On the verge

July 4, 2019

At long last, we are on the verge of heading off on our exploration of cycling routes in North America! Due to some family health issues, we were delayed, but it turns out that we are leaving just a few days late. However, it does mean that we are dropping the Kettle Valley from this trip. We are hoping to get up there next summer and do it as it is one of those bucket list rides for us. Instead, we will head over to Vancouver for a couple of days (part of the endless goodbyes) and then a quick stopover in Peachland to visit with Jim and Laura who we met last year in Cuba. From there we are heading north to Jasper. We are wanting to spend a couple of days camping along a river or lake as we head up, just to clear our heads and relax a bit. In the Jasper/Banff area we hope to do some day rides before moving on to other places. For this trip, when we are cycling, I will post those trips here on Cycleblaze. If you are interested in the inbetween bits, you will need to navigate over to our website thepricesofwandering.com, where you will find blog posts about the other aspects of this trip along with a link to our Youtube channel. We have purchased a drone and are pretty excited to use it in creating some nice footage to share with you all - make sure you check it out!

This morning is our last day to get a ride in here in Nanaimo. We have been off the bikes for about a month and are really missing the rhythm of cycling often. Last week we took the Surleys into our friends at Arrowsmith Bikes and had them give them both a thorough going over. Good thing! There were lots of things that needed tweaking or replacing, including my pedals! I had somehow broken one and was still riding with it without even noticing - duh!!!

Up on the rack, getting all ready to go on another adventure!

Done and ready to go! Thanks Arrowsmith!! A great place to get your bike worked on in Nanaimo - super friendly and knowledgable staff.

We picked the bikes up and today's ride was all about checking to be sure everything works before heading out on our trip. Since we have an appointment with a certain 3 year old in the early afternoon, we kept the ride short, but made sure we headed up some decent hills so we could check out the gears and brakes. Our favourite ride here in Nanaimo is the Parkway trial, so that is what we chose for this morning. Even though we didn't have time to do the whole 35 km, we got in a good workout. It is a pretty trail that goes along side of the highway at some points but you are separated from the traffic and for the most part in the trees. We love cycling here, meeting people and the odd bunny rabbit a we go.

It's hard to get pics of Jim, since he's the principal photographer. Also, he's pretty fast, as this blurry pic shows!

There used to be an actual tree growing out of that big crack!

Since it was a short ride today, I will share a little story about this trail. The first year we came back to Nanaimo, we were getting back on the bikes after a winter off and so were not in the best bike shape. We headed up a long hill along the trail that begins at this bench

We huffed and puffed all the way up and finally made it to the top.

Here, while we recovered and drank some water, we met a little boy and his grandfather. They had walked over from a nearby housing development and this was a hill that he like to ride down. Of course, riding down is always more fun that riding up! The little guy's name was Sammy and he was pretty cute. Ever since that day, when we come this way, we always refer to this portion as "Sammy's Hill". It really isn't all that steep or long, and thankfully over time we have been able to get up without a struggle, but the name has stuck with us.

There are a few of these along the Parkway Trail, some a lot steeper than others

But we chug our way up, knowing that there are a lot of monster hills out there to tackle!

Some of the pretty wildflowers blooming along the trail

Soon enough we were home again. This is our last full day here in Nanaimo, so there's some more grandkids to say goodby to. Tomorrow we catch the ferry to Vancouver and the adventure will begin for real - yay!

Today's ride: 25 km (16 miles)
Total: 25 km (16 miles)

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