Golden Thanksgiving

A pretty decent Fall mountain bike roll through glorious golden Fort Saskatchewan singletrack. Temperatures were pretty much perfect and a somewhat busy start with riders right after the Turner park drop in. I usually never see people on this part of the trail so I thought it was a bad sign that the trails would be busy which wasn't the case. 

There was a cool older couple not on e-bikes in front of me for a bit and they rode all the skinny features. It was pretty cool to see and a shout big out to that cool couple. 

The trails were tacky and a tad over tacky in some sections of climbs and my weak ass rear tire struggled but we made it up. That being said the power wasn't quite there in the legs on the whole ride. I got sloppy in the end and the roots owned me. 

It was kind of a pathetic way to end the day. Still a top notch ride though.

Last Ride Resort, Leduc

 A quiet and cool ride through the usual local but not local ride in Leduc around Telford Lake and then looped around the cool airplane park named after a silly politician. 

It was quiet... somewhat. A surprise wedding picture shoot and a blind corner had me blow through a wedding party shoot a bit too quickly. 

Whoops. 

Them leaves man. Glad they are going away.

Other than that it was quite uneventful. Sad to think this night was meant for an October into the dark Fort Saskatchewan foray. It could have been amaze.The way the day worked out it turned into this... sigh. 

Still better than the couch. Hooray bikes. 

Beer Friday. Whiteclaw Brewing, Tomorrow We Ride Hefeweizen

Welcome back to Beer Friday properly done on an actual Friday but not a post work Friday as some sort of insane bout of insomnia hit and I was up all night. More nightshift flashbacks? It doesn't make sense although the week has been a bad one for sleep wich screwed up some potentially great rides.  Anyways, I still feel like a bag of assholes so let's get to this beer review already.

This Hefeweizen was picked appropriately as tomorrow we hope to resume operations that require pedalling. It could be the first night ride of the season so we will see. 

Yikes! I think everytime I made ride plans on beer reviews they never come to fruition.  

Right from Golden, British Columbia we have Whiteclaw Brewing which was established in Twenty Sixteen and have the honour of living and brewing beers in the middle of the mountains. Ahh yes, finding some sort of niche in a cool mountain town and living there would be pretty great.

We poured and a beautiful dark and dirty beer filled in the Bubba Gump beer mug . It had a strong smell of wheat cause you know... Hefeweizen and a one fingered head lingered for very little and disappeared like an octopus. A small pool of light lacing stayed on top for the duration. 

This was the perfect beer to set the mood right. It was refreshing with a sour kick to it, this beer also gave me a sense of Crabapple mixed in with a little bit of Granny Smith but definitely Crabapple in the sour notes. It has a sticky feel to it in a way which is hard to explain. It's like it sticks to the sides of your mouth and hangs out for a while in a very good way of course. 

The fine taste of this one seems to hang on to the palate which ups my love for this Hefeweizen. Whiteclaw hit it out of the park on this one.

This beer gets 4.5 suds out of 5. 

Oh How the Turntables Changed

I seem to go week to week with slight sleep insomnia and it is fucking me up bad on what was a promising week of October riding.

Sorry kids. It's beyond frustrating because epicness is a stone's throw away from my drive home as I pass Cameron Heights and I drove past with a chump like feel to it as the bike and gear in the car said 'lets go.'

This song right here takes me way back and still rules. When I was a kid this album cover kinda creeped me out and still kinda does. Otherwise... great album.  One of the best U2 albums made. Just... I don't know, put a shirt on that kid or something.. 

A Sunday Afternoon Gravel Bike Extravaganza

Boom, that's three 'extravaganzas' in a row but this ride was a bit of an extravaganza as it ended up being much longer than I had planned. A short write up picture dump post. 

The ride started at John Fry park behind the saddest place in the world. A Costco on a Sunday. I eventually found the old Northlands hockey rink after riding bits of singletrack here and there but most importantly I climbed up Higher Education towards my daughters school. 

I found the weird train station at Blatchford Field and soon made a plan for home. 

It was a top notch little rip today. 

 

Roots Bloody Roots

I had stepped out of the recluse zone for a coworker post Friday singletrack extrevaganza. 

Hold on... thats two "extravaganza's" in the last two posts. I gotta settle down over here. The ride from Turner park through what I saw on Trailforks just now is now called the mountains? I mean it does have some of those mountain feels which we rolled through tonight as I finally broke the seal on a post Friday after work Fort Saskatchewan ride.

A big thanks to Wayne for finally making it happen. We dropped into 'The Mountains'... I mean did they just rename it? My Strava keeps crashing so that's not helping and I have never heard it being called that. The trails tracked well today and Wayne murdered the roots on his trance. Minimal traffic in the awesome cool Canadian Fall weather made things memorable as we rode through golden coloured leaves on epic Fort Saskatchewan singletrack. 

A root did come down and bite as we got near the boat launch. The crash from what I hear sounded quite spectacular, much akin to what a Russian T-72 would sound like blowing up in Ukraine. Oh well there I go over exaggerating again. I mean a tank exploding? Sigh.. 

In the end it sounded like a hard crash on a mountain bike. Nothing bad came about and no blood was spilled and most importantly none of the local plants or insects were harmed in the wipe out.

It's those damn roots man. They can be heartbreakers. 

A slight mechanical issue had us ride the paved for a bit after the boat launch and we turned back after high fiving the mighty North Saskatchewan. 

Good ride and we missed the heavier rain that was starting as we got back. October Alberta Rain and no rain gear is kinda lame. 

*this post brought to you by sepultura 

An E-bike Burning Car Dodging Leduc Extravaganza

It was a bad day for a ride as I was extremely tired all day for some reason. I had the bike packed for work and was ready for some river valley but the fatigue was off the charts so I went to Leduc for the old Telford and cool aircraft lake loop as climbing is pretty much minimal. 

Lordy lordy, the e bikes were out tonight which consisted of mostly boomers riding them which is cool. Yet when I saw them up the trail I did set phasers to fire and I just had to pass them and it felt good although I was a bit gassed up the trail. 

Good lord am I a jackass.

I did have the closest call I  ever had versus a car in my long riding career as I was coming back from Fred Johns park underneath Highway 2 a car trying to beat the oncoming traffic almost turned right into me. Tires were screeching from her car as the car she cut off was coming in quickly. I heard his tires screeching too. It was a bit nutty. 

Luckily she stopped but I was not only freaked out at her I was super scared of the other guy and knew I had to get the fuck out of there. 

She obviously did not see me as she was concerned about beating the guy coming at her. I had the little white walk guy which clarifies 'go forth safely and efficiently young man,' I mean what more could you want when crossing a busy intersection? I do wonder if she could have maybe had partial sun blockage? Or maybe she just drove like a girl? 

Bah ha ha ha ha... 

The whole moment was incredibly quick and very strange for some reason. I didn't even get shaky leg syndrome like you get when close calls happen when driving. Was it because my legs were working or could it have been the soothing Lana Del Ray on the headphones? 

*looks up from the laptop at the roof, sighs...

In the end, it's a good thing she didn't get hit by the guy she was trying to beat across the intersection. It could have been bad for me too as I would have been very close to the impact area which is why I hit it hard and got out of the area right when the hood of her car was a hands reach away. Maybe a dumb move but better than coming to a complete stop with her car right next to me. 

The rest of the ride was uneventful and the close call didn't really sink in till the drive home. That would have been a bummer.