After putting together monthly recap posts at the end of 2025, I realized this could be a good way to post up random photos or moments from the month that don’t warrant their own post, so figured I would try to keep that habit going. January felt pretty quiet, so I had only made two posts (both in the last week of the month), but now that I’ve combed through my photos I’ve realized this will end up being pretty long!
The month started, of course, with New Years Day. I had an imperial stout the night before after a couple ‘regular’ beers and was not feeling 100%, but got out for about 25 km of noodling around East Vancouver on the Evasion.
On the 2nd, I had a plan to ride out to see the new and old bridges between New Westminster and Surrey; the old Patullo bridge would be coming down soon (I wish it was being saved as a pedestrian / cycling bridge!) and its replacement, the Stalewasem, is partially open now. It’s about 25 km each way to get to it, and I enlisted my friend Rob.
A couple days later, just before it was time to go back to work, I got out for another Burnaby Mountain loop. I followed the small trail under the powerlines up the west side of the mountain, then looped around clockwise on the Trans-Canada trail – a beautiful stretch of trail that can get a bit busy with walkers. I hadn’t ridden this in about two years, as I’m usually on the lower Barnet trail.
I took the Evasion on the blue-rated MTB trails around the mountain and it was a lot of fun – the plus-sized Rangers are plenty grippy if you’re not pushing too hard, and the dropper of course is a must-have.
On the 8th of January we received a dusting of snow, which remains the only snow we’ve gotten so far this winter. Sunny was stoked, Leia enjoyed it much more stoically.
‘Tis the season for taking advantage of every small opportunity to ride, such as the ~10km loop on the Twenty which generated the image below. The snow had receded up the mountains but it was still pretty cold.
I ended up riding the following night as well, this time to pick up a new coffee setup downtown. I watched the clouds as a low pressure and high pressure ridge collided, creating quite the visual.
On the 11th, which was a Sunday, I took a chance with a small break in the rain – the rain held off long enough for me to get up to the viewpoint shown below, but I got rained on the ~5km ride home. Love the poncho though, underneath I was quite dry! It works with the front bag to offer extra leg coverage.
The rain continued on, with temperatures just high enough to keep things wet. This is the reality of Vancouver winters, but I still feel really lucky we have this instead of snow and frigid temps.
I commuted home mid-day during the following week and took the opportunity to ride past three funky houses that are loosely along the longer route I can readily take.
On the 17th, a Friday, I left home for the downtown waterfront to meet up with Rob for a cold one in the cold air. The days are inching longer, not entirely dark when I get off work at 5pm now, but the light was all but gone by the time I made it into town. We rode into Stanley Park and followed some gravel paths before working eastwards towards my neighbourhood.
Saturday was errands day, and we took the pups with us and worked a walk in as well.
But Sunday was back to bikes. I rode the Evasion to the first Parkbagging in over two months – Sunset and Sutcliffe parks. We were wrapped up before 3pm, so I made the most of the remaining daylight with a 2-bridge loop around North Van. Of course I couldn’t just stick to the nice lower-elevation paths either.
In fact, it took the better part of an hour just to get through Stanley Park because I chose to take small, often unbikeable trails instead of the main paths. I also ran into an older fella and had a 20 minute chat.
When I did finally reach the bridge, I was treated to the scene below, with a clump of fog holding onto the bridge but with clear air above me. Pretty neat!
By the time I was halfway across North Vancouver, the sun was starting to drop below the horizon. It was a beauty sunset and a really nice day out.
Over the following week I got another after-work loop into town on the Twenty as clear skies became more commonplace.
Rob and I got out after work once again for a very chilly ride up to QE Park, one of the best lookouts in Vancouver proper. It was getting cold enough by the end of the evening that black ice could be a concern, and over the next week just about every night was foggy and below freezing, leading to very slick mornings. I know a few people who bike-commuted and crashed on the ice; I opted to avoid riding to work until temps were comfortably above freezing.
My mornings often looked like this though – frosty grass and lovely sunrises. Soon the sunrise will be too early for me to regularly catch, so I’m enjoying them while I can!
Below is sunrise <> afternoon sun on the same day.
On the 25th we had Parkbagging again, and this time I did a two-bridge loop before ‘bagging instead of after because I had to run a Lynn Valley errand. I left shortly before noon and the frost was still thick in shady areas.
The last few days of the month included a couple more short rides on the Twenty, which has seen quite regular use this month beyond just trips to the store. I am getting back in the habit of the “lunch loop” route, although I’ve been rarely doing so during lunch, which is a ~8km loop around the PNE grounds just to get the blood flowing.
One more of the Twenty, coming home from a Friday beer run.
The last day of January was quite mild, starting around 6 degrees C and climbing to 11C at one point. It did, however, begin very rainy – but models showed a dry patch in the early afternoon, so I prepared the Bombadil for a ride – two water bottles, checked the tire pressure (aka gave them a squeeze and they still felt pretty firm, so OK), and packed my small Fabs Chest with a sit-pad, tool roll, snacks, warm layer, and extra gloves.
As soon as the rain had definitively stopped, I headed out the door. I rode west towards downtown, as on the far side of downtown is Stanley Park and then the Lions Gate bridge into North- and West Vancouver. The bridge deck is 10 km from my door. There are paved and unpaved options through Stanley Park, of course I tend to opt for the unpaved unless in a rush. Today I was certainly not in a rush and also detoured to Beaver Lake to take in its beauty with the moody skies.
