Beer Friday. Dandy Brewing, T2G IPA

 Well here we are on a rideless Saturday and considering the shite weather in the region I felt justified in my decision in the early afternoon and I think I have a no go for tomorrow as well. The Specialized was the bike to ride in these conditions which was kind of replaced by the gravel bike but it turns out I love my gravel bike and don't want to abuse it more than it has been. 

Oh yes, I also pussed out.  It was cold and gross.

Today, we have Dandy Brewing's T2G IPA which is in celebration of their neighbourhood which is pretty cool.  The brewery is located in Calgary which is home to the Flames and Lanny Mcdonald. 

What more is there to say? Calgary rules. Plus you got those foothills to the mountains right next door.. damn. 

We poured and it gave a nice dark and dirty look in the Bubba Gump beer glass. It did have a citrus like aroma to it which they say is its big feature. I assume the odd name is the postal code of the brewery which makes sense as they are paying homage to their neighbourhood with this beer. 

There is a lot going on with this one and it is downright delicious. It does have an obvious citrus taste of grapefruit with a slight tinge of mandarin. Or am I crazy? It is very hoppy and that mixed with the citrus taste it is quite delightful. It's nice to have an IPA that tastes like an IPA. Lots mask the hoppiness but Dandy does a fine job of showing that IPA love. 

Slight lacing followed it down the glass as I had the last of the notes and I would say grapefruit is the big one here as I had a phantom grapefruit pulp feel to it and guess what. No old school IPA aftertaste.

This one gets 4 suds out of 5. 

Closing October

A Halloween night in the cold valley accounted for next to nobody in the area and it was amazing. 

Actually I went so far without seeing anybody when I finally came across some poor guy I had to stop and pinch his face to see if he was real. The way he reacted to me stopping my bike and pinching him on his right cheek was quite awkward. 

I was just oddly happy to see someone. 

It was a Go Trail trailhead start in Terwillegar as I parked on the road just up the paved path. A gang of teenagers were eyeing me at a bus stop making wonder if I was gonna get harassed and I gave them the half nod and smile when one said "what's up?" 

Instantly I thought I was super cool and replied "oh nothing.. just hanging. You know..." while leaning on my Honda Civic.  

The way the kids reacted was quite awkward.

 Not a lot of energy again to start out and had to take a few breaks as the heart was giving her. With my terrible imagination I almost start panicking sometimes but surprisingly I am smart enough to keep it together. Thoughts of just collapsing and dying right there on the trail do go through my troubled mind.

 Obviously once the ride gets going it goes away. It's a pretty fucking creepy feeling though, especially on a cold darkish Halloween night. 

I rode and found Clamland (is that the name?) and ventured further into Patricia Ravine not thinking about the coming darkness and felt I should turn back quickly. On the way back I hit the Flat Pete's and the Log one and it was quite amaze. Best bike moment in a while. The incoming darkness made things a bit menacing. Scaring a White Tail which in turn scared me was quite downright bloody cool. 

The moments you get on rides sometimes. Bikes fuckin rule. Aside from all that heart rate death bullshit.

 

The Bike Gods Have Forsaken Me

Honestly not a bad ride...? But it kinda sucked. Absolutely no energy again with the legs having zero climbing energy. 

A short write up, sorry kids. 

It was cool enough that some people would say it was cold depending on who you talked to. Cameron heights across the river and I crossed back on the Quesnel and got a bit lost trying to find my way back for some reason. Map below, sorry for the lamer than usual write up. 

Ghosted

My legs did not want anything to do with this ride today which was highly touted to be very incredible given the conditions. Cold fall weather and easy to see sight lines in the singletrack was the order of the day and sadly, my legs were done on the bike lane towards the End of the World area after parking at Strathcona High School. I knew that early into it. 

That in itself was incredibly annoying as hordes of hockey parents and their respective mini vans and suvs were clogging up the usually barren parking lot. I did find a spot but was quickly crowded in by suvs on each side of the car. The weird looks they were giving me when they saw the bike and me were priceless. 

Like I said the bike lane was cause for turning around and saying to hell with it but I pressed on and decided to just do easy river valley from End of the World to the connector up to Saskatchewan drive. A bit of singletrack was ridden and my power and confidence was abysmal. I was rolling slower than a Dodge Caravan going through a school zone. 

Aside from the lack of power I was intimidated by lots of the trail. I didn't trust my lines. It was quite sad. 

This is one of those 'in the end at least I rode' kinda rides.

Well it's true. At least I rode. 

yay bikes.

i once would have scoffed at this cause i am a giant douchebag but this is a great upgrade

Township road 550

A cold October day off and a trip to Elk Island was in order and I paid my dues and parked at the Astotin, Elk Island Mega Centre where I counted about five other vehicles and high fived myself. 

The last time I was here the parking lot was almost full complete with litter and garbage everywhere because people are pure garbage. It was so nice and clean today, hats off to Elk Island for being Elk Island.

I rode along the Astotin lake trail to the other side to the administrative buildings and turned back to the car in July thinking I should turn this into a loop someday. Today my destination was township Road 550 and that planned loop but I first thought it was a long ways away.

In my head I figured the 550 loop would be a ton of kilometres but quickly realized how quickly it was coming up rather quickly than what I was expecting. An expected 45km trip was 21 or so... hold on. 22 and some change. I could and should have just pushed it down the road southward for a bit and returned.

I did get chased by a dog on 550 which was a bit nerve wracking and my biggest fear of riding a gravel bike on gravel. I could tell he was friendly and maybe wanted to say hi but I stepped it up and he turned around. 

I pictured in my head the owner watching through binoculars outside his kitchen window giggling as his dog chased me down the road and it made me quite angry. 

I could have kept going as I was nowhere near in distance as I thought I would be, but nope. I declared myself done once in the presence of the car.

Well shit... still a pretty good ride though. 

Two - Five

Pretty big day round here for me and Mrs Lonebiker as we hit a milestone anniversary today. 

So I went for a ride.. 

Plans were for later so I was good to go with the rest of the week booked off from work in honour of the twenty third of October. Now wasn't it the Lonebiker fifteen anniversary around now? Sheeeit I should do something for that one shouldn't I? Or has it passed? 

I guess I am not too concerned and I will look into it tomorrow maybe. The ride from the wonderful old school Millcreek parking spot into the heart of the valley with Birdhouse trail taking me to the lower river singletrack avoiding the climb clingy areas of Ewok. 

The legs didn't feel like they had the power but they had the power, it was weird and I have felt that way for a little while now. They feel like sugar sacks but can still do the work, it's very odd. 

The ride took me to Capilano after avoiding Andre's and all the great stuff up in the hills. It was fine and I didn't really care and crossed the river and rode up Low Class and Higher Education. and looped around to Miners Shaft with intentions of riding Kinniard Killer but missed the entrance. 

Doh. 

The strength got a bit better near the end thankfully making the ride memorable... well ain't they all?

Happy Monday

I felt the fat bike God's stirring today..