Author Topic: Rides 2015 — add yours  (Read 102428 times)

Matt2matt2002

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #195 on: October 27, 2015, 09:55:17 PM »
Thanks Dan.
Are you sure they open up ok?
When I try they stay small.
I had thought of saving them in Google+ and then posting from there.
Anyway, a couple of the river Don.
It runs all the way to Aberdeen and the North Sea about 40 miles away.
And me at the top.of the ski resort.
Not open yet and no snow.
Plenty of activity preparing the slopes.
A season ticket is on sale now for the up coming winter.
£240.
Although less than ,2 hours way by car from home its not for us.
Old bones don't bounce, as my granny was wont to say.
« Last Edit: October 27, 2015, 11:46:56 PM by Matt2matt2002 »
Never drink and drive. You may hit a bump  and spill your drink

jags

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #196 on: October 27, 2015, 10:08:57 PM »
Looks like u had the place to yourself.  ;)

Matt2matt2002

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #197 on: October 27, 2015, 10:53:44 PM »
Pretty much Jags.
Just me and the guys working on the ski slopes preparing for the snow.
Attachment is of me at another ski resort.
Kyrgyzstan.
Taken in July there sure wasnt any snow about but in the winter it's popular up in the mountains.
And they have a few.........
Never drink and drive. You may hit a bump  and spill your drink

Danneaux

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #198 on: October 28, 2015, 02:23:44 AM »
Quote
Are you sure they open up ok?
When I try they stay small.
<nods> Yep, they open. They photos are pretty large, so it can take awhile for some browsers to render them, depending on connection speed. Also, uploaded attachments are stored on Thorn's server, which always has some lag for me.

I sure like your photos, Matt. Really clever composition.

Downhill skiing can break a few bones, for sure, but is nordic/cross-country skiing available? Often taking place on level slopes, it is a pretty safe approach to getting out in the snow.

All congratulations on your ride; you did a fine job! I'll bet it will be hard to wait till Spring to go back.

Best,

Dan.

jags

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #199 on: October 28, 2015, 01:57:27 PM »
cheers matt i'de say that was a crackin mini tour all alone in the wilderness sure what more could a fella ask for.parts of the west of ireland look a bit like scotland ,up my end is  very much built up houses everywhere (celtic tiger).
anyway thanks for the photos  great stuff.

anto

John Saxby

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #200 on: October 28, 2015, 04:07:09 PM »
So I managed my four-hour ride across the river & into the trees yesterday afternoon. It was a bright sunny day for most of the ride, with a brisk cool northerly and some high wispy cloud appearing in late afternoon, a sign of the change of weather to come today. (The wet windy stuff is forecast to arrive anytime now, as we near mid-day.)

The colours had faded a bit from their splendour in the early part of the month, because most of the leaves had fallen from the trees, especially near the hilltops. Still, that meant that the woods were open to sunlight for the first time since mid-May, and that change brought some lovely combinations of light and shadow into the woods beside the road. And from Champlain Lookout, at the top of the scarp, the brisk  northerly gave us clear air and a bright sky.

The parkways are now closed for the season to motor traffic, so there were no cars on the roads. Instead, there were dozens of cyclists, some hikers, people walking their dogs, inline skater, and inline skiers prepping for the X-country season, everyone meandering along more-or-less on their side of the road, nodding cheerfully to whomever they saw.  It was a bit like an impromptu citizens' celebration, welcoming the beginning of a low-carbon age. If only.

I took along the camera and stopped along the way for a few shots.  Here's the link to the folder:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6bev8q7kz7ybkr8/AAAmCVhylU4uDiv-LJzWkZHVa?dl=0

(I seem unable to post the photos themselves from my Dropbox file, when following the instructions to paste the link between the <img> tags. I get only a blank space in the message. As I read Dan's post below, I think that the problem may be that I'm not waiting long enough for the photos to load.)

My ride took rather longer than the usual four hours or so for the longer loop, which ascends the ridge to the lookout from the north side, lengthening the overall ride by about 15 kms. And, there were quite a few cyclists at the top, so we took some photos for each other, and chatted about the beautiful day. We do get such days in late October, and even early November, but not many, so we treasure them, and in our Canajan way we talk about the weather. ("Fait beau, eh?" "Best to enjoy it -- might be snow next week." "Not too many more of these coming, eh?" etc.)

Then, unexpectedly, a short but enriching personal encounter and conversation happened: I was just about to leave, following my photos, snack, and small talk about the weather, when a woman cyclist rolled up on a high-end road bike.  We nodded, and chatted, remarking what a beautiful day it was. We talked some more about what a jewel we have in the park, with its beauty in all four seasons, and on the rides to be had around the Valley. I mentioned the ride we'd done in August with my friend Trevor, from South Africa, to celebrate his 80th b'day. She knew the route we'd followed, starting on the Ontario side of the Ottawa river, and said how she hoped to be able to do that at 80!

