October started off with a bike commute, and I beat the odds on weather both to and from work. On the way home I swung by Trout Lake and was treated to a very dramatic sky – one of the reasons I’ll take a cloudy day over a sunny day is the visual interest of the clouds, and these were especially good.
On the 4th, I co-hosted a Coffee Outside ride – my job was designing the route. I took folks on a noodley traverse of Burnaby to Hume Park, then up a ravine in New Westminster before descending back into Burnaby and finally back to Vancouver. It was about 35 km in total; not huge but a good effort. My gut was feeling quite off and it kept me from sleeping very well too, so it was touch and go whether I’d make it and it had me nervous the whole time – but ended up being OK.
A couple photos of the Hillborne from some shorter rides over the first week of October. Since the spring it’s been set up as my everyday commuter kind of rig, and it works really well for me in this configuration. I regularly think about returning it to the drop bar, randonneur type of build, but the Bombadil works quite well with the drops too.
Some dog photos, since they’re realistically a bigger part of my life than bikes. The grassy photo is at Templeton secondary school, where we pass through most days on a walking loop before ending at the off-leash park at Pandora, right two photos.
On the 7th I went for a LSCR loop after work which I wrote up a post for here. Below was the “ooohh!” moment when I rounded a corner after anticipating some good big leaf maple drama at some point.
Below: a photo of the Hillborne amongst the crows on an after-work ride to Dageraad, and the girls being cute – probably waiting for dinner. The Hillborne photo was from this rainy beer trip.
The 11th of October is my birthday, and as it was also Saturday of the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, I hosted the fourth annual Classic Jason Birthday Ride. It was very rainy for the first half, but ended with better weather and overall a good time.
Two days later the family was off to Ucluelet to stay in an ocean front cabin we’d booked for the week – our first proper vacation in about two years. Neither of us had been to Tofino or Ukee before (nor the dogs, obviously) but it had been on both our wishlists for many years – and it didn’t disappoint! It was a pretty long travel day, leaving home around 8:00am and arriving at our cabin at 6:00pm. The dogs did great in the car, and we also got to visit my dad with a 30 min detour along the way (which is partly why the long day).
Here’s some more photos of inside the cabin – it was a perfect mix of rustic and practical for us, and the ocean view was better than what the VRBO listing had us expecting. It wasn’t as bougie as some more modern cabins nearby, but this suited me perfectly.
Over the three full days we had in town, we packed in the exploration as best we could: we visited all the major beaches from Ucluelet to Tofino, we checked out both towns, we hiked the old growth and coastal trails along the route, and I was also able to get a short bike ride in along about 10 of the 70km of paved pathway that connects the two towns.
Below are some photos of the rocky Ucluelet coastline, quite different than what’s found just a bit north towards Tofino.
The next two days we visited some expansive beaches, and weren’t sure what Sunny’s reaction would be, but she loved it! She got the zoomies almost every time we reached the sand, and had a blast running around and checking out the sea stuff. Leia also really enjoyed the beaches but we knew she would.
The one ride I did get out for was pretty short for a couple reasons – Aimee and the dogs were back at the cabin and we didn’t want to waste any time while over here, and also, there were warnings about wolves in the area at regular intervals along the route which had me a bit unnerved. The path was really beautiful though, and a special highlight for me was the pine forests that looked like unlike anything I’ve seen in BC before; I felt like we were in Hawaii or something!
On the way home we stopped at Cathedral Grove, a well known old growth forest near Port Alberni. The presence these massive trees have in an intact forest like this is hard to describe, but it is very moving for me. It destroys me that very little old growth is left in BC, and that what does remain continues to get logged even if protections are in place. It’s an unforgivable offence by our government and logging industry.
And on the way home, we connected with the person who had adopted one of Sunny’s puppies that she had in 2023! Sunny didn’t seem to care too much, but for us it was pretty awesome to meet her offspring.
Once back in town, it was long dog walks where we found the results of some presumably drunk driving, and I got out for a Parkbagging ride as well. And, of course, book-ended with dog cuddles.
Some of the joyful things about autumn: dramatic skies and changing foliage.
The next weekend was a big one for me: on Saturday I pre-rode my Burnabop XL route in full, and then Sunday was an organized “Burnabop XL Day” ride which saw about 30 participants.
Finishing out the month, I got a ride in to enjoy a lovely sunset at Trout Lake, with a fresh-hopped beer in hand, then explored some elaborate Halloween displays once the sun had set.
Despite the week away, I managed 442 km on the bike. The Burnabop XL weekend was ~130 km itself, which certainly helped. Doing these monthly recaps has given me the chance to reflect on what each month means to me, and I’ve realized that just about every month is special in some way – but October’s definitely in the top four or five months of the year.
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