The Great GPS Disaster of 2023

Yes I lost yet another GPS and it was a last minute game plan to keep it in my jersey pocket that caused it's fate. My phone was on the same pocket and I can only assume it flew out at one point taking the photos for this blog. Damn you Lonebiker, damn you to hell!

Other than the GPS which was a huge bummer the ride was quite great. A Turner park take off was a bit of a slower pace than the usual but how the hell would I know now? 

sniff sniff… sorry just had to step back to have a little cry.

Thats all I got kids. I'll be pouting about this one for a while.

I rode back and checked here and on the bridge

is it here?

could it be here? 

how abouts-a- right here!

i thought this picture would have different text when i took it
now all i think is 'my poor gps..'

 

Thoughts on Todays Ride

C

No I am not middle fingered saluting the new sexy gravel bike, I am giving the finger to the day as I was tired and lethargic most likely brought on by the end of a long week.

Tired and sapped with zero energy I parked at the old school Mill Creek spot and departed slowly into the ravine and crossed the Low level and climbed midway up the ravine to the parking lot for the Convention Center… 

Is it still called the Convention Center or am I embarrassingly showing my age again?

The heat and high humidity did not help one bit and I think was the main reason for my fall. It's that thick July air that I loathe so deeply.. 

I had a come to Jesus moment near the Tawatinâ bridge and declared the ride done. I crossed and very slowly made my way back with my tail tucked and in a bad mood. This isn't how I wanted to start the week off. Bummer dudes and dudettes…bummer. 

Beer Friday (Monday Edition)Leduc Brewing, Leduc County Lager

 Well we are finally throwing in the towel on Bike Month after an absolute terror of a night where I was up  wide awake until five in the morning where I think I fell asleep at about 5:30 and was awoken quickly to many alarms set to try and kick me back to day schedule which I had forgotten about after being up all night. I believe I woke up around eleven thirty and have been in a state of sub conscious ever since but cannot sleep after trying to nap. 

Fuck you nightshift. 

After seeing how my driving was doing driving to Subway after slaving away at making spaghetti for what I thought would be a ride in my glorious valley. So we found Leduc Brewing which so happens to be the same county the headquarters of this here blog resides in. I am not sure how long they have been around but noticed they have a taproom and think it is something worth checking out one day after a roll around the lake.

Leduc County Lager looks like it is on of their flagship beers and we opened and poured it and admired a dirty golden beer that that looked very tempting after an absolute shit day. A smell of wheat and dry hops with traces of popcorn somehow made it's way to be sniffed ever so slightly. 

The first sip had me a bit taken back so then I had another sip and deemed this one a quite delicious. A definite taste of wheat made ,e quite happy when I thought this could have come off a farm right outside our townA bit of an aftertaste that leaves a good feeling in the throat after having a sip, Each sip is quite refreshing and it was a shame when it ran out while I sipped away trying to think of things to say about this one. 

I'm tired ok… 

This beer gets 4 suds out of 5.

Local and Wet

 

I didn't even get one picture on this ride and got out and rode cause Bike Month is a cruel woman and I rode on another what would be non ride day. So hooray. The photo was taken after starting this and realizing I had no picture so I ran to the street. 

Sorry, not much else to say other than it being very wet. 

Localish

 Nothing special to report here. A roll around Telford Lake on another local ride which I had to drive to get to so do I call it local? 

Thats a hard question for me right now as I am dead to the world tired making thinking a challenge.

Well thank Bike Month for getting me out today. The couch was a much better looking option as I was leaving but I forced it to happen and in the end I feel like I won despite powering out quickly and limping most of the way.

Local

 Yes I failed dramatically at ride every day in June but you know what? 

I don't care. 

Night shift can be a real kick to the centre of the butthole sometimes and this week was no exception. A poor switch over to nights kicked things off and I finally switched over with two nights left. Fook me…. 

Just a close and short ride and had to get over ten km's just to spite the wife who said I don't have even 5 km in me… 

She was right, she is quite smart actually. I believe it was the appeal of the new bike that prolong the kilometres a bit. That bike is a real delight to roll around on folks, that's all I have to say. 

Busy trails cause of Friday and a music festival. The goal is to ride every day off in honour of bike month so some short bullshit rides like these might happen. I missed the first day off because of fatigue so I will have to have a two ride day somewhere.. 

Will it happen? Cue the suspense..