Above, a helicopter flies above Beaver Lake, Stanley Park. My Bombadil along its edge below.
I took Reservoir Trail towards the bridge, which was closed last time I passed through, and now I see it was because of resurfacing. This trail has one steep climb rather than a longer, more gradual climb of its neighbours – but it also has a nice old growth cedar midway up the climb that I like to visit once in a while.
Capilano River is near the north end of the bridge, and a trail along its bank takes me to my preferred “high route” into West Vancouver. I was also keen to see the water level – as you can see below, it was high! Not only have we had a lot of rain the past days, but rapid snow melt from the mild temperatures too.
The next few kilometres were not too visually exciting, a series of quiet side roads and connecting paths, but they are a very comfortable and enjoyable way to get up to Cypress Bowl Rd versus the more common routes. I’ve probably done it about 25 or 30 times now, and only relatively recently have I been remembering each turn without question.
I tried something new to me, which was the above crossing of Rodgers Creek. I checked it out on street view beforehand but couldn’t see anything except either end – there were more stairs than I expected, as often happens to me, but it was really nice otherwise! Would do again. The only other way across this creek is the main road down near the water and the highway further up. Perhaps in summer I’ll try hiking up the creek itself.
On the way home I passed through Stanley Park again, taking a combination of gravel paths and unofficial trails – some of which turned into muddy hike-a-bike. As you can see below, the water level was pretty high all around!
Here’s the route detail. A nice medium-length wander!
A few days ago I was habitually checking vacant lot sales on realtor dot com, not because I’m in the market but because I just enjoy daydreaming about what I’d do with them. I saw two 90x120ft lots on the east side of Seymour, just north of Indian River Dr – in the middle of the bush. They are trail-access and there’s no chance that the city would allow structures to be built (I’m guessing) but oddly they are zoned for it. They were only $88,000 each, which, given that you can’t really do much with it is perhaps still a lot, but compared to the literal millions that a liveable home costs, it still came as a surprise.
While I wasn’t interested in actually purchasing the plots, I did want to check them out, which made for a perfect mission for the weekend to get me out on the bike with purpose. It was about 15 km away from my home and the final 700m was hiking trail. I took the Evasion because there were also some easier MTB trails along the way I could take advantage of – and staying off the pavement had extra appeal today, as there was risk of black ice.
Indian River Drive is a unique road around here – relatively newly paved, it passed through miles of intact forest to reach a small community of houses further up the inlet from Deep Cove. It’s popular with roadies because at its end, it drops down about 150m to sea level with brutally steep switchbacks, making for an exciting descent and challenging climb.
The photo below was actually earlier in the ride, part of a network of trails that loosely paralleled the main road to Seymour. Certainly a lot slower and higher effort than just taking the road, which does have a bike lane, but also a whole lot more pleasant. These trails are always remarkably quiet, too – I rarely see anyone else on them.
The hiking trail passed under the power lines, where a thick layer of frost had not been touched by the sun. The Evasion’s 2.8″ tires were a perfect match for this chunky wide trail – after the powerlines, the trail narrowed and became unrideable, but thankfully it wasn’t much further to go.
Below is the property, roughly – there were no markers that I could see. The trail actually passes through the upper lot, and the lower lot is down the rather steep hill towards the power lines. It was a beautiful bit of forest, covered in ferns and salal, with a substantial creek just steps away. The creek had some nice pooling areas that, if not dried up, would be wonderful to sit in during summer.
On the way back out I popped into a trail I noticed off the side of the road to get a photo, but discovered that there was actually a trail that ran parallel the road. This area is not legal to trail-build, but that hasn’t stopped people clearly. I’m thankful for it!
With some aid from trailforks, I managed to stay in the woods for much of the traverse back towards the city. It included short sections of hike-a-bike, but mostly I was on technical (but not too difficult) XC type trails. The Evasion is quite well-suited to these trails – I do find these ergonomic levers to be a bit difficult to hold onto when trying to both grip them sufficiently for the rough stuff and also operate the brakes, so that’s a limitation, and the wheelbase is short enough that you do have to be mindful going over roots and rocks as soon as it gets a little bit steep – I haven’t gone OTB on this bike yet but I could see it happening if I’m not careful.
Once back in “civilization” I picked up a six-pack and had one by the river while the sun was still able to warm me.
After that, it was over the bridge and home – the bridge is about 1km in length, and from there it’s about 3.5 km to my door. The total ride was 33 km and 630m elevation, but the stats are neither important nor representative when it comes to a ride like this.
December was a little more quiet, not the least because I caught COVID either at my work holiday party or the following workday which kept me off the bike (and in the house doing nothing) for ten days.
It started out wet but mild, and pretty much stayed that way. On the 6th I got out for a funky Burnaby loop because I had been wondering if it was possible to follow the powerlines along south Burnaby, and indeed it worked – kinda awkward, but fun.
We took Sunny and Leia to Charleston Park one evening, which was very muddy. We were there because the little ferries that work False Creek were performing a “ballet”, though they were on the other side of the inlet for the performance so we didn’t see a lot. Sunny sure enjoyed just watching the bay, though.
