Day Trip to Victoria

On Sunday I went to Victoria with Hilary and Erika. We took our bikes and rode around a bit.Did a coffee shop,(the window we were sat at in the coffee shop was like a giant softbox!)
Hilary bought sunglasses at MEC,the market,and Hilary and Erika picked out tramp wedding outfits at Value Village.Yam fries at the place with the colourful chairs,more shops, and then back to Hilary's to watch a couple of movies while knitting.

The Log

My ribs are bruised or broken or something. They hurt. When I stand. When I stretch. When I bend. When I reach. When I lye in any position other than flat on my back. When I lift (which I do a lot more of at work than I realized).

When I ride my bike.

I was riding by myself on the Tzou last Saturday. The ride was going well. I did the little jumps on Emma's Express, I rode a bridge I hadn't ridden before, did some different trails. It was on Luc's Skywalker - The Log. The one that looks harmless, easy, so ridable that no-one gives it a second thought. The first time I came upon this log I was with Julia, Hilary and someone else (Michele? Amy?). Julia was in front, rode straight over it and endo'ed. The rest of us walked.
While on a club ride a few months ago we arrived at The Log. Kurt rode it okay, then I watched from the back as one-by-one each rider took a look at it, thought "what's the fuss about?", and landed flat on his face. I walked.
So on Saturday I approached The Log, stopped, and walked my bike over it. The bike rolled over smoothly, without the back wheel loosing contact with the ground. I pushed the bike back over, and squatted down to examine the steepest angle it made. I pushed the bike back a second time and examined the position of each wheel at every point of the motion. "What's the big deal?" "Easy peasy, lemon squeeezy!"
I approached from a distance, dragging the brakes. The front wheel rolled over effortlessly, and then I stopped. I'm not sure if I stopped the forward motion, or if The Log killed all forwards momentum, but I locked the brakes and balanced there with my front wheel over, and my back wheel on the top of The Log for hours. (I should note that balancing is like holding one's breath - time stands still. One second can become a whole hour. In reality it may have been just short of a whole second.) I had no way of getting off. The only way was forward. I had my bum behind the seat. I'd just roll forward like any other log, right? I have no trouble going down steep stuff or rolling down rocks. The bike wants to go forward.

So I released the brakes, some unknown force pulled my back wheel into the air, and there was a thud as I hit the ground, followed by the clatter of my bike landing on me.

Carried on along the trail, and rode home thinking nothing more of it.


While riding, it's fine if I can stay in the saddle, but if I stand it hurts, whether climbing or descending.
It'll go.

. . . catching up with the blogging . . .

Looks like I haven't posted since late April. Wow.
I've been busy, and have had better things to do.
(Like unpaid overtime. sigh.)

It officially became summer in May. By "officially" I mean that the hairs on my arms went from being darker than my skin, to being lighter.

It was the Cobble Hill XC Race that was organized by the club on May 10th. I was marshalling, and thought I might as well take along my camera and some strobes, and set them up on the trail. The picture taking went well generally. Lots of riders were out of focus - maybe next time I'll have to manually focus, and hope I hit the shutter when the rider's in the right place.
All pics are here.

I went to a Killers concert in Victoria with Lauren and Ilene from work. I'd never been to a concert before, so that was fun.

Hilary, Erica and I went on an "outing" to Vancouver. Erica drove us to the ferry that took us to Horseshoe Bay. We took the bus into the city and walked around for a bit, then went to the Art Gallery. We spent the rest of the day at Granville Island, and got the last ferry home.


I joined the camera club. The first meeting was Thursday before last, and was the second-to-last meeting off the year. There was a field trip the following Saturday to Ganges (on Saltspring Island). I rode to Crofton, and then we took the ferry to Versuvius Bay, and the bus to Ganges. I spent the first couple of hours walking around with Diane (apparently a friend of Patricia's and Brad's), taking pictures at the dock. We met up with the others and walked around the market a bit. We went on the 8:30 ferry (leaving Crofton), and the others came back on the 1 pm ferry, but Vanessa, Teresa and I came on the 3 pm ferry. I would have liked to stay longer, so went back again yesterday and took my bike. It was a bit cooler, as it was cloudy until about 2 pm, but warm enough so I didn't get uncomfortably cold on the ferry.
I'm not sure if I'll bother with camera club next year though - it seems to be mainly old people that take pictures of birds. At the meeting they were showing the photos from the previous competition - and the pictures were all very "traditional". They seemed to be lacking creativity and originality. I'll go to the next meeting, anyway, and see.

I've been taking loads of pictures, but can't seem to find the time to process them. It took me three weeks to get all the XC race pics done. I get some up on my photostream.
...including taking some of Hilary's stuff:

This is the setup shot:


I'm doing the Twelve Hours of Cumberland the weekend after next. Roland was trying to get together a team, and asked me to come. I'm excited, and a little nervous at the same time.

I've been riding a lot. I've only been able to sleep for about 4 hours a night lately for some reason, so I've been riding before work. Mill Bay, Lake Cowichan, Ladysmith, Shawnigan, etc.
I'm going to go and find Meschatchie (spelling?) Mountain tomorrow.

These were from a ride on Tzouhalem with Jackie, who was (is) brand new to mountain biking. I'm not sure what's going on with Hilary's shorts in this one:

Hilary and I rode "Hell Mountain" (Hilary named it): before work on Wednesdays with her friends Colleen and Rachel, except they haven't come at all, so we rode Prevost this week. The heat is a little more manageable at that time of day. We left her house at 7 (well... that was the plan) and took Daisy and Ben. It was a steady ride up, but the trail down was excellent (once we found it - "oh wait, we've gone past it", "oh yeah". After several minutes of looking we realized we hadn't got to it yet!). It's so dry up there, so the trails are very dusty, but very fast. My wheel started making a clangging noise after an unintended shortcut through a bush. After investigations today, I found that I have onve again broken the little spring thingy that holds the pads back. It's the third time I've broken it, but the last two times I was left without a front brake halfway down a mountain - at least this time the pads held on.
I was late for work.
Again.

I really want to join the rowing club in Maple Bay, too.