…the saga continues on….. i’m upsizing the photos so they look nicer, which may mean some more websites…!

http://ginman2.wordpress.com

Andrew, Sebastian and I decided we would head to Pemberton for some pedally riding this weekend. Pemberton is about 30-40 mins north of Whistler along Highway 99.

Loading up the trusty Escort Wagon for the 4th weekend in a row…

Looking at the trail map – this would be a common theme for the next two days.

bikes.

Freakboy…..

awesome terrain…..

Looking back over the Pemberton Valley

More great scenrey

My new bike…. well 2nd hand… I’ve already got upgrades/changes in mind to make it more to my liking…. The rear wheel is a DH beast and weighs a Ton!…. longer seatpost, granny gear on the front, lighter tires etc etc.. the list goes on!

We parked at the Gravel Pit – for obvious reasons. Sebastian being a kid.

Pemberton, and the cool mountains in the background.

Camping with bears… hmm….

Mother bear, and two cubs…. yeah, the worst combination…. =0

Collecting firewood… the hard way!

Start of the fire…. and our campsite.

Fire!.

Morning fire – we burnt so much wood, it was still going in the morning!…. yeah, it is getting colder.

Early morning, on the road back into the town for Macca’s for breakfast… much to Sebastians disgust!….

Great morning…

shooting pics out of the car window!

should have stoppped roadside to take these!

such a small town. but is has McD’s

Mountains.

Did someone say Hashbrowns?

nice cowboy architecture.

Back at the Gravel Pit… getting ready for some more jungle riding/bush bashing and granite rock riding!

Check out the density… awesome.

Rocks, stream.

Some Freeriding structures…. would have been nice if it were drier, and i had my demo9 here..

This was like 4m high!

Some trails were signposted..

That trusty map.

Moss on Granite – don’t get this back at home…

Check out the lookout!

Some parts were steep….

Looking back across the valley…

Well, this topic is often talked about amongst friends/family/work colleagues.

I’ve managed to find a nice second hand bike for riding/pedaling up hills etc – something a bit more suited to the riding on my back doorstep. And finally with some Canadian dollars in my bank account, i can afford it i guess…… and after the 50 hour week i had last week, i guess i’m looking forward to some nice pedally riding!!!

Hopefully this will be the last big purchase before the winter/snow arrives..(cue skis) it is already getting darker each week, 8pm would be about the latest you could ride in the Forrest now!

Anyway – My new bike is a .243 steel framed hardtail bike, made for freeriding apparently. the frame is about 6lbs which is right up there in terms of weight! This aint no light XC racing machine. Thats about all i need to say.

We have 6 bikes in our flat at the mo!! – two of mine, two are Megans, and one other is her bf’s new toy – a Transition Bottlerocket, 5.5inch trail bike in BABY BLUE…. rather spiffy.

The cheapest bike would be the white one in the corner, not actually mine – but bought for $10 off a homeless guy some months ago, not by me!! on loan from last weekends efforts post-bbq….. Long story, won’t go there, seen some drunken times.

Andrew, Sebastian and I are planning on going away to Pemberton for riding this weekend, hopefully the springtime weather and showers stay away!!

So yeah, work/life balance? – Trying to restore balance to the force, the pendulum seems to swing week by week at the mo…. Hope to have some good pics from this coming weekend.

Ciao for now.

Long weekend. Camping and fly fishing in a Provincial Park, about 2 hours east of Vancouver – Andrew, Didier and myself were up for the fishg, and Sebastian and Kerstin were coming along to do a massive Hike.

On the road – Saturday morning. 5 of us in Andrews Trusty Ford Escort Wagon… Fully Loaded!

Silver Lake. Gorgeous!…. This is BC.

Reflections

and more

Dropping off Sebastian and Kerstin.

Hiking into the river.. about an hour going slow.

Check out those trees!

scenery

Classic Andrew and Didier……

First glimpse of the Skagit River… home for the next two days and nights… We set up camp on the river bed..

Nice.

some small log-jams.

Andrew having a fish in the pool.

Didiers first Rainbow Trout.

The view from the back of our camp – Ice Field in the distance.

This was SERIOUS log jams…..

Andrew checking out the water

Didier whip’n it out.

Fire

Dinner….

Sky, fire and man.

Green Nymph, with a REAL Orange spider having a nosey

Spending time walking upstream…. We fished and walked 9 hours on Saturday!…. took us over and hour to talk back to camp via the normal walking trail… we had gone way way upstream!

Didier fishing

Andrew checking out the water

My 10 yo cactus bag, and appropriate footwear for walking in the river for 9 hours… NOT. sore soles today/this week i reckon!

yep, there is one in there!

yes! she’s on!

