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.
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