Back in January, a friend caught wind of this bike event happening in the new Southlands development in Tsawwassen and signed up for it. I jumped on the bandwagon and signed up as well – it was free to participate but limited to those who had registered – and it filled up in five days!
Fast-forward to this past Saturday and the event was here, and the weather was sunny but not too hot – perfect for a big ride. I headed off at 9:20am for my 1:30pm start time, which gave me about an hour of dilly dally time along the way.
The Hillborne’s recent rebuild into a more sporty and lightweight version was perfect, since it was going to be well over 100km round trip and include a fair bit of gravel. The ride involved following the bike route along the SkyTrain into New West, then a couple bridges to get into Delta, the latter of which (Alex Fraser) is a doozy.
But once in Delta I was able to almost immediately hop into the woods and ride a series of forest paths that run along the bog that separates South Surrey and Delta. I heard a variety of songbirds through here and tried to use my new camera to get some good photos, but no luck – and I had to keep moving, because there was still a ways to go.
After the north-south forest paths, it’s a long ride along the beautiful Boundary Bay dyke to get to Tsawwassen. I think it’s around 15km, but feels longer due to the monotony. I also had a headwind, but it’s hard to be mad when the path is lined with flowers.
The ride itself was about 15km, which we extended by about 3km to ride to the other, original Four Winds location at the far side of Delta, before turning around and heading back south to the Beach House location. By the time we finished the charity ride I was over 90km into my day and was at the furthest point from home!
The event itself was a great success it looks like – well organized, especially considering it was the inaugural year. Bands were playing, with local legends 54-40 headlining later in the evening. We left about two hours before they were going on, though.
I didn’t take a lot of photos on my 50 km ride home, but here’s one mid-span of the aforementioned Alex Fraser, complete with sunscreen filter on the lens. The ride finished up around 145km in length, my longest ride in a couple years I think, but I felt fresh and energetic right through the end, to my surprise!
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