Happy fisherman. 2nd fish for the day

Andrews on one…..

Even happier!.. Long time coming.

Back at camp after a long, long day

Packing on out.. on the road early to avoid the traffic.

Bye bye Provincial Park. Till next time.

First weekend and ROAD TRIP in Andrew’s newly acquired Ford Escort Wagon!

Overcast typical Vancouver Sunday morning, Andrew, Didier, Chris and myself piled into Andrews wagon, 3 bikes slung off the back and headed over to Horseshoe Bay which is around the corner from West Vancouver – onto the Ferry and across to the Start of the Sunshine Coast for some biking….. and some fishing for Didier.

Roberts Creek – a few kms down the road from the ferry terminal.

Gravel Road towards the TRAILS.. apparently some of KRANKED 6 was filmed here… Ben Boyko’s session in the woods i think?

What better way to start but on a stunt trail!

Andrew on a skinny….. reasonably high this one, and a curved for good measure.

lining it up…. tricky…

Drop on Right, steep roll into a sharp corner on the left.. good times.

OK – getting big now on ‘Janets Jungle’ – this was a bit too big for me!!!….

Scale?

Onto this awesome track called Cunning Stunts… Longest off the dirt/skinny/stunt trail i’ve ever seen… must be 100 m long or more, on logs/seesaws, rises, drops.. all good!

This was a highlight – called a discombobulator!! three teeter tottors joined together at their ends….. damn hard eh… we gave it a good go…

This saw edge was difficult, and slightly uphill.. it puts you off…

Looking from the coast..

View from the sunshine coast later in the arvo – lining up for the 30 minute ferry crossing… quite busy at the terminal! but nice view.

Nice…..

After a early morning, and a nice day riding, this sign on the ferry was rather amusing…. North Americans are funny people!!…

Thats right.. back to the grind-stone, on the gravy-train.. whatever you want to call it… I’m doing my engineering again! Had two days doing some design on a ‘test building’ exercise – apparently most new employees have to give this a crack… interesting…

Hopefully get onto some real project work shortly…. after passing this ‘test’ that is!

First impressions after 2 days looking/working through some of the Canadian Concrete Code – quite easy to use, almost text-book like with worked examples, but the code section is very ‘brief’ in nature…….. and generally not as academic/prescribed as our new Concrete Code in NZ. Some things/design assumptions and equations worry me a little bit – like shear steel spacing requirements looking a bit open, quite a few design charts when designing by hand..

Yet to investigate seismic design provisions, so that will be interesting to compare and use what i know to decipher what they are doing over here…

Anyway, this is sounding like ‘Dear Diary’, not travel holiday blogging, so i’d better stop now before I fall asleep too!

Might be heading up to Whistler this weekend.. Andrew bought a new 2nd hand car this week.. Ford Escort Wagon (looks like a Ford Laser) – pics up next time!

Well, it depends how you define ‘lazy’…… It’s been a week since my last blog, and i’ve been up to heaps, but not a lot if that makes any sence?!

I left Whistler on a grey morning, back on the trusty Greyhound Bus along the Sea to Sky Highway 99….. this road as i’ve mentioned previously is getting serious work done on it in preparation for 2010 olympics.

This bridge is an interesting one. Kind of doesn’t fit into it’s surroundings.. you come around a corner and BANG it is there… maybe better suited in an urban environment. OH, i also had a FRONT seat in the bus on the way back…

The highway has work going on everywhere – you can’t go a minute without seeing a road cone, big machinery or piles of grade/rocks for the road.

Anyway, there were gorgeous views getting closer to West Vancouver…. all the wee islands off the coast.

So that was last Wednesday… what have i done since then? Slept in, contacted more companies about work, Facebooked, emailed, Spammed, rode my bike, fixed other peoples bikes.. …. small amounts of shopping, more walking around wanky parts of town (Yaletown – nice restaurants!), took in a few more touristy sights… cooked some meals for my ’shelter providers!’…..drank Beer…. sat in the sun (when it showed itself!)….

Photo below is standing on the Cambie St Bridge, looking WEST towards the expanse of Condos/apartment buildings dotted in Yaletown… I keep thinking it looks like Hong Kong, or what i think HK looks like from photos i’ve seen!

Canada Place – the White Pointy sailed thing on the waterfront of downtown….

They are building another interesting building next to Canada Place – Apartments i think, and some other use as well… maybe.. i’ll do some more research.

Float Plane Landing in the Harbour. There is ALWAYS a new CRUISE ship docking at Canada place almost every second day.. sometimes more!.. I saw 3 of them yesterday… it is Cruise Ship Season.

