The Road to the Crik

If you leave from the coast and head East on highway 299, about a 45 minute drive is a small town called Willow Creek (the boys from here pronounce it Willow Crik). To get there on 299 you end up going up and over 2 summits: Lord Ellis then Berry Summit. Usually, in the summer, as soon as you pass Lord Ellis you descend into beautiful sunshine, as the mountains have blocked the coastal fog. Willow Creek is on the banks of the Trinity River and is a favourite in the summer for river floating and rafting. It was the destination for my road ride of the week...

The morning was foggy. In Humboldt the fog is different, like a million tiny little raindrops that cloud your vision, thicken your sweat, and settle into your clothing, your skin, your muscles, and then your bones. Last night I had a dream that my legs had been replaced with logs. The logs were stiff and didn't bend. The ride starts with a climb--up and up a winding road with no end in sight, but hope that around every corner will be the summit. I had to check my legs to make sure the dream hadn't come true...and then check again. At the top of the first summit there is no view point...no feeling of being on top of the world...a quick picture and then I start the first descent, it is cold, fast, and narrow, but it feels so good to let my legs spin. The descent is long, but not long enough, the second summit is more of the same, but the top should have a "top of the world viewpoint." At the bottom the clouds and fog are above me, it is drier here, but as I climb I move through the cloud cover, the clouds cling and my clothing sags with the weight of it. The top of the climb is socked in with fog: fuzzy, cold, and blinding. I start the descent into Willow Creek, glad I am on the last leg. Once the descent is over I head through town and continue on a rolling winding road. The road surfaces are so nice here, fast and smooth. All along the side of the road are waterfalls and brilliant, dense greenery. The entire way the road winds over and beside rivers and canyons. The drivers were much better than I expected, most giving me a wide breadth and slowing as they passed.

I make it safely and comfortably to my dad's cabin in just under 3 hours, a beautiful ride (although a little wet and sloppy) and a solid workout! (For those in Victoria, it would be like 3 Malahats linked together!). I am now looking forward to a road ride today and some killer mountain bike rides at Paradise Royale and in Roseburg, Oregon this weekend with Drew (assuming he makes it through dinners with the parents!).

Home in Humboldt

There is no race report to write, no wondrous riding tales...quite yet. Friday I headed down towards California, it took a couple days and an hour of wrong turns in Eugene, OR before finally getting home. The 48 hours since arriving have been a blur of family, eating, and family--with a trip to the tidepools thrown in for good measure. My new Orbea Opal has sat almost untouched except for the quick spin I headed out on Saturday when I first got here. (More about the bike later....but it is beautiful, and so nice!)Now, it is just before 6am, the other out of town family members (below is a photo of 6 of the 7 sisters!) are starting to trickle away, and I am slowly able to decipher the river, dunes and ocean outside my mom's house as the sun comes up on the other side of the house.

Today I'll get out on the bike for a 45 mile climb up and into Willow Creek, then a 10 minute flat ground spin to my dad's summer cabin. I've been looking forward to this ride, I've driven this road so many times growing up and can't wait to see it from a bike, the view is always so different.It is beautiful here. No matter where I go, I've never seen anywhere quite like Humboldt. The forests are unkempt, the beaches stretch on for miles without clouds of tourists. Yesterday, riding around with my dad I realized that things grow here: parked tractors and trailers quickly become trellis for climbing vines, tall grass rushes to cover the immodesty of such a large industrial machine; above-ground waterlines become hard to follow through the thick low lying grass, guarded by sharp thistles.

There is no way to actually end this post. It is impossible to capture everything that this place has to offer with words. I could ramble with descriptions of everything I see. So I'll leave it here, with the photo from the window where I sit.

Snow to Surf Report

Sometimes the lead-up to a race or event is more exciting than the actual event (everyone has a New Year's Eve story that goes something like that....). After my post last week I was worried that I would jinx the weekend, build it up to be so much more....

I didn't. I had actually forgotten how much fun it is to look forward to the next day's event with a team of 8 other girls. Drew and I drove up in the afternoon on Saturday, pre rode the trail section of the race course, then headed to the Conard's house for dinner with the teams. First off, the mountain bike section of the course is 6.5km of road followed by 2km of double track next to a pipeline--a brutally painful false flat, followed by 7.5km of pure heavenly singletrack. Fast, swoopy, rolling, with roots and logs....with a little momentum you feel like you are floating up, over, and across the terrain. In the pre-ride I plastered a huge grin on my face and gave'r.

The Conard's house is this wonderful quirky cottage in the woods. It is open and breezy and homey. I've been there twice now, but it is a welcoming home as soon as you walk in the door. Barb and Willy Conard are amazing people and are not hesitant to make all 18 of us as comfortable as possible. For dinner, Toscano's supplied an amazing pasta dinner. The night before was filled with catching up (some of the team Drew and I only see once a year) and planning. Getting everyone to and from their respective legs with their necessary equipment is a bit of a challenge and team leaders Josh Henderson and Danielle Conard usually get the task of figuring out the logistics.