Happy Monday

Yes, we failed miserably on the ride every day in June challenge. 

So here is a song.. 

Devon

Well damnit kids in the morning I wanted to ride quite badly but could not due to last minute days off ending bullshit and the ride was pushed till 3ish by then my ride desire failed badly after visiting South Common and a bunch of big box stores looking for a new weed trimmer. 

I was with my youngest daughter so I enjoyed every minute but you know… we were still at big box stores and by the end my spirit was broken and I was home putting together a weed trimmer and finding out they didn't supply the hardware. Fuck you Canadian tire. I had  good energy and Canadian Tire ruined it.

It was a last minute game time decision to go to Devon all in an order to avoid that deadly Edmonton rush hour.as I was already in a bad mood because of the weed trimmer bullshit.  I wanted to go somewhere flat and like a complete moron I chose to ride in Devon. The hilliest of all the hilliest.

My spirit was broken with thoughts of work ringing through my brain and the oncoming onslaught of hills I was getting myself into. I parked at the bike park and headed into the woods towards the golf course and campground. I found some ok singletrack and then found the stairs they dubbed 'fire legs' cause of the long steep climb up. 

Welcome to Devon.

The multi use I used to get to the campground was somewhat gentle with very steep descents and climbs. I had a series of steep climbs and I tapped out when I saw an exit to suburbia up above and I took it almost as fast as a politician taking a bribe.

An insanely steep and straight downhill called Roots and Ruts took me to the campground where I explored a bit and climbed out into suburbia avoiding the insane amount of steep climbs and rode down the Hoots Down Blue trail which was the most enjoyable part of the ride. 

Nights start tomorrow. The plan is to ride at midnight tonight and if it's longer than 8 km I might post on here so… 

I know you all will be on the edge of your seats.

Thats how you end a proper blog post kids. With suspense!

Twenty Four More

Six rides into this ride every day challenge I took on in Strava and I am feeling pretty good. A Telford Lake run was on the menu after some soreness from yesterdays 30km plus ride. The most annoying thing about the whole challenge is the alerts I get on my phone whenever someone passes me on kilometres ridden which I assume will be most people once nightshift starts which is coming up quicker than the next political scandal. 

I had taken notifications off most apps as it is mostly gibberish bullshit. 

Yes that's right. Get off my lawn!

Telford lake rules kids. I have fallen head over heels for our close neighbours fine lake and infrastructure around it. They really did quite well. 

Yay Leduc!

Mountain bikes would suck there so if you are reading this and getting excited. Don't. It's a paved trail around a nice lake. It is well maintained and is worth a visit if you are local. If you fly in from Europe just to exclusively ride Telford Lake  than you should be locked into your local mental institution. It's nice and all but not worth that kind of attention. It's nice for the locals ok… It's quite swell in that regard but you international travellers head to the mountains. 

The bike is still super fun to ride and for the first time in my riding career I get road bikes and their epic speed and how good it feels to corner tight and fast. And I am not riding a road bike. 

Octane One killed it with this bike.it is beyond fun to ride. And so is riding bikes in Leduc. For the second time, way to go Leduc!

No Plan, Just Ride

I made it further than I thought I would on a day I picked a starting point but had no set plan on where to go with some fleeting thoughts on what to do.

*Ride as much singletrack as I can on the drop bar Polish wonder bike.

*See how far I could go on a bridge run.

*Start in the valley, climb out and ride north into the country. 

The ride ended up being paved, gravel and some singletrack through Terwillegar and crossed every bridge until I got to Hawerlak where I wanted to investigate the destruction… I mean construction the city is doing closing the whole area for two to three years. I skirted around the outside and soon was pushed into a path that lead to a steep staircase which took me to car hell as the commute home was beginning. Saskatchewan drive took me to the Uof A farm and I finally found the old school paved path in the middle of apartment Armageddon. 

The climb up Whitemud ravine is still as evil as I remembered it. 

The Cameron Heights start took me below the Henday and into Terwillegar where I saw my first of many many many e-bikes throughout the day. Did I emphasize there were lots? I did see lots of older people on them which is great because they are getting out but I did wonder if one of those behemoths break down what that person will do. I could not imagine one of those old people trying to pedal that monstrosity back. 