On the 8th I had a bit of a creepy encounter with a coyote in the community garden after dark, Sunny was quite agitated and I got a bad feeling so I picked her up – and found that the coyote was trailing us by just a few feet. Yikes! Also a random beer photo from earlier in the day, a nitro stout with a portion of barrel-aged beer blended in.
The 12th was our company Christmas party, held at a hotel banquet room in Richmond. I multi-modal’d my way there with the Twenty, which I locked up outside the hotel. I did the same last year as well, though I wished I’d kept my Brompton as I could have brought it in with me.
The next day I spent outside on the Bombadil, riding out to West Van and cruising around trails both familiar and not. It was a bit warmer than usual so I even brought my hammock and spent a little bit of time creek side.
Some dog content to break up all the bike stuff – Sunny had a bath and Leia was very sweet with her afterwards, checking to see she was okay. Leia knows how stressful bath time is! Also, they are a united front against squirrels – they both make quite a scene every time. It’s low key embarrassing.
Below is a photo from a short evening ride on the Twenty on the 15th, and my Hillborne commute on the 17th, the final commute of 2025. I didn’t know it at the time, but it would also be my last ride until after Christmas as I tested mildly positive on the morning of the 19th. Boo! I didn’t get very sick at all, but it lingered and I kept myself locked away to avoid getting Aimée sick too. At least I succeeded there!
The next few days were spent in the bedroom binge-watching Taskmaster; I’m glad there was so many episodes I hadn’t seen yet! Leia did a great job of keeping me company as well. I got out for dog walks to keep my sanity but otherwise existed here.
Aimée made me some nice meals over my time in captivity, which helped keep spirits up – no small feat for her as well, as food prep is always a tag team effort and I do all the clean-up usually.
Boxing Day I got out for a slow paced (as if I go any other pace) ride around Deer Lake – I meant to keep it to around 25km but ended up over 40km because I just missed being out on my bike too much!
I also took my new WZRD slingshot with me and tried it out over the Brunette river, checked out the progress on a new pedestrian overpass in Burnaby (which I’ll get a lot of use out of!) and had a smash burger and beer too.
The next morning was cold but clear, and I enjoyed a morning walk with the girls – a daily routine, but this was prettier than usual. We have a few established routes ranging from 30 to 60 minutes, usually ending with some time at the off-leash park.
Again I got out for a bike ride, and just about every day this week I was able to thanks to good weather and a free schedule. This time I took the Bombadil on a two-bridge loop with a venture up to Murdo Frazer and some time spent seeking out old growth trees in Stanley Park.
That night I watched Listers, a bird-watching documentary that I highly recommend if you haven’t seen. It isn’t likely going to turn me into a serious birder, but it did make me want to go to Jericho to see if I could find a red-winged blackbird – we have them in limited numbers here but I’ve only seen them in Ottawa. I was not successful, but I did spot a bunch of spotted Towhee’s which I had not identified previously! As well as some sparrows and other Little Brown Birds. I will admit I did download Merlin and eBird, and am now keeping a Life List on the former (currently at 26 species as of mid-January). Maybe this’ll be the excuse to start bringing a “real” camera on rides again. It’s a nice way to slow down and experience the woods more deeply, I just don’t want to get competitive about it hopefully.
On the 30th I took the Evasion around Deer Lake again, this time stopping at a tree I used to sit in regularly but haven’t been back to for at least a year. Its branches create a surprisingly comfortable perch, on which to gaze over the lake. There was a light fog over the lake that never fully dissipated, and it created a beautiful hazy sunset.
The last day of the month, and year, I rode the Bombadil out to the far end of West Vancouver with Tay to see about a trail that I’d studied on maps – it had no cycling heatmap activity, but that doesn’t always mean it’s not a gem to ride! Getting to it required riding almost to Horseshoe Bay along the higher / hillier route.
I started out the ride by going to pick up a pair of tires off Marketplace in Lynn Valley, then just slowly noodled through some forested areas westward. It wasn’t efficient, but I saw lots of cool stuff!
The trail was mostly unrideable, but very pretty, and it was really fun to find such a hidden little trail in a new-to-us zone. By the time we were out the sun wasn’t far off the horizon, so we opted to skip any further exploration and just point ourselves back east.
I finished the month at 12 days on the bike and 383 km – much of which was in the last few days. As for the year, I rode over 6000 km again and almost 73,000m of elevation. Plenty, I’d say! I drove less than 3000 km, which I’m quite proud of. I only car-commuted a few times the whole year, though I only commuted once a week anyway.
The most noteworthy rides that I’d done this month were already captured in their own posts, so this might be brief.
I started the month by impulse-buying a frame from a friend who needed to sell their newly purchased Crust Evasion to fund unexpected costs. It is my favourite colorway, and maybe a size too small. I wasted no time ordering up what I needed to build it, and by mid-month I was riding the new rig. I sold the Wombat to make space for it, though it hardly put a dent in the expenditure..
On the 2nd I went for a Seymour valley loop. I noticed some people huddled off in the moss as I rode up Fishermans, and then started looking around the moss to figure out what they were up to when I noticed a good deal of mushrooms. Right! It’s mushroom season! This turned into a mushroom ride after that, where I sought out as many different types as I could.
