Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Dave Laird's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, May 31st, 2005
10:27 am	I'm going to hike across Auyuittuq National Park! And you're all invited! Well, to read my blog entries anyways. If someone wants to come for real, let me know. Keeping up a blog during my cross-Canada cycling trip didn't work very well (no time) and there's no way I'll be able to update this while on Baffin Island, but if Google finds this and someone is searching for info on the park and trips there, hopefully I'll be able to provide some useful info. I'll get into greater detail in future posts, but here's the basic run-down -- Auyuittuq National Park, on Baffin Island, in Nunavut, Canada. Here's a Google Maps link. Dig the Satellite view -- harsh. So far we have 5 confirmed hikers and 2 additional possibilities. Confirmed are my cousin Greg Younger-Lewis (a reporter in Iqaluit), his sister/another one of my cousins Debbie Younger-Lewis, Greg's friend Bella Lamb, my friend Sean Atkinson, and myself. I'll be flying to Iqaluit (capital city of the Canadian territory of Nunavut) on July 25, 2005, and returning August 16. This will easily be the most adventurous/intense hiking trip I have ever done. I've done several solid trips in Tasmania up to 5 or 6 days long, but this hike will be at least 10 days long. We'll need to bring at least 13 days of food and plan for weather delays. There are many, many more details that I'll cover in the future. I have some excellent resources, and a polar bear information pamphlet that is a bit scary... more soon! Current Mood: excited (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 7th, 2003
9:02 pm	Limitations... I'm looking at my business banking statement and I see this: $25 million Cheque Ceiling As of August 4, 2003 Canadian dollar payments over $25 million must be by wire transfer rather than cheque or other paper-based payment. For more information, speak with your Commercial Account Manager or call 1-877-262-5907. Well crap. Every time I turn around there are people trying to stop me from doing something. You know, sometimes it would be nice to have certain problems. (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 13th, 2003
3:22 pm	Done! Hey everyone! Just a quick uptate (it's been a long time, I know) to say that, yes, on August 30th, 2003 I finished cycling across Canada! Certainly one of the most amazing moments in my entire life was arriving at the top of Signal Hill in St. John's, Newfoundland after 75 days of riding. What made it all the more special was that my girlfriend Celine had flown to St. John's from France and was waiting for me at the top of the hill. Together again after 3 months apart! One of the other members of the team said it was just like a movie. The finish was very emotional for all of us with much screaming and photo taking. I have much to write in my travelogue. Anyways, Celine and I have rented a car and we are now meandering our way back to Toronto, spending lots of time in each of the Atlantic provinces as we go. We were in Newfoundland for a week and visited Gross Morne National Park and checked out the 1000 year old viking settlement on the northern tip of the western peninsula. After that we took the ferry to Nova Scotia and drove the Cabot Trail (it's so much easier in a car!) and yesterday we spent all day sea kayaking on Bras d'Or lake in the centre of Cape Breton Island. We'll be spending time in PEI, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ottawa on our way back. So, we'll be back in Toronto sometime in late September. Celine flys home on September 27th, so it'll be no later than then. See you soon everyone! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, July 28th, 2003
1:35 pm	Movies are now online! And I'll be in Toronto on Friday! Hey everyone. I'm in Sault St. Marie right now on my way to Thessalon tonight, but I've just popped into a net cafe briefly to announce that many of the movies I've taken during the trip are now online. [note: the movies have been taken offline for now, and will eventually be up on a site devoted to my trip.] I have taken hundreds (maybe thousands...) of pictures too, and I'll be putting the best ones online soon, but first I want to build a bit of an interface so people don't have to look at a directory listing of hundreds of pictures without a preview and then have to download a one meg file for each pic. Anyways, I'll be taking care of that when I get to Toronto. When am I getting to Toronto? Friday! August 1st! I'll be scooting a few days ahead of the group to take 3 rest days in Toronto. Here's the plan: Wednesday, ride from Massing (sp?) to Owen Sound. Thursday, it's Owen Sound to Guelph to crash at Sean Atkinson's place, and Friday I'll ride into Toronto. Saturday will be for rest, relaxation, bike maintenance, and hanging out with friends and family, Sunday morning I'm going on a hard-core bike ride (the Doughnut, for those who were wondering), Sunday evening I'll be picking up other riders from the campsite and giving them a nightclub tour of TO, Monday will be more tour time on the official rest day, and then Tuesday morning we're off on a 176 km ride to Cambelford from Rouge Park. So that's it for now. I'm on cook crew this evening so I'll have to haul ass. Hopefully I'll see a bunch of you soon! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2003
2:25 am	What's happening right now... I'm in Thunder Bay, tomorrow is the half-way day on the trip (in terms of kilometres, I believe), and I'm soon going to head to bed after setting up a massive upload to Peter Zion's server. Very soon, many movies which I have taken along the way will be available for viewing via a link I will post here. Many of the movies are really great and do a much better job of telling the story than I have been doing via this journal so far. So stay tuned! Pictures will be available later -- I really need to set up a preview page for the best ones instead of making people flip through each picture one by one. That will happen when I get to Toronto at the beginning of August. A bientot.. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
12:38 am	Day 7: Monday, June 23, 2003 Merritt to Knutsford 89 km, 3.1 hours Damn crows! I was woken up early, but I was still one of the last people to leave camp. I still need to refine my morning schedule. Eric and I left together with lots of clouds in the sky. After the previous hard ride we did together, we both felt the need to push each other and we really started to lay on the speed. After a short while we passed several of the other riders and Michael decided to join us at our fast pace. At this point we just decided to have a great time trying to see what level of sustained intensity we could hold. For quite some time we were averaging 34 km/hour, and I was holding a constant 90% heart rate. Eric was on fire, always challenging us to go faster. Drafting off of Michael was a blast -- he's about 6'3" and rides an enormous (and heavy) bike, so when you're behind him you hardly have to pedal. Even when we're going uphill, you simply get sucked into the vortex behind him and get dragged along. It's crazy -- he doesn't even have clipless pedals! We stopped at around 9:00 after 1.5 hours of riding, and we were almost at the half way point of the day. The scenery was beautiful but the weather was still kind of crappy, but the