March kicked off with Leia’s birthday celebration in the park; March 1st is her (unofficial) birthday. This was her twelfth. We baked doggie biscuits and Aimée made a doggie cake, and a handful of our dog park friends showed up to celebrate with us.
The following day I headed out on the Bombadil for some forest time. I came across some vine maples in Stanley Park and climbed them like I would as a kid. They seem a lot smaller now! I carried on to North Van, up to Cleveland Dam by taking a variety of little cutty trails and quiet streets. I walked some of the no-bikes trails because they’re more lovely, then I continued to head uphill into the British Properties and to Millstream trail.
Millstream is a favourite trail of mine – it starts out as a smooth, wide dog walker type path but gradually narrows and roughens until you’re walking your bike – and then there’s two ravines, the second one twice as big and steep as the first. It’s a proper slog. Then, a hundred feet or so after the second one, you pop out at the Cypress Bowl Rd lookout, typically filled with tourists. It’s a heck of a juxtaposition with your past half hour.
From the lookout it remains fun and cheeky, with a pretty unknown trail leading down directly below the lookout along a creek.
Later in the week I went for an after-work ride to the end of the road that led down to the nearby refinery, simply because I realized I’d never been down there. It wasn’t very exciting, but I was treated to a lovely sunset on the way back out. It was a pretty brutal hill on the way back, but needless to say a fun descent too.
The dogs were doing well and the dog park has a certain beauty when it’s wet and cold and muddy… it’s also a lot more quiet. Mid-March also brought some warm sun and early blooms that gave promise of better weather to come. I was commuting on the Bike Friday regularly still as well.
On March 14 my buddy Zach from Seattle came up to pick up the Riv Susie from me. We built it up at Graham’s back yard that afternoon/evening, then went for a ride up the LSCR the following day. The weather was pretty cold and wet, but it was our only chance.
The rain was pretty light to start, and we rode up Fishermans’ trail and passed through the stretch that had washed out a few weeks prior – it was in a lot better shape now, having had some work done to repair it. We reached the marsh at the mid valley point, and the rain turned to snow while we stood there. It was beautiful, but I was not really that well prepared for how cold and wet it was. The snow gained momentum and started to accumulate rapidly. A chill set into me that I couldn’t shake, and my hands and feet were now painfully cold – so I focused on getting back out safely and didn’t take any photos for the last 15km of the ride.
The following day the weather was a lot nicer and I was a lot warmer – and ended up riding with Zach again, along with a few other friends, downtown, through Stanley Park, and to Kits for some beers along the beach. The early magnolias were coming out now, as well!
I started commuting on the Bombadil rather than the Bike Friday, coming to terms with the fact that I couldn’t fit all my bikes otherwise. I put the Bike Friday into the train bag it came with, and stuck it under the shelves in our small storage room. Before this I was squatting on an extra bike room spot, but this went against the building rules, so it wasn’t a permanent solution.
March 22nd, I headed out for my first “road ride” of the year on the Hillborne, which was just over 80km through UBC, Richmond, and Burnaby – in addition to Vancouver. The early blooms were becoming more commonplace and I was soaking it all in. I rode out to Iona spit, a popular birding area, and spent a while just observing nature. This area is quite interesting because it’s so different than most of the natural areas around Vancouver. The region adjacent to the beach is primarily pine trees, an uncommon sight for Vancouver generally.
I also got up-close with some small flora and used my macro camera settings to photograph a miniature world that is easy to not notice.
Here are a couple examples of what I saw when standing, versus what I saw when crouched down and up close with these small plants:
I crossed back into Vancouver and headed east to New Westminster, passing through the southern edge of Burnaby along the way. I swung by Steel & Oak brewing for a couple beers to-go and some much needed fries. There is a bike route that travels along the transit line from there to my place, but I managed to end up on overgrown trails instead – even on what was meant to be a “road ride”. I guess some things never change.
More time spent at the dog park .. this is what I’m doing every day, an hour or more. Here Leia can be seen trying to get Sunny to play – she is clearly pretty comfortable with Sunny! Sunny just loves her ball, though. We also – finally! – took the girls to the forest in north van. Needless to say they loved it.
The final entry for March was the Bike Portage Club ride that I hosted on the 30th. The route was Millstream Loop – the ride I did near the beginning of the month was partly to scout conditions for this group ride. I got a nice group of friends out and we carried our bikes and had a lot of laughs. By the end, we felt like a band of 12 year olds exploring the neighbourhood on our bikes.
That about does it for March! My ride stats were 470km and 34 hours on the bike. I am so grateful I can manage more than an hour a day on average out on my bike. That is the stat that is by far the most important to me – the time spent. It’s less important how far I go… and how fast doesn’t even register. This is a good life!
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