Category: General

I felt like my quiver was really settled, and there was basically nothing on my bike wishlist anymore. But then a friend who’d just purchased a Crust Evasion frame set had some unexpected financial and health challenges come up that necessitated selling it, and I got to thinking. I had never considered an Evasion despite being long familiar with the bike, but the more I considered it, the more I realized how well-suited it was to my type of riding: a little bit of everything from pavement to intermediate MTB trails. Disc brakes are something I’ve denied myself on all but my dedicated MTB, which is a bit silly.

Also by purchasing it I was helping out a friend in need which made it a lot easier to justify. I promptly put in some orders for a nice build, helped by a raise I’d just received at work.

My original intent was to build it up 27.5″ with some 2.2″ tires, but several Evasion owners or ex-owners convinced me that the bike works best with the 26+ tires it was originally designed for. While these are overkill for my needs, I went with it.

Sure, 2.8″ tires are overkill, but gosh they are pretty fun too. In larger wheel sizes they feel quite immense, but in 26″ the bike remains nimble as the outside diameter is pretty close to the 27.5 x 2.2 I originally planned.

The dropper post, actuated by an Easton lever that can be actuated both in the hoods and in the drops, is a very welcome addition when the trail gets a little spicy. The limitation for me becomes being able to grip the brake hoods and also operate the brakes while going over bumpy or technical terrain. But it’s not a mountain bike – it can just fool you into thinking it is sometimes!

This inaugural ride was about 36 km and a good test – mostly paved, but there were some trail connections that were at or beyond the limit of what I could ride on my Bombadil, and the Evasion felt great in these spots. The WTB Rangers are remarkably quick on pavement given their size and knobby profile, though obviously they’re not exactly fast. As long as I’m not trying to keep up with speedy friends, it’s fast enough for me.

On this particular Sunday, I set off on a mission to see some salmon at the hatchery at Cleveland Dam, which is located at one of the two watershed lakes in North Vancouver. I didn’t take a lot of photos of the ride up except the one below left after hoofing my bike up a particularly strenuous set of stairs – I’m a sucker for an efficient way up elevation! First I rode to the dam itself, below right, which was not flowing – the first time I’ve seen this in my 15 or 20 times to the dam!

I then had to backtrack downhill a bit to get to the hatchery. I’d never been, and wasn’t entirely sure where it was at first. I have to say, it’s a pretty interested and fun architectural building with a mid-century feel to it.

I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of salmon, but the tanks were packed with ’em! Feeling accomplished, I traversed over to Murdo Frazer park, home of the cabins featured in old Kokanee commercials among other things – it’s a very tranquil spot with a small pond that is home to a beaver, several turtles, and no doubt plenty of other wildlife.

This links up quite conveniently to another lovely stretch of trail along McKay Creek. In fact, McKay also hosts salmon during this time of year, but it’s a bit too late now to find any here. Maybe next year I’ll time a visit successfully!

McKay Creek trail dropped me off along the sea side bike path which I took home (with a beer stop to enjoy the moment a little longer) over the bridge from North Vancouver back to Vancouver.

As I approached the bridge I started to notice the formation of asperitas clouds (I think?), which got better as I got closer to home. Apparently these are quite rare, but perhaps it’s a similar but less rare type of cloud since I seem to notice them a few times every autumn and spring.

I’ve titled this the ‘Mushroom Ride’ but that wasn’t what it was planned to be. I hadn’t been up the Seymour valley for about a month, and I’ve made it a soft goal that I get up there once a month so I prioritized the valley for my route selection on this ride.

I actually set off to ride to mid-valley, but ended up riding all the way up to Seymour lake because the mid-valley connector was temporarily closed and I didn’t want to just turn around and go home.

I stopped where I had taken a foliage photo last time I was up here – the big leaf maples at that time were just newly yellow – and now they’d dropped all their leaves and looked entirely different. Below is Nov 2 vs Oct 7.

It was just a normal ride until I rode past a few folks who seemed to be inspecting stuff near the forest floor along Fisherman’s trail. I started to look around the forest floor once I passed them and realized there were a lot of mushrooms. I stopped to admire and photograph a couple of them, and just like that, my ride had a newfound purpose: to see how many different mushrooms I could spot.