Canada Place, looking north towards “The City of North Vancouver” – mountains in the background.

The Trusty SEABUS…. every 15 minutes throughout the day….

Riding with Andrew on Fromme again earlier this week. We tried last week, but we both got FLAT’s in the same place.. only one spare tube, so i ran out!…. anyway, this mission was much better, but in FADING light….Andrew and I seem to always have that…. it is starting to get darker earlier now……. 9pm and it is pretty dim…. we finished around 8pm and that was just good…!

Damn skinny skinny below… man, that’s basically Trials riding!…..

Andrew in a blur…..!

Ok, so on Tuesday I decided to take Malcolms (uni classmate, ex Van, now in London) old 12 speed Road Bike for a bit of a spin over to West Vancouver, through the suburbs, to see what things looked over in ‘the richest suburb per capita’ in Canada supposedly!….. Damn, there were some nice houses, or shall i say MANSIONS… I didn’t take any pics of them for fear of being prosecuted online.. =)

Top and below – Photos looking WEST towards Lighthouse Park, Point Atkinson.

This photo is looking south over English Bay, towards UBC (University of British Columbia Campus)

Stanley Park, on the tip of the Downtown Peninsula, and the Lions Gate Bridge (again…)

This was a wharf/jetty near Ambleside Park… looking West.

Big Clock at Ambleside Park

Ambleside Beach.

So yeah, a nice day really.. ride took me about 2.5 hrs… didn’t quite make it out to Horseshoe Bay which was where i was vaguely heading, but i blame the crazy BIKE ROUTE signs which had me wiggling in and out, up and down the suburb out there!! Capped off the day with a late lunch – RED Burrito…. mmm…..

The last couple of days has been a bit more business – checked out setting up my own ‘company/sole proprietorship’ if i were to do contract work for companies, found out some rules here about Professional Liability Insurance (basically need to be Registered Canadian Engineer to cover my ass), basically agreed a starting date with my new employer, and more or less arranged a flat in North Vancouver!…. Pretty small, so don’t all rush over here at once!… unless u don’t mind setting up a tent on the roof-top patio!

Done some bed-hunting (not that type, get your mind out of the gutter!…)…. online at www.ikea.ca looked at some frames/bases and mattress’s… not sure what i’ll do yet!

So – today has been semi-productive. I promised Sebastian i would pull apart and fix/service and butcher his RockShox Psylos he has lying around. Him and Andrew reckon they are stuffed, but i know these are nice forks as my old friend Marcus used to have them!

Anyway – got fork oil, MARINE grease and some Degreaser from the local ‘Canadian Tire’ store. Funny name, they are like Mitre10 or Bunnings, but you wouldn’t know that from the name! For such a massive shop, i was disappointed with their selection of DEGREASER.. but this can of FOAMING degreaser caught my eye…. so i thought ‘why not?’

So, an hour or so later, i had them re-built. Stripped, cleaned them all up, lubed it all in the right places, and yeah they are pretty good!… wouldn’t mind them on my bike really.. thats if i had a 2nd bike… =(

OK…. i’m NOT a fan of this degreaser….. it goes everywhere!.. and doesn’t EAT the dirt/grime/grease as much as the normal stuff – so less POTENT… probably because of the foaming additives in it….. hey, but don’t listen to me cos i’m no rocket scientist!

anyway, I recommend sticking to the normal stuff…. Engine Degreaser, or all purpose stuff….. the best stuff back in NZ is the CRC degreaser, yellow can, red CAP…. as it seems to leave a nice residue on your bike/parts… you can actually AIM it too as it comes out in a stream, not a spray.

anyway – here’s the finished product. NO Vice grips or butchery was used on this rebuild…!… They had actually SOLD OUT of the Vice grips i wanted down at Canadian tire…. So will look out for some.

If you are not on Facebook yet, get on to it!.. and join my newly created “Vise Grip Appreciation Society” Group…. Best Tool Ever!

So – back to WORK on Monday…. should be good!

I had such a massive day of riding on Monday (11am to 8pm) – that i was pretty tired Tuesday morning. I faffed around at the Lodge until about 1pm, talking to Brett, another aussie fulla who is on a working holiday visa also… surprise surprise…

Anyway – off to the park again, to do a little bit of riding….. or so i thought….!

I thought i would do the touristy thing and take the gondola right up to the top of Whistler Mountain – it was a little cloudy today, so probably not the best day, but i thought i should better make use of the season pass before heading back to Van.

There is a  lodge/restaurant thing at the top of the gondola, and some other sights to see…. this pic is a view across the valley over to Blackcomb mountain… the other mountain!