I also picked up a new toolbox, and underestimated its size when I chose to pick it up by bike! Got it home though thanks to the Irish strap. I actually thought I could fit it in my pannier, and as you can see in the photos below, it wasn’t even close.
I got the toolbox packed with my bike tools and it got its use building the Evasion up.. progress one week later:
The next weekend I went for a ride up to Cleveland dam on the Bombadil, with stops at a few other natural areas to appreciate the state of autumn here and just the slow pace of the forest.
On the 11th I got the Evasion to a rideable state and went for a two-bridge North Van loop as its shakedown ride. This week also included: heckin’ lots of rain, walking the neighbour’s dog, and appreciating the huge leaves on our Thai Constellation monstera these days. I bought this monstera as a tiny 2″ tall baby for $40 in 2017 or 2018!
The next weekend was the second ride on the Evasion and first with full fenders installed – out to Port Moody to see if a trail parallel Gatensbury Rd that descended over 100m from upper Coquitlam to Port Moody.
The next morning I rode to Olympic village to drop off a Marketplace item, and took the opportunity to have coffee on Beer Island and watch the variety of boats in False Creek:
On the 22nd I got out for a ride up to Rice Lake, but before that, I took the girls on a two hour walk out to Rice Lake – where we all got soaked to the bone but really enjoyed the traquility (and duck watching!).
The next day I ventured out to Burnaby Mountain to try to find a hut that I saw online – it took some perseverance, as it was a pretty technical hike to get to and I got lost the first try, but it was all the sweeter when I did find it.
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.
September is one of my favourite months of the year – the kids are back in school, so all the campgrounds are a little more quiet, and the weather is still generally good while also being a little less hot out. More recently, Septembers have become a bit more unpredictable, with heat and wildfire smoke being potential issues still. This was the case for the first few days of the month, and air quality was iffy for riding. I did get out for a pretty big ride on September 6th despite moderate air quality, out to Richmond.
I took the Hillborne, and my route was to hop onto the trails near the airport. Given the air quality, I was ready to pull the plug if necessary and turn back around, but made it to Steveston for the Fish n Chips I was after. On the way home the air became a bit worse, and even more unexpectedly, a proper rain storm hit – which I was not prepared for at all. In the end it was a relatively flat 60km ride.
The next day was looking clearer, and I went off on the Wombat to try out the eastern loop of a route I had been working on for Bike Portage Club. It was meant to be rather difficult, but it proved more silly than I had realized – the power of a pre-ride! Of course, reviewing the photos, it just looks like it was a beautiful ride. I suppose that’s true as well!
A few days later I rode the Twenty downtown to meet up with some visiting family, a perfect use-case of the Twenty – without it I’d just use bike share, which would be fine as well, but I do prefer riding my own bike.
Over the next days I packed up the Stooge for the last camping trip of the season, which I’ve covered in detail here.
Returning from the very successful and fun camping trip, it was now the back half of September. The next week we had another edition of Parkbagging, which I combined with errands to make a pretty big loop (over 45 km) around most of Vancouver. Summer-like weather was still holding strong, and we were seeking shade when available:
Over the next week I got out for a few slightly shorter after-work rides, trying to hang onto the longish daylight hours while they last – 25 to 35 km, one to Barnet Marine Park for a beautiful sunset and one to QE park to enjoy the beginnings of changing foliage.
On the 27th and 28th I got out for a couple nice rides, which coincided with when I caught up on blogging, so they each have their own post as well. So I won’t get into too much detail about them.
I finished the month with 452 km on the odometer, a bit down from the monthly average in 2025 due to prioritizing some other life things.
Onwards with the recaps! In the future I am thinking about doing a monthly post to summarize the month in addition to specific posts for special trips or whatnot – rather than a post for each decent ride. Still work-shopping.
I love how this house looks like a face, and in this case, looks like it’s watching the crow on the fence. This is along my bike commute, and was taken on the way home from work on the first of August.
After six months of having Sunny in our family we finally tried out whether she’s cool with being in the bike trailer. She was pretty good about it, no major concerns.
On August 4th my friend Tay and I drove up to Whistler at 5am and rode Into the Mystic / Lord of the Squirrels, an epic loop that climbs all the way into the alpine followed by a 1200+m descent. This was a life-altering kind of ride. I thought I made a blog post about it, but it seems like I am mistaken! So I’ll have to share a bunch of photos here. We each took our Stooge – me on a Scrambler and her on a Tracker, both bikes outfitted with plus-size tires.
It was a decent climb just to get to the start of Into the Mystic – we started around 640m elevation, and this trail started at about 1000m, climbing to 1650m. From there we took a trail called On the Rocks which topped out at 1800m, and as the name implies, is all above the tree line. While the first couple hours of climbing were pleasant enough, it was when we reached the sub-alpine meadows filled with flowers that the ride started to really become something special. Both the sub-alpine meadows and the otherworldly alpine vistas had us giddy the whole time, just amazed by the beauty of the world. The descent was moderately technical, not too bad, and felt un-ending. This is absolutely worthy of a bucket-list ride. I hope to go back every year if I can.
The only negative thing I can say is that the mosquitos up there are absolutely unreal. If you look close in some of the alpine photos you can see them in the shots – they swarmed us constantly. Thankfully I had brought repellant, but missed a few spots (ie my back) which ended up looking like chicken pox by the end of the day.