I became quite obsessive from here on out scoping the forest floor either side of the trail for mushrooms. I was quite successful, seeing quite a few types that I’d never seen before. Mostly, I was appreciating the excuse to slow down and pay close attention to my surroundings, which is a very meditative experience that fills me with contentedness.

I kind of felt like I was birding in the sense that I was quantifying the different species I could spot, but unlike birding, the subject matter stays perfectly still – making photography a heck of a lot easier.

While I’m no mushroom expert – heck, not even a mushroom novice – there was one type of mushroom I had found up in the valley two years’ prior which captivated me named the violet webcap. Apparently it is quite rare, and I had just happened upon them deep in the valley previously. I really wanted to find one today.

It took quite a lot of trudging around in the mossy understory to find one, but I did! See below, center. It was alone in this case.

Having pre-rode the course the day before, this was the event! While people were welcome to roll out as early or late as they wish, I encouraged a 9:30 – 10am rollout for two reasons: I could commit to being there to see them off, and they’d likely be racing daylight at the end, which for me at least has become part of the fun.

A few folks rolled through earlier, but I was happy to see a bunch of friends and acquaintances roll up and set off on the course.

As a fairly solitary creature, I felt both out of my zone but oddly in my element playing event organizer. I definitely didn’t know what I was doing for the most part and learned a lot over the course of the day.

I stuck around the start line until just before 11am, when the last of the folks set off. I had no set plans for what I’d get up to prior, but decided to zip across town to Dageraad, pick up some beers, and catch folks along the old Interurban rail trail near New West. I figure since they’ve got the whole north loop before that point, I’d have plenty of time.

On the way to Dageraad I grabbed a sandwich and caught up with one buddy, Lukas, who had rolled out ahead of most others on their fixed gear Surly 1×1. I was set up along a cheeky little connector trail as noted below, left.

There were three early bird riders whom I wasn’t able to catch on-course, but I was in place in a perfectly unexpected spot for the remainder of the riders. It was a last minute plan but I couldn’t have planned better.

I was set up here for a couple hours, and the vast majority of that time was spent alone. I quite enjoyed it though, the setting was ideal. The cadence with which riders came through was quite perfect, too – I rarely went more than 20 or 30 minutes over those couple hours without another group, and each group/rider was happy to stop in for a bit – and many had a beer as well. Next time I’ll have better non-alc options, though it wasn’t an issue this time around.

I spent so long there in fact, I got bored enough to clear a path to my “aid station” and did some scoping of the surrounding forest.

The final group had lost some time due to taking some route liberties that went predictably poorly, so by the time they’d rolled through I knew I had to book it to the finish gate if I wanted to catch the first folks through this aid station. But first, I had to pose my bike with the beauty that is the Interurban rail trail:

Okay, time to roll.

I swung by the brewery again to re-stock as well as grab a smash burger for early dinner. The weather had been behaving remarkably well all day – the forecast looked wet, but I didn’t get rained on until now and it was pretty light.

I didn’t quite catch Lukas, but I managed to arrive 5 mins before Graham rolled down the hill to the gate. Before we finished a beer together, the two Sams and Bjorn rolled in as well. Then, while we were all hanging out, the fixie crew also rolled up! I was surprised and elated by how many chose to complete the course right up until the end. I never indicated I’d be there, and it’s generally not on anyone’s way home.

After everyone rolled out I stayed for a bit to see if the last big group would finish. It got dark, and with it, the rain got heavier. I texted one or two of the riders, and eventually I got back a message that everyone had kind of split up or peeled off. Unsure that anyone would come to the gate, and having lurked in the dark rain for an hour by myself at this point, I headed home.

I later learned that a lone rider from that group, Yannick, did in fact finish – and he arrived a mere 10 minutes after I’d left. What a bummer! It would have been so unexpected for me to be there when he arrived. Oh well.