hard-core pacelineing kept us quite warm. At one point we stopped at the top of a large hill, the sun had just come out, and were treated to a beautiful lookout over a canyon. It was amazing -- golden eagles were riding thermals in the sky, we had an amazing view way into the distance, and there was even a bald eagle perched on the side of a cliff far below. It made for a great place to stop for a break and some food. Ted, John, and B showed up shortly after we did, and everyone said they were having a great day so far. Eric, Michael and I took off down the hill but Eric was moving too strong for Michael and I to keep up with him, so we told him to just take off without us and try to maintain his speed average for the rest of the day. Michael and I adopted a slightly more sane pace and chatted about the differences between Canada and Germany. Near the end of the ride, we hit a 4 km hill climb which we took very slowly. The sun was out in full force by this time and it was quite hot, but we were nearly at camp so we weren't too worried. We ended up rolling into camp at 12:20 PM -- much earlier than I thought. It was sp great to relax in the sun with a cold beer and just chill out for hours in the afternoon chatting with the other riders, getting to know everyone better. After a shower it was time for Lindsay and myself to prepare dinner -- burritos! Everyone enjoyed them tremendously, and Mel said that we had really set a standard. (Did I write that before?) Andrew uses interesting tools for food consumption -- everyone else uses bowls and plates, knives and forks, but Andrew only has a 2-cup measuring cup and a spoon. He says it comes from his hard-core hiking days, where he used to tie a string from the cup to his spoon so he'd never loose the spoon. We tease him about this mercilessly, pointing out that we have a huge truck to carry at least one more eating utensil. It was funny to watch him try to adapt his tools into something which could be used to eat a burrito. James wasn't around to help prepare (or eat) dinner because he had to go into Kamloops to get his bike fixed. (He had broken a spoke a few days previous -- remember?) There is a very long hill down into the city from were we were camping, and none of us envied the climb he would have to make to get back. We were all quite surprised when he showed up later with not just a fixed bike, but an entirely new bike. He decided that a broken spoke was a good indication of a bike that had seen better days, so he shipped his old bike home and bought a new one on the spot. We all oohed and awed over it for a while (so clean!) and commended him on his executive decision. To make this a little bit more clear, I should explain some background about James. He originally came to Vancouver to do a different tour run by Bud called the Tour Pacific, I believe. This is a much shorter trip and he didn't really need a fantastic bike to do the trip. During the flight to Vancouver he decided to quit his new job (which wasn't working out) and do the Tour du Canada instead. He was already in Vancouver anyways, riding across Canada has been a lifelong goal of his, and he knew that there would be no better opportunities for a ride during the next several years. He could see that his old bike -- which had served him well over the years and owed him nothing -- was simply not going to cut the mustard for a 7700 km ride. I think it was a good decision. Anyways, before I realised it, it started to get late and we all wanted to get to bed early. Tomorrow is our first very long day (172 km) and everyone is nervous. I was encouraging people to eat more than they thought they should because I expected we would be burning over 5000 Calories that day. I decided to head to bed early too -- 9:45 pm to wake up at 5:30 to prepare breakfast for everyone. I'm quite looking forward to tomorrow because I know the terrain to be quite beautiful, and I'm not so worried because I've done longer rides in the past. We'll see... (Comment on this)
12:36 am	Day 6: Sunday, June 22, 2003 Rest Day in Merritt Well, I tried to sleep in this morning but the multitude of crows in the area had other plans for me. So, 6:30 wake-up it was. Another annoying thing is that the entire area near my tent smells very strongly of dog shit. I dread packing up my tent tomorrow and finding out that I've set up right on top of a big, flat pile. The whole area smells like dog shit though, and someone else suggested that it might just be coming from the area behind the trees. I hope so. Anyways, it's rest day so I have plenty to do. Laundry needs doing in the worst way (I'm so glad I brought enough bike shorts that I never need to wear a pair twice), I need to visit the local bike shop, etc. Everything went without a hitch (except the bike store had nothing I needed), and I was able to set aside lots of time to chat with my girlfriend. I slapped some makeshift lunch together and Eric, Michael, and I spent much of the afternoon downloading photos from their cameras onto my computer and writing in our journals. I got lots written today, but I'm already way behind. As I refine my morning and evening routines maybe I'll have more time. Eric and Michael needed to upload a bunch of photos to their respective websites so we went to a local net caf?. While our two ESL'ers were busy with their thing, I grabbed a local newspaper form a table for something to read, and lo and behold, I find out that I'm the mayor of Merritt. Yes, David Laird is the Mayor of Merritt. What a wacky coincidence. Anyways, being the mayor didn't help much when it came time to have dinner. We all went to the Coldwater Hotel again (instead of making something in camp) and their vegetarian selection was quite limited. I decided to have the Fettuccini Alfredo (as did Chris) with Shrimp to get a little bit of protein. (Is there protein in Shrimp? I hope so.) There were several things wrong with my meal. The most glaring mistake is that the shrimp was missing from my plate. The second most glaring thing is that the parmesan cheese was missing form the Alfredo sauce. So basically, I had a plate of runny instant noodles soaked in milk. Sadly, it was some of the worst food I have ever had. The poor waitress was overwhelmed by the large group of us who had descended upon the restaurant, and the chef could obviously not cope either. I pointed out that the shrimp was missing from my meal (deciding not to point out publicly that the pasta was nigh inedible) and she rushed off to get me some shrimp as a side dish. Several minutes later I got my shrimp, nicely fried up with a bunch of spices, but with the shell and legs still on. I really had to point this out to the waitress and she became very defensive. I tried to explain to her that I wasn't unhappy with her service, but that normally when shrimp is served with pasta, only the tail is left on. She was totally unable to deal with the situation so I just dropped it, peeled the lovely flavour off of my shrimp, and ate it. The pasta, however, I simply could not eat -- hungry as I was. Instead I ate everyone else's leftover mashed potatoes and vegetables. I paid for my partly eaten meal (no, no doggie bag today, thank you) and only in hindsight did I think of a better way of handling the situation. I should have taken my plate aside with the waitress, told her that I wasn't going to pay for the horrible food, and just sat and enjoyed my beer while everyone else ate and then bought something somewhere else. Joe pointed out that when you are in a little tiny town, it's wise to order very simple food. I agreed, but I believe that if a restaurant is going to put something on their menu, they had better know how to prepare it. I needed something good after dinner, so several of us decided to go for a walk through town to look for some ice cream for dessert. The friendly people at A&W were kind enough to satisfy our needs, so we ate lovely cold ice cream while walking back to the campsite, and then went to bed. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 9th, 2003
