Cycling Perth

Posted on 10/4/2013 by boj Posted in Bike, Travel

This September I only managed to bike 274km of which 226 were to or around Perth. So yay Perth!

The first trip was for our anniversary. Last year we were running around so much we barely managed to go out for dinner. This year we’ve decided to indulge and get away for a day or so. The kids went to stay with their uncle, aunt and cousin and we biked to Perth.

The route we took was maxed out for comfort. Between Kanata and Carleton Place we stayed on the Trans-Canada Trail. From there to our destination we stayed on winding quiet country roads.

The weather was overcast but apart from drizzle here and there, there was no rain. The wind blew lightly in our face the whole time but we managed to get to Perth in good time and in reasonable comfort.

We had plenty of time to take a walk around Perth and go out for dinner. Our B&B was nice, the dinner was nice and Perth is nice. The next day we took a stroll around town and then headed home along the same route.

A thing that surprised me is that I found the trip hard. Not just hard after 40 or 60 kilometres but equally hard the whole way through. It might be the overnight luggage that we were carrying or the wind, or my saddle not being completely broken in or the change from summer to fall weather.

Our anniversary trip was a fun part of preparation for a longer ride we were planning to so in late September. We were going to do the 100k route for the Perth Cyclosportif event. However, given that we found the 70k trip hard and that one or both of us was sick with cold for the last three weeks we decided to take it easy and do the 40k route instead.

I would really like to continue to do long distance tours but it is going to take a while to get there. My bike is not comfortable as can be and we would need to do a lot more training than we do now to do 100k ride at the drop of the hat. We are not far from it but we are not there yet. Something to look forward to in the future.

Film – Blue Jasmine

Posted on 9/10/2013 by boj Posted in Film

We went to see “Blue Jasmine” and Dan noted that all the Woody Allen movies he’s ever seen are stressful. Blue Jasmine was a stressful movie (intentionally) and it is not the first stressful movie he’s made. However, when I think of Woody Allen I mostly thing of his comedies. Why, the line “He lives in that piece of paper?” from his directional debut “What’s up Tiger Lilly” is one of our household phrases. Then there is the Marshall McLuhan scene in “Annie Hall” which I think is the funniest scene in any movie.

Last weekend of the summer

Posted on 9/10/20139/10/2013 by boj Posted in General

Well look at us, we’ve gone on fourth camping trip of this year. Over the years there have been plans for a girls only camping trip. As late as this winter we were talking about a week long (or at least a long weekend) trip to somewhere exotic (Maine?), canoe camping, maybe even biking etc, etc, etc. Once Reality had its say it turned out to be one overnight in the Gatineau Park with all the kids. Well, I’ll take it.

We had picnic and hung out on the beach the first part of the day.

Yes, they could not wait to get their bathing suits on before they got into the water.

The day was perfect for the beach. We even saw a loon or two.

Our campsite was close to the yurt we rented this winter. I was hoping to go and take some pictures I can compare side by side with pictures from this March, but the logistics of camping with three little kids did not allow it.

Chantal built an amazing fire and we roasted marshmallows after supper.

Luisa’s brother lent us the four person tent and it was nice to have extra room. I still only brought three mats and I arranged Owen and Markus on the opposite sides of the same mat once they were asleep.

I must admit that camping when there are at least as many adults as children is much less stressful. In the morning, by the time I had taken each boy to the bathroom, Luisa and Chantal made breakfast and put the campsite away.

Though there seemed to be a lot of people camping when we got there on Sunday afternoon, by evening most people had gone leaving us with only a few families on our stretch of the camp.

On Monday morning we rented a canoe and went to another beach for picnic. Again, pictures would have ben lovely, but balancing a canoe with three kids made the cell phone camera out of reach (I forgot to pack the real camera). I managed to turn on Endomondo for the first part of the trip.

Our campsite as well as the yurt we stayed in this winter are inside the “eye” made by Trail 50 and the other road on the lower part of the map.

We were satisfied with our camping experience and headed home. When we got to Kanata we congratulated ourselves on making use of the last bit of wonderful summer weather as the thunderstorms started. As is the case any time it rains in Kanata, we lost power. Though we managed to not use the camping stove while actually camping, we ended up pulling it out and making the rest of the food we brought with us but did not end up eating in the park.

Kitchen camping party to close the summer!

After a few unsuccessful attempts to locate a powered bathroom I could borrow before bedtime, the power returned in enough time for me to scrub the kids for the first day of school.

We’ve done it: Bike Camping

Posted on 8/19/2013 by boj Posted in Bike, Travel

It turns out that we can successfully bike 40 km with 80 kg on each bike, hike a bit, stay the night at the campsite and bike back home.

That’s us heading out. If you look closely, Markus is poking out behind Chris’ elbow.

We enjoyed a little hike along the Carp river.

The camp fire is always fun.

Everyone looks so cute on a camp morning!

We were never big campers to begin with and we haven’t been camping in almost a decade so this weekend excursion was very minimalistic. We’ve done it more for the sake of seeing if we can do it than any other reason. As such it was a success. Bike ride was tough but doable, the kids were in a good mood and had fun, the weather was perfect and mosquito count minimal.