While the route was created in 2023, this is the first year I’ve organized some form of event around the Burnabop XL. I knew I wanted it to be around the peak of autumn foliage, and I knew I didn’t want it to be too big of a group. This latter point created quite a challenge with trying to organize a sort of ‘grand depart’ event. The main reason to avoid a large group is that the trails that make up this route are often hidden gems that are enjoyed by locals to take their dog or kid along, and I didn’t want a train of bikes to harsh the vibe.

So I set it up as an open window to depart at one’s leisure, whether with friends or solo. More on that later though, as this is about the pre-ride which I completed the day before the event.

It’s a good idea to pre-ride as close to the date as possible to provide the most accurate conditions for event day, but the literal day before doesn’t give a lot of time for any adjustments that may be needed. I didn’t expect anything major, so I didn’t worry about it too much. More on THAT soon as well.

I started the route just before 10am. Foliage was good. It was not raining to start, but rain was forecasted. Winds were a little blustery, adding some risk in the trees – but thankfully they petered off and became a non-issue.

The vine maples were illuminating the otherwise grey day as noted above.

The north loop is challenging and almost entirely off road, while the south loop is longer but flatter.

While the south loop might be overall flatter and with more pavement, it’s also home to the highlights of the whole course.

So far other than a small detour due to construction that probably ran better than the original anyway, things were going great. The foliage was certainly delivering, the trails were running smooth.

Another small detour, no big deal. A hearse was parked in the bike lane, but they were actively carrying a coffin from the funeral service to it, so I let that one slide. Then when I reached Fraser Foreshore Park, a beautiful and expansive sanctuary, I found out it was closed right up the middle with no way through. Bummer.

So a last-minute re-route onto the adjacent road was necessary. Soon enough it reconnected with the trail network, along a creek and then up into Byrne ravine.

I climbed up and over the Edmonds area and down to Deer Lake, connecting over to Beecher Creek as the sun was setting. Beecher is a fun and unexpected little ravine trail that many end up skipping since it’s late in the route.

Being dark by the time I was passing through the North Burnaby neighbourhood towards the start/finish gate, I was able to enjoy some pretty epic Halloween displays:

All said and done: 77 km and ~1300m according to my GPS unit.

For four years now I’ve hosted a small group ride with the same friends on the Saturday of Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, which lands around my birthday. This year it happened to land on the day.

The weather this time of year is far from reliable, but we’ve been lucky in previous years. However this time we got rain – lots of rain – for the first couple hours.

First order of business was to stash the 5L keg of Paulaner lager that Rob graciously provided and lugged. He stashed it down by the river to keep cool, which was somewhat laughable since the air temp was only about 8C anyway.

It was so rainy that even our stubborn selves were recalculating the planned route to reduce the time we’d be out in the elements. We rode out to Cypress Bowl Rd via Rob’s infamous fence line, but bailed on the plans to ride all the way out to horseshoe bay and check out a variety of little connector trails in west van.

Well, we did carry on a bit further from Cypress, up and over a particularly brutal service road climb that dropped us into the Cypress Falls trail network.

After Cypress Falls it was a twisty road descent down to McKechnie park, a beautiful park in West Van that I hadn’t visited in a couple years.

Leaving McKechnie we anticipated the remaining twisty road descent down to the ocean, but noticed a trail off the road shortly after the park – which ended up being a straight-down gravel descent down to the rail tracks, the down a set of stairs and connected right up to the quiet seaside bike route without touching the main road – magic! It was only two blocks long, but it was a great find that I’ll definitely use as a link in the future.

We stopped for sandwiches (and a Märzen) en route to retrieving our mini keg – successfully!

Once we had the keg in hand, we started to scope for a good restful place to enjoy it. After our river-front spot wasn’t quite right, we decided to bring it over the bridge to enjoy in Stanley Park.

However Graham’s derailleur had other plans, exploding as we climbed up to the bridge deck. It even ripped a spoke out of the rim, so instead of trying to rig up a single speed setup we just opened the keg right there on the bridge deck and afterwards, Graham loaded the helpless bike onto the front of a bus.

Not a particularly interesting ride, but a couple nice photos came from it so I’ve decided to upload. This was an after-work trip to Dageraad brewing, taking a noodley string of quiet residential streets out and the parkway back.