That was certainly one of the highlights of August for me, but the humdrum of the normal week isn’t so bad either. I commuted the following Wednesday and it happened to coincide with a proper summer rainstorm in the morning. Thankfully my commute home was much drier. Check out the effectiveness of the poncho + full coverage fenders to keep my office attire reasonably dry!
The next day we had a good TCR (tall can ride) with a few pals after work, covering about 45km by the time I got home – this is really what I love about summer, these big after-work rides.
More flower photos, taken around 8am on Saturday on the morning dog walk to the park. These were all taken in the community garden at Pandora Park, where I can usually be found.
This particular Saturday was also Farmhouse Fest, the only beer festival I go to, put on by some old friends and I’ve been going to this since its inception in 2015. This might have been the last one, due to the decline of interest in farmhouse style beers and the dying import industry. It is held at the UBC farm, about 18km from my place, and I rode the Twenty – my trusty sidekick when I need to lock up for a while.
On Sunday we had parkbagging, and thankfully I didn’t get carried away at the beer festival the day prior so I was able to enjoy the ride and hang out with friends – and have a couple more beers at a couple more parks.
The next day I rode out to Kitsilano to pick up a dog trailer – the second in our household – so that Sunny has her own chariot. Now between Aimée and I, we can tow a dog each and the whole family can go for outings.
Speaking of the dogs .. our summer included some guests staying over, namely Lou (left) and Bernice (right). Bernice stays with us regularly during the day, and occasionally overnight. Lou is welcome any time as well, but we only have her over a few times per year.
The next weekend, after some rather unseasonal rains, I got out on the Bombadil and headed to North Vancouver. I rode through the former Blair Rifle Range where there’s still signage around about potential explosive munitions – which keeps me on-trail! The recent rains and rather unseasonably wet August to date also maintained the lush green in the forest, something I did not take for granted.
More dog stuff – as always, lots of time spent at the dog park, and we know all the regulars and many of the occasional visitors by this point. We also got out for a proper family ride with both dogs – only about 6 or 7 km, as we didn’t want to push it too far for an inaugural outing with the trailers.
August 17th was New Tires Day for my trusty Bombadil, replacing the very worn and UV-damaged Ultradynamico Rosé, which treated me quite well for 2+ years but were clearly ready to retire. This was my second set of Rosé, a tire I ran on this bike from the start in 2020. The replacement is Continental’s Terra Trail gravel tire in 650B x 47mm, though it measures a bit smaller. I write this on January 3rd 2026, about 4.5 months later, and they’ve been great over about 850km so far. I did get a flat tire on the very first ride on them, but haven’t since. They’re both more quiet and I believe faster than the Rosé, though their off-road cornering grip isn’t quite as good.
The new tires got their first proper test a week later, with the Bombadil fully loaded up and destined for Pender Island. While the island itself is small, the ride to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal is over 50km. I rode there with my friend Stephanie, while the others who were also coming on this trip mostly opted for transit to shorten the ride – an option not available to Stephanie given the size of her cargo bike. I wrote up the trip here, so I won’t get into too much further detail on this post – except to say, it was a wonderful few days on Pender camping with friends!
The past few years have been plagued with wildfire smoke, an unfortunate new reality with the state of climate change, but this year had been quite good so far. We did get a bit this last week of August, but thankfully just enough to accentuate the sunset without causing significant AQI concerns. This park, below, attracts residents from a few blocks’ radius for the sunset each evening when the skies oblige.
On the last day of August, I got out for a “bike portage club” style ride with Tay and Rob. The first bout of silliness occurred when Tay and I (en route to meeting Rob) decided to try some trails around McKay Creek near Hwy 1, which proved to be overgrown and, in some cases, almost non-existent. I would say it was all worth it though because we came across a concrete tunnel that the creek passes through under the highway, tucked away where few people would see it.
Once connected with Rob, we made our way to Cypress, climbing some little-known trails and then traversing a personal favourite, Millstream trail. From there we worked our way back east via a combination of trail and side roads, finishing the ride at a friends’ backyard party. The ride itself was 52 km and 1050m elevation; a proper effort on the single speed Wombat!
In terms of riding, I finished August with 577 km logged over 22 days on the bike – plenty of riding, though generally not quite as long of rides as in spring. Partly this was due to the heat of summer. Still, plenty of activity!
We’re right into summer now, a season that I typically ride a bit less often because I really don’t like the heat. The days have started shortening again already, too!
I did commute on the Hillborne on the 2nd, but it was pretty uneventful in terms of photography. The next day was Parkbagging, and the first park we met up at was Riley’s next to Nat Bailey Stadium. This was a pretty epic one – we rode from there to Riverfront park right along the Fraser, then to Riverview Park which was quite a ways west (and had no view of the river). Then we extended the evening by going to Milltown for a meal and a beer afterwards too. I think I got home around 11:30pm after a 5pm start. The patio at Milltown remains my favourite in the city – well, technically this is Richmond, but that’s pretty much a technicality.
When Saturday came along, which was the 5th, I chose the Stooge with a plan of riding up and down Burnaby Mountain trails and then looping over to Dageraad. Leaving the brewery, I decided I’d extend my ride home by going to the other side of the highway and riding the trails of Derby conservation area – and made the on-the-fly choice to try going through what I knew to be a barely-there trail along the lower section of the forest. I had also rode some low-traffic trails on Burnaby Mtn which were terribly overgrown, so I’m not sure what I was expecting.. needless to say it was a bit of a bushwhack.