The top of the whislter village gondola – Looking into the “glacier bowl” which is situated just beneath the Peak of Whistler Mountain – clouded over today…. oh well, there will be another time!

More Blackcomb.

They have the Trademark, icon, symbol of the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Olympics up there outside the lodge!…. reminds me of the dude i used to make out of stacked Mahjong blocks..!! nice one.

They (Intrawest – the company who owns the skiing/accom/resort etc) are building this MASSIVE cable gondola thing which is to be strung between the two mountains…. only four towers, the cable will span a max of over 3km unsupported.. and a whole heap of other ‘worlds first facts’… pretty cool
, but kind of stupid, as stringing the thing from peak to peak doesn’t help access more terrain, but probably more of a touristy thing at the end of the day.

some construction photos – one of the foundations for the towers…. hmm… concrete right?

A nice timber roof in the roundhouse lodge.

so yeah, a bit cloudy as you can see, but still pretty massive.

There’s loads of activity going on on the mountain, loads of heavy equipment moving earth and stuff. From what i can gather, this pic is of maybe the downhill ski course or something, as it was steep, and went on for ages!

Cloud in the Valley between Whistler and Blackcomb

Well, after coming back down the gondola, i got back on the bike and did maybe 4-5 runs on the lower mountain… that was enough to convince me that i just wasn’t up for it today!!.. man, my hands were so sore/cramped that it was hard to pull the brakes, and hold onto the bars when it got rough…. yesterday had taken it’s toll!!

So yes, you can have too much of a good thing… but nothing a day of rest can’t solve!!

Anyway – i thought i would phat out and treat myself to a nice Banana, cream, nutella crepe….. mmmmm….. i had been walking past this place for the last 10 days, and thought it would be rude not to sample ones delights……… a lot better than pizza by the slice!… oh, this was just heaven!

So …… thats about it!…. no big fan fare, no big last crash/endo off the dream drop, no cheerleaders or hot chics handing me water bottles…… sore, but happy hands leaving the bike park………. until my next weekend trip up here!

yeah, there are plenty of odd-jobs, hotels, hospotality going everywhere in Whistler.. they can’t find enough people… so, if any of you want to take a break and live the mountain lifestyle… it is all here and waiting….. girls – remember, 6 guys to every one girl… you do the math!

My last weekend in Whistler just so happened to coincide with the Canadian BBQ Championships, held in Whistler Creekside – which is where i was staying.

$5 on the Sunday gave you an “all you can eat/sample” from the competitors tents. This was pretty good value actually – The competition had 4 courses/disciplines, to be handed in/presented on the hour. Mike, an aussie from Perth at the lodge, also on working holiday, joined me to check out all the fuss!

11am – Pork Belly

12pm – Beef Brisket

1pm – Chicken

2pm – Ribs

Apologies in advance if any of these photos make you hungry…

Some of the smokin’machines were impressive!.. gives you a new appreciation for BBQ-ing!

ok – first meat shot – this is the Beef Brisket – 10-12hours of slow smoke-cooking…. not kidding eh, these guys/gals stayed up all night stoking their bbq machines to the right temp for this competition!…. i haven’t got any photos of the pulled pork bellies, but they were oh so nice and tender eh,…. great flavours too!

I don’t know how many entries there were, but i’d guess around 30 odd competitors? mmm beef brisket…

I got my old digital camera out for these pics today – can you tell the difference from the previous blog photos?… anyway – this is serious competition – they pull, pick and slice pices up and present them in a white styro-foam container, on a bed of lettuce… then it goes upstairs to the judges… From what i can tell, the competitors look at the colour, texture, tenderness, how easy it pulls/holds together etc etc….

Judges upstairs – and a crazy looking ROCK smoker/bbq thing above.

Ok – some teams went to great lengths – this guy below had 3 beef briskets done overnight, then got four of his lads/mates to taste test them all, before deciding which one to cut 8-9 slices of and present to the judges!…. what happens to the rest of the meat? it gets cut up and given away to the lucky taste testers! (US!)…. mmm…

yeah, this is the 3-brisket guy..

slicing and spicing his MEAT.

the standard styro box and control lettuce.

ok – i sampled about 5-6 different briskets. some were tender, soft, sweet and juicy. Others were a bit chewy and obviously not quite there… a fine ART after 10-12 hours of cooking eh… makes you realize that this is more than just meat on the grill. And these briskets are HUGE eh!….. must be fun trying to do this for the first time, it could come out all charcoal, or underdone…

The event was held at “Dustys” bar in Creekside – the only real pub in Whistler Creek. had Kokanee on Tap which was good….

