Blog: I Think It's This Way» Road Bike Ride – Hurricane Ridge – Port Angeles, WA – Gigantic Hill

Road Bike Ride – Hurricane Ridge – Port Angeles, WA – Gigantic Hill

Kris — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 06:19:33 +0000

To put it bluntly, the ride up to the top of Hurricane Ridge from Port Angeles is hard. You see, it’s just over 30km long from the ferry to the top, which is at about 5,200ft above sea level. It’s a big freakin hill. I’ll be honest, I don’t really like doing this sort of ride purely for the exercise; I guess it’s partly the sense of achievement, but mostly it’s about the views, Hurricane Ridge is pretty spectacular.

Michelle, Kari, and I met at the Coho terminal (as in Coho Ferry terminal in Victoria) at about 5:30am to head over to Port Angeles. That’s now two weekends in a row where the alarm went off far earlier than I would have preferred. I don’t think I’ll make a habit of it, but it was pretty damn nice to roll through town down to the Inner Harbour at dawn. After about an hour and a half on the ferry we arrived in Port Angeles the starting point for our trip up the hill. From there it was up, up, up, seemingly forever, but it did eventually end with amazing views of the Olympic Mountains.

GPS Data: 74.0km – 4h52m (including stops) – about 1h48m from the visitor centre to the top – 20.8km/h (moving average) – GPS route

A 74km round-trip road bike ride from Port Angeles to Hurricane Ridge. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

The Coho awaits in the early morning hours of July 25.

It was a pretty nice morning on the Inner harbour. That's the Johnson Street Bridge at the head of the Gorge Waterway.

More early morning Inner Harbour action, namely the Delta Hotel and some Vic West condos.

Me, Kari, and Michelle on the bow of the Coho Ferry prior to departure from Victoria's Inner Harbour.

Coho life ring. I seem to recall thinking that if for some reason I ended up in the water, my bike clothing would not offer much insulation, duhhhh.

There's probably a technical term for this... mooring line/rope?

A pretty big boat in the Port Angeles Harbour.

There seems to be a lot of metal art in Port Angeles. I don't recall seeing the same numbers of objects the last time I was in P.A.

Michelle looks giddy about the impending three hours of climbing. This was taken at the Olympic Park visitor centre.

Kari looked kind of giddy too. There were at least 10 other people on the ferry with us who were heading up to Hurricane Ridge as well.

The higher you go the better the view gets on the road up to Hurricane Ridge.

One of three short, but dark, tunnels along the way.

There's some debate about which half is harder, the first or the last. Even if the last half is easier by the numbers, it doesn't feel that way. It was mighty nice to see the lodge at the top signalling the end of the climb.

Yeah it's kind of cool, but isn't this how those man vs beast, man gets maimed videos start? In the background is the top of the ridge, on which I believe a couple of rope tows operate in the winter.

Olympic Mountains to the south from the lodge at Hurricane Ridge.

More mountain, lush looking valleys, and me.

There's apparently quite a bit of hiking in the Hurricane Ridge area. Someday, I/we will head over to do some hiking, but not after riding up the hill.

I saw it, I took photo of it. Didn't see too many dead trees on the way except for this one.

Still a few little wildflowers at Hurricane Ridge even though we're halfway through the summer.

Good work Michelle, you made it.

Heading back down in the hope of catching the 12:45pm ferry.

A somewhat torturous, several hour climb became a fun 45 minute descent.

More downhill riding on the way back to Port Angeles.

A bit of a Mt. Baker view from just above the Heart o' the Hills park toll booth. $5 per person for entry.

Lots of big trees = shade, which was welcome by this point of the ride. Still not quite back in Port Angeles yet.

With our hopes for the 12:45pm ferry dashed, it was off to the Sunday market on the Port Angeles waterfront. I guess it may not have actually been a regular Sunday thing, and maybe we lucked out, but it gave us something to do for four hours while we waited for the next ferry. Beware of the octopus guarding the port-a-crappers!

Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #1: Terminator

Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #2: IRobot

Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #3: Uhhh, Aliens and Futurama?

Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #4: any ideas?

Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #5: Star Wars

Hollywood sci-fi sand sculpture #6: that's an awesome Jabba the Hut

Port Angeles Harbour near the Coho terminal.

It pains me to mention cheesy vampire movies/shows, but didn't one of the characters in either Twilight or Vampire Diaries drive one of these?

MOMAR! It's capitalized, that means I'm yelling on the interwebs. Just kidding, I'm not yelling. Kari and Michelle do like their MOMAR jerseys though.

14 hours later and we're finally back in Victoria. The Port Angeles market was good, but next time I'll be aiming for the earlier ferry.

Road Bike Ride – Seattle to Portland – Part 2

Kris — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 06:31:49 +0000

It’s been a little slow coming, but as promised here is part 2 of my Seattle to Portland bike ride report. Again, the ride was about 327km long and took Vince and I about 14h16m to do (11h05m of pedaling time). If you missed part 1 check out the link below to see the ride map and statistics.

Read part 1 of my Seattle to Portland bike ride report.

The Seattle to Portland (STP) group ride is an organized event that has apparently been running for 31 years now. I can’t comment on the number riders this year, but apparently there are typically about 10,000 riders, 15-20% of whom do the ride in one day. Since it’s not a race there is no formal timing system and the overall atmosphere is pretty relaxed. Another indicator that STP is something other than than a race is the fact that there are all sorts of human powered vehicles; there are road bikes, hybrid bikes, mountain bikes, unicycles, tandems, velomobiles, recumbents, longboard skateboards, and even super weird stuff like Elliptigos. Finally, it’s pretty cool that all sorts of people attempt and complete STP, the vast majority of whom do not look like racers, or even serious riders. Overall for me, STP was a great way to spend a day, but I suspect I may not feel the need to do this distance again. Never say never though.

Yep, it's still pretty dark at 5am. The camera makes things look a bit darker than it actually was, but not far off. This is just after the start near the University of Washington in Seattle.

As the day got brighter, and we got further south in Seattle, the crowds started thinning slightly, but there were still lots of riders in front and behind. I think this might have been somewhere near Renton. It was too dark to take photos earlier in the day, while we were riding along Lake Washington - it was rather nice though.

The second rest stop in Kent was a busy place and ended up being the source of my breakfast since I didn't pack a cinnamon bun like Vince. Fruit and energy bars were ok, but peanut butter tortilla rollups were not quite as good. Cool stop though with a bit of a party atmosphere.

I don't think Vince had much time make himself up this morning so he may not appreciate this somewhat candid photo. Looking hot in bike gear with a wack of crap in your pockets is generally pretty difficult anyway.

Being from Canada we don't see to may signs like this public park sign in Puyallup. Actually, there are signs like this in Canada, but they typically don't include point number 2.

'The Hill' just after Puyallup. Yeah, it's a hill, but to be honest it wasn't that bad, not really any worse than some later on in the ride.

Just what everyone needs to see - people lined up for the port-a-crappers. The rest stop in Spanaway was really good food-wise, there was even a pizza truck. A good portion of our three hour non-moving time during the ride was due to waits like this; not complaining though. The first 5 hours of the ride were under overcast skies and cool temperatures. There was literal teeth-chattering when we left this rest stop.

Vince was powered by chocolate according to his shorts. Actually, I'm pretty sure Vince didn't eat any chocolate during the ride, although there may be a photo of him somewhere on the interwebs with some chocolate flavoured power gel on his face. This stretch was fast and relatively fun on the way to Roy.

I think I may have an aversion to honey from this point forward. This rest stop was in Yelm if I recall correctly.

We spent a good chunk of time on the Yelm-Tenino trail, a former railbed. I was expecting something more barren and industrial, but the whole length was really nice, it even had some lake views.

Getting close to halfway through ride. This is the Tenino rest stop. Some dude was yelling out the rest stop offerings to arriving riders; pretty sure he was heading towards a few days of laryngitis.

Nice roads on the way towards Centralia, and for that matter most of the way. Definitely not the I-5.

Finally, the midway point in Centralia. This approach to parking one's bike seems reasonable, but more often than not seemed to end up with bikes falling over.

