Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Author: Garry

  • Early Snowfall

    This was the scene in our driveway at about 10am. We'd just stepped out side to try and photograph a beautiful rainbow, but it faded very rapidly. In the one shot I got off, it's barely visible. This was the first time I'd seen a rainbow where there hadn't been any rain, or snow for that matter, for some time and it was a generally clear sky. But, as you can see, there was snow on the ground from Friday afternoon, and over night into Saturday. I skipped the FOG ride. I don't mind cold, but cold & wet is just a little too much. Perhaps there will be a ride on the holiday Monday, but I think Eric & I will be heading out to Sandilands for a little mountain biking instead. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I know I've got lots to be thankful for.

  • OPP on the Water

    For the last week the OPP have been at Smith Camps just down from our cottage and seem to be conducting some training exercises for the marine unit. All weekend 5 or 6 boats like this one have been cruising around the bay and going in an out from Smiths on quite a regular basis. While we were out in the kayaks once, we didn’t get “pulled over”, but I’d be sure I had all the regulation gear on board because I think they are just itching to practice on somebody.

  • On the Long X Trail

    On the Long X Trail

    We’re about 1 1/2 hours into an almost 8 hour “character building” ordeal when we stopped for a photo op after a long muddy climb of about 500 vertical feet. It’s rained Friday night and we’re out on a spur trail off the Maah Daah Hey trail in North Dakota called the Long X Trail. We knew the trail would be difficult if not impossible when wet, but some how we just kept on thinking it would dry up and get better. It didn’t.

    After we rode on far enough to start thinking things would never get better, we were too far gone to bother turning back, so we kept on ridding and it kept on getting muddier, slipperier, and then it started to rain. Parts of the trail were so rough that not only did you have to walk the trail, you needed to carry your bike. If you didn’t the tires just picked up so much mud that they refused to turn. Everyone spent a significant amount of time just scraping the clay muck off your bike so you could resume riding for what ever distance was possible before the bike was once again coated in mud. At one point we even resorted to washing the bikes in a cattle watering trough to get free from the mud.

    Everyone made the full days ride of approximately 20km which I’m sure was actually longer because the cycling computer didn’t register the mileage while I was carrying the bike, and there was a lot of carrying going on. Once back at the CCC campground everyone washed up and changed before driving down to the Buffalo Gap Guest Ranch where we washed the bikes and enjoyed a BBQ pork & beans dinner.

    The Sunday ride was much better. More on that later.

  • At the End of the Day

    Nothing beats sitting on the dock looking out over the water at the wonderous creation.

  • Return to Maah Daah Hey

    In just under a week I’ll be heading off to ride the MDH trail in North Dakota with the boys. For many years we made an annual trip to ride this outstanding single track trail, but this will be the first time since 2005.

    I’ve been taking with some of the guys and everybody is getting pretty excited about the trip. Its quite the action packed weekend with a 9 hour drive thru the night, breakfast at 4am, a brief nap in the vehicles until the sun comes up and then all day riding!
    I think we’ll be riding the northern section and taking in some near by trails on Saturday. Sunday we’ll ride for half a day in the Buffalo Gap area. As some would say, it should be GTs. I’m looking forward to it.

  • open windows

    Apparently all these windows are computer controlled to regulate the building temperature. I think I’ll sit here and wait for them to close.

  • red neck shootings

    There appears to have been some crazy shooting activity at the lake. What’s up with the BBs stuck in the railing? This has to stop.

  • Street Fire

    I saw this on the way home today. I wonder how it happened?

  • WordPress client for Blackberry

    First post with the public beta of the sw. So far so good

  • Drafting

    An unusual thing happened on the ride home from work today, a guy passed me.

    Normally, I’m passing the other cyclists but this time a guy passed me. He was wearing an Olympia jersey, packing some gear and riding a mountain bike, obviously a serious cycling commuter such as myself. So, of course I stepped it up a bit and fell in behind him enjoying the draft. Then he pulled out into the middle of the lane for a short period and then back to the curb. At first, I didn’t know what to make of this but when he did it the second time I knew it was an invitation to take the lead an pull for a while. We worked it most of the way down St. Marys and we’re flying at a very respectable 36-37km/h. This doesn’t happen very often especially on the commute ride, and it was fun to silently fall into the pattern of helping each other speed up the ride.

    It was a good thing to go a little faster than normal as a major downpour erupted as I pulled into the driveway. I hope he made it home before the storm as well. Good riding buddy!