Vancouver Island MTB trip

Not content to be relaxed and actually complete my University work, I headed to Vancouver Island with Alex to take advantage of the long weekend for Canadian remembrance day. Waking up at 3 am, we drove to catch the first ferry to Nanaimo, about half way up Vancouver Islands east coast and 2 hours by ferry.

Our destination was Cumberland, a small town put on the map, as far as I can tell, solely by mountain biking. The Cumberland area has an impressively large trail network literal minutes from the door of your accommodation. What a hostel it was as well!

A local cafe had these giant teddies out the back

The "Riding Fool" hostel is aimed at mountain bikers, which a bike storage area, a bike wash and knowledgeable staff. Its one of the coolest places I've stayed, but even if you weren't into mountain biking it was a really nice wood building with good facilities.

As we were there mainly to ride, we wasted no time getting out there despite the drizzle. A full day of riding saw us pretty wet and muddy. The rain never stopped and the puddles on the trails were deep. Despite this, I had a blast on the sweet trails.

Top of the first climb

The aftermath of day 1

After a long day driving and riding we were too tired to do much in the evening, but we did find an arcade in town (as close as you can get to nightlife) which we killed some time in.

The next day saw nicer weather, even the sun! Such was the size of the trails, we spent the entire day riding again and didn't repeat a single trail. In fact we only did one repeat for the entire weekend. We found some really steep stuff to ride. The variety and quality of trails in Cumberland truly is amazing. It has been probably my favourite place to ride so far due to the mix of everything.

Again that night we were too tired to do much, getting some burritos and heading in early.

The next morning saw real rain arrive, and we ended up being completely, utterly soak by the end of the day. The puddles were becoming ponds and potholes and grip was a thing of the past on roots. However, we rode even more fresh trails that were all a tone of fun. I managed to have a bad crash on the easiest section of trail, but no permanent damage.

Such was the nature of our dampness and tiredness we only rode for about two hours. This was a good move, as due to a series of mishaps and horrific traffic, we almost missed our ferry off the Island. We were only 8 minutes short of having to sleep in the car overnight. A good way to finish off the mountain biking season, bring on the snow! Thanks to Alex for putting up with me and taking these shots, and Dylan back in Adelaide for recommending the area.

Autumn is gone

Pretty much all the leaves have finished falling now here. There definitely feels like there's been a shift to colder weather and the days being shorter. The grounds staff at UBC can take a break from cleaning up the tonnes of leaves now.

Here's a picture of when it was at its prettiest a few weeks ago.

Onwards to Seattle

(I am writing this two weeks late. Sorry)

After being picked up by the group of guys I'd be staying with, the next stop was the Everett Boeing factory. Although I had done the factory tour last time I was in the US, I felt it was worth going again. The setup is just as impressive as ever, although there was no major work taking place on a Sunday.

Just in case Dad is reading this, I think the Holden plant was far more interesting to tour!

By the time we arrived in Seattle it was getting late and we were ready for dinner. This was a fairly interesting prospect, as the first three places we tried informed us that we were unable to eat there as they were legally bars and couldn't admit anyone under 21. This was portentous of the rest of the night.

Eventually we were seated at a local brewery and enjoyed a good if expensive meal whilst eyeing the beverages with envy.

The remainder of the evening was spent desperately trying to find something to do that was available for under 21s. Shenanigans ensued with an uppermarket jazz club and a very strange indie rock performance. The net result was that we saw a lot of the streets of downtown Seattle and went to be early.

The next day we enjoyed a walk down to the dockside markets, the first visiting place for many tourists in Seattle. It certainly was nice sampling all the stalls as they are generous with their giveaways. Lunch was the famous clam chowder, which was admittedly as good as hyped.

The afternoon was spent at the pop culture museum, the EMP for short. Definitely worth the admission cost, with a range of exhibits from Jimi Hendrix to wearable art and indie video games.

Incredible

The famous chewing gum wall of Seattle

This rad scene is from the late 80s, awesome

As we needed to be back by Sunday night, a quick dinner preceded piling back into the car and across the border, but no before we'd played Bruce Springsteen loud and proud along the highway. The Canadian border guard was a bit hostile. Maybe he was preparing for the US election? We did see a lot of trump posters...

An antique shop had a selection of control line and freeflight models, which I was surprised to see

Welcome to Bellingham

Instead of going to class on the 3rd and 4th of November, I woke up at 4am to catch the bus across the mexican Canadian border to ride at the town of Bellingham. Only 2 hours by bus and less by car its easy for Vancouverites to make the trip down.

A bagel place I stopped at that I like so much I took this boring picture of it.

At first glance though, there isn't much to put it on the map. Its relatively small, but not really country town like. There aren't any mountains nearby. What's one to do?

For me, I rode. A lot. On Thursday I started riding at 10 and finished at 5:30. I was absolutely shattered afterwards.

Luckily for me, the lack of hostels in the area meant I had booked a bed and breakfast with a local family. The house was very nice and I loved having a double bed to sleep in. There were three cats, each with varying temperaments...

The local Gailbraith (I think that's spelt correctly) mountain is more of a hill, but still provides a stunning selection of local trails. In contrast to the north shore, they are not very steep but feature HUGE amounts of jumps, which made me realise how bad at jumping I've become.

I was also amazed at how friendly the locals are. In that regards it is like a small town and I really felt like everyone I met on the trails and even around town cared about the community. This sense of camaraderie must have something to do with the amount of local breweries, which was quite simply astonishing. My first post showering ride plans were to beeline to the nearest pub, but I realised that the drinking age in America is in fact greater than pretty much everywhere else.

It didn't put a damper on my spirits though. After taking a more sedate ride on Friday, I stopped at a dodgy van and a man gave me a burrito.  Overall I have no regrets about the trip and tomorrow I'm off to Seattle. I may regret the burrito though.