Toronto for Joanne and Phil's wedding

This weekend Cheryl and I went out East to Toronto for Joanne and Phil's wedding.

Cheryl was sick Friday night, and Saturday, but the virus wore down before the wedding, so the timing worked out fairly well.

Saturday night we went 5-pin bowling with Cheryl, her mom, her niece, and nephew (I scored 157 or so - As you can tell I'm not a bowler), and later we had a chance to visit with Ryan and Jenn who are good friends from back home. It was great to sit down and talk with them, and Ryan even gave me a DVD copy of the "No Base Skiing" video we made for our English class back in high school. It was really fun to watch that again. It was way ahead of its time :)

During the day we played baseball, and I made a quick video of Ryan pitching, hitting, and catching his own ball. It's only 10 seconds long, but it was fun to make, and I think Ryan liked it.

Ryan, a baseball pro

Video: Ryan, a baseball pro

Sunday was the wedding. Joanne and Phil were in top form, and the ceremony went off smoothly. It was well orchestrated. Marcel and Monique sang, and both were outstanding.

It was fun to see folks from Northern Ontario again. Sunday we went back to a park just outside of Toronto to hang out and get some sun.

Anyhow, I want to thank Amy and RJ for letting Cheryl and I crash at their place Friday and Saturday. I had a great time playing with Lindsay, Ryan, and Sam!

Down in the park with DirtCorps

As I posted on my spaces blog last weekend I went biking with the DirtCorps crew.

I made a second video of the ride, here it is: 

DirtCorps - In the Park

If that link doesn't work you can see it here...

The DirtCorps crew gave me a shout out on their site too. Check it out.

Riding the local trails

This weekend Dan, Matt, Cheryl, and I decided to take a ride up on some sweet local trails. These trails were built by DirtCorps - a dedicated group of local riders (Dan and Matt are two of the founding members of DirtCorps). One will soon (like any day now) be mowed down by heavy machinery to make way for a subdivision, so there won't be too many more bike videos taken there.

This video is a combination of photos and videos from Saturday. It's best viewed with the volume on, so turn it up. Here you go! 

There are some more photos and videos available on Matt's share. Check them out.

Demo'ing Tiger, golf, and rattlesnake

(To see pictures inline click here)

Well, this past weekend Cheryl came up to Seattle. On Saturday we hiked Rattlesnake Ledge, then went golfing at the 9 hole course near the hike. On Sunday we rode tiger mountain.

Picture: Rattlesnake Ledge

The rattlesnake ledge hike is a quick 30 minute hike up to a pretty scenic lookout. Totally worth the trip. This past weekend it was pretty busy because it was one of the first weekends of the year with good hiking weather, so we went up, had a snack, and then went golfing.

Cheryl deleted the only golf picture I had - apparently she didn't like the lighting - hence no golf picture. I think my bar for a good picture is a lot lower than hers.

Picture: Tiger Mt

Tiger Mountain is my favorite cross country trail close to Seattle. Cheryl decided to bring her cross country bike, so we went there. Cheryl was clipped in to her pedals for the first time, so it was quite the adventure. I think one of her clips is not working properly because she had an amazingly hard time unclipping which resulted in a few falls. That sucked, but we'll either figure it out, or put on some flat pedals for the next round. We're working on it.

Picture: The Demo

Since I wanted to do a freeride run after Tiger, I decided to bring my downhill bike. Now, for those of you who do not bike, let me tell you: riding a demo 9 on this trail is ridiculous... A normal cross country biker riding the tiger mountain trail has a 25-30 pound bike, 3, 4, or maybe 5 inches of travel, and 27 gears. My downhill bike (as the name implies) is really built for going downhill, not for a 11 mile cross country ride. It's over 50 pounds, has 8 inches of front travel, 9 inches of rear suspension, and only one big chainring in the front - meant for pedaling fast while going downhill (see picture).

I have never seen a demo 9 go through the Preston loop at tiger mountain, and neither had anyone I saw that day. Some comments I heard included "What the heck is that?", "is that a bike", and "look, a motorbike"... Those guys need to go to Whistler more.

Anyhow, the Demo 9 proved to be as painful as I thought it would be on the initial 3 mile climb. I made it, but I don't suggest it unless you're really trying to get in shape - or maybe if you like pain. The demo 9 was way too much bike on the downhill. It was fun because I could basically plow through anything without thinking.

Our ride took a bit longer than we thought it would, so I didn't actually get a chance to go out and do the freeride portion of the day, but that's ok, I'll try and get some freeride in this weekend.

Shawn and Megan cooked us an amazing salmon dinner Sunday night. Sweet.

Anyhow, until next time...

Early season North Shore riding

I was up in Vancouver for the weekend visiting Cheryl. I had the opportunity to ride the North Shore trails on both Saturday and Sunday. It was good to get the first rides of the year in.

The North Shore trails are some of the best known trails in North America for freeride mountain bikers. I've spent most of my riding time there on Mt. Seymour, and Fromme, but there are some great trails on Cypress as well.

Saturday was a ride with Cheryl up on Fromme. We did a practice ride on a lower trail before heading up to Pipeline which is a pretty flowy trail which was in great condition for this early in the season. Lots of rock work, and some ladders compliment the typical north shore rooty/rocky and muddy singletrack.

Sunday I went up to Seymour with Glade. We didn't go all the way to CBC because it's just not open this early in the season. Instead we did a quick ride down Ned's. Ned's isn't as technical as CBC, but it was a good start to the season. Glade and I powered down pretty quickly, and only had one close call - Glade and I went over a root gap way too slow...  We almost both bit it on that one.

Anyhow, we had great weather throughout the weekend, Cheryl and I later took the chance to take a walk along the Stanley Park seawall in the sun after a good weekend of riding.

I should have taken some photos... Next time.