Windy Friday ride report

[Claire]

I'm curious about how many hardy souls showed up at Pareto (or along the way) for the ride this morning. I'm honestly not sure I would have dragged my butt out of a nice warm bed if I'd had the choice.

As it was, I had an adventurous ride to C. Saanich. Some wicked tail winds got me going up to UVic. Through Mt Doug I was forced to ride in the car lane as the bike lane was lost under large drifts of needles and debris. Lochside Drive was a lot like a cyclocross course because I couldn’t even see the pavement through the branches and leaves (luckily none large enough to throw me far). It got very dark halfway along Lochside and the police had closed off Cordova Bay Rd near Mattick’s Farm due to a downed power line. I was redirected to the trail there, which represented the barrier section of the c-x course with mandatory dismounts to clear large tree limbs and full-sized trees. By Martindale flats, the wind had subsided somewhat but I still had a generous tail wind along the highway to finish things off.

Ride carefully out there! I bet the waterfront was a delight this morning.

[John D]

I saw what appeared to be a lonely Mark Cranwell riding solo along Dallas road at abouy 7:05am.

[Rolf]

Pareto at 6 looked like this:

• 7 knobbies
  4 slicks

That's gotta be a Tripleshot first! I'm not sure how the "road" ride turned out, given that most roads this morning looked like logging roads. But the cross ride was an absolute hoot. Conditions were dry but crazy windy in the exposed parts. All the blowdown made things extra unpredictable and exciting. The trails were full of sticks, limbs, and leaves. I stopped counting fully downed trees after seeing four or five. One had taken out some major fencing. An Audi in the Uplands had a major limb on its roof.

Geoff took us on the same route from past Fridays and PV for coffee. Thanks to Geoff's crazy lumens and excellent guiding, I followed swoopy lines and had a great time. Who knew there was such fun single-track around? The sand was a bit rough, as we had to get awfully close to some big waves to stay on firm(er) ground.

I had so much fun that after coffee I drifted downtown with new eyes, seeking out terrain. The waterfront was indeed nutty, especially down below the cliffs off Dallas. Lots of spray up onto the road etc. All in all a fantastic day to discover the magic of cyclocross (and to finally use my frame for what it was designed to do!)

Here's a pano from Gyro beach:

[LouiseF]

I agree Rolf. It was fantastic! I was really questioning my judgment on the way down to pareto but it was so worth the headwind and obstacles to get there. I was also seeking out a few extra trails on my way home and ran into yet another downed tree in the ferndale/vantreight forest.

Turns out I should have stayed for coffee b/c when I got home the rest of my family had overslept and were late for work/school anyway.

Great shot btw. Did you take anymore?

[Rolf]

Here's another shot taken just after finishing the second "secteur de sable" (aka Willows Beach.)

And here's a contemporaneous six-second clip in which Brian can be seen having a quick nap in the sand. https://youtu.be/8dksyuNHQm4