I took this picture one day while downtown. It was the first time I got to see the bridge open up. I have lived in Victoria for several years, so I was quite surprised to see it opened in two seperate pieces. I still think this looks like a giant abstract pair of scissors.
This was taken on a recent shoot at the Ross Bay Cemetary in Victoria, BC. Some more pictures from the shoot can be found here.
This year was not to be. I left late, a few minutes before ten, and drove down to Beacon Hill park. I missed the entrance to the parking, so I cirlced around, discovered that too many people were leaving to allow newcomers to park, so I circled back and parked along Dallas Road.
I jumped out of my truck, grabbed my gear, and started walking towards the park. There were lots of cars out, and people were snapping up the parking spots as quickly as they could.
The next sequence of events happened rather quickly, but I will try to explain them as best I can. I was looking up the road for a good place to cross. I noticed a vehicle coming towards me, then noticed the right hand light looked funny. I realized there was a motorbike in front of a car, and that is when I heard the engine from the bike. Next, a car coming in the opposite direction (same direction as I am walking) turns left in front of the bike. I saw the headlights on the bike dive a few inches as the driver of the motorbike hit the brakes.
I thought to myself “This is going to be close”, and then bam, the motorbike hit the car. The riders were catapulted over the car and slid along the ground a bit.
I was slightly stunned, but I took off running towards the acident, jumping over some bike parts as they slid down the road. I got to the passenger from the bike, and I stopped there. I tried talking to her, but she didn’t say anything. I told her not to move, and that she was going to be alright. I grabbed my cellphone, dialed 911, hit send, then someone else said they were already calling. Myself and another gentleman waited with the girl until some help arrived.
Some people from nearby vehicles brought some blankets to cover the girl. It was pretty freaky, and my legs were quivering from the adrenaline. After some police officers arrived, I backed up and let them do their business. I had to hang around and give a statement.
As I stood there waiting, I was looking around the scene a bit. There were about 6 police cars in the vicinity (later I noticed two more down the road directing cars), two ambulances, and a firetruck. There were no streetlights at all, so the only illumination was the red and blue blinky lights from the police, ambulance, and fire vehicles. This cast an eery aura onto the scence. I stood there freezing my butt off from the breeze coming off the ocean. I surveyed the bike, and sort of vowed I would never get one.
I discovered that the driver of the car had jumped the curb, and his car was in the middle of a field. He was sitting there looking very stunned. I felt for him. I was in a similar situation many years (car vs pedestrian instead of car vs motorbike).
After giving my statement, I reallly didn’t feel like going to the festival. I had been really looking forward to it for about two months now, and I was a little disappointed that I would miss it, but I really was a walking zombie after that. I grabbed my gear, walked back to my truck, took the above picture, then left.
There is always next year. I just hope the motorbike riders come away ok. I also hope the driver of the car can get on with his life. It is quite devastating to go through something like that.
Friday afternoon Shane, Sean, James and myslef piled into a truck, bombed up Island from Victoria to Nanaimo. We enjoyed a nice leisurely 5 pm sailing across the water, then the real trip started. After driving several more hours, passing through Whistler, Pemberton, and a handful of other smaller towns, we ended up near Goldbridge, BC. We found the Gun Creek Ranch, found our “rustic cabin”, unloaded our stuff, and hit the sack at a little past midnight.
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| James | Sean |
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| Shane | and myself. |
The flight was spectacular, but short.
In about 15 – 20 minutes we reached our destination.
Warner Lake
The plane dropped us and our gear off, then boogied back to base.
I can never express how much I love BC! With scenery like this, how can you not?
We geared up, and began our trek. Quite simply this was an amazing day of riding. It was long, not that technical, but definitely there were some fun sections. Overall there was more climbing than we expected, but it was a ride of a lifetime. We went from Warner Lake, all the way back to our cabin some 40+ kilometres away. Lots of climbing, descending, traversing, and spectating. 3 hours in we stopped for lunch in a wide open meadow. Here we were sitting in a large meadow surrounded by spectacular mountains, overlooking a rushing river down below.The trail was true singletrack all the way. At times it was less than 3 tire widths wide.