10:35 pm	About the photos... Yes, I know there are no photos on my weblog yet. I've taken several hundred so far, as well as many many movies with my digital camera (the movies are awesome!). I also have made my computer available to other members of the tour for photo storage, so I have their photos as well. My friend Peter Zion has offered some server space to me to store these photos, but there are way too many to send via a dialup connection. At some point I'll be cutting a CD and snail-mailing it to him so that he can just copy them to his server locally. Untill then, I can only describe what an awesome time I'm having. Also, sorry the updates are so slow in coming. I rarely have time to write the full version of each day, but I'm making point-form notes so I won't forget anything. I'm many days behind, but I'm trying to catch up. I'm in Regina right now (Day 23) and my next rest day is in Kenora (Day 30, Wednesday, July 15th). I'm hoping to have a lot more to post then. Stay tuned! --Dave (Comment on this)
1:18 pm	Day 5: Saturday, June 21, 2003 Spences Bridge to Merritt: 77 km, 3.0 hours It was raining a bit again this morning, but it ad definitely lightened up from yesterday. We expected things to clear up by mid morning so I didn't bother bringing heavy rain gear. Eric and I decided to team up again, and we stopped a short while after we left when we saw an interesting old graveyard on the side of the road. The graveyard was very old and many of the sites were in disrepair, with some of the tombstones dating back over 200 years. Some of the sites had simply a wooden cross stuck in the ground with no name or date, and a few of them simply had a stone at the head. Many of the family names of the graveyard residents were Spence, so I'm sure there was some connection to the name of the town - Spences Bridge. A couple of the sites were fairly new - less than a year old. I wondered if these people had moved away from this small town a long time ago but wanted to be buried in this same old graveyard that their relatives were buried in. Next to the graveyard was an old church with a rickety bell tower full of birds and everything. We took a look inside and found a very humble, simple interior. We pulled back onto Highway 8 (an alternative route to Merritt with less traffic), and spent much of the day riding past dirt cliffs with impressive erosion patterns, with many long hills and fast descents. Not long into our ride we were passed by Mel, honking her little clown horn to let us know she was coming. If a rider needs something from the truck or wants to put something on the truck (like needing more clothing or sunscreen, or getting rid of extra clothes), then the signal to give Mel as she passes is to pat the top of your helmet with your hand. She checks her mirror as she passes, and pulls over when it's safe. Neither of us needed anything so we just waved. All the riding makes for very hungry cyclists, and we stopped early next to the Nicola River for lunch as soon as the sun came out. Peanut butter and jam sandwiches again! The perfect lunch for cyclists - a mix of high and low glycaemic index food, with lots of calories and protein. With the sun out, we really started hauling ass and managed to get into camp around 1:30 - much sooner than we expected. It turned out to be perfect timing because shortly after we got our tents set up, dark clouds swept in from the West and dumped torrential rain upon us. Fortunately I brought loads of rain gear with me so I helped set up the tarp over the kitchen area. The rain didn't last long, and I took advantage of the re-appearing sunshine to fall unconscious on a picnic table. Wow, I must have been very tired. After riding hard for the entire afternoon, I was at a severe energy deficit - totally beat. I woke up an hour later kind of cold, so decided to listen to my body and have a proper nap in my tent and napped until dinner time. It felt great to get a bit of rest, and I'm looking forward to having a nap in the afternoon on some shorter days in the Prairies. When meals are prepared by the cook crew, there is always a vegetarian pot prepared separately from a meat pot (40% of us are vegetarian) and for some reason today's cook crew forgot to make any consideration for the protein requirements of vegetarians. 40% of us were very disappointed, we made our disappointment known, and I'm sure it won't happen again. The meat eaters in the group will inevitably have a few things to learn about vegetarian cooking, but the veggies are more than willing to help. After dinner we all headed down to the local watering hole - The Coldwater Hotel in Merritt. The place looks like it's straight out of an old western movie. I believe it's the oldest building in Merritt (built 1890, I believe). What history this place must have. I imagined what it would be like to be transported back 100 years here. Merritt is a real frontier sort of town even today, and I'm sure many local characters have come and gone over the years. Anyways, the purpose of going to the pub was to have our formal "Meet & Greet" session with all of the other riders. Most of us have had a chance to chat with everyone on an informal basis and get to know each others names, but this was a chance for everyone to get to know each other a bit better. We chatted about where we were form, why we wanted to do the trip, how long we'd been cycling, other interests outside of cycling, etc. I had been trying to spend time getting to know everyone prior to this evening, but I learned other interesting details about each person. John Ross likes to rebuild antique jukeboxes in his spare time - cool! After that, it was definitely bed time, and we all looked forward to our first day of rest tomorrow. (Comment on this)