The following day I just got out for a short ride to MEC in North Van to pick up some small stuff, and I ran across a group of about 15-20 millennials riding 80’s BMX bikes (one complete with ET in basket, nearest bike) and it looked like such a wholesome fun time. I would love to know more.
On the pup front, the dog park is dry and dusty now and Sunny did a bit of a face plant while fetching. Did not care. They are also starting to sleep closer and closer together; Sunny was game from the start, but Leia gives a lot of space, I think because she’s worried about resource guarding. She’s gradually becoming more and more comfortable with Sunny.
It also goes without saying that I’m enjoying the parade of flowers that continue.
Wednesday of this week was the Gastown Grand Prix, a crit race I always try to make it out to. I am not interested in racing generally but the energy of this event is always pretty fun. I always see a few friends as well as some wild bikes, too.
The next day was Parkbagging again – starting in Mt Pleasant with an especially big crew, including a group up from Seattle, we rolled out to Kits and then linked up with Matias Stridsland who I rode with afterwards for a while too. We ended up downtown and out until quite late, but I didn’t take many photos. Matias did make an IG reel of our ride though!
The next morning I had to bike 20 km to the site where my work was hosting a beach cleanup day; given the late night previous, I was running on fumes, but it was great to get out again on the Wombat. Dill pickle gose on the ride home because it was stinkin’ hot and this hit the spot.
Some summertime vibes. Meals that don’t require heating, and lots of time spent in the shade at Pandora Park. Sunny has a sun shirt because dogs with white fur can get skin cancer, and her summer coat is really thin too.
Below is from Sunday, July 13. It was stinkin’ hot out. I stopped by the crit races at Concord Pacific, poor racers in this heat; then headed to Kits beach area to sit in the shade. I heard live music as I was passing by Chinatown and thankfully went to investigate – it was a festival and there were many food trucks. I had some kebabs to sustain me.
Over the next week… temps were in the high 20’s, which is about as hot as I ride in. Managed a commute, and we also had a parkbagging ride for one of the regulars’ birthday where we hit up Johnny Rodgers and John Hendry (Trout Lake) because while they had already been checked off the list, they were both on poor weather and poor turnout days and deserved a proper crew.
On Friday I combined an errand out to the Fedex center in Burnaby with a pub gathering of some old BCIT classmates. This is the kind of thing the Twenty really shines for, as I locked it up out of sight for about 2.5 hours. Even though it doesn’t look valuable I still double-lock it when leaving unattended for longer periods.. I do have $2500 invested into it (half of that in the wheels alone).
The weekend included a combination of Shim’s crit race (around Johnathan Rodgers park) and Riley’s Rips, the latter held in the same neighbourhood so we could get some spectating in. The after-party was also held in the park. I saw a very cute sheltie and I WON these Fauna cages in the Riley’s raffle!!! Super stoked!
On the 24th there was a group ride organized by Stridsland, Boneshaker, and FoundintheMountains (aka Tay) and the turnout was huge! We rode in Stanley Park then ended at Chicken World near English Bay. I rode the Stooge so that I could get up to as many shenanigans as possible and it was a fun time.
A couple days later, on Saturday, it was the Vanbrewers summer BBQ – worth going to for the food alone, but the beer on tap is also at a higher level than many local breweries! Every year I make a pact with myself that I’ll go easy and leave early, and once again, I failed to do so. I blame the double IPA!
The next day, despite the hangover, I convinced myself to go for my monthly forest therapy ride in the Seymour valley. I felt crappy for the first while, but by the end I felt a whole bunch better.
Coming into the last couple days of the month now, I got to take the girls for a good Pacific Spirit Park walk while Aimée had a dentist appointment nearby, then ran an evening errand downtown on the Hillborne and lugged home a few tires, a whole MTB wheel, and a couple 4pks of beer.
On the final day of the month my buddy dave was riding the Burnabop XL route so I surprised him at the finish line with a little bottle of Fireball. I didn’t really have a plan for after, but decided while I was out to do a Dageraad loop, and taking a trail-heavy route to get there. On the way home I was treated to an especially beautiful sunset, which was shortly after 9pm at this point now.
Despite the heat throughout the month, I managed 536 km and 23 days on the bike – and thanks to the long days, I also spent a good amount of time in the park with the dogs too.
Unsurprisingly, June started with a bike ride. I seem to always get out on the first of the month. This time it was up the Seymour valley a little ways, not quite to mid-valley, to a nice spot along the river to have a mid-afternoon beer. Two days later was parkbagging again, and I haven’t explained what that is. It was started by another local bike fella, Mike, earlier in the pandemic as a way to get out and enjoy some time with friends outside. The premise is this: ride to every park in Vancouver in alphabetical order (2 or 3 at a time, typically) and have a beverage (most cases a beer) in each one. This has been going on for about two years at this point, and as of this ride, we were in the Q’s. The last park was Queen Elizabeth Park, one of the biggest and best of Vancouver, and we sat at the lookout – me on the front of Lukas’ cargo bike pictured below.
A few days later I rode the Twenty to get food for Sunny from the vet, stopping in Copley orchard on the way home as I often do when passing through this area. This was one of the preparation items for a week away – this was my last ride before Aimée and I boarded a plane to Ottawa to visit her family.