Sunscreen touchup and Darigold Cow consultation in Centralia. I was happy to avoid the cow's solicitations.

In my opinion this is the safe way to park your bike (as opposed to the option shown previously). Derailleur up! I suppose someone could still step on, or fall onto, your bike causing issues, but generally I figure this is better.

Sweet, about halfway done... oh god, still need to ride another 160km.

Vince trying to intimidate other riders with his triceps in the food line at the Centralia rest stop.

Some of the rest stops like the one in Centralia had massage therapy available. We didn't take advantage, fearing more unwanted pain.

A couple velomobiles at the Centralia rest stop.

Gourmet? No, but after chowing down on energy bars etc. for a while, something even as minimalistic as this sandwich tastes ok.

Finally, albeit somewhat hesitantly we got back on the bikes and headed out of Centralia into the farm land to the south.

After a 160km under grey skies things had not improved much. Aside from the 5-10 minutes of warmup required after every rest stop, the temperature was tolerable. Thankfully, during the cold spells I had a giant sticker covering some vents on the front of my helmet.

More scenic or boring (depending on your perspective) agricultural scenery. I liked it.

Finally, some sun... and a rad rooster in Winlock.

I'm not really sure this is the world's biggest egg, but maybe I'm wrong. I seem to recall a pysanka (easter egg) somewhere in Alberta that's bigger than this one in Winlock.

It felt rather good to leave the Winlock rest stop without shivering. The rest of the ride was under sunny skies.

Best food on route... Vader Taters (baked potato) and banana bread. Ordinarily, these might not be standouts, but by this point of the ride both were welcome changes to the stuff we had been consuming previously. $10 donation, check.

Another shot from the Vader rest stop.

Corner store in Vader, Washington. Thanks for the taters, Vader.

From Vader onwards we had some cool winding roads through mostly treed countryside. Again, different strokes for different folks, but I really like this sort of stuff.

Cool, some sort of rocket/missile thing outside the Castle Rock High School, one of the last stops in Washington.

Castle Rock moo cows. By this point I'm pretty sure both Vince and I were finally fairly sure that we were going to make it to Portland.

Last stop in Washington at Lexington. About 235km done, roughly 90km to go. Some pretty decent peanut butter and banana sandwiches here. Salty tortilla chips were probably even better though.

Heading towards Kelso and Oregon along the Cowlitz River.

Oregon at last. Well, not quite. Need to get over the Lewis and Clark Bridge first.

Looking west along the Columbia River from the Lewis and Clark Bridge.

First town in Oregon was Rainier. We were definitely feeling good about finishing at this point although we were also starting to feel the effects of a long day in the saddle.

There was lots of this sort of thing on the side of the road today. The first occurrence was within 1km of the start and there were people fixing things within 5km of the finish. No problems for us thankfully.

The St. Helens rest stop was the last major stop for us and was about 45km from the finish line. There were notable signs of fatigue amongst the rest stop visitors, but everybody seemed content and ready to finish it up.

Hard not to smile when the end is near. The road from St. Helens into Portland was not the most inspiring (wide and sort of busy), but on the plus side it was mostly downhill and we had a tailwind.

Portland... we're almost done except for a few more kms of stoplights and city traffic.

Oh so close. The Steel Bridge over the Willamette River in Portland.

Vince and myself moments after finishing the longest ride either of us may ever do. I would not have guaranteed at the beginning of the day that I'd be walking at this point, but both of us felt pretty good, relatively speaking.

Road Bike Ride – Seattle to Portland – Part 1

Kris — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 06:25:08 +0000

My Seattle to Portland bike ride was successful, but holy crap I’m tired. As a result this will be a two part blog post. Sometime tomorrow I’ll post some commentary and pictures. For now a brief summary, map, and then I’m going to get unconscious and stay that way for some time.

Vince and I set out from the the University of Washington in Seattle at about 5am this morning and finished up in downtown Portland around 14 hours later. If you factor out the numerous stops for food and water along the way we were pedaling for about 11 hours. That’s a damn long time to be riding a bike, but I must admit that I am pretty psyched about the fact that we managed to ride 327km today.

