When I'm 34

I took the day off today, because it's my birthday! I spent the morning on the deck sifting through old bike parts, and treated myself to a nice iced espresso down at the Bean in Chinatown.

It turns out that I have enough bike parts for two mountain bikes and one road bike. So I spent a bit of time this afternoon looking around town for a bike to turn into a project. No luck - nothing in my size. I am giving myself one more month of looking, and then the whole lot is going to be donated.

I just survived another stag party weekend over in Vancouver - pretty laid back, which was nice. I managed to get a hike up the Grouse Grind in just after the World Cup Final, and was somewhat impressed with my time - 48:20. My best is 41:30, so there has been some slippage as I've aged. I hit the ferry lineup at Horseshoe Bay immediately after, and had to suffer through the 1-sailing wait - I can't wait until I am off the island and don't have to deal with ferries.

Well, I am heading off into the afternoon to enjoy the remainder of my b-day. Later!

Getting off the island this weekend.

After the absolute disintegration of hiking plans this past weekend, I am heading over to Vancouver for a weekend catching up with old friends and definitely some family. Who knows what the weekend holds - I may watch the World Cup Final on Commercial Drive (aka, Little Italy) on Sunday. This was taken after Italy won their semi-final - imagine if they win on Sunday!

But I do need to tell you about the long weekend that just passed, where absolutely nothing happened. So we had planned to head to Strathcona Provincial Park, to do some backpacking up in the alpine. All plans were in place, right down to the freeze-dried food. Ahh, three days up on high, out of this tight corner of the island.

On Thursday evening, Cim emailed over the link to the updated Parks page. Three feet of snow in the still closed campground where we planned to pitch tent. Generally terrible conditions due to the snowpack that was holding on from the cool spring days. So we had a quick chat on the phone, and considered the Olympic range, but decided on the Juan de Fuca Trail. Sea level = no snow.

We got to the trailhead Friday evening, and were really ready to go, super keen like kids at Christmas about the prospect of getting out into the trees. I got out of the car in the lot at China Beach Trailhead, and noticed the posting first. Problem bear in area - Trailhead closed from Bear Beach to Chin Beach (or KM 5-15 of our hike). Chin and Bear are two great places to camp overnight, when bears are not involved.

As we debated what to do next, a car pulled up and a hiker got out with a piece of paper to post. He indicated that that same bear had taken his pack that afternoon on Bear Beach, as he and his group stopped for lunch. Not in the attacked-him-and-took-it-away way, but more along the lines of being curious enough to have the hiker back away a bit, at which point the bear smelled the bag's contents, chomped onto it, and pulled it into the bush. Our plans disappeared along with the hiker's pack, up into the salal with the bear.

So we regrouped, and opted for dinner at Jordan River while we considered our long weekend options. It was too windy at Jordan River to set up our stoves, so we just came back to town and ate our freeze-dried dinner in Cim and Sarah's kitchen. Headlamp added for effect.

I did take advantage of the time on Sunday to tally 99.3km on the bike, up and around Shawnigan Lake. Almost fit enough to take ownership of my new bike - can hardly wait!