Most teams were TEAMS of several guys.. some of the typical big fullas, but surprisingly not all standing around drinking beer!.. this is serious folks. Some good heated banter between teams, and guys complimenting each others ‘meat’. Wow Chad, your chicken looks gorgeous!…. classic funny…!

This guy was a one man band, with his wife doing some things on the side.. he must really love his BBQ to have this wicked set out/trailer all to his own. note fire box, to cooking chamber, to exhaust!

butter up your ribs?

Well, the pork and beef were the all-nighters. The chicken and ribs were said to take about an hour and a half or there abouts.. these three puppies are sitting on plates with a can of Kokanee up them!… presumably with spices/seasonings to infuse them.

ok – so these chooks got cut and and Re-smoked from what i could tell…

ok – so the next team below cracked me up BIG-TIME. there were like 6 guys all beavering over the chicken that they had cooked. Seriously intense discussion over colour, cuts, flavour, texture etc! check it out.

Can you see the intensity!

ok, so he has cut the breast, and now aligning the thing for presentation….

now i think he is cutting up another one to CHECK if it is better or worse than the one they think is the ‘money breast’!

right – into the styrofoam/lettuce….. seriously – they fussed over this for 5-10 minutes – placing lettuce in the right place, not to shadow the chicken, arranging the parsley, man, fuss fuss fuss!!….. all good, i don’t know who won – but their chickentasted pretty good,kind of like… chicken!

ok – people were lining up around the place for the hell of it by this stage, all got meat on their minds!

What better way else to waste away the day, but go for another dip in Alta lake -  It was pretty busy, loads of ‘people’ hanging out. I forgot to mention it was a long weekend, with BC day on Monday – so a few more visitors in town. After a good few hours swimming and pissing around, I went and saw the new Bourne Ultimatum movie with Mike – man, great movie, can’t go on how good of an action flick it was. That was my lazy Sunday!

Ok – Bears? This was on Monday!….mummy and a cub – well, 3 actually in the fields between the two main chairlifts.

The photo below is the construction of the “sliding centre” for the 2010 winter olympics!… luge, bobsleigh, skeleton etc….. cool eh. Just like the one i saw at Calgary!

ok – looking a bit tired and jaded – this must have been on Monday – i had an AWESOME day on the hill – 11am to 8pm, riding the upper double black technical trails – Original Sin, Goats Gully, In Deep, Facrobat into Too Tight…. all good!

ok, i’m not as cute as a bear….

for your viewing pleasure – i’ve cropped the photos above (since i had the big camera), and i’m posting these up too! The photos above were taken at 350mm focal length – i.e MAX ZOOM… hence why the cropped photos look a bit soft. but you get the picture!

so cute eh.

ENJOY

Well, although these look cute, residents at Whistler need to take care of their rubbish/trash so as not to habitualize them – when bears discover rubbish, and houses mean food (easier than waiting for berries to ripen on a bush/tree (ahem!…Kurt………), they break in and starting ripping the place/fridge to pieces!.. no shite eh, there are stories in the papers, and these ‘conflict bears’ are often removed, or killed as they cannot unlearn their behaviour.

So there are special bins around the place, bear-proof, and lots of education/signage around about bear awareness…

Riding. Yes you can get too much of it…. but when it’s good, its REALLY GOOD!

Ok – so i’ve promised Bear photos.. !

nice huh

and bike photos.

signage> so you don’t get lost.

nice step up.

here he goes.

yep!

nice one..

some skills areas off the park, behind the car parks.

and more… these were pretty easy, but nice to give them a go… there were also dirt jumps, and skate park, and a bowl…

jumps – manm i took this photo the other day when i just wasn’t into the riding eh.. too much riding.. but these were nice jumps!

Bear #1 – man, 5 m away, thats how close this guy was from us!

yeah, in the trees…

looking around…?

lookin………….

…..and on the MOVE!

cool eh!

so i went for a swim down at Alta Lake… nice swimming lake, not too cold… this dude on a uni was riding along the barrier… impressive….!

all the way.

Lakeside – very Cliche MOVIE lake frontages… looking at some of the local papers, these houses go for $2.5M….. hmmm…

nice eh

more of the lake’s features…

me?

more lakeside… Gorgeous!

….

the jetty. No power boats or anything are allowed in this lake… thank god!…. very nice.

here’s a look at how Long/wide the barrier was -

hmm… about a hand span.

ok – well not soo exciting, but i’ve got a heap of photos from the weekend and stuff so stay tuned!…. Back to Vancouver tomorrow, so will put it up as soon as i can!

Vic