Wednesday, 01 August 2007
Clear, 25-29C still
This was to be a rest day after the long ride yesterday. The legs and ass both needed a little rest. Jeff had gone downstairs to Blends Coffee to get some Belgian dark chocolate mochas in the morning. I had a raisin bagel with cream cheese, milk, OJ and yogurt for breakfast then watched a little TV and had a nap. At lunchtime, we walked down to Marketplace and went to Opa! restaurant next to IGA where the Chinese restaurant used to be. It is a fast-food Greek-style franchise. They had souvlaki plates and pita wraps. I had a pita wrap with gyros meat. It was good and adequately large with fresh, quality fillings. The service was a little sketchy and random since they had just opened and none of the workers had developed routines yet. About $6 CAD with tax.
We geared up and took a quick spin over to Lost Lake Park. The plan based on map info was to go up the Centennial doubletrack and head toward Pinocchio’s Furniture. Centennial was a rough, loose, cobbled climb that becomes an XC ski trail in the winter. Being open and cleared to allow for snow to accumulate, there was no cover from the afternoon sun. Wanting to avoid an unnecessarily taxing climb up a babyhead death-dance pinball track in the hot sun, we turned back and opted to climb up the smoothly graded Tin Pants singletrack. This was intended to be an easy recovery ride, so the easier climbs were welcome. Our decision was borne out when we crossed Centennial further up Tin Pants: Centennial was just a cobbly hell. Climbing it wouldn’t have been unachievable, but it would have been a lot of unnecessary and painful work.
Arriving at Pinocchio’s Furniture, we set up for some video shots, repeating several sections for multiple angles. Eventually working our way to the bottom, we crossed over onto Dwarf Nebula and returned back up Lower Panorama to Donkey Puncher. We duplicated the first Lost Lake ride from this point, taking the secret drop-in to the White Gold Traverse and exiting via Dinah Moe Humm and Peaches en Regalia. I managed to clean more of the White Gold Traverse climbs of doom, but not the really long one. Maybe next time…
We exited the park and rode up the Valley Trail to the Blackcomb base to see some of the new construction going on. There was a large building coming up across the street that I thought had something to do with the Olympics, but appeared to be a First Nations cultural center of some kind. We crossed the Fitzsimmons Covered Bridge and spun around the tiny riverside Rebagliati Park where a group of Japanese nationals were engaging in a group exercise. We returned to the condo and hit the hot tub. It was a hot and still day, but since we arrived at the hot tub a little later than on previous days, the sun was not as bad. The familiar Asian family was leaving as we arrived.
Dinner was at Sushi-ya in Marketplace. The hot yoga-pants waitress was not there, but there was a new chunky moe-girl, Hiromi, working. We ordered the Steak Tataki, Salmon Skin Salad, Hiyayakko, and Horenso Goma-ae to start, followed up by some maki-mono – an inside-out salmon/avocado roll, spicy scallop roll, Spider roll, and something-river roll. I had an Okanagan Springs Lager, which tasted roughly like a Kirin Lager with a little less stank. We finished off with some nigiri – salmon, tai, and hamachi. They were out of hirame. Boo. The food was great as usual. About $42 CAD per person including tip.
D = 6.59-miles, Vavr = 5.9 mph, Vmax = 19.4 mph, T = 1-hour, 07-minutes
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