Cycle Touring - Victoria, British Columbia. Day 2 Victoria!! Part 2

PART 2

It's Monday now and I am a bit behind on this blog.  One of the experiments I wanted to try was to see if I can update my blogs nightly while I'm on my multi-day bike trips.  I have quickly found out that I can NoT.  Unfortunately, after a long day on the bike, you just want to sit down, rest and relax once you are at your campsite or your place of stay for the night.  Blogging really becomes a 'chore' at this time and you just want to wind down before going to sleep.  I don't know how other touring cyclists do it day in day out.  Kudos to them, they must type really fast and have already been blogging during the day but for me, I can't maintain that kind discipline.  So what we have here is a blog that is done when I have time and patience to do it.

Continuing from my EPIC day on Saturday, I had just finished visiting Rider's Cycles and headed back into the Lochside trail and onto the Galloping Goose trail.  There were so many cyclists of all sorts out that day that it was a great sight to see.  I can only compare it to Vancouver and it's Seawall with that many cyclists using the pathways.  It just goes to show that the saying 'if you build it, they will come' works when regarding separated bike lanes and greenways.  One thing that I noticed with the cyclists in Victoria, is that there are a LOT of 'roadies', cyclists who ride road 'race' bikes and wear road racing lycra and gear.  I am not sure if this is something fairly new to the area but I can only assume that the resurgent of roadies can be attributed to the recent success of Victoria's very own Ryder Hesjedal who won this year's Giro d'Italia, a feat never  before accomplished by a Canadian.  Good Luck to Ryder in this year's Summer Olympics.  We are all rooting for you!

Downtown Victoria - Oh what a beautiful city.  I have been here once before, but I was very young and I don't remember much.  I really think that WE as Canadian westcoasters are spoiled to have two of the most beautiful cities in the world.  We often take it for granted as we live here but through a tourist's eyes, it gives a whole new look of the place you live in.  And yes, I was such a big tourist this day.  And I was so happy that I was on my bicycle so I didn't have to fight with car traffic, worry about finding parking, and being able to go from tourist attractions to tourist attractions quickly and efficiently.  I did not envy those in cars and to an extent on foot as there were sooo many people out there.

So many people, so many tourists, I being one of them.

Soldiers Memorial Statue

British Columbia Parliament Buildings.  And me and my bike and trailer of course.

Two other must-see places of interests for me are Mile 0 at Beacon Hill Park, and Clover Point Park where the southernmost tip of Victoria is located.  Mile 0 is as the name suggests just that, the zeroth mile of the great Trans Canada Highway, the longest highway in the world.  Mile 0 is often used as a starting point of touring cyclists or any type of traveler that plan to cross the country of Canada.  So I wanted to see this for myself for that certain possibility in the future of (should I say it?) riding my bike across Canada. (GULP..)

Mile 0 of the great Trans Canada Highway.  Maybe one day this will be a starting point of my trip. gulp.

The Southernmost point of Victoria.  Look way way out as far as the eye can see, it's the US of A!

By around this time of the day I started thinking of my place to stay for the night.  My original plan was to check out Beacon Hill Park as I have read that it is now free to set up camp in this park.  Bonus! Free campground!  However, after talking with other cyclists, they warn me that the park isn't very safe and that it is full of transients and drug addicts at night.  So there go that idea, I certainly didn't want any problems at night.  My choice was to head back north and Google any campsites in the surrounding areas.  As I thought this through, I realize that there was still so much daylight left that I can easily make the 5 or 6 o'clock ferry and that I would camp over at Tsawwassen again for the night.  Brilliant idea!  I already have a free place in Tsawwassen and this way I won't have to pay for campground and I'll just use that money for the ferry ride!  Perfect plan, so off I go towards the ferry terminal.  I didn't rush going to the ferry as there are sailings every hour until 9pm.  I get to the terminal shortly after 5pm, it will not be until 6pm for the next sailing.  But to my surprise, the 5pm ferry was still docked.  The ticket lady suggested that I book it down to the ferry and see if I can still make it, sure enough I made it just in time before they closed off the docking bays. Woohoo!