1:18 pm	Day 4: Friday, June 20, 2003 Boston Bar to Spences Bridge: 63 km, 2.5 hours Well, it had to happen eventually - our first rain day. Locals told us that this was the first time in years that it had rained here in June. Boy, are we ever lucky! It turned out to be an excellent chance to test out our rain gear. Many of us are quite well equipped for the rain, with MEC Bernoulli jackets and special rain pants for cycling, and a few of us have even splurged on Gore-Tex socks (worth every penny of the $80 price, especially if you cycle in the winter or do any backwoods trekking). I rode with Eric (from Qu?bec - the entire province) for the first time and we seem to match pretty well in terms of riding style. The first detail mentioned on the trip notes was the long climb up Jackass Mountain. The climb was quite long and I had to go fairly fast because I simply don't have any low gears on my bike - I'll have to switch to my big cogset before we get full-on into the mountains, or I'll risk heavy knee strain. Anyways, the view form the top was quite nice, even with the rain. The ride down the other side was great fun with a long, fast coast much of the way to Lytton. Lytton is situated right at the junction of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers, and you can see the cleaner Thompson mix with the silty Farser from the town. My family came here ages ago when I was a child (much like many other things in the area, and many more in the future of this ride, I suspect). With the cold and wet, almost every member of the group independently decided to have a warm lunch in Lytton. As we left town, I noticed James on the side of the road. One of his rear, drive-side spokes had broken, and he fortunately had some spares with him. Also fortunately, he had a Shimano lockring removal tool with him so he could remove the old spoke and put in a new one. A lockring tool is something that riders would never generally carry in their toolkit, and I asked him why he had it with him. He said that one of the spokes had broken on him previously and now he always carries one. I asked him how this latest spoke broke, and he said metal fatigue (i.e. - the spoke was old and had been through enough stress in its life that it just snapped at a weak point). Given the reason for failure, I suggested that he get the entire rear wheel re-laced as soon as possible. If one spoke just suddenly breaks, it's more than likely that many of the other spokes are about to break, and it's really not worth the risk of riding with questionable spokes. Re-lacing the wheel would probably cost him between $20 and $30, and the worst-case alternative would be breaking a spoke later in the trip during a fast downhill, and then losing control of his bike - definitely not worth the risk. Our route brought us up the Thompson River canyon, and at one point we watched a bunch of white water rafters splashing their way down the river, screaming as we cheered them on - Eric and I thought it would be a great activity for a rest day. At one point on the Right side of the road we noticed a waterfall in the distance, and since we had plenty of time to get to camp, we decided to go check it out. The waterfall was on an Indian reservation, so we asked for the permission of an elderly Indian who happened to be at the side of the road. He said it would be OK, but that we should watch out for rattlesnakes. Our first attempt to get a closer look by hiking up the right side failed (we couldn't get past some steep cliffs safely), so we tried again from the left side, and it proved to be much easier. The waterfall was nice - not spectacular, just nice - but I looked at the little adventure as practice for looking around and exploring our surroundings. It's not necessary to simply follow the directions on the maps provided by Bud to the letter. We're here now, so why not make a few side trips if we have time? There's no point showing up at camp at 1:00 with nothing to do. We finally made it into camp after a busy day and it was really great to get a hot shower - absolutely mandatory after a long day of cycling. After setting up my tent I was going to change into my other hooded Gore-Tex jacket, but I noticed that Chris didn't have any proper rain protection (just a nylon windbreaker) so I offered it to him instead. Just before dinner, Jack told me that he was interested in swapping cook crew places with me so he could cook with Andrew and B., since the three of them rode at a similar pace. I would be traded to Linz and James's crew. Oh sure - first David Beckham gets traded to Italy (I believe), and now David Laird gets traded too! Anyways, I was fine with the change - it doesn't matter much to me whose team I'm on, as long as I'm not crew chief. I have barely enough knowledge to cook for and feed myself, let alone 18 hungry cyclists. The cook crew did a fantastic job making chilli for dinner, and we all ate heartily. After dinner it began raining again and I decided that it would be a good time to clean my chain and put on a special type of chain lubricant designed for wet days. I had bought a special $30 Park brand chain cleaning tool at the Mountain Equipment Co-Op in Vancouver, and this was an excellent day to give it a try. The tool worked quite well (vastly superior to the crappy $9 MEC brand one I have at home) and 5 or six other riders decided that now was an excellent time to clean their chains too. I ended up standing in the rain tuning bikes for about an hour. Not a big deal for me, but everyone whom I helped appreciated my services greatly. I think I built up a substantial amount of goodwill with other group members in that short time. Since we had the chain cleaner out I encouraged other riders to bring their bikes over so I could check them out, and I noticed that Ted's chain was unbelievably dirty. I asked him what he was using to lube his chain, and he was using some aerosol Teflon spray lubricant. This build up with dirt and other bits of road grime over time to an incredible degree, and it was impossible to see any shine on his chain. A bit of time with the chain cleaner and we fixed it up quickly. I gave Ted some advice about proper chain care, and he offered to buy me a beer sometime in the future. Works for me! I'll have to write up some details here about proper chain maintenance when I have some time - few of the riders in the group were aware of how to best maintain the life of their chain (and as a direct result, the life of their gears). After all of the chain cleaning was complete, it took me quite a while to clean my hands using the pumice soap on the shop cart. Funny, I used to have a tan on my hands. After corralling the bikes, it was definitely time for bed. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
1:17 pm	Day 3: Thursday, June 19, 2003 Hope to Boston Bar: 73 km, 3.0 hours I'm writing this from the comfort of my little tiny tent and my nice warm sleeping bag after the best day of the tour so far. It's been another long day packed with beautiful weather, great company, and an awe-inspiring landscape. You can't help but marvel at the beauty of this place. Our route is taking us slowly up the Fraser River valley towards Banff, along the Trans Canada Highway. I'm still on Galley Duty along with my two team mates (Andrew and B.) and this morning we made scrambled eggs with saut?ed onions and mushrooms, which were very well received by the rest of the group. We have several other duties in the morning after everyone else has had their time to eat and get ready. After Breakfast stuff has been cleaned up and put away, we have to load the stove and shop cart into the truck and load everyone's tent bags on top. Melanie (our driver, whom I don't know if I've mentioned so far...) thanked us for our efforts and said that we had "set a standard", which made us feel that our effort was definitely appreciated. The ride for the day started with a long uphill slog and then lots of other hills throughout the day. At first, the scenery was pretty much the same as previous days, but still beautiful. The three of us decided to stop at a restaurant for second breakfast because we really didn't get enough to eat this morning - as cooks, we had rather selflessly eaten last, and ended up having to make an additional smaller batch just so we could get some for ourselves. We still have to fine-tune the eating requirements of 17 athletes. Anyways, after the restaurant I let Andrew and B. ride ahead