Tempus Fugit

Pumper Truck
Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

Just a little bit of excitement downtown today. Shorty before 5pm there was a fairly large fire in an apartment complex downtown.

In fact this apartment fire was right behind the IBM building at 400 Ellice Ave. between it and Portage Place. As I walked over from the GWL offices at 444 St Mary I could see the thick black smoke pouring over the top of Portage Place. I walked up the back lane where lots of people were milling about looking at the fire and all the police and firemen on the scene. This back alley behind the IBM building is where the lockup cage for my bike is located. After changing into my riding gear and taking a few photos I head down to get my bike from the cage only to find that the whole area is cordoned off with “Do No Cross” police tape. I speak to an office about trying to get my bike, but it’s no-go. They are concerned that the fire might spread to a very large power transformer that is right on the edge of the alley across from where my bike is and cause an explosion.

After about a 1/2 hour wait the officer calls me over and I get escorted over to get my bike. We have a brief chat, and I’m on my way. Something a little out of the ordinary, that’s for sure!

This years fireworks at the annual Harbourfest celebration were the best ever. Some of the displays were very spectacular and they had some great combinations of simultaneous low and high she action that was very effective. The phone snapshot does not do the event justice.

Kenora Harbourfest fireworks display

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New Corner Post
Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

Yesterday’s project was power washing the lower deck in preparation for staining. Today, after the morning ride around the bypass, I finished off the new corner post on the cottage. Last year I replaced the deck corner post on the same corner and prepped the area for this post. Instead of concrete block pads, I’ve poured pads directly on the rock and anchored with several pieces of rebar drilled into the rock. That should stay put for a while.

On a previous week at the lake, I repaired one set of the front windows and this week, the other pair is on the list.

After completing the post task Shirley and I were completing the
staining of the upper deck, but a sudden rain shower called a halt to
that. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to goof off for a while. What? Now
it’s sunny again but we’ll need to wait for the deck to dry up again, so
it’s off to the dock for a little tanning.

It is looking like there will be a second trip to do some mountain biking on the MDH trail in 2010! A tentative date of Sept 18-19 has been suggested and this also might be the largest group ever. I hope the Ranch is up for this.

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Artistic Anchor
Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

Normally, the floating dock or swim platform would have been set in place much earlier in the year, but I needed to build some new “anchors” to replace the huge rock that got away last year.

To replace the rock, this year there are three five gallon pails filled with rocks held together with cement and an eye bolt for attaching the chain.

These three pails, each weighing 100+ lbs. are linked together on the end of a 50′ chain. I’ve positioned them at one end of the dock for launching, and they are causing the dock to seriously dip down in the water.

Once in position the pails were edged very close to the edge and then pushed over. It’s quite calm today so the true test will come on a day with a strong south-west wind, then we will see if the new anchor system hold.

Immediately upon splashing into the water this huge group of pelicans comes over for a look.

Surprisingly, they don’t seem afraid and actually swim closer for a better look and hang around the dock for 15-20 minutes.

The need for others to know your speed that is.

Who’s got my fish?
Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

On the weekend we were out on the lake boating back to the cottage after finding a geocache on Strawberry Island and we noticed a large number of birds on the shore of another island. We headed over and counted in excess of 10 eagles, a number of turkey vultures and half a dozen pelicans, all fighting over some fish remains on the shore.

The funny part was that as we approached the eagles moved off to perch in near by trees and while they watched the pelicans returned and one of them made off with the fish!

However, all of this action provided a great opportunity to get some good shots of the eagles and pelicans. The sun was out and the afternoon was warm as we floated over a sand bar before heading for home. Our little boat isn’t quite like this one, but it’s taken us on some great adventures on the lake. All in all a great afternoon on beautiful Lake of the Woods.

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.

Eric & Doug chomping at the bit
Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo

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.

By Big Dadoo

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”.

By Big Dadoo

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. 

Well the first trip to the Maah Daah Hey trail is over and we’re on our way home. This years ride was dry and sunny all weekend long as opposed to last years mud fest. Our hosts at the Buffalo Gap Ranch we’re awesome and treated us to some excellent steak meals. We consumed quite a bit of prime beef

On Saturday we arrived at the south end of the original MDH trail and parked at the very beautiful Bully Pit Golf course to catck a little sleep and wait for the sun to come up. Eric was out early riding the new bike around the parking lot while the rest of us waited for the temperature to warm up. Later Scott “stole” a golf cart and took it for a joy ride.

Eventually we braved the cool temperatures and changed into the gear. Just befoer we left we were visited by the local sheriff who informed us that the golf course was open and that perhaps we should park somewhere else. I think it has something to do with the gold cart incident. He was pretty soft about it and later we checked with the course people and got the OK.

Our warm-up was a quarter mile steep climb up followed by a lot more steep climbing on the trail. At this point we’re on the MDH II trail a newly opened extension of the original and the gravel on the trail is quite soft and loose as it hasn’t been packed down by too many riders. The scenery is gorgeous and the trail is challenging. One we turn around the ride back seems quick as there more down than up and the howling wind is at our back.

A short drive back to Medora and some of the guys are looking for a place to eat but tourist season hasn’t started yet and nothing is open. We share the food some of us brought and then head out on some familiar trails behind town starting at about MDH mile 5. Right away we cross 3 streams and got our feet soaked and then a killer long climb to the top of the plateau. We came close to the scene of my 2005 crash but managed to take a different trail to explore some new trail.

Back at the ranch some guys had some lunch and then while some napped Doug, Eric and I went out for another short ride. After that it was bring on the beef for a big steak dinner. That pretty much did everbody in and we called it a night.

Day 2 in the next post.