So when’s the next bike camping trip? Looking at our calendar we have only a few weekends free this season and those are probably best kept open for maintenance and down time. Next year the kids will be heavier yet nowhere near being able to propel themselves for long enough distances. I do see us going on adventures similar to this one, but the logistics will necessarily have to be modified. Here are some thoughts about this weekend’s trip:

– mid August seems to be the good time to go camping weather and mosquito wise.

– 40km bike ride fully loaded is not too bad. Repeated 40km bike ride the next day is not so great. We need a day in between to get a full camping experience (hikes, beach or exploring, vistas, quiet etc…) and recover for the return.

– I appreciated the campground proximity to home, running water, bathroom facilities and neighbouring kids our kids went to play with when they got bored of each other. I did not appreciate the volume of traffic and how close together the campsites were. Bulletproof vest clad Park Rangers driving by every 20 minutes in oversized pickup trucks were downright disconcerting. I am looking forward to going back to Fitzroy for the Scout Camporee, but this particular Provincial Park did not quite manage to sell family camping to me.

– We brought the most basic camping food we could think of and it was so bland we came home with most of it. Next time, we could try and be a little more varied and adventurous. I try not to keep too many treats around the house, but I should have been more liberal when shopping for the camping trip. I found myself wishing I had brought hot chocolate, marshmallows and Nutella. For more nutritious food, a pot that can handle camp fire would give us more options as an addition to the bunsen burner.

Some numbers

Posted on 8/11/20138/11/2013 by boj Posted in Bike, Gardening

I need to get back into taking regular pictures. This is the best I can come up with for the last few weeks:

Our garden is doing really well but so is our CSA farm so we’re overrun with veggies!!!

Anyhoo, I have been keeping track of my biking in order to analyse trends and determine whether it was worth getting a cargo bike.

My biking is split between transport and sport biking. My sport biking has dropped in late June and was almost non-existent during July due to being sick, bad weather (heat wave, forest fires in Quebec, almost daily thunderstorms etc…). I was also undergoing conversion to the new bike which made me reluctant to go on long rides before I knew that the bike has been properly adjusted and I used to it. The bike is set up now and I have already put 200km on it. Another problem with getting the sports rides in is that I was relying on Ottawa Bicycle Club Tuesday Night Rides which alternate starting points making them sometimes super-convenient and sometimes too far to bother making the trip. To this I have since added Local Bike Store club rides and shorter rides with a neighbour so now I am almost guaranteed at least 10km of “training” per week.

Since the weather and road conditions allowed it I have been transporting at least 100km per month which I will consider as very good. Not all of my commuting is on the cargo bike, but a lot of it is and I am certainly happy to have it.

We’ve gone on holiday by mistake. We’re in this cottage here. Are you the farmer?

Posted on 7/31/2013 by boj Posted in Baby, Bike, Travel1 Comment

Our long anticipated ten day trip to Prince Edward Island turned out to be only a day long due to some negligent and/or unscrupulous business that rents out cottages full of mould. We tried in vain to find other lodging but it was not to be at the height of the season that only lasts a month or so. I am in the process of putting in a formal complaint and hopefully we will get some positive results.

While most of our time was spent travelling and dealing with the above mentioned nonsense, we did manage to check off some of the PEI must-dos.

The bridge was truly impressive.

First we hit the beach.

At the beach there was a little brook draining into the sea and Trevor made a dam on it. We came back in intervals of several hours and he was amazed at how the tide slowly swallowed up every dam he made. Yes, if you are going to make a dam a stick with beaver teeth marks is the way to go. Trev found it among the flotsam.

Owen loved the large seashells and refused to throw anything smaller into the Northumberland Straight.

We saw some cool boats like the fully enclosed life-raft and this fascinating fisheries research vessel.

Lobsters were the #1 conversation topic. Owen was even warned to stop telling people he is a lobster lest he ends up in a boiling pot.

We sneaked in a bike ride. We did not make it as far as the Confederation Trail, but we did ride down a red dirt road.

As long as the dirt was dry the cargo bike handled well but Chris discovered that slicks were not the best choice.

Realizing that we only had a couple of hours left on the island, we made a bee line (as in we zigged and zagged the island trying to figure out where it is) for the Shipbuilding museum and the Yeo House, one of the few sights Chris remembers from his last visit.

Alas, some of the outdoor artifacts have decomposed leaving us with merely a few geometrically arranged logs. Trev was pretty angry about this.

Turns out that none of our kids are afraid of heights as they clamoured to climb into the cupola of the Yeo House.

We could not leave PEI without a Lobster Supper. I was a bit confused as to how to carve the beast until I realized it is just like a big scampi.

There are things that we would have liked to have done like visiting a lighthouse or taking a boat ride but it was not to be. While the cottage situation was a big annoyance it was nice to spend some extra time with the boys. They handled the long drive better than I thought they would and were nice to each other at least as often as they argued. We’ve had so many nice vacations over the years, statistically it was time for a dud. I suppose this will go right up there with the time we run out of gas in the Pyrenees or attempted to pass though Italy on the train.