GPS Data: 326.6km – 14h16m elapsed time – 11h05m riding time – 29.5km/h (moving average) – GPS route

A one-day 327km bike ride from Seattle to Portland. Click on the map to see GPS details on the Garmin website.

Road Bike Ride – Fort Langley / Chilliwack – Canada Day Populaire 143

Kris — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 06:00:56 +0000

It’s almost time for commencement of the ridiculous – 320km in one day from Seattle to Portland. As July 17 approaches it’s becoming fairly obvious that there is not a whole lot more time for any meaningful training/preparation. Today Vince and I did what might be the last big ride before Seattle to Portland. The ride in question was a Canada Day randonneur event covering 143km, corresponding to the age of the country, between Fort Langley and Chilliwack.

Randonneur cycling according to the BC Randonneurs website is sometimes called “marathon cycling”, but isn’t a race. We arrived to the start area in downtown Fort Langley fashionably late, but still within the start window of 8-9am, and managed to get ourselves registered fairly quickly and painlessly. With the preliminaries out of the way we started off at a pretty casual pace under light rain. Since the start was spread over an hour long window there wasn’t any sketchiness for us involving other riders starting around the same time. The first 40km were great as we cruised along rolling, curvy, rural roads; the remainder of the ride was good also, but had some particularly long, not so interesting straight sections of road.

In the end, it took us just over five hours, including stops, to cover the 143km. I think we managed a pretty good pace and while I can’t speak for Vince, I felt reasonably good throughout the ride except for the last 20-30km (a hint of leg cramping and some general fatigue). I forgot my camera in Victoria, so no photos, but there might be something available on the Canada Day 143 Populaire web page eventually.

GPS Data: 143.6km – 5h09m (4h45m moving time) – 27.8km/h (30.2km/h moving speed) – GPS route

A 143km road bike ride between Fort Langley and Chilliwack. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

Road Bike Ride – Saanich Peninsula – Victoria, BC

Kris — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 06:38:58 +0000

With my new raisin toast hero status (bestowed upon me by Michelle – I have no idea what it means), I’ve been seeking out stupendous, no miraculous, no super-amazing things to do. Clearly, I had no choice but to ride my bike 90km on this Tuesday night, in keeping with the super-amazing theme. Not only did I do this super-amazing ride, but… I did it fast… just like when you eat too much raisin toast and have to run to a certain flushable device common to most households.

Ok, fast is relative, but my 32km/h average speed over the 90km was pretty fast for me. After the usual 10-15 minute apathy filled start to the ride, things started feeling good and stayed that way for the remainder. This evening was one of those calm, quiet, nice smelling evenings (except for the occasional scent of road kill) and reminded me that calm, quiet, nice smelling evenings are damn fine for doing bike rides. Definitely a somewhat super-amazing outing for me.

GPS Data: 91.7km – 2h52m – 32.0km/h – GPS route

A 90km road bike ride around the Saanich Peninsula near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see GPS details on the Garmin website.

Father’s Day Hike and Bike

Kris — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 06:22:57 +0000

Happy belated Father’s Day! Belated as in, most of the day is done as I’m writing this. I suppose I could regurgitate some Father’s Day Wikipedia information, but I’ll keep it real and blab about my Father’s Day activities with Michelle. Due to some geographical challenges, Michelle and I only had access to one father today… Tim, who joined us for a hike at Mt. Finlayson this morning. This afternoon a road bike ride and some virtual father interaction with Jim, not Tim, by way of the telecommunications (phone).

The Mt. Finlayson hike got off to a bit of a slow start thanks to my failure to turn off the headlights in the car last night. Minor additional delay came as a result of an impromptu fashion show involving father Tim… new shorts, new shirts, new man – ok, maybe not, but somewhat entertaining none-the-less. The route up and down Mt. Finlayson was pretty much the same as it always is except for our choice to take the older, steeper way up just below the tree line. Not sunny unfortunately, but it was good despite the clouds and lack of entertaining / frightening examples of ill-prepared human beings that we sometimes see along the way.

