Today is the start of Commuter Challenge Week, and as it turns out my ride into work this this morning was a little extra “challenging”.
My route takes me over the Seine River on a path that parallels Fermor Ave. A rider in front of me slowed and stopped just as the path was descending towards the river. After a rain there is typically a little mud that washes onto the path and I thought he was just being a bit of a wuss so I charged on without really looking at the river. Well, when the river is high a short section of the path goes under water, but no problem there is a dirt mud trail that bypasses this section so I forged ahead getting the bike and myself royally messy. And then I came to a full stop. The path and bridge was under 2′ of water so this required backtracking through the mud again, and up over the bridge on Fermor with mud flying every direction off the tires. An excellent adventure to start the day.
Month: May 2010
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Commuter Challenge
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Daily Double
Air Kiss, awesome stuff!First road ride at the lake this year was a little more interesting that some. I followed the usual route of heading out Storm Bay Road, east on Hwy 17 and then taking the bypass, Hwy 17a west back towards Winnipeg and then turning back on Hwy 17 into Kenora, a stop at the Safeway Starbucks and back to Storm Bay.
What made this ride a little unusual was a flat, not just one flat but two! One flat on the rear at about 37km into the ride and the second on the front at about 73km, within 1-2 km of being back at the cottage. This little CO2 device is my new best friend on a ride. It’s the first time I’ve used one and it was very impressive. One little “pfssst” and the tire was at full pressure. This is in comparison to 100+ strokes on a mini-pump which never really reaches the preferred riding tire pressure. I did have a mini-pump with me as well and I used it fill out the tube on the first flat. Later in the ride I stopped at the LBS on Kenora and picked up a tube and some patches. This turned out to be a very good move. After a nice coffee at the Safeway Starbucks it was on towards home. This section of the highway has several rough gravel sections where they have torn up the road to put in new culverts across the highway. I’m blaming these rough gravel sections for at least one of the flats.
The annoying part of the ride, besides having two flats, was on the second flat I realized the mini-pump was missing in action. Fortunately the Air Kiss had enough left to fill the second flat as well. Later in the day we drove back to the place where I changed the first flat expecting to find the pump, but no luck. It’s now on the shopping list with a couple of more CO2 cartridges.
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Cottage Opening for the 2010 season
Failed Parts
With the great weather we’ve decided to open the cottage a week ahead of the traditional May long weekend opening. We had a birthday celebration for Scott with the whole family on Friday and then drove out later that night arriving at a little after 1am. Eric, Dez, and Kellie are out with us as well.
After sleeping in until about 10am, I’m up and thinking that sitting on the dock and enjoying that the first coffee of the day would be a good idea, and it would have been, except for the traditional bug infestation that happen every year at this time. Since they just hang around the water’s edge, I retreat to the gazebo where there are almost no bugs and look out at the lake with my coffee. Very peaceful and enjoyable.
Enough of that, there are things to do and number one on the list every year is to get the water system up and running. Things progress well as the intake line is put back into the lake and primed, but then I notice that the water is pouring out of the foot valve. This is not a good thing. It’s also the first time in 28 years where the foot valve has failed like this and it is only a year old but the O ring is totally shot! That’s the black worm like thing in the photo with all the cracks in it is what’s left of the O ring after one season of use and a winter. They just don’t make things like they used to.
Anyway, this puts getting the pump running on the back burner so I finish up prepping the rest of the water system as breakfast is being made. After breakfast, Eric and I head off to Kenora to get a new O ring and a couple of other parts, one being a new galvanized piece of 1 1/4″ pipe. Last year, the piece in the photo was leaking ever so slightly but this year, after fixing the foot valve, and bringing the system up to pressure, it was doing a nice imitation of a fountain spray, like at the Bellagio.
After draining down the system a bit I was able to replace that piece and the rest of the water system came online with out any further complications. The rest of the day was spent putting winter things away and bringing out the summer stuff, getting deck and dock chairs in place, raking the postage-stamp yard etc. And then of course there is the septic system. Starting it up is ever so much nicer that shutting down. It’s just connecting the various components and putting the air compressor back in place and plugging it in.
Now that the water is running at the hot water tank is up to temperature, a nice shower is the reward for the work of getting the system functional. It’s been a great day, both sunny and warm, and as always any day at the lake is a great day. Looking forward to a BBQ dinner with Shirley, Eric, Dez & Kellie, perhaps followed by a movie.
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Crash Blackout
After getting home from the ride this morning, I noticed something unusual on my jersey. If you look carefully at the lower right, those of you who are cyclists will most likely recognize the imprint of a chain ring. Now, it’s not totally unheard of to get a “chain ring tattoo” on you calf with a little careless bike handling, but up on the torso area. Clearly, this is a sign of a crash.
The ride today was the full route at 96.74km, but a little quicker that last weeks ride at an average speed of 32.55 km/hr thanks to some favorable winds and some guys really pulling the group along hard for big stretches of the ride.
Anyway, about the crash, no I didn’t crash and blackout forgetting how that ring imprint got there. But, while I was lifting the bike to put it on the rack in the garage, it must have got a little too close the the bike.
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Maah Daah Hey in a Day movie
This is an awesome video with a great message at the end. Well work the time to watch, especially if you like mountain biking.
Maah Daah Hey in a Day from Chad Ziemendorf on Vimeo.
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MDH2010 – Day 2
It’s early. Some are still trying to sleep. But the keeners in the room next door are up and revving up the bikes in the parking lot. I think they slept in their cycling gear. As the ranch is not fully open for the season yet, there is nobody in the restaurant so breakfast is a combination of bars, fruit and miscellaneous snack food left over from yesterday, a truly healthy way to start the day.
With everybody roused out of bed, bikes checked, water loaded we’re off, heading north on the Buffalo Gap Trail. Our goal, to see how close we can get to where the BGT intersects the MDH. A couple of miles down the trail, I’m having mechanical problems with my bike. After a consult with Daniel, our senior bike mechanic on the trip, he diagnosis it as a chain link that is damaged and sticking. After a quick repair were once again roaring down the trail.
It seems rather quickly we’ve crossed the creek that marked our farthest distance on the Sunday 2009 trip and it seems lake a good time to stop for a mid-morning snack. We power on after the break and enjoy the new scenery and are having great fun on the trail. Well, I am any way. I couple of guys are feeling the pain that was inflicted yesterday and are taking a more “relaxed” approach to the day. If you look very closely at this picture you can see them while some of us are further up the trail. We need to get on the road back to Winnipeg so we’re watching our ride time and have planned a 2 hours out, and 2 hours back, but we stretched that a bit because everybody kept on saying “lets just go over there to that next marker”.
Eventually, we call it quits and turn around an head back to the Ranch. Doug is off trying to catch Josh and Elijah who have at least a 3-4 mile head start, Danial and Scott set a fast and steady pace, and Eric and I enjoy the ride back together stopping to take pictures and enjoy the scenery and a beautiful afternoon. At one point on the ride back I had a very clear and special thought as I watched the riders ahead, that this is “the best of days”. I hope to hold on to that memory for a very long time.
Back at the ranch, so to speak, we shower up, pack up, and enjoy another round of steak dinners while discussing the days ride. In another 9 hours more or less with a few stops for gas and food, where back in Winnipeg. I think everybody is looking forward to possible the first ever 2nd trip to the MDH and the same year this fall. In fact, we may have booked that ranch already.