We travelled to Ottawa on Sunday, June 9th and spent the first afternoon / evening settling in. We were staying in Aimée’s mom’s place with her sheltie, Hamish.
I was also welcome to ride Aimée’s mom’s bike: a vintage mixte that was much too small for me. I’m impressed she likes the bars so low; I already feel too old for that. The bike hadn’t been ridden much in the past who-knows-how-long, but got the tires pumped up and the brakes dialled in. So far it had been raining most of the time since we’d arrived, so a bike ride was not imminent – plus, I did obviously have to prioritize spending time with the people we flew across the country to see.
Okay, some more Hamish photos because he’s the sweetest and cutest boy. Having a dog to take care of while we house-sat (Aimée’s mom was staying with her other daughter just down the street while we were here) really helped us feel more at home and in our daily routine, and eased missing our own dogs, who were being dog-sat by a hired house-sitter.
My first bike ride in Ottawa was Tuesday, late morning, with my brother-in-law acting as a tour guide. I was amazed by the network of bike paths that were fully separated from the roads. We crossed a bikes/pedestrian-only bridge into Quebec, just the other side of the river, and followed a seaside path eastwards for a few kilometres. We then crossed back over to Ottawa on a mixed use bridge that also had a very wide, lovely bike and pedestrian lane. This brought us to downtown Ottawa and around the Parliament buildings. Thankfully I had my tour guide Joel who pointed out various notable buildings such as the Supreme Court.
Before making our way back we stopped in at Mill St Brewing for some lunch, and just as we arrived it started to rain. In Vancouver this typically means it’s going to be raining for a while, but in Ottawa you merely need to have a sandwich and a beer and the rain will be long gone! We never had to get wet.
The ride totalled about 25km and we only shared maybe 1.5 km with cars, and even then there was a marked bike lane. Amazing!
We hung out with the family for the afternoon, and I got word that I could also borrow Aimée’s sister’s bike: a modern hybrid with disc brakes and flat bars – yes please! The vintage road bike got me around, but it wasn’t exactly comfortable. Feeling the itch from not riding much the past week, I snuck off for a 45 minute ride while others readied for dinner. I rode to the arboretum I remembered passing on the way in from the airport, about 11km round trip. More beautiful paths! Ottawa is pretty flat so easy recreational cycling is extremely accessible here with this network of paths – but while it was amazing for a week visit, I can imagine it gets boring after a while.
Wednesday morning I snuck off again for a couple hours’ ride on the hybrid. I rode over the nearest bridge into Quebec because I hadn’t been over it yet, and travelled northwards on a gradual climb into the Gatineau Hills after a little stretch along the river. Once again, the network of bike paths was impressive.
I rode into the park for a while with the initial goal of making it to Pink Lake, but came to realize it was a little further than I had time for. So I rolled back down the hill on another bike path, and into downtown Ottawa again. With some further free time granted, I explored around and ran across Beyond the Pale, a brewery name I recognized. They had a massive patio so I saddled up for some lunch.
From there I decided to try for one of the breweries my beer-nerd friends recommended, and the one within reach was Tooth and Nail. I got a flight of three Belgian-inspired beers and they were excellent. By the time I had ridden back to our neighbourhood, it was a little over 31km – and a measly 164m of elevation, almost entirely from Gatineau Park. Pretty flat out here!
Wednesday we went to the old part of town and did some light shopping with family, and hung out with the dogs. Aimée’s sister had a puppy that was just with them for a few weeks I believe upon our arrival. Very cute and a fair bit of trouble.
The following day I got out for one last bike ride before returning the ol’ hybrid – this time I went to the west, where I hadn’t previously explored. Again I found the network of bike paths to link up seamlessly and take me at least pretty close to anywhere I would want to go. I was really jealous, and a little bit angry, that we can’t have something even close to this in Vancouver.
One of the things I was really enjoying observing on my bike rides was how different the houses here were. Without a fault line to worry about, brick houses were more common, and I found myself in some pretty old neighbourhoods. The pathway photos are probably seeming pretty redundant at this point – it’s true, it all kind of looks the same. Again I could see it getting a little bit old in terms of recreational riding, but first and foremost they are valid and wonderful ways to get to work, the store, etc as well.
I also enjoyed seeing different birds than back home – red-winged blackbirds and cardinals in particular, which I’d never seen in real life before. I’m no birder, but… I guess I’m getting closer to being one. Speaking of ecological differences from BC, I had to also be aware that ticks were more common here, something I thought about every time I ventured into a trail, and also apparently poison ivy. That’ll keep me on the trail!
This ride was 26.5 km, which brought my trip total to 93km of exploring Ottawa and Gatineau – I wasn’t sure if I’d ride at all this trip, so I was very pleased with this!
As our trip drew near a close, we visited Hog’s Back falls for a nice walk with Aimée’s mum and pup. We encountered a groundhog and chipmunk duo.
The flight home was pretty uneventful, though we were treated to a beautiful sunset from the plane as we crossed over the BC rockies. We got home late, tired and happy to be reunited with our own pups.