Our afternoon bike ride was delightful spinneroo through Central Saanich under somewhat clearer skies. Michelle, Heather, and I ended up doing about 60km, the first half and a bit at the end was nicely assisted with a tail wind and the remainder involved some minor headwind battling.

Hike GPS Data: 4.13km – 1h57m – GPS route

Road Bike Ride GPS Data: 59.3km – 2h33m – GPS route

A 4km hike up and down Mt. Finlayson near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

60km road bike ride through Central Saanich near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

The top of Mt. Finlayson on Father's Day. No rain, except for the sweat drops falling off the brim of my hat - yeah, I'm a sweaty bastard sometimes. That's Victoria off in the distance on the left.

Of course a Father's Day post wouldn't be complete without a touching pic of Michelle and Tim, her vader (no, not Darth Vader - father in Flemmish and some other languages).

Some other ants, errr people, enjoying the view from the top of Mt. Finlayson.

Saw this little elderly dude / dudette begrudgingly following its master up to the top of Mt. Finlayson.

Heather and Michelle traversing some Central Saanich farmland on the road bikes.

End of the road bike ride and heading back into Victoria on the Selkirk Trestle (part of the Galloping Goose). Looking along the Gorge Waterway towards downtown.

Road Bike Ride – Central Saanich – Victoria, BC

Kris — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 04:59:34 +0000

It’s Sunday, the end of the weekend has arrived. I got in some decent mileage this week on the bike (about 280km), saw some interesting sights, and managed do some other stuff too. Since this is a road bike ride post I suppose it would make sense to mention that I did a Victoria – Central Saanich loop of about 60km today. It was pretty relaxed in terms of pace given my lengthy-for-me ride yesterday, but as most rides go it was good.

GPS Data: 64km – 2h17m – 28.0km/h – GPS route

A 64km road bike ride through Central Saanich near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

This stretch of Martindale Road is kind of a standard feature of most Saanich Peninsula road rides. Lately I think it's been contributing to my allergy symptoms

Seems like about half of the rides I've been on lately have included a deer sighting. Finally, I managed to get a picture of one. Maybe sometime I'll get a shot of something more exotic like a sasquatch.

Post-ride trip to Clover Point to watch some wind waves and other looky-loos.

Road Bike Ride – Victoria – Salt Spring Island Loop – Half of 300

Kris — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 06:10:24 +0000

Half of 300 is… 150. Today I rode a 150km loop that included part of Salt Spring Island. My usual response to questions like ‘how was it’ often tends towards the ‘it was alright’ or ‘it was adequate’; I feel fairly justified in saying that my ride today was great / awesome / dope. For starters the weather could not have been much better, plus my timing meant that on the way out and the way back I was getting some nice tree shade along the side of the road. Secondly, the secondary roads on the south island, where I spent most of my time, are frickin amazing. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I didn’t blow an hour into the ride like last week. In fact, four to five hours after the start I was fairly comfortably cruising along between 30 and 35km/h with only a wee bit of leg cramping at the very end.

I suppose this was kind of a cheater 150km since I got to take some big breaks while riding the ferries on and off of Salt Spring, but I’ll take it. I wasn’t the only one enjoying the day; it was a bit of a gong show in downtown Victoria at the end of the ride (tourists, naked bike ride, coppers busting beach drinkers, etc.)

GPS Data: 151.3km – 5h03m – 29.9km/h – GPS route

151km road bike ride on the southern part of Vancouver Island - Salt Spring Loop. Click on the map to see GPS details on the Garmin website.

Heading out of town on the Galloping Goose with like minded folk. Judgemental perhaps, but I suspected by their gear etc. that they were not planning on doing 150km, otherwise maybe we could have ridden together.

View of Portage Inlet near Victoria from the Galloping Goose Trail. I made an effort at the start of this ride to avoid the highway as much as possible and was reasonably successful.

Sort of a re-run of a photo from last Saturday's ride, but it's still good.

Cowichan Bay. I know attracting the tourists is important, but are so many goo-gaws really necessary?