The ride featured lots of stops where I took my time. Sub concisely I would fumble with things to prolong the time spent resting. Was it my brain telling me I'm tired? 

fenced off cause the city is chock full of morons

getting out of hawerlak was this lame 

Turner Park Rides begin Again

A return to the wonder that is Fort Saskatchewan singletrack on a very sore set of legs on a very nice Sunday morning which made me think I was batshit crazy for showing up knowing the trails could be full of those weekend warrior cubicle dwelling maniacs. 

That was not the case and a pretty much wide open trail system greeted me as I rolled the titanium wonder bike through slick and fun singletrack making me grin like a maniac high on bath salts shopping naked at a local Wal Mart.

Not a lot to say as I have enough posts from this fine land.The start again at Turner Park was quite awesome to get to do again after a couple years. A run in with Jason and Gord of the famed Lonebiker Brethren lore happened and judging from the gps routes they rode the whole system twice.

Nice.

progress but with no open bridge still

showing up those 15 year olds that hang out here with old man awesomeness

* credit jason? for bottom pic but he is the one launching 

Power Out @ 6.06km

 Sore and a bit lethargic after yesterdays quarry run I started at Goldstick park and rode the last section of Hustler and then found GoldDigger and continued my westward trek with intensions of crossing Messier (Capilano)  bridge and heading further west after. 

It was the climb out on Low Class and Higher Education that made me decide to tuck my tail deep and run home on the nice and easy paved roads all the while riding a big travel all mountain bike. 

Yes I was that guy today. 

The Altitude performed flawlessly today. No skipping issues on the power climbs… wait a second, I didn't do a lot of power climbs. 

Tomorrow sounds like a titanium hardtail kind of day. Giddy up. 

Quarry Me With Drop Bars Baby

The second ride on the Polish wonder bike and I am not crippled. *high fives self. 

It was an exploratory type of ride today as a new bridge is supposed to start construction real soon and I had heard a good chunk of this trail may be in jeopardy for a couple of years which is a bad thing that will result in a good thing so I don't know what to really think. 

New bridge you may ask? Yes, it will link up from the lower quarry golf course across the river to Riverside Nature Trail which will eventually take you all the way to Fort Saskatchewan and beyond. 

An intern fell out of his chair and hit her head after I typed that she was so excited.

The gravel bike still is super fun to ride and I don't think that passion it gives me will ever go away. I glided all the way from the Science Park to the end up top in record Strava time. Yes I sound like I am bragging but believe me that is not the case. 

It's the bike, not me, I am a gross sweaty almost fifty year old fat slob who drinks too much beer. The bike just goes fast and it is super fun. An epic wipeout does await around the corner somewhere and it's probably going to be nasty. It's not that I am riding reckless, I am just too confident on this bike.

A sign along the way warned of the coming closure and to my joyful little heart it was not closed and I could go all the way out and back. I know some people keep going  and some lady rider asked me today about it and I could not give her an answer. Oh how embarrassing. 

Another top notch ride and I hate to keep going on about the new ride but you know what? I'm tickled pink with this new bike kids. 

a shame we will lose this but the end result will be quite kickass

Welcome June

Bike month has officially started. A month I used to make a big deal of back years ago and thanks to working shitty shift work jobs the June passion had dwindled some time ago.

Well thanks to a Strava challenge that came my way I joined the June challenge which means ride every day the month of June. A mountain that seems quite high to look at when standing at the bottom looking up but you know what kids?  I made my first ride today back on the new gravel bike and I didn't get crippled. 

Win win.

Night shift will be an animal that I will have to conquer and it is a week away. I think short five kilometre rides will be the standard which will not be written up on here as they will be three kilometres short of the Lonebiker minimum to make it a ride post. I will post likely do a post on all seven rides when the rotation is over. 

Anyways, I don't want to mention work as it just ended and days off have begun. Happiness is high on the charts currently and I decided to take the Octane One after a slight handlebar adjustment  and weeks of doing core exercises. 

I was unsure of where to go and ended up starting at the Old Strathcona High School again and took the closed lane of Calgary trail north (heading south) towards the river and then followed the street car tracks before dipping into the valley as a potty break had to go down. 

I rode to the closed Hawerlak and was reminded how annoying that will be for the next two years. It seems like there is always something. I also read a tale that they have a good chunk of the quarry ride shut down due to the new pedestrian bridge construction. 

The ride was ok and the bike is still awesome. It lurches ahead with each pedal stroke like the Moots does and is still fun as hell to ride. Passing cars in the bike lane on 76th was the highlight of the day.