while I made a phone call to my girlfriend - tricky because there is a small window of opportunity when I'm near payphones and the time in Paris is between 7 and 11 PM. As I was saying earlier, the terrain was similar to that which we had seen before, but as soon as we rounded the corner, the real views appeared. All day long I was taking pictures of beautiful tree-covered mountains with the river running down the middle. After a while we hit a patch of construction where workers were putting up steel mesh over the side of a particularly naughty cliff that had a tendency to hurl rocks down on the travellers below. The road beneath the cliff was covered in deep divots - evidence of previous restlessness. The cool part of all this was the fact that the road was closed to traffic for quite some time, so I was able to climb all of the hills with the entire road to myself - quite relieving. Near the top of the hills I caught up to B. and Andrew and we had lunch looking over an awe-inspiring view looking downstream from the edge of a cliff. One of the most incredible lunch spots I've ever had the fortune to experience. After our little break we continued down the road in beautiful, gleaming sunshine to Hell's Gate - the narrowest spot on the Fraser River where the river squeezes to 110 feet wide, but can be up to 200 feet deep. The water rushes through at very high speed, and the swirling, angry currents and teeming whirlpools make you dread the thought of attempting to navigate it. There's a lot of history to the area, which everyone can read about in the photos I took when I actually get them online. We took the $6.50 gondola down to the lower level, and it was very worthwhile. I was here once with my family many years ago, but I was glad to see it again. We relaxed in the sun for quite some time and then headed off down the hill to camp. We pulled into camp to find all of the other riders safe and sound, and seconds later I found myself enjoying great conversation about a fantastic day while sipping on a cold beer. Does it get any better? We are all so ecstatic about the incredible time we're having, and we can't wait for another 70+ days of the same. Everyone is having a really, really magnificent time. Behind the campsite was a large hill which Eric had partially climbed earlier in the day. I wanted to climb it too to get a better view over the valley. Dinner wasn't ready yet, so Michael decided to join me as well. After some heavy bushwacking, we were rewarded with a great view of the whole area as the sun drooped lower in the sky. We arrived back in camp just as dinner was being served, shortly after Spicy Mike got his nickname. See, Mike (from Nava Scotia, not to be confused with Michael, from Germany), apparently not having done a whole lot of cooking before in his life, didn't realise that there was a difference between tsp. and Tbsp., so our pasta meal was loaded with triple the amount of spice called for in the recipe. I ploughed through several slices of bread while eating the meal to stop my tongue form burning. We'll see what else burns in the morning.... One really positive note about dinner was the primo spot where I was eating - on a picnic table near the edge of a small cliff with train tracks below and the river snaking upstream. Brilliant. I love seeing train tracks in a picture - it makes everything seem very historical and romantic, especially in the mountains. Apr?s-dinner activities involved a long, hot soak in a bathtub (magnificent - just what the doctor ordered), a fast tent set-up, and a bit of journal writing in bed. I can't wait 'till tomorrow.... (Comment on this)
1:16 pm	Day 2: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 Mission to Hope: 85 km, 3.1 hours The mornings are pretty frantic to get everything together and get on the road with other people. I'm not yet used to waking up at 5:30 am, but I'm sure I will get used to it over time. On some of the days that we'll be encountering in the future, we'll have maybe 10 hours of time on the road, so it will be important to get up with the sunrise and get into camp before dark. So, today I decided to ride with Michael (from Germany -- our youngest and tallest rider) and Eric (from Quebec - one of the younger riders, not quite as tall as Michael). Within a few minutes of riding I noticed that my stem was loose, so I had to stop to tighten it up. I told Eric and Michael that I would catch up to them and that they should head off without me, but moments after I fixed the problem I noticed a bike shop (Wentings') so I popped in to see if they had some components I needed - especially a double water bottle cage that can attach to the seat rails. I'm really looking forward to getting rid of my camelback - I prefer to ride with nothing on my back. The owner, Bruce, was very helpful and found a few other odds and ends that I needed too. By this time I was about 45 minutes behind Michael and Eric so I knew there was no way I'd catch up to them. The map showed that there was an interesting Native Indian centre on the way, so I decided to pop in and take a look, John Ross, one of the other riders, had also stopped and told me some good news - if we were willing to wait ? an hour, a group of grade 3 students would be coming by and we could join in with their tour. While we were waiting one of the guides showed us some very cool artefacts that had been unearthed at the digs that were happening on the site. Many of the artefacts were up to 9000 years old. We got into a long discussion about the morals of selling cultural artefacts on E-bay - something which has apparently become quite popular these days. The school tour started and I was amazed at the knowledge of some of the children. The guide was asking several questions that I had no knowledge about, and the children were eager to answer. "What might this stone be used for?" "Chopping down trees." "What kinds of salmon would the Indians fish for in the river?" The children could list all five. We went outside to hear about some legends and stories that had been passed down over time, we saw the inside of a pit house (winter accommodation for the inhabitants of the area), and we were told another legend about a large rock on the site. John and I had a great time and we were glad we stopped by for an hour. John and I took off together and chatted while riding, getting to know each other a bit better. We stopped for lunch at a roadside caf? for a while and had some fantastic grilled cheese sandwiches and cream of broccoli soup - perfect for hungry cyclists. John left the caf? before me while I made a phone call so I was riding alone in the afternoon, and after a while I came to a large hill that we were warned about. The climb up was not much of a problem, but the ride downhill was very steep, and we were warned on the trip notes to watch our speed through the corners. I managed to hit a top speed of 76 kph, destroying my previous top speed of 67 kph. I thought that was horrifically fast, but Jack on his recumbent hit 82 kph - wow! Shortly after the hill I caught up with John again and we rode and chatted together for a while. While we were riding along, an enormously long train parallel to us began moving with a loud crash and slowly started to accelerate. I began wondering about how many gears locomotives must have. We rode along parallel to the train for quite a while as it slowly continued to accelerate, and I