More Cowichan Bay with a view of Mt. Tzouhalem. Really nice construction fence to boot.

Ahhh, more dandy scenery while on the way to Duncan from Cowichan Bay.

A wee church near Providence Farm in Duncan, and a nice chainlink fence to boot.

My Italians (shoes) deserve special mention for getting me through five hours of riding with nary a hint of discomfort.

The Crofton ferry terminal. I caught the 12:10pm ferry, which gave me enough time to get to Fulford Harbour for the 1:50pm ferry back to Victoria.

Old school house near the ferry terminal in Crofton.

The Howe Sound Queen arriving in Crofton to shuttle me to the next leg of the ride on Salt Spring.

Getting close to Ganges on Salt Spring. For the moment I get the downhill and this guy gets the uphill, but that will soon change on the the way to Fulford from Ganges.

Ganges Harbour on a great Saturday in June.

Yummm, dandy roads for bike riding and practising peeling (note peel marks on road).

Looking south towards Hope Hill / Mt. Tuam on Salt Spring. Pretty much all downhill to Fulford Harbour from here.

The Skeena Queen arriving at Fulford Harbour.

Gilligan heading out in search of Ginger or is it Mary-Ann.

Close to Swartz Bay and the final leg back to Victoria.

Mt. Baker... it's nice to look at.

Back in Victoria amongst the downtown, weekend mayhem. By the way, sweet Trans-Am dude.

Ahhh, my eyes. Thank god this is photo is blurry. Apparently about a hundred people saw fit to participate in a naked bike ride; I haven't decided yet if this was a good or bad thing to see at the end of my 150km ride.

In case your eyes still hurt from the previous pic, maybe this will help make them feel better.

Road Bike Ride – Cowichan Bay From Victoria – Fizzle, Sputter, Fizzle

Kris — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 01:34:11 +0000

It’s hard to type sound effects… on today’s round-trip ride from Victoria to the vicinity of Cowichan Bay I observed a notable fizzling out of my pedaling powers… insert ‘air escaping from balloon’ noise here. Unfortunately, the fizzling came around the halfway mark of the ride leaving me to struggle somewhat for the last 50km or so of the 115km total. I made it through, and aside from the suffering, it was a beeeeautiiiiiful ride on some roads that I have never been on (Mill Bay Road north of Bamberton and Telegraph Road north of Mill Bay).

Getting up-island from Victoria on a bike typically involves an 11km climb on the Malahat (Highway 1). This was the route I took today despite it’s somewhat intimidating features (traffic and almost all uphill). An alternative route involves going up the Saanich Peninsula to Brentwood Bay and taking the ferry to Mill Bay / Bamberton. I guess part of my fizzling out today had something to do with the Malahat, but there were probably a variety of reasons.

GPS Data: 115.5km – 4h10m – 27.7km/h – GPS route

A 115km round-trip road bike ride from Victoria, BC to Cowichan Bay. Click on the map to see detailed information on the Garmin website.

Heading out of town near box-store-central (Langford)... no food, rest, camping, dumping, or big box store action for me for at least another four hours.

Looking over the edge towards Finlayson Arm while on the way up the Malahat. T-minus 30 minutes until fizzling out of the Kris.

Looking east or maybe east-north-east from near the top of the Malahat - 11km climb, which did me in today.

Heading down the hill towards Bamberton after descending from the Malahat. T-minus 10 minutes until Kris engine blows head gasket.

Down by water south of Mill Bay on Mill Bay Road. This stretch of road was new to me and rather nice. Oh god, that's it the Kris engine has blown up.

Nice riding along the water on Mill Bay Road, although the realization of 50-60km remaining with no pep left was starting to set in at this point.

Looking back towards the Malahat from the just north of Mill Bay near the south end of Telegraph Road - another new road for me.

One or two hot-sweaty-messes - that is me heading north on Telegraph Road.

Near the halfway point with a nice view to the north from Cobble Hill Road.

Gradual climbing back to the top of the Malahat on Shawnigan Lake Road. By this point I was thinking that perhaps I should have checked the train schedule in Cobble Hill.