The next morning came bright and early with a huge continental team breakfast and last-minute preparations. The race started at 9:40 with the downhill skiier and continued on through the xc skiier, and two downhill runners before it got to the mountainbike leg. Drew got called up 3rd (meaning his team was in 3rd place overall) and I got called up several minutes later. Natasha had killed it during her run and I was the first girl to get called up--including mixed teams. I headed out with a couple guys just barely in sight with the goal to catch them by the end. Stayed nice and steady on the road...suffered through the pipeline...and then was homefree with the same grin as the night before as I headed into the singletrack. I caught both of the guys halfway through the singletrack and moved our team up 2 overall spots and maintained our 1st place in the open women's. Our kayaker, Andrea, shoved off and had a strong paddle across the lake despite the choppy water and winds to hand off to Tanya Berg. Tanya had an awesome ride and handed off to our canoers. By this time the wind was even stronger and the ocean was rough and choppy. Danielle and Mel are beautiful to watch in a boat, but their racing canoe was not happy about the waves coming over the top. The girls toughed out several swims and shore-dumps, turning down the coast guard boats offer of rescue to finish the race, securing a 2nd place.

From there, of course, we all headed to the beer gardens (see above and below footage) to wait for the rest of the teams and awards. Post-awards Barb and Willy invited us back to their place to watch the hockey game where we also re-lived the days adventure over beer and chips.

Drew and I got to watch the sky brighten up this morning through (speaking for myself) hazy eyes on our way home to Victoria. What a great month--last weekend's long weekend, Snow to surf, and next week's trip to California for more great riding and family!

Its pretty rough up here.....

Oh the Excitement!

Last weekend we had a great weekend of riding and relaxing....with even a chance to play minigolf!  (Refer to above photo)...It feels like a great way to lead into this weekend's race (Refer below) and next weekend's vacation (stay tuned for more details!).

As a cyclist, with the exception of road and high level athletes, it is rare that you get to attend team events.  After year's of playing basketball with other girls, I really enjoyed the rarity, at first.  Flashback to last April of last year and that all changed....

Snow to Surf is a multi-sport race that occurs in the Courtney/Comox area of Vancouver Island and features a trek from Mt Washington Alpine Resort to the beaches of Comox.  Each team has 9 members and each member has a separate task (with the exceptions of the canoers who paddle in pairs).  A downhill skiier starts the race off with a sprint in snowboots to their skis before heading down the hill, they pass of to a cross-country skiier, who passes off to a downhill runner who passes off to another downhill runner, to a mountain biker (that's me!), to a kayaker, to a road cyclist, to the pair of paddlers.

Last year was my first year racing and all winter I've been looking forward to this year (and hoping for the invite!) to defend our team's first place.  Beyond the race being fun, our women's team is lucky enough to have an awesome sponsor in PINK TRUCK ONSITE (the boy's team is sponsored by ISLAND TANKS).  Barb and Willy Conard (of the respective companies) clear out their house and feed 18 athletes for the weekend...along with the infinitely complicated task of keeping the rides and race day organized.  Both of our teams got a great little write up in the Comox Valley Record.  (Barb and Willy also entrusted us with our danderiffic, but tiger of 

a housecat Eric...We love Eric, but don't plan on bringing any other animals home with us this year!)

My leg of the race is relatively short--a 30-45min time trial that starts out on road, but then goes into some great twisty, swoopy, and fun singletrack!  The best part though, is the pre-race dinner and the post-race pints in the beer garden with the rest of the team!

When you forget how much it can hurt...

It has been exactly a week since Drew and I were driving back from Cumberland and I started thinking about whether or not to write a race report.  I'm opting to, now that I've had a week to think about it, because we just had a wet, sloppy, muddy ride up at Mount Tzouhalem in Duncan and I remembered how much fun it can be to just ride.

Going from a non-athlete to training is sometimes a challenge.  The old-self sometimes wants to bubble up, go out to a huge dinner and sit on a couch for the day, week, month.  Sometimes 2-day old legs in a rest week feel so stale that I feel like I could just let them turn into croutons.

Last week I rested all week, doing a bit of riding here or there, leading up to the Cumberland Island Cup XC.  This course is my favourite nemisis.  Every year it kicks my ass, but every year I finish it feeling exhausted, sore, but accomplished.  This year at the start line I was looking forward to that feeling.  I felt not-great, but relatively speedy throughout the first lap until I dropped my chain on the fire road descent, stopped, tensed up, and continued on.  Heading up the fire road climb into the first section of singletrack on the second lap the steady whisper of an ache in my lower back intensified into a vibrating bass, and by the entrance to Short and Curly had become deafening, distracting, and was sucking any power to get up the tight, technical, rooty trails that make Cumberland such a painstakingly amazing area to ride.  By then I was done, pulled the plug and headed out to watch the end of the race.  No beautiful sense of sore accomplishment--only soreness as we headed home.

Last year I quit one race, the Port Alberni Island Cup.  After that race Drew told me to never quit a race.  To push through.  I thought about that a lot.  I now hate quitting a race, hate the hollow feeling where relief, excitement, and accomplishment should fill at the end of a race day.

All week I've been fighting sore and tired legs and back--but with some great rides out to east Sooke, around the waterfront, and finally, today, up to Mt. Tzouhalem.  Riding with good people and friends I remembered how much I love to ride, to challenge myself, and how much I can't wait to get back on the bike at the next race.  Tomorrow is a day of intervals....but how sweet the suffering will be!