wondered whether we would reach the front of the train before it was going faster than us. I told John that I should probably get moving if I wanted to be in camp in the evening on time to help prepare dinner (Andrew, B., and I are on galley duty.) The road ahead of me was very flat and straight for a long way, and this gave me a perfect opportunity to see if I could keep up with the train, which was moving fairly fast at this moment (not TGV fast, but fast compared to typical bicycle riding speed). I picked a car on the train as a reference point, and held pace as the train accelerated to 35 kph, then 40, then 42, and with my heart rate at 93%Max, I held on for almost 10 minutes. Exhausting, but it was great fun. The train then accelerated beyond 42 kph and I had to give up. Shortly thereafter however, I caught up to Judy. She was having a great day too and we paused for a moment to chat. I continued fast into Hope and quickly set up my tent before starting on dinner. The meal that our crew chief (B.) had picked out was called "Fannie's Chickpea Surprise", or something to that effect. We encouraged people to try and figure out what the "Surprise" portion was. One thing that we really worried about was having enough food to feed everyone - 17 hungry cyclists eat an enormous amount of food. There turned out to be just enough, and we all went to bed soon afterwards, reminiscing about the fantastic day that had passed, and looking forward to much more of the same in the future. (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 22nd, 2003
4:55 pm	Day 1: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 Vancouver to Mission Day 1 and we're finally on the road! After two years of preparation, we hit the road this morning brimming with optimism for a fantastic trip. After pulling away from the residences at UBC we went down to the Anthropological Museum for group photos in front of the totem poles there. After that, it was down to the beach for the proper group rear wheel dip. After that, we went straight to Mountain Equipment Co-Op for last-minute supplies (yes, MEC is actually on the trip notes). Unfortunately, MEC opens at 10:00 and we arrived at about 9:30, so I decided to catch an enormous chai latte and a cinnamon bun with some of my fellow riders. Once it finally opened I was happy to provide requested advice to some of the other riders. It appears I'm one of the more knowledgeable people when it comes to bike mechanics, and I can definitely thank my biking buddy Bob for that. (Thanks Bob!) Around 10:45 we finally took off for some serious riding. The day's ride started by ignoring the trip notes, and we followed Jessica and Lindsay's guidance along a different route (they are both from Vancouver and know all the low-traffic back ways). It was difficult to keep the entire group together, and after a while four of us decided to split off and take a slightly longer and more scenic route. Jack (another Vancouver native, riding a recumbent bike) led us north of the main route over to Burrard Inlet where we stopped for an early lunch. It turned out to be a beautiful spot with the gorgeous sunny sky shaded by large cottonwood trees, the sun reflecting off the water, the cool air, and children playing on the beach. Cottonwood tufts were floating through the air giving everything a dreamy quality. The other two riders in our little group were George (from Scarborough) and Chris (from England). I'll have to write down bios of everyone at some point so people reading this can get to know the other riders better. For example, Chris just finished his high school exams one week ago today. He flew out on Thursday, bought a bike and everything in a whirlwind of activity, got a couple of 50 km rides in, and then began the tour. Normally riders are supposed to get 2000 km of training before starting the tour. He was struggling at times during the day to keep up with some of the faster riders, but he certainly made a valiant effort. He'll have lots of time to train over the next two months though. We'll all coach him in paceline riding, spinning, hill climbing, and all of the other cycling black arts. After lunch we meandered our way back to the suggested route and eventually caught up with some of the other riders who were helping Judy with a flat tire. I tried to help with some brake details of hers, and we eventually got her back on the road. From there we were travelling as a group of about eight riders, but we were going a bit slow for my taste (the area wasn't interesting) so Joe and I decided to take off ahead and put some K's on our big rings. We cut down to Highway 7 and really started flying down the road, holding a steady 42kph, with Joe draughting me from behind. It was great! After lots of nice scenic riding, it felt wonderful to train at 90% Max HR for a while. We got to camp mid afternoon and immediately jumped into the showers. Throughout the day we had temperatures up to 37 Celsius so we had all been sweating like dogs, and those of us who helped with repairs had our fair share of road grime and grease on top. So the procedure upon arriving at camp will generally be 1. shower 2. cold beer 3. set up tent 4. chat with other riders about the day 5. travelogue. This will certainly vary from day to day - it's 10:00 pm right now and I'm finally getting back to the log. Tonight we're camping on the grounds of a trout farm, and dinner, lo and behold, was trout! The cooking team #2 did a great gob frying up the fish (delicious!) and Jack brought out date squares tat his mother had made - thanks Jack's mom! After dinner I spent a bit of time doing some bike maintenance for myself and others. Generally each year there is one person in the group who is very familiar with bike mechanics, and this year it looks like that person will be me. I'll try to train the other people how to tune up their bikes so that people don't become dependant on me, and so that they can make small repairs themselves while riding. Well, that's it for now. Tomorrow is Mission to Hope day - the coolest named day of the trip. BTW Jim: thanks so much for the long-life notebook battery - it's being well used! Also BTW to everyone: I'm in Merritt for our first rest day today and have lots of catching up to do in my journal, but the net access place closes at 5:00. So, there will be a much longer update on my next rest day: Banff on Sunday, June 29th. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 17th, 2003
