Introduction

This isn't a journal like most of my others on this site. We didn't load our bikes with our gear and go somewhere. Instead, we loaded the car with our gear and our bikes (freshly shod with new gravel tires) and headed out for a week away from home.

2020 didn't start out particularly well for us. It seemed that as soon as the ski season got decent, with finally enough snow on the local mountains, it ended thanks to COVID. We had to cancel our long-planned tour in Italy. One good thing was that our son and his girlfriend announced their engagement in March. I'm very happy about that!

In the spring, British Columbians were requested to stay home—not a big deal since everything (businesses, most parks) was closed anyway. We cancelled our respective cycling-with-friends trips to the Okanagan. Then, when the provincial government determined that travel within the province was acceptable, with lots of regulations, everything that was open, bookable, and not stupidly expensive, was full. We congratulated ourselves that we hadn’t cancelled our week on Hornby Island, which we’d booked back before the world turned in on itself, and determined to do a road trip in September, after schools reopened and fewer people would be travelling in the province.

In the meantime, I had to get out. The same local rides I’ve been doing for so many years were now boring and even Al was getting antsy. So we acquired a new tent and embarked on a short tour to Saltspring Island and the Sooke Potholes, https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/toothbrush/

August continued, with a few days mountain biking with my (road) cycling buddies on the Sunshine Coast...

I had to include this. Now I've seen everything in the ferry lineup!

Here we are on a range of mountain bikes

This bridge was a little high for most of us to ride. Funny how we can all ride a straight line until there's a drop on both sides.

We enjoyed the view from the deck in the evenings

...and finished with our almost-annual trip to Hornby Island for more mountain biking. It takes 3 ferries and most of a day to get there so when we go, we stay for a week.

Al in action on Hornby Island. I never take a real camera mountain biking and it was after this trip I decided to replace my iPhone with a newer model with a better camera.

While we go to Hornby Island for the mountain biking, we always do at least one hike around Helliwell Provincial Park.

The very next day after we got home, though, the smoke from forest fires in the states south of us arrived. The abysmal air quality kept us indoors for the better part of two weeks and postponed departure of our fall road trip.

Then, of course, there was the plumbing leak. Al was getting the rake from its hiding place behind the furnace (the leaves were falling) and noticed a wet spot. What's that from? Much sleuthing and cutting of drywall led us to the failed joint and the plumbing aisle of the local Home Depot. By the time this was dealt with, rains had come to the south and the smoke had abated.

We really really wanted to get away from this!

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