing temps and you find out what your made of. It is a personal journey, for me best traveled alone. Jan 13 2015 Tour de Mud

Road soup

Need a big lens!

Krampus set up for winter epics