The Ramble

... was on Sunday. I went with Brian and Amy.
Since my posts get a bit long, the pictures are on Flikr now.

I really like the mist pictures though. The fog makes the "neutral" farm colours even more muted, which makes the bold, bright riders stand out really well.

It was quite cold and misty when I left my place, but it cleared up as I rode along Sherman road. It was pretty clear all the way to Nanaimo, but we seemed to enter a cloud as we approached Parksville. The ramble was staged from a private farm in (near?) Errington, just west of Parksville.
We got going at about 9:15, and rode through a field and some farm tracks. Amy and I soon started to get left behind, even by the tandem. Amy was determined to pace herself, afterall, we had until 12 pm to make it to the first checkpoint about 25 km away.
There was a long road section, followed by bits of singletrack (broken up by bits of road), the first being quite lumpy. The next section was very floopy (flowy and swoopy at the same time). It was on this section where we caught up to the tandem. The had broken a chain. I stopped with them as I waited for Amy to catch up. They passed us again before the next road section.
Amy didn't feel like eating and kept falling into a semi-bonk state. "Should you have something to eat Amy?"
Somewhere around this point the cloud we were in disappeared, and it got quite warm and very sunny.
After another road section, there was a rock-gardeny single track bit that I bounced off of while Amy walked behind me, chatting to a sweeper. I think I found the only blue berries in the woods when I fell on my side and scraped my shin. I opened my eyes and they were right at the edge of the trail in front of my nose. Then just a gravel road climb to the "tea stop". We got there at 11:45.
We got called in as DNFs and our bikes got taken back to the start, while we waited for a rider whose rear hub had ceased, and was walking back. After an hour of waiting, we went to pick him up and got driven back to the farm.
Trevor crossed the finish line less than 5 minutes after we arrived. He came fourth overall (I think). Dave came in 15th. Derek wasn't far behind, and was the first under 20 finisher, and came 21st overall. Simone DNF'ed because he took a wrong turn about 20 mins from the end. Brian showed up a couple of hours later looking knackered. We sat around in the back of Trevor's truck all afternoon.

Distance: not enough! (22.7 km)
Time: not enough! (2:35)