12:11 am	Day 0: Monday, June 16, 2003 Orientation in Vancouver After preparing breakfast for ourselves we all gathered in a conference room to go over orientation. It was here that everyone in the group had their first chance to meet everyone else. We have a pretty good age mix, but the standard deviation is enormous, but everyone seems young at heart. We all got to meet Bud Jorgensen today as well - "The Man" as I called him. Bud runs the show - he set up the tour many years ago, and he explained how everything is done. There are many small details about many little things, but I'm sure within the first week or two we'll all have it down and everything will be routine. We go to see how the truck is laid out too: on the left side, everyone has a shelf which holds two small laundry baskets, and your tent and sleeping bag go in a duffle bag which gets thrown in at the end of the day. The right side holds the fridges and food storage. Apparently, each year Bud hires these trucks and all of the shelves and everything gets bolted in place in Alliston, Ontario, and then Bud and our driver ride to Vancouver together to test everything out and train the driver. A hell of a lot of time seems to go into all of the preparation before we even arrive, and since this is pretty much a non-profit tour, I suspect most of Bud's time is his own. So far, everything seems incredibly well organized, logical, and thought out. Bud: my hat comes off to you. It was at this time that we all got divided up into our galley crews: 3 to a team, so with 17 people we have 5 groups of 3 and 1 group of 2. We'll be picking up a few more riders along the way, and they'll help out the 2-person team. The responsibilities of the team include getting into camp to set up dinner in the evening, putting out wash basins, cleaning the pots and pans, preparing breakfast in the morning, setting out lunch preparation supplies, and riding "sweep" that day. More on Sweep later. I'm on a team with Bea and Andrew, and Bea will be our crew chief. All of the crew chiefs from each team got together later in the evening to learn how to use the stove and everything for our first meal, and they will teach the rest of us in turn when our turn comes up. Anyways, after lunch at the truck we went back to the conference room to watch a video called "Effective Cycling" which had some interesting points about safe cycling with traffic. We got to discussing some of the accidents that have happened during the past 12 years that this tour has been operating. It's good to discuss these details so that we can all learn how to avoid similar things form happening in the future. There were a couple of stories that caught my attention. One was of how a cyclist had been sliced on the leg by a 4-foot metal pole which was hanging off the side of an RV. The driver of the RV (a complete idiot apparently) knew the pole was sticking out from the side of his vehicle. He didn't leave enough room for the cyclist and it clipped him on the leg - fortunately cutting only the skin and no muscle. The cyclist was riding again in a few days. I asked if there had been any very serious accidents and Bud said that they had actually had one death before - something that surprised us all, I believe. Apparently there was some confusion in the police report so some of the details are a bit sketchy, but here's the gist of it: a 70 year old man was checking his rear-view mirror for a while before changing lanes and he must have veered off the road and hit the rider. The sketchy detail is that the driver also had a heart attack, but it's not clear whether he had the attack before or after hitting the cyclist. An incredibly unfortunate accident. Bud drove it home how important it is to use a mirror (which I couldn't agree with more). I am much more comfortable being able to keep an eye on the traffic behind me. A mirror won't save your life, but I find it allows me to avoid situations where I would otherwise not be able to react as safely. There's an appreciable risk with what we're doing, but our actions can substantially reduce that risk. In the evening we had our first meal prepared by all of the crew chiefs - Pasta with pasta sauce and oregano, and salad. Just what every growing cyclist needs. This was another time to socialize with the other riders and hear some stories about past trips etc. It seems we have a really great bunch of people. Everyone is very energetic and excited. I can't wait to get to know each one of them much better. I also can't wait 'till I can remember everyone's names. After dinner I went back to my room to pack up the last of my crap, make some adjustments to my bike, and write these words that you are reading right now. Now I just have to get them into my journal (5 Comments |Comment on this)
12:10 am	Day -1: Sunday, June 15, 2003 A ride to Mile 0 in Victoria The day started out badly. I was up much later than I wanted to be on Saturday preparing my bike, getting dinner & other food, etc. The original plan was to be up at 6:00 am to catch the 9:00 am ferry to Vancouver Island. I set my new travel alarm clock, but in my barely conscious state, I didn't realize that I had not actually turned the alarm on. So, I woke up on my own accord right at 9:00. Crap! So, I slapped all of my stuff together (forgetting to put on sunscreen or bring a light) and took off at about 9:45 to catch the 11:00 George Massey Tunnel shuttle (33 km form UBC) and then rode to the ferry terminal (15km from the tunnel) Unfortunately, the first ferry I could catch after arriving at the terminal was at 1:00. Once the 1.5 hour ferry ride was done, I dashed off to Mile Zero at the southern end of Douglas St. in Victoria, arriving around 4:30 - much, much later than I would have liked, but I'm still glad I did it. I convinced a passing cyclist to take my picture for me, and after a chat I went down to the shore to do the ceremonial rear tire dip in the ocean. I was already kind of tired at that point, and I still had to make it the entire way back to UBC. I caught the 7:00 ferry back to Tsawwassen, but the problem of the George Massey tunnel was still there. Cyclists aren't allowed through the tunnel, and the last shuttle service of the day was at 7:30. I ended up having to hitchhike at an on-ramp to get through the tunnel, and then began the final leg of my journey. By the time I got back to UBC, it was 11:00. So, a total of 178 km, and I burnt through 5148 Calories while cycling. I'm kind of tired again, it's just past midnight now, orientation starts at 9:00 am tomorrow, so I'm going to bed now. (Comment on this)
12:10 am	Travelogue-Tour du Canada Day -2: Saturday, June 14, 2003 Departure I can't believe I'm finally on my way. At 1:30 today I left Toronto for what is sure to be one of the most memorable adventures of my entire life -- a cycling trip across Canada with a group called the Tour du Canada. (see details). I'm hoping to record my thoughts on a very regular basis and update my journal at least once a week with photos and movies so my family and friends can be entertained by this trip as well. Each week on the same day we have a rest day, and it's on this day that I intend to find a place with internet access to update my journal. Normally I'm pretty bad at keeping my journal up-to-date (I still haven't finished writing about my trip to France 2 weeks ago) but if people are enjoying reading about the trip, I'll try very hard to keep it current. Anyways, as I was writing previously, it feels very strange to actually be on my way to Vancouver. Physically, I've been preparing for this trip for about 2 years; but mentally, I haven't prepared at all. I was working right up to Friday afternoon, and in the time prior to that I had been moving pretty much non-stop. Every time I think about what I'm about to do, I get a severe case of "butterfly stomach". Sleep deprivation over the last few days has made things even more surreal. When I arrived at my departure gate at the airport and sat down, it suddenly hit me that for the first time in recent memory I had a tiny bit of time to myself, and there was nothing else for me to do. I took some time to breathe and then called a bunch of friends to say some final goodbyes. And now here I am, on the plane looking down over a landscape which I will become much more familiar with over the next 2.5 months This is one of the first times in a long time that