Author: Greg

Duncan Double

Yesterday I headed up to Duncan for a ride at Tzouhalem.  I’ve ridden there a few times in the past, but there is something about that place that still gets me turned around. The guys I was riding with know the trails pretty good so once again I was lead around. It’s getting a little better, but the couple times I have been the one leading the ride, I second guess myself quite a bit.

The climb up was mostly on single track and meandered a bit. I noticed pretty quickly that the day was turning out to be perfect, though there was a lot of water on the trails still. We made our way to the inconic rest stop overlooking Cowican Bay.

  
After the break we did a quick stop at the cross then started heading down.

   
 We hit some of the more technical downhill trails, then made a run down Double D.

After getting back to the truck we headed for home after a quick stop at the Cowichan Bay pub for lunch. 

Turbulent Years

Today I headed out to the dump for a ride. The skies were a little turbulent and I wondered if it was going to dump on us. A few times it sprinkled, but the rain held off. The wind never stopped though and a few times while the trees were swaying pretty hard we could hear them creaking and rubbing against each other.

We started off by heading to the far South side of the park along Shock Treatment before coming back and climbing up to the switchbacks. The goal was to get to Daves Line and Southridge. We kept running two different groups of people which was kind of funny, but also a bit frustrating since I think we were faster than them. After Southridge and Fun Trail we ended up on Madonna and N Trail before making our way back to the North end, destined for Skull. Before Skull I had the brilliant idea to try out Low Craft Warning. I hadn’t been on that trail in years and I had forgotten how big some of the rock faces were. We made it to the end without dieing, though I almost endod right at the end.

Soon after cleaning off the bikes I was talking with my riding partner, and the skies opened up. Good timing!

Birth Ten

Elliot turned 10 yesterday?!

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Where does the time go? I can remember the days leading up to his birth, playing cards while in the hospital. Nurses joking with us that they will have to work harder to get us to stop. Post birth we had early mornings where I would get him breakfast, and sometimes a chai for Sue. When his sister was born he was such a sweet older brother bring her all his prized possessions to share. He seemed so big on his first day of Kindergarten, yet now he would tower above his K size.

Being a parent is a hard job, but the hard parts fade over time and we are left with wonderful memories. The first ten years has been a lot of fun, and I can’t wait for the next ten. Happy Birthday Elliot!

Faucet Consult

Sue and I decided to replace the taps and faucet in the downstairs bathroom. The old one leaked and didn’t work all that well. I figured it should be easy enough for me to do. 

Here is the sink before. 

  

First hurdle was disconnecting everything. 

  
A tight space for a wrench to get into. I eventually loosened one of them but the other was hopelessly corroded. I then decided to take the sink off the wall. 

Notice the tile backsplash above? It was flush with the sink, so I ended up having to pull off some of the tiles to get the sink off.  

  
Once the sink was off I was able to take off the old hardware with a bit of cursing and elbow grease. The new hardware went in easily enough and I mounted the sink back on the wall. 

  

I want to buy new water lines, but the last problem to solve before the sink returns to service is connecting the sink drain pipe to the drain in the wall. The new pipe coming from the sink is much longer than the old one. I will have to consult someone about this. 

Here is the new (non functioning for now) faucet. 

  

Trillium Flat

Had another great mountain bike ride today. Rode from home out to the dump. Unfortunate I left a few minutes later than I intended too, but wasn’t too late. I met up with a couple friends on the parking lot, one to ride with, and the other was going for a trail run. We started off and I thought we would head up to Trillium, then hit Snakes and Ladders. The trails were in pretty good condition considering the rain we had two nights ago.
As we were riding along, it turned out that our runner friend was playing paparazzi. Every once in a while he would appear out of nowhere taking pictures 🙂 

  
  
  
I rode home along Munns Rd again. It is a little to usher, but I think it is also a bit faster. Definitely more downhill than Interurban (which is very flat).

Walks Pouring

Last weekend Sue had some seminars to attend, so the kids and I had a weekend to ourselves. We did a bunch of fun things including two dog walks. One walk was at Knockan Hill, which we had never been to, the other was to Gowland Tod park, which we had been to once before.

The skies were a little ominous on Sunday, and sure enough on our drive out to Gowland Tod, they opened up and it started pouring. We kept driving out there hoping it would stop raining before we started walking, and it did.

We hiked down to the, played on the beach a bit, then hunkered down under the trees to eat lunch when the rain picked up. Once the shower had passed we headed back. Very fun outing.