from the twisted minds of snm
Monday, 30 July 2007
Sunny, 22-27C slight breeze
Woke up to the keitai alarm and went back to sleep. It was clear out and looked like it would be good ride weather. I wasn’t hung-over from the Hoegaarten. Breakfast was coffee, milk and cereal, OJ and yogurt. I took the spikes off of the Sidi Dragon II’s and replaced them with the filler screws from my spare old SRS Sidis. This was going to be a long ride day, so I filled the reservoir to ¾ capacity. Continue reading ‘Whistler MTB – Day 4’
Sunday, 29 July 2007
AM – rainy, 20C
PM – sunny, 22-25C slight breeze
I awoke at 06:00 to my phone’s alarm. It was morning twilight and the sky was a clear eggshell blue. It was too early. I griped to myself that I had set the alarm too early and went back to sleep. At 08:00, I awoke again, this time to the sound of water dripping from the eaves of the roof onto the vinyl chairs on the terrace. The sky was no longer clear blue, but instead a uniform gray. I went back to drowsing until I heard noise out in the living room. We had missed IGA last night after dinner because of the late hour, so we didn’t have any breakfast. We did have the coffee that I brought, so that was a good perk-up while watching the Weather Channel. Breakfast was the “original breakfast†at The Beet Root. We had walked by the day before and considered it for dinner, but they are only open for breakfast and lunch. The original breakfast was 2 poached eggs, 4-strips of American bacon, potatoes, and toast with condiments for $9 CAD. Pretty good, but not particularly cheap. If it’s clear outside, sit on the terrace so the kitchen smells don’t ruin your clothes like if you sit inside. Continue reading ‘Whistler MTB – Day 3’
Saturday, 28 July 2007
Sunny, 20-24C slight breeze
The in-flight movie was “In the Land of Women†or something to that effect. Huh? What? I don’t know. I put on the MP3 player headphones and let the Sleeman put me to sleep. I awoke to the change in sounds as the plane began its descent onto YVR. There was a dull rusty glow at the horizon outside the right windows, while the nighttime sky was still indigo out the left. The cloud tops began to glow as crescents of burning orange, then the sky split at the horizon with the fire of sunrise. Even with the late start, favorable conditions got us into Vancouver actually a little early. The pilot put the plane down gently and evenly with no bounce. The runway was long enough for him to use only wheel brakes and not rip the morning silence with thrust reversers. Continue reading ‘Whistler MTB – Day 2’
Okay, I know it’s taken forever for me to finish writing up all of this to post, but I hope you enjoy reading it!Â
Friday, 27 July 2007
Cloudy, 30C+ still
AC 048 to YVR was supposed to roll out at 20:45, so I had a 4-hour window to get home from work, clean up, and head to the airport. 2-hours to get home and get to the airport 2-hours early? No problem. Jeff and Sara had beat me there. They were gateside when I was waiting in line to check in. I got ticketed, paid the $43 USD/$50 CAD bike case ransom, and headed for the gate. Continue reading ‘Whistler MTB – Day 1’
I was late to the Monday F/R because I was writing crap on some blog and had to stop by the gasoline store so I’d be able to get up St. Louis without running dry. The crew was sparse – only Ckucke, JT and me, but Pappy swung by the parking lot to make some conversation on his way home to an inconsolably crying child.
It was barely twilight when we got up to the top, but it was nice and cool. We geared up and rode up to the park. The weekend rains were all but dried out, so we dropped down through upper and lower dumps, then climbed up agave and did the normal trail out. Conditions were loose and dusty, especially in the open areas around the hammock-tree and the burnt-out area. Continue reading ‘Land of Salt and Torment’
…or rather Black Sauce of the Sea?
Roy was curious about the “Black Curry” at Coco Ichiban-ya for weeks, so on Thursday, he was peer-pressured (by us) into trying it. I am not fond of ika-sumi stuff, so there’s no way I’d try it. The waitress indicated that it was on the salty side, and this was borne out. I’ll leave it up to you to judge the potential of the flavor by looking at Roy’s reaction to the taste…
Well… it’s not poison.
Went to Makino-Chaya for lunch today.  They used to be on King Street, but now they are in Aloha Tower Marketplace. Gone is the “tabe-houdai table service” – it’s just a regular buffet now. There were some downtown office people and local buffet-hounds, but a lot of the clientele were the bus-in fresh arrivals from Japan who were a captive audience at ATM before the buses returned to take them to their hotels at check-in time. Continue reading ‘Ma-ma… Makino-Chaya’
Oh, the agony.
As I sat down in the Fj80, I could feel my stomach contents fighting agaist the change in the volume of my abdominal cavity. There was a belch brewing , but I was afraid it would come out liquid. All the way home I could feel the tightness. Even after a shower and heading to bed, I still felt bloated. This morning, all the retained liquids had processed and came out – 4 full bladders worth by 08:00
Overindulging at Maharani was not to blame as much as the level of salt or MSG that was in the food. Tandoori Grill in BC and India Bazaar here have nothing to fear about losing my business…
Dave having just gotten back from Japan, this past thursday dinner was definitely not going to be Japanese. So we went across the street from McBike to Chiang Mai. A quite popular Thai restaurant, and rightly so. Tasty food, reasonable price, nice atmosphere that’s not too stuffy not too casual, good service, conveniently located for us. Continue reading ‘Chiang Mai’
A two week gap and 1 hour difference from the Labor Day monday night ride and what a difference. We crammed Dave, Ckucky, Scat and myself and our four bikes into Dave’s LandCruiser. Glad we could provide entertainment for the City Bus driver who seemed quite amused by the clown act. By the time we made it up the hill to St. Louis (Waahila) the sun was just setting. Riding into the park lights were needed already. Trail conditions were primo except for the fallen tree. It was damp enough to keep dust & loose dirt down, but not slipery from wet. It was right at the edge of panko. Some of the grassy stuff was starting to encroach. I fully hooked a high side dead treelet hiding in the brush on a small drop before agave with my handlebar. Sure got my adreniline pumping! Any faster and I would have been catapulted off the trail on a pretty gnarly area. BTW, its not there anymore, in my pumped up state I went back and angry aped it, broke it, & tossed it somewhere off the trail. 
It was nice to be on bike, Dave was pretty hardcore having come back from Japan this morning and still hit the DH! Ckucky is Mr. Fitness now, having dropped five pounds and bringing down his cholesteral levels a signifcant amount in a matter of weeks. And speaking of cholestoral, dinner was at Toritos in Market City. I hadn’t been there in years, it was quite good!Â
D = 4.44-miles, Vavr = 8.1 mph, Vmax = 20.5 mph on trail, T = 32-minutes