I haven't been flying West in the evening. We're getting a great view over the landscape, and the air is relatively clear so we can see for a very long way. The cloud formations have been incredible too -- probably the best I've ever seen. There are massive towering geysers of cloud that rise up from the ground and punch holes through the wispy stratocirrus before losing momentum. There are other clouds which resemble salt crystal formation -- very dense white, mushrooming from the core in every direction. I keep noticing interesting features in the landscape and wondering if we'll be going past it on the Tour. Things look very different from 35 000'. Roads look like cracks and seams. Eroded riverbeds look like fractal formations. Shallow lakes look like opals with mixing iridescent blues and greens. From this height, bicycles exist only in theory. It's also amazing to thing that this 4.5 hour flight will take me 45 days to do on a bike. I wonder what it would feel like to live in Vancouver and leave from there, ride for 75 days, and then get back home in 6 hours. I'm sure it's a tad humbling. So, it's Saturday today, but the actual ride itself doesn't begin until Tuesday. I won't be slacking 'till then though - This evening will be consumed by the task of re-assembling my bike (please, please, please I hope it hasn't suffered any damage on the plane, and I hope I didn't forget any pieces at home!!!). Most riders will be arriving in Vancouver on Sunday evening, but I wanted to show up a day early to ride out to Victoria and back. Mile Zero on the West end of the Trans Canada Highway is in Victoria, but the tour starts in Vancouver to avoid having a 1.5 hour ferry ride right in the middle of the first day - which would also mean that we'd be camping out at the Vancouver city limits. Victoria is a beautiful city though, and we'll be ending the tour at the Eastern Mile Zero of the Trans Canada Highway on Signal Hill in Newfoundland, so several people try to make it out to Victoria before starting the tour. I was born in Victoria, so it seems doubly fitting to start a journey-of-a-lifetime at the origin of my lifelong journey. It's a 178km round trip from the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus, so people generally do the ride over 2 days. I've done longer rides in a day before, so if I start early enough I should have time to get there and back. I hope it doesn't rain. So, most people arrive in Vancouver on Sunday afternoon, and then Monday morning we begin Orientation. There will be lots of little things to learn about related to how the truck is organized etc., and we will also be divided up into cooking and cleaning teams. More about this on Monday. OK, I've written more than enough for this afternoon, and that'll be all for the day - I have a lot of work ahead of me once we touch down, and I cannot begin to describe how much I'm looking forward to a night of rest. (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 27th, 2003
9:04 am	Training notes: disappointing... I was up at 7 this morning to go for a nice long ride East of my home. I wanted to see how my left knee was feeling after yesterdays ride, and it has definitely not recovered. After only about 7 km I could feel it tightening up, so I decided to play it safe and turn around. I really really really want to be able to pull of 200km days again, but I think it will be a while before I'm at that level again. There's a delicate balance between pushing it too hard and doing more knee damage, and not pushing it enough and as a result not getting any cardio training out of it. Anyways, I've just taken some Advil to limit swelling, and now I'm going to ice my knee for a bit. I want to be able to bike to work tomorrow morning (13K) without any pain. My ass was also quite sore after yesterday too, even while wearing 2 pairs of bike shorts at the same time. Hmmm... Well, that will get back into shape soon too. Current Mood: disappointed Current Music: Gandharvas - Watching the girl (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 26th, 2003
9:43 pm	It's been a while... Well, here's my first post since January 31st. I've been freakin' busy. Whenever there was a choice between spending time with Céline or updating LJ, my decision was easy. Oh well. Céline's back in France now and I'm back in Canada, so I have a little tiny bit more time on my hands. So, what's been happening? Lots of stuff with Céline (of course), a trip to Montréal with a visiting friend of Céline's, my brother's 30th birthday party, all 3 days of the Best of the Banff Mountain Film Festival here in TO, many other cool movies, a 2-1/2 week trip to France with Céline (Paris, Marseille, the Alps, Italy for a bit, Nice, Monaco, Cannes, St. Tropez, and the Calanque region East of Marseille, 530 photos and 30 movie clips), and mountains of work and training inbetween everything. Today was pretty cool too -- at 6:00 am this morning I did the CN Tower stair climb again (for the 9th time), and managed to get to the top first. My time was 12 min 8 sec. for the 1771 steps to the observation level of the tower. 18 seconds slower than my personal best time from last Fall, but still probably the fastest time of the day (the fastest climbers are always at the very start of the day so that you don't waste tons of time passing and getting around other people who started earlier than you). For reference, the world record time is 7 min 52 sec: "On October 29, 1989, Brendan Keenoy of Toronto, set the world record for the fastest climb of the 1760* steps (vertical height 342 m or 1,122 feet) by a man with the time of 7 minutes and 52 seconds. He was 42 at the time." *there used to be a different old staircase with only 1760 steps. After that I headed home, tuned up my touring bike, and headed out for a hard-core training ride. It went great at first and I was having a shitload of fun cruising along at 44kph with a light tail wind. About 20k into the ride I could feel my left knee hurthing a bit though. Crap! I had to take the rest of the ride much easier and focus on my right leg to get home. I guess it's still a bit early in the season for me to push hard. Tomorrow morning I'll take it a lot easier to see if that helps. Todays ride was only 59k, and I want to be able to do that every morning before work until I leave for the Tour du Canada in mid June. Anyways, I've spent the rest of the day doing boring stuff like laundry, accounting, and taxes. I'll be heading to bed in about 20 minutes to wake up at 6:00 and head out for another ride. I'd like to start getting up with the sunrise more often (easy right now because my body clock is still 6 hours fast and I have no binds or curtains over my large East-facing bedroom window). I'll try to post more often now too... Current Mood: tired Current Music: Paul Oakenfold: The Rojam, Shanghai, China (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 31st, 2003
9:28 am	Went to see Y Tu Mama Tambien at The Music Hall with Céline last night. Mmmmmm..... what a great date movie! Current Music: Believe-Run Lola Run (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 29th, 2003
1:51 pm	What an awesome evening!!!!! OK, I had an awesome evening yesterday. It's a true story of a concert, crowd surfing, mistaken identity, and saving the lives of hundreds of sheep. ( Check it out... ) Current Mood: chipper Current Music: Woke Up This Morning (The S...-A3 (Comment on this)