A peaceful ride back to the ferry

I felt so special to be the first one in line to get off the ferry

Thank You City of Victoria for one of the best bike rides I've ever had!  I will certainly be back and explore some more of your surrounding areas.

Time on the saddle:  10 hours +/-
Distance traveled:  100 kms +/-

Some notable tweets during the day:
https://twitter.com/604Bluelight/status/229186103201107968
https://twitter.com/604Bluelight/status/229255222114017281
https://twitter.com/604Bluelight/status/229309621028917248

My Sunday Morning Bike Ride

Come ride along with me on my casual morning bicycle ride.

-->Please watch the video on Youtube for high-quality HD in fullscreen.<--

1991 Cannondale SH400 converted to a cyclocross/touring bike

.

Canada Day - My First Century Ride

Today I hit a milestone in doing my first (metric) Century Ride. 109.63 Kilometers in total.
After having one of the roughest roller coaster month I've had in a long time, there was only one way to top it off, by riding for 100+ Kilometers on my bicycle!  And on Canada Day to boot!  Happy Canada Day to everyone!
As mentioned, quite the roller coaster month of June has passed with so many highs and lows, ups and downs, that it has become emotionally draining.  With the toughest work month I've had in a while, the ups and downs of the Canucks on their Cup run, along with the advent of the hockey riots here in Vancouver, and personal lives getting in the way, I've become very drained.  It was as if there was a grey cloud over me these past few weeks that I couldn't shake.  Was also the reason for the severe lack of blogs lately..  I just didn't feel like writing.
Well today gave me that chance to do that epic ride I've been longing for.  Something that would allow me to relieve some stress.  I will say it once again that cycling is a great form of medicine, it has helped me out once again.

On River Road with the Alex Fraser Bridge on the backdrop.

GPS tracking of the whole trip. Using Everytrail app on my iPhone.

The above map shows the whole bike ride from start to end.  Please see http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1167160 for more details.

The bike ride started off from Burnaby to Tsawwassen, from Tsawwassen to Westham Island, back to Tsawwassen and then back home to Burnaby.  My good friend Ian, who lives in Tsawwassen, joined me from his home to Westham Island and there we visited the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in the Alaksen National Wildlife Area.  It was nothing short of a relaxing bike ride, the weather was perfect, it wasn't hot, it wasn't cold, just perfect.  We got to travel on a mix of pavement and gravel and we saw many wildlife including beautiful eagles and huge cows!  The ride ended off with me rushing to get home before it got dark as I did not have any lights on me on my bike.  I made the 2hr trek home from Tsawwassen with plenty of daylight left.  This bike ride I can say was truly Epic!

Tsawwassen Road overlooking the Ferries.  Very low tide!

Old chapel with an old boat beside it. Random

Some of the many eagles and birds we've seen today. So awesome.

These cows were the biggest cows I've ever seen!

Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary

Crossing the narrow bridge into Westham Island

Checking the GPS for directions. No, I wasn't playing with my crotch.

Parting ways from my good friend Ian.
edit - I just noticed the nasty farmer's tan on my arms and legs. Or is that dirt??!

Total Kms for the day.  This is a great accomplishment as it shows I can do it. A great start for future plans.

I'm feeling much better now.


.

A Bike Ride to the Watershed Park

There comes a time when your work day is tough, nothing is going your way, everything seems to be miserable, when you just have to say "Screw it, I'm going riding".
Today was one of those days.
Waking up on a Friday morning with the sun shining and the birds singing.  I was hoping for a good day.  That good day turned into headache-filled morning dealing with irate clients and stupid deadlines that simply can not be achieved.  And to add to the grief, my ankle was bothering me all morning due to the previous night's bike ride.  Looking out my window there is not a cloud in the sky and it was very warm out.  The mountains were beckoning and the birds seemed to be teasing that I am stuck inside working.  I finally had enough, bad ankle and all, I dropped everything I was doing and got on my bike and rode.  Destination,  the Delta Watershed Park.

First time with a mirror.  This is a must if you do a lot of street riding.

