Gravel

Last Monday (10 July 2017) there had been a thunderstorm overnight, so we decided to give the trails a miss and head out on for a ride on some gravel roads Southwest of town.



My Salsa Fargo which I bought off a friend earlier this year - with a fancy new rear rack and a trunk bag from Arkel which I picked up more recently.



I also got this "Take-a-Look" mirror in the mail the week before and was interested to try it out.



Heading out of town on our "Gravel Bikes". The Girl is riding the Kona Jake 24 we picked up for Finnegan to use as a road bike a couple of years ago. Finnegan's riding Amanda's old Soma Cross Bike which I have set up for gravel riding with some Clement 700x40 X'plor MSO tires.

 

The first part of the ride is pavement - heading out Spadina Crescent south towards Valley Road.



But once we cross Valley Road onto Township Road 362, it's all gravel. Loose, washboardy gravel.



So washboardy the kids were hugging the shoulder most of the time, which was at time soft and sandy, but still better than the washboard in the middle of the road.



Turning North onto Range Road 3062 we found it was in the process of being graded.



We stopped briefly at the Chappell Marsh Conservation Area for snacks and drinks and checking blood-sugar levels...



While we were there, we spotted a hawk floating in the air above us. It was being harassed by swarms of little birds - swallows and red-winged blackbirds - at least a half dozen of each! the Swallows were diving and nipping at it!



From there we headed east through Cedar Villa Estates and beyond. Clouds rolling from the west bringing another afternoon thunderstorm. I figured we'd easily be back before rain started falling... but we did bring along jackets - just in case!



We circled back to Township Road 362 and started heading east - back towards home on it. Rolled past another little wetland... with an old television dumped in it!? What is wrong with people!?



What set of pictures of a Saskatchewan countryside is complete without one of a dilapidated old abandoned building.



Heading back east we were turning into a pretty brutal headwind... Clouds rolling in from the west... but the wind on the ground was gusting to 40kph out of the east? I expected at least a bit of whining or complaining out of The Girl, but she just rode off into it. She had seen a deer cross the road just as we turned into the wind and was so excited about that that she barely noticed the headwind all the way home!?



Back hugging the shoulders again to avoid the loose, washboardy centre.



back on the pavement - the wind so strong at this point the kids couldn't even get some good speed up going down this hill.



Eventually we turned North to head back into town and the trees between the river and the road shielded us from the wind.



Over the weekend I'd done a fair bit of cleaning and organizing out in the garage (I've done even more since, but still have a long way to go!) and at least cleared enough space I could get a few of these new bikes hung up...

In Search of New Trails

On the 7th we decided to break out of our regular routine (if a few rides so far this summer can be considered a "routine") and, instead of riding our normal trails to the South, we decided to check out the trails on the east side of the river NORTH of where we live.



Sneaking around construction of the new Traffic Bridge.



The New Traffic Bridge. It'll be nice if this ever opens... I wonder if it will be this year or next year...?  How long have they been working on it. The original took less than a year to build. There was probably over a hundred people working on the original - man-handling all that steel into place. Now, whenever I pass this site, there are maybe a dozen guys working on the site at any given time.



Pedestrian crossing sign someone was modifying - perhaps they were in the process of modifying it when they were scared off. I'm guessing that little line above his head is the beginning of a beret that didn't get finished before the "artist" was obliged to abandon their work.



We entered the trail under the Broadway Bridge - a trail I have ridden many, MANY times before... but not in the last decade... It was much as I recalled it, thought a little overgrown.



Unfortunately we couldn't get through the University Bridge (or beyond - at least on this trail).



a fair section of the trail has been destroyed by one of the riverbank slumps that have taken place over the last decade or so, and has yet to be reestablished...



I'd considered carrying the bikes across... but not knowing the state of the trail on the other side, I decided we should head back and I would do some further scouting on my own at a later date.



Luckily we didn't have to ride all the way back to the Broadway Bridge, there was another sure trail we were able to climb up and out to the main Meewasin Valley Trail and from there continue North to  the University Bridge.



North of the University Bridge we rejoined the single track in the brush along the riverbank.



A lot of is is very close to the river's edge.



Climbing up from the river's edge a bit.



Big damned Pelican flying overhead. Actually it looks kind of small in the picture. Trust me, it was a big damned bird!



Flying away to join the other Pelicans by the weir.



Stopped briefly to discuss what the possible use of this apparatus could have been. (It was part of a lift for a riverside ski jump!)



Stopped in the shade near the weir for snacks and water. The Girl was pretty much out of water and getting excessively warm, had a headache and was very tired, so we called it a day and decided to head back.