Not the greatest, but a view none-the-less of part of Shawnigan Lake.

Ahhh, almost home. Heading down the Malahat near Goldstream. When you're done, even a big downhill doesn't really feel that good.

The final stretch along the Galloping Goose near Portage Inlet. T-minus 10 minutes to Chocolate Vivanno Smoothie with extra shot of protein.

Hike – Mt. Finlayson – Victoria, BC – and Some Bike Race Spectating

Kris — Mon, 31 May 2010 03:45:47 +0000

Another weekend has come and gone… I guess that’s what they do. Shockingly, I did not ride a bike this weekend, yet I don’t feel particularly guilty about it. I did do some work today, at a cost of 40 in-my-mind lashings. A hike at Mt. Finlayson also materialized. According to my blog archives the last outing to Mt. Finlayson was last year around salmon-run time. Not much evidence of fish today, although it was nice and green in the forest, which is partly the result of said fish. The afternoon involved a short stint of bike race watching (Bastion Square Criterium – part of the Victoria Cycling Classic), coffee, and a tad more work.

GPS Data: 4.3km – 1h58m – GPS route

A 4.3km hike to and from the top of Mt. Finlayson near Victoria, BC. Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.

Uphill is what Mt. Finlayson is; it's steep too. Lots of stuff to look at though if you like greenery and other nature things.

Not sure how many people read the warning signs on the way up Mt. Finlayson, but some really should. Remember the matching/association exercises we did when we were kids? The kind where pictures of loafers, heels, little kiddies, house cats, etc. do not associate with pictures of mountains. I'm just saying, and I guess the sign is saying it too; use your head. Humourous addendum to point #2 regarding finishing before dark: 'lest there be vampires in the area.'

More uphill at Mt. Finlayson, but with a serving of roots.

Shauna and Michelle getting close to the treeless alpine (just kidding, there's no alpine just some non-treed steepness).

Looks like Scottish Broom might be the official plant of Bear Mountain.

Michelle failing to pull off the Sears catalog pose on the steepest part of Mt. Finlayson.

That's me ascending the mountain (mini-mountain perhaps). I felt really out-of-sorts since I forgot my loafers. I also missed not having Mr. Cuddles (my cat) with me... ahhh, this is not the truth, I don't have any loafers and most definitely don't have a cat named Mr. Cuddles.

Wall flowers near the top of Mt. Finlayson.

Impressive mountain climbing skills were on display during our ascent of Mt. Finlayson today. Ok, perhaps I'm exaggerating.

Unfortunately, I forgot the neccessary implements for scratching my name into this plate at the top of Mt. Finlayson.

The view to the south from the top of Mt. Finlayson.

The summit party starts its descent from the top of Mt. Finlayson.

Orange route markers mark the suggested way up and down Mt. Finlayson. Bear Mountain development in the background.

Not really evident in this photo, but there quite a few people at Mt. Finlayson today. Thankfully, we only saw one person in loafers who looked like they had gone beyond their comfort zone.

More roots on the way down from the top of Mt. Finlayson.

Molto greenness on the lower reaches of Mt. Finlayson. I was somewhat disappointed at the lack of slugs today, but there will be other opportunities.

Apparently, there are no wizards allowed on Mt. Finlayson.

Road bike racing action at the Bastion Square Criterium. The weather held out this year so the racing was pretty much full sauce instead of the wet road tip-toeing action of last year.

The bunch heading up the slight, but probably annoying, hill from Wharf Street to Government Street on Broughton. This was about 10 laps to go in the Bastion Square Criterium.

Some expensive Wilier Imperiale road bikes hanging around in the Total Restoration team pit area.

The Total Restoration team vehicle at the Bastion Square Criterium. I think they're based out of Kelowna still.

Getting close to the end of the Bastion Square Criterium in favourable weather conditions. I think the guy in fifth position here ended up winning.

A tasty dinner courtesy of Michelle. Noodoos (rice noodles), spinach, cilantro cream pesto, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, and pine nuts. I have been advised to advertise that this was a 'delicious gluten free dinner' by the cook. I didn't notice the missing glutens:)