I thought I’d beat the weather, but I rode right into it – which provided some pretty dramatic skyline, at least.

The days are rapidly getting shorter and the hours of reliable daylight after work are over. As such, my weekday rides had become fewer and shorter, but this day I decided to ride to the mid-valley lookout in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve (LSCR) even though I knew I couldn’t complete the ride in daylight.

I’ve written about the LSCR, otherwise known as Seymour valley, numerous times. It’s accessed via Fisherman’s trail pictured above, which starts a 10km ride from my door. The trail to mid-valley is about 6km, closely following the Seymour river.

I wanted to see the state of the autumn colours in the forest, and for the first 2 or so km, there wasn’t much to report except the odd vine maple visible off the trail. The yards I passed to get to the trail were full of non-native cultivars bred for their beauty and these were regularly in bright autumn colours, but our native forests were largely still in business-as-usual shades of green.

That is, until I rounded a corner to this scene! A cluster of big leaf maples made my trip feel worthwhile already.

The trail is mostly double track as shown below, though there are a few sections of singletrack with a bit more technicality.

I arrived at the mid-valley lookout about 30 or 40 minutes before sunset, but the sun had mostly passed over the mountains at this point. I watched the sunlight creep up the mountainside on the other side of the valley, and the clouds start to turn pink and orange.

I spent some more time watching the light slowly fade before I figured I should make some progress out before the light fails entirely. I wanted a little bit of night riding, but preferably not the whole way.

Racing the light.. well not really racing at all.

I was down to the last kilometre or so by the time it was properly dark. Once I was out of the trees, I was treated to purple-blue clouds left over from the sunset.

A dry and relatively warm day warranted pulling out my un-fendered single speed Wombat for a ‘bridge to bridge’ loop. This loop, ridden clockwise in this case, is about 32-35km and mostly pretty flat.

The Wombat is my ‘just for fun’ bike, set up with a ~2:1 gear ratio which is a sweet spot between being okay to ride off-pavement without spinning out too quickly on the road. I can comfortable cruise at 22-25 kph which is as much speed as I need.

I rode to Beva Brewing because I knew I’d catch a pal who was riding home from camp there. We had some food and a beer together but then parted ways again afterwards; him to shower and me to toodle in the woods in search of early season salmon. Naturally, I took an unnecessarily inefficient route.

While I didn’t see any salmon (it was clearly too early), the early-autumn forest was lovely to exist quietly within.

Below are three distinct scenes from the ride from my river spot to the ocean. Each very lovely in its own regard.

And finally, as I neared home I was treated to a lovely display of rippled clouds.

This post is of just a rather typical local loop rather than a trip or grand adventure. It was a ‘scenic’ route that I took to one of my favourite local breweries, Dageraad, to meet some friends. The brewery is about 15km from my home if I take a direct route, but this wasn’t very direct.

One of the purposes of this ride was to trace along some of my favourite semi-urban natural areas and see how the early autumn colour was coming along. Late September around here means the show has begun, though is still a few weeks from peak foliage.

Above is a small conservation area surrounded by commercial buildings in Burnaby just west of Deer Lake, which is featured in the left two images below.

From there I wiggled over to the Cariboo Heights conservation area which is one of the most underrated gems of Burnaby. It is a beautiful and quiet forested area that as I understand, runs the risk of being developed. I sure hope not. It’s one of my favourite places.

Now that I know there’s a website and a volunteer org for this unprotected forest, I might just have to get involved. As it is, I try to do my part by maintaining these trails, having brought my folding saw and cleared a few trees downed over the path.

The above images show a curated beauty, but worth noting there is also a fair share of pushing and the odd staircase. Definitely worthwhile though. The route crosses Cariboo Rd (yes, spelled correctly) onto an old rail bed (active from 1911 until 1953) that connects to New West.

Exiting the forest, it was not long before I was at Dageraad with a lovely slow-poured Belgian ale in hand.

From there I rode with the pack of pals back to town, with a stop on the pedestrian bridge below to share a smoked lager that a buddy had brought.