... after briefly reconnoitring the trails ahead to see where they lead off to after the weir.



After the steep climb up from the weir to the paved Meewasin Trail I waited for the kids by a bench - and noticed it was a memorial bench for Karen Shank - a childhood friend who died as a result of injuries sustained in a traffic collision a few years back. (I believe she was rear-ended, transported to hospital, but the released. Later in the evening she started speaking incoherently and an ambulance was called for her. On the way to the hospital she slipped into a coma and never woke up).



2005... wow... I can't believe it's been 12 years!



Stopped to read about the old Varsity Ski Jump before heading home. I wonder if they landed on the river!? I know the river level dropped considerably during winters and completely froze over in the days before the weir was built... but the ski jump was apparently still in operation until 1971 - thirty years after the weir was completed...

MORE Trail Rides

I've been having some problems with my ten and a half year old iMac - it seems it's finally giving up the ghost. So I'm now just getting caught up with posting come pictures. 

I took during rides over the last few weeks. These pictures were taken on a ride we went on 6 July 2017 - just a day after our previous ride. We rode pretty much the same trails east side of the river, south of our place.



Kids eyeing up their nemesis - the steepish slope that is the entrance to G2 - for some reason they just can't seem to get the momentum to get up this slope.



Finnegan had a go at riding down the little ramp at the beginning of this part of the trail. It's not a particularly challenging line, but he's not much of a balls-to-the-wall-kamakaze-daredevil and this was pushing his boundaries, so...



The Girl had a look, but decided it was still a little too far beyond HER boundaries...



...so she took the adjacent "Chicken Route".



On our way back we explored some new (to us!) trails in Diefenbaker Park - In some spots we stopped and scouted ahead on foot to see if a section branding off was ridable.



The Girl descending one of the ridable sections.



We mixed up the technical trails on the steeper treed sections of the river banks with some easier paths right down by the water.



Back into the trees.



Finnegan following along.



and back to the river's edge.



We need to get Amanda back out on HER bike one of these days...

Trail Ride!

So I got a new mountain bike a couple weeks ago.

Purple Surly Karate Monkey Single Speed! I haven't put those grip son yet... I've been rethinking the entire bar set up... but this is pretty much how I rode it today. I didn't actually take any pictures of my bike while riding it today. Largely because I was taking pics of my trail riding partners...

The Karate Monkey is super fun.

Despite having got it a few weeks ago, I haven't really gotten a chance to get out and RIDE it - partly because i've been pretty busy doing other stuff, but also largely because I've been having these weird dizzy spells for the last three weeks that have so far mystified my doctor. I was feeling better the last two days though, so I said: SCREW IT! LET'S GO FOR A RIDE!



We headed out up Spadian south and across the Gordie Howe Bridge to access the trails along the riverbank south of the bridge (Generally called G1 and G2)

Most of the pics I took on this part of the ride turned out blurry...



Access roade between G1 and G2



We ran into my friend Bryn the Baker and his three boys out riding.



I had a brief chat with him but eventually he had to tear off and try and catch up with the boys...



After about an hour we were back at the Gordie Howe Bridge. We stopped in it's enormous shadow and had snacks. They should put benches under the bridge. There are so many benches along so much of the nearby walking trails that are set out in the open under the blazing sun surrounded by pavement - who wants to sit out in the sun on a hot day like today!?



On our way home we hit a few of the trails in along the east side of the river in Diefenbaker Park.



Nice easy single track.



Good for fat old guys like me and their timid kids.



I hope this is the beginning of a summer full of trail rides!



Finnegan was a bit more game to try out some tighter single track - which is great because he's often so... uninterested in everything that isn't lying on his bed in his room reading books. I've got nothing against reading books - I think it's fantastic that the guy has such an active imagination and can spend great ammounts of time on his own an not get bored or upset.



But sometimes you have to get out of your head and into the real world. It's sometimes a bit of a struggle to get him to come out riding. Given the choice, he'd probably stay behind and just carry on reading. but once he actually gets out he has a really great time. I guess I just have to MAKE him go enough times that he actually starts to REMEMBER what a good time he had the last time and is a bit more positive when I suggest we go for a ride.

When Finnegan and i veered off the mail trail onto a more difficult section The Girl just waited for us to do a little loop or took an alternate easier route.

We also rode a few easy routes that she likes right down by the river.

Which I don't mind at all. They're pretty scenic rides.



"tis but a scratch..."

Seriously, it was just a little scratch - it just looks really bad because I hadn't noticed it right away and it bled a bit - when The Girl spotted it she kind of freaked out. Took some time to convince her it looked a lot worse than it really was.

Hope the dizzies are gone for good and we can get out again tomorrow!