Arrival and Week-end in North Vancouver

My ghetto packed gear, safely arrived in Vancouver

As mentioned in my previous post, the flight was relatively OK. Upon arriving, the biggest concern was with whether my ghetto packaged gear would arrive intact. I eagerly went down to the baggage claim area, waiting to find out my fate.

Stacked everything onto the cart, ready to meet with Mike

Luckily, everything seemed to arrive intact. Was not certain if the uber crappy tape jobs would hold out with one of the boxes. I grabbed everything, stacked it onto a cart, and headed outside to meet my friend Mike, who most awesomely agreed to not only pick me up, but also to stay with him and his wife Morna while in Vancouver.

We started off Saturday morning by heading over near the Cleveland Dam. Mike and Morna were supporting their friend Spencer, who was running the Vancouver 100. This photo is from the top-side of the dam, looking down on the Capilano river.

Upon returning from the dam, it was time to get my bike back together, and make sure nothing was damaged during transport. Fortunately, Mike had a bike stand which I set up in his car port. In retrospect, I should have disconnected my brake cables, as things got tangled with my disconnected aerobars and handlebars.

Slowly but surely, everything fit back into place, and the Tank 3.6 was ready for business. I gave it a quick 5 minute test ride, and everything seemed OK.

There was not much time to tinker around, as the afternoon plan was to take on The Grouse Grind. Man o man - was that ever a climb. I finished it in 66 (or was it 68?) minutes, which is not all that bad for someone who is not used to this type of terrain. Man - did I ever sweat. At the onset, I had no problem keeping up with Mike and Julian, but eventually fell behind. I opted to keep my own pace, and worked hard to control my breathing.

The above photo is taken from the chalet at the top of the Grouse. An amazing view of Vancouver. Riding the gondola down (as seen to the left) was quite the scenic treat.

Later on in the afternoon, we returned to the same spot by Cleveland Dam to support Spencer when he was passing through on the way back to where he started. I took the opportunity to snap some more pics in the area. So beautiful.

We pretty much became a travelling tailgate party, and even opted to go meet Spencer one more time that evening. Prior to this, I had never had a Gin and Tonic with a slice of cucumber. Very refreshing. Good times.

On Sunday morning, we headed out to help Darski move some things. In the afternoon, I finally had my chance to go for a ride. The plan was to head to the North Vancouver MEC . In retrospect, it was totally foolish for me to ride my aerobars downhill on Fell Ave, as it resulted in a fall. Basically, I was riding on the shoulder, and needed to veer onto the road to avoid something. Unfortunately, in that spot, there was a 3/4 inch rise (like a mini wall), and my tires scraped, and I lost control and wiped out.

Did not injure anything major - scraped my knee and elbow, and my poor STI hood took a beating.
Picked the bike back up, and continued to MEC. Really enjoyed the layout of that store. I picked up what I needed, then headed back to Mike's, as we were heading to Morna's parents place for dinner. I was really touched by how warmly they took me in. Very much enjoyed meeting and talking with everyone.

Originally, the plan was for me to head up to Whistler on Monday morning for a training ride. My hip felt slightly sore (from my fall on Fell), so I opted to fix up my bike, and take care of some other things (such as updating this blog). I also successfully connected to my computer at home, and started transferring over some of the things that I did not manage to transfer onto a USB stick before leaving. Repaired the tear in my STI hood using a thin piece of rubber, and the "Shoe Goo" that I had brought for emergency purposes. Extra weight justified!