I guess I was still itching to ride my own bikes though, because even though we got home nearly midnight on Saturday, I was out on the Stooge by mid-morning Sunday – and got over 60km in on the big bike. I rode / bushwhacked some trails on Seymour, then worked my way all the way west to Cypress where again I bushwhacked – this time less successfully. I should have probably known when I had to hoist my bike up a literal ladder to get into the trail.
But all’s well that ends well, and I had fish n chips while watching a ferry float past. Not bad, not bad.
But also it was nice to spend time with Leia and Sunny at the park. That’s Poe and Prince in the background.
The long evenings continued to facilitate TCR’s, this time to Strathcona Park in Deep Cove – a spot I had TCR’d to back in 2021 with a mostly different crew and hadn’t been back to since. I rode the single speed Wombat, which gets the job done real nice. It’s a great summer bike.
Once a month or so, on Fridays, I meet up with my friend Nick at Strange Fellows and we hang out on the covered patio. Somehow it seems to be dry and sunny until we are on our way there, then it surprise-rains.
The theme of this month was blue Bike Fridays. The one Nick brought I had considered buying, and actually was planning to buy when I pulled up Marketplace and saw this disc one for a little bit more. In a weird “small world” series of events, I sold the racks mine came with to the guy who bought this older one, and then Nick bought the older one from that guy after he had done a bit of upgrading.
And to round out the story: Nick ended up buying mine from me a couple months later.
The next weekend, Rob and I set off to explore some trails in West Van. I was ready to roll earlier than he was, so I spent some time roaming around Stanley Park and looking at flowers. As you can see in the large image below, the Bombadil was set up to be ready for anything: a bottle of water, a bottle of electrolytes, and a can of beer.
We took what has become a quite established route over to Cypress, and by that I mean established for us – I doubt few others, if any, take this particular route. It follows a river trail, then along a series of side roads and paths that stay just below the highway. They link up really nicely but are not obvious at first. Then, of course, there is Rob’s Fence Line to get us the last little bit to Cypress Bowl Rd. The fence line was pretty overgrown. We climbed the infamous ‘Google is Wrong’ gate and then into the Cypress Falls trail network.
The Cypress Falls trails are not bike trails, but I don’t think they say no-bikes anywhere either. To most it would just be obvious not to do that. The thing is, though, it’s beautiful in there – so of course we’re gonna go anyway. And some parts were lovely to ride! Other parts were lovely to walk. I mean, if you scroll down to the wide format photos, you’ll see what I mean! Beautiful area of forest, and some big trees in this zone too.
We started descending towards the water and found a tunnel that I’d passed by countless times on my way to the ferry and never noticed! It led us to a school ground with fun rock, and then we ended up on connector trails that were much better than either of us expected. Finally we reached Caulfield Park, a gem of a spot right by the much more well-known Lighthouse Park. The ocean-front riding is really fun, though not always rideable. We also spent a good deal of time just lounging on the rocks like lizards.
Upon reflection, there was actually a good bit of stairs on that seaside path. But it was really nice, so I hardly noticed until now looking back at the photos. We ambled to Ambleside and had fish n chips while a band played nearby on the beach. Summer vibes! Ride was 52.5 km and 833m.
The next few days included Aimée’s birthday, a bike commute, and plenty of time at the park – but I have very few photos worth sharing over this period. I did a clothing donation run on the Hillborne and got a selfie of sorts:
Then the following weekend, now the 28th of June, I went for a bike ride I had in mind for a while: Port Moody, to see about the trails near Buntzen Lake. I wasn’t feeling particularly well but managed to convince myself of the rather ambitious route anyway. Heck, I even took the difficult side trails instead of just riding Barnet Highway. But I mean, look at those first handful of foresty photos – it’s beautiful in there. I also found some ripe thimbleberries along Barnet Trail.
Once in Port Moody I stopped for a VegOut burger and a pale ale which seemed to help. From there I looped around the Burrard inlet, and then straight up – a 20 percent grade road, which dead ended into a 20 percent grade trail. The trail got worse and worse, to the point I was starting to think I’d have to turn around, then got better and better until I was on smooth gravel!
I was in what’s called the Bert Flinn trail network, which is a mix of green and blue MTB trails. Quite gravel-bike friendly compared to most local MTB trails, these weren’t too steep and only modestly technical. Most of the wood features were older, many rotted away. As I hope the photos convey, it’s really lovely in here. I went back with Rob in November, aboard the newly built Evasion which I had literally this route in mind when I built.
The descent out started to get a little bit more rooty and rocky, as well as picking up some steepness, and eventually I wrote a cheque the Bombadil couldn’t cash and I went OTB for the first time in a while. Couple bruises but nothing major, and the bike was OK too. I climbed up and over the hill between there and Dageraad Brewing for a well-earned beer before heading west to home. Ended up a little over 62km and 1050m of climbing, the elevation being almost exclusively on trails.
The following day was another edition of Parkbagging, this time starting at Quilchena Park well out in Kerrisdale along the Arbutus Parkway. We then headed east to Ravine Park and Renfrew Ravine. In the end it was 32.5 km for me.
That about did it for June! I now leave you with some photos of flower and our girls. In terms of riding, my mileage was down quite a bit versus the previous two months at 487 km, but I got some really fun ones in and we got to spend a week in Ottawa which was great. I tend to ride a lot less in summer than in spring, anyway – it’s too hot sometimes, and there’s just more things happening in general.