Along the way we met some hikers using Llamas as support. These animals were used instead of horses, partly due to their lessened impact on the trail. Very cool!
We passed many wildflowers along the way.
The trail would dive down to the river, then climb up high again. It would traverse a while, dip into a meadow, enter some stands of trees, then spit you out into a scree slope traverse. Quite simply this was an amazing trail. Below are some more shots from the trail, in no particular order.
We were pretty tuckered by the time we got to the cabin. It was all we could do to lift the ice cold beer to our awaiting mouths.
The day was amazing. That is definitely the longest I have ever been out on a trail. Our group didn’t have any real crashes, no equipment failures, and no injuries. The scenery was out of this world, and the trail was incomparable to an other I have been on. If you are looking for an epic day of riding, I would highly suggest you email Tyax, and get more information.
That was Saturday. Sunday was a mighty fine rest day. We goofed around at the cabin, explored the ranch, obeyed the rules, went to town for some much needed groceries. and ate tons of food.
Monday morning we got up super early again, packed the truck, then headed out for the long drive to Whistler. Along the way we squashed many bugs, again saw lots of amazing scenery, almost got squashed by very big trucks on a very tiny road, then got to Whistler.
Whistler is so much fun, it is hard to stop and take pictures. We warmed up at the jump park, then started to hit some of the other trails. I ended up getting us lost a couple times, but we always ended up on fun trails. Unfortunately for Shane, he munged his ankle in the jump park. He went a little too big of the largest platform, missed the nice transition, and landed on the flat. Ouch!
I was having a great day at Whistler, and had made up my mind before getting there that I was going to hit the biggest GLC drop. I am happy to say that I did just that! I was pretty stoked afterwards, and my legs quivered for a bit, but I had done it. Over the course of the day I did it one more time to prove to myself that the first wasn’t just a fluke. Seaners looked at the middle GLC drop a few times, and decided he was going to do it before the day was out. He also stepped up and did it, and I htink James followed suit too.
Our last run of the day was our fastest rip of the day down A Line. That is such a sweet trail that even thinking about it now brings a grin to my face. I was clearing tabletop after tabletop. I was even tweaking out my airs a little I was having such a great day. Alas it had to end. We crammed back into the truck just after 5pm, zipped to Horseshoe Bay, and got on the 7PM sailing to Nanaimo.
It was such a great weekend, and all four of us were pretty fried by the end of it.
Loads of riding, good friends, constant joking around. What more is needed in a road trip?
The above has been a sampling of some of the pictures I took on the weekend. To see them all go here.
Friday night was a drinks and appy night at a sports bar in Nanaimo. That was fun. I caught up with some friends I hadn’t seen in a while, talked with a few people I hadn’t really talked to much in high school, had some food, then decided it was time to head out. I left fairly early, but I could sense I was getting bored. I had a good visit with my friend James though (he came all the way from Ontario for the reunion).
Saturday night was the dinner/dance thing. I visited some more with James, talked with some people who weren’t at Friday nights thing, and revelled in the fact that I am such a different person from the Greg Fox that went to Wellington Senior Secondary. Dinner was pretty good, but the hall we were in was pretty warm. I kept having to step outside to catch my breath a little. The DJ started up, and he was playing some of the hits from ’93. Spin Doctors, Ace of Base, and a few more I couldn’t remember. I got dragged into a picture of people from Rutherford Elementary school. With the DJ playing such loud music, I found it difficult to talk with people (I hate having to shout to be heard). I ended up just watching people talking, dancing, drinking, and having fun.
It suddenly struck me that once again, I was on the outside looking in. Hmm, interesting. I said goodbye to James, then headed out.
I don’t associate with very many people from high school any more (James is one, even though our emails have been a little spotty lately 
). On top of that, most of the people I hung around with in High School didn’t show up. I ended up looking in on the group just as I had envisioned, so I lived up to my promise to myself, and left when I noticed that happening. I was home to my mom’s by 9:15.