It was a great bike ride.  This was probably one of my best 'exploration' ride that I've done.  I had no idea where I was going, I had no set route, no clue how long it was gonna take, I just went for a ride.  It was also the first time that I was able to fully test the new drop bar setup on my Cannondale.  It is now a cross/touring setup and this bike ride was the perfect test for it.  (More on the cross bike/ touring bike conversion on a later blog)

amid the trees and sunshine

Ahh Sir Alex Fraser Bridge, you were a lot steeper and longer than I had expected.

On my way to the 'watershed', despite having a GPS on my iPhone, I really did not know how to get to the Alex Fraser Bridge from the Queensborough Bridge via bicycle. I had followed this older gentleman, probably in his 50's riding his bike going in the same direction and caught up to him to ask if he knew the way.   It turns out he was also riding towards the Watershed Park.  So I had a cycling buddy to show me the way.  I must say, this gentleman schooled me all the way up the bridge.  He was in such good shape that he showed me what's up..  then I noticed the cycling jersey he was wearing, all I could see is the word 'triathlon'!  LOL, that made me feel a little better knowing I could almost keep up to a triathlete no matter how old he was.  Another thing I noticed was his beautiful 80's Eddy Merckx road bike. This thing was beautiful and I could not stop telling him this during our ride.  A bit of a mishap happened along the way.  As we were riding on a flat road with no obstacles in sight, he suddenly loses his chain. So, we end up doing bike repairs on the side of the road.  He lost a quick release link and was lucky enough to be carrying a spare.  We parted ways after the bridge as I wanted to take the gravel trails and he stayed on the roads.  This is where my bike started to shine, I had cyclocross tires on and the bike was built specifically to be able to handle rough terrain, gravel and mud as well as be a great pavement bike.  I am now fully realizing that I am riding the perfect bike for my riding style and habits... long distances on and off road.

The Watershed Park had a great mix of gravel trails and wooden paths that ran alongside a creek and hwy 91 in Delta.  I would highly recommend off-road tires through these gravel roads as they are quite rough in some areas.  A mountain bike would be ideal if you are not travelling long distances on pavement to get to the park.  It was quite a relaxing ride if you don't mind the rough gravel.  Despite the little mishap of riding over dog crap with my front wheel and having the crap flick up to my face, I still enjoyed the ride.  But PLease all you dog owners out there, pick up after your dogs!!
On my way back I had the confidence in riding on the highway, Hwy 91 to be exact, something I had never done before.  This is a very heavily used highway with extremely high speeds.  It was a fear of mine for a long time.  Surprisingly, it was actually a very relaxing ride.  The cars and the big semi trucks were speeding beside me but the shoulder of the hwy was so big that the cars did not bother me one bit.  This is another first for me in cycling and I am glad that I did it. It's a good experience for the plans that I have in the future.

The above picture is the route I had taken and was tracked using the Everytrail app on my iPhone.  The full gps tracking can be seen here  Delta Watershed Park Trip on Everytrail . Here you will see the total distance, speed, elevation and time of the whole ride.  Click on 'slideshow' at the bottom of the map to see all the geo-tagged pictures I took during this trip.  This is a wonderful app and I use it constantly on most of my long rides.
On a last note, on my way home I passed by a small Bike Shop near my neighbourhood.  I only stopped in to ask a question whether they sold Brooks saddles (unfortunately they don't) when the shop owner had quite the interest in my bike.  He knew how old the bike was and he even knew the shifters I used (more on the shifters on a later blog).  He even asked if he could lift the bike to see how heavy or light it was.  The bike definitely no longer looked even remotely close to it's original beginnings and he called me on it.  I told him about the build and that I was trying to build the 'perfect' bike for me...  The best feeling was when he just smiled and said I did a great job. He loved my bike!  This coming from someone who has seen it all and sells thousands and thousands of dollars worth of bikes.  And he seemed genuinely sincere about it.  He was truly a bicycle fan.  This made my day, knowing that what you worked on to suit your own riding style is appreciated by someone more knowledgeable and more experienced than you.  I had a great day.

Now to ice up my once again swelling ankle.  ugh.  Oh well, it was worth it!