I have absolutely no regrets about going. I had a great visit with James, and got a good dinner out of it. I am not sure if I will go to the next one. I have heard from lots of current friends that a lot of people skip the 10 year and go only to the 20 year. I will cross that bridge when I come to it.
Monday we went to the bug zoo. I love the bug zoo. There is lots of information about exotic bugs. They house a bunch of different species, and will even let you handle some of them. They have a large leaf cutter ant’s nest, millipedes, scorpions, spiders, cockroaches, and many more. I held a bunch of bugs including a scorpion, and the millipede. Most of them are incredibly light, and never really felt them until the guide removed them (most have sticky feet). Lots of fun. Check out the pictures I took in there.
After breaky we made our way to the Royal BC Museum to see the Dragon Bones exhibit. Totally cool! Most of the skeletons were not real fossils. The real deal are so heavy that the floor of the museum would never have been able to hold them up. There were lots of different dinosaurs depicted in a variety of poses. They even had one gentleman working on extracting a real fossil!
There were a few fossils from local areas (even some up Island), but for the most part they were depictions of fossils originally found in China (including the Szechunasaurus 
). I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit, but desperately wished I had brought my tripod. Lots of my shots are a little blurry, but looked great on my camera’s LCD. The rest of the pictures are here.
I took my hardtail for a little climbing fun. I felt really good on the long arduous climb up to the top, and never once really felt the need to stop. I felt like I could climb forever, and that is certainly is something I have not felt in a long time. It reminded me of days gone by where I used to love to climb. Climbs were a challenge, and often if I didn’t make a climb, I would turn around, head to the bottom, and give it another go. No such luck on Sunday, but I actually did enjoy the climb (maybe not at the time, but definitely in retrospect).
Once there we were treated to some spectacular views, and some stiff breezes. After a rest and a refuel, we started the descent which was loads of fun. Some steep loose sections, some fast twisty sections, a couple small jumps. Lots of big smiles.
We came to a couple sections of stunts. I tried a couple on my trusty hardtail, but with me in XC mode, and riding clipless, I was too timid to try some things. I am a chicken shit to ride stuff now when I am attached to my bike. I like them for climbing, and general XC riding, but when the trail turns downward, or the stunts start appearing, I begin to wish for my flats. My how times change.
I went over one jump, and my left foot came unclipped. I landed awkwardly, my chest slamming into my saddle, and my nuts getting raked over the tire. I grabbed fistfulls of brake, and stopped as quickly as I could. After a few minutes rest we continued descending.
My bike was being a little tempermental, and kept dropping the chain from the big ring to the granny. This caused my grief in more than one situation where I stomped on the pedals to ascend a small hill, only to find no resistance on the pedals. Only once did this bite me as pedals swung around unimpeded until it connected with my shin. Ouch!
The rest of the ride was uneventful, but fun. We were on the hill for a little over three hours. Fun ride, and I am definitely glad I brought the hardtail. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I might DH-ify it a bit by putting on some flat pedals and taking my shin pads, just so I would feel a little more comfortable descending steeps and riding skinny logs. All in all though, the bike performed pretty well, and I am feeling in pretty good shape. Bring on the plane trip! Woohoo!
Click here, or the first pictures to see more pictures from the day.
It happened again, but this time the scratching was more insistent, and the thump louder. I bolted upright, in time to hear the scratching again, and see the cats head appear behind my dresser. The face disappeared, and the thump followed!
My dresser sits at an angle in a corner. Somehow the cat got herself trapped behind it, and was trying to get out. She was knocking stuff off my dresser, and making a lot of noise. I jumped out of bed, ran to the dresser, just as she leapt one more time, got to the top, and sunk her claws into my nice oak dresser .
I gave her a shove which sent her flailing back to the floor. I moved the dresser away from the wall, she bolted out of the bedroom, and I was left wondering about how my cat got behind the dresser.
Not a very nice way to wake up is it?