And then she said, and then she said, that she had just turned 50, and was so happy to be back on the bike: she'd just resumed cycling this past June, having been away from it for two years, after being operated on for a brain tumour, and recuperating from that. Then, when she rode back up to the Lookout in June, she cried tears of joy all the way up. We talked some more, and I mentioned riding with Trevor in South Africa. Turns out she knew about SA, because she had been on Canada's national road-racing and mountain-bike teams when she was younger, and had competed in MTB races in SA.  (She loved the cycling culture & the countryside, but wasn't so keen on the snakes beside the singletrack...) I mentioned having met a couple of guys at the same spot in previous years, who had just recovered from cancer surgery in one case, and in the other, from years of debilitating effects of blood clots.  I'd met both of them after they'd made it up the 15 kms and 300 (net) metres of climb, for the first time in years, taking twice as long as they normally would -- and both of them proud and a bit overcome.

We thanked each other, said "'til next time," and went our separate ways.

The things you learn from "casual" encounters and conversations. When you have such encounters, and hear such stories, you can only feel lucky and privileged to have your own health, rocky bits and all.
« Last Edit: October 28, 2015, 04:10:23 PM by John Saxby »

Danneaux

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #201 on: October 28, 2015, 04:14:58 PM »
Lovely photos and story, John; thanks!

As for the photos I just tried posting one of yours with inline html tags and it worked fine.

I just went to Dropbox, opened the individual photo in a window so it displayed at the default resolution, copied the image URL, came back here and pasted it between the IMG brackets and done. 

I'm answering here in open Forum 'cos I thought it might help other Dropbox account holders with similar questions.

I'll post the first one here briefly as a test to see if it takes in open Forum, then I'll take it down after a few minutes and edit this post so you can do it if you wish.

All the best,

Dan.
« Last Edit: October 28, 2015, 07:25:30 PM by Danneaux »

John Saxby

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #202 on: October 28, 2015, 05:57:11 PM »
Thanks, Dan, that's very helpful as always.  I'll try it on my set post-with-pics.

Matt2matt2002

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #203 on: October 28, 2015, 06:12:45 PM »
Excellent ride report John.

I liked the account of your chat with the lady cyclist.
I have recently noticed how folk my own age respond to a nod or a wave as I cycle past them.
I suspect some of them are envious of me but who knows?

It happened quite a few times on my way home from Inverness.
I had intended to include it in my list of 'likes' so thanks for jogging my ol' memory.
Never drink and drive. You may hit a bump  and spill your drink

jags

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #204 on: October 28, 2015, 06:52:53 PM »
Well Im heading out for a night spin later on 8pm or near enough ,i have me bike set up with 2 good lights fully charged 2 tail lights/ highvis   top/  ankle  bands also high vis.
no point in taking photos it will be pitch black besides no idea how to post them and im not on a thorn bike. :o.

jags.

Andre Jute

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #205 on: October 28, 2015, 07:02:42 PM »
Lovely story and photos, John. This photo
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6bev8q7kz7ybkr8/AAAmCVhylU4uDiv-LJzWkZHVa?dl=0&preview=Hillside%2C+beaver+meadow+%26+lodges%2C+late+October.JPG
looks precisely like you took it across the Bandon River at Kilmacsimon Quay, the turning point to one of my favourite rides:


Danneaux

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #206 on: October 28, 2015, 07:48:20 PM »
Quote
Well Im heading out for a night spin later on 8pm or near enough ,i have me bike set up with 2 good lights fully charged 2 tail lights/ highvis   top/  ankle  bands also high vis.
no point in taking photos it will be pitch black besides no idea how to post them and im not on a thorn bike.
Anto!

Although it was pitch-black, I took some photos of you as you left on your night ride, and then again as you returned. I've attached them below.

All the best,

Dan.  ;)

jags

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #207 on: October 28, 2015, 09:04:53 PM »
hah very good Dan that looks like me right enough  ;D ;D
im only just back from my night ride only 11 miles it started to rain would you believe :o
but still i enjoyed it i was well lit up front and back took photos but  didn't come out just pure black ah well not to worry.

anto.

John Saxby

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #208 on: October 29, 2015, 04:37:08 PM »
Quote
looks precisely like you took it across the Bandon River at Kilmacsimon Quay

Thanks, Andre.  It's remarkable how such similarities show up across such distances, isn't it?  Your photo also reminds me of the Dorset heath -- a bit closer to your neighbourhood, to be sure.

In the same vein of landscape painting and photography, we just saw a magnificent doccie on TVOntario, Painted Land: Rediscovering the Group of Seven.  Landscapes to die for.  The film has just been released to the public, so I'm not sure if there are any copies widely available.  Here's a link to a description with some photos from the film: http://northernhoot.com/group-of-seven-painted-land-documentary-algomas-landscape-past-present-onward/

Two of the key people behind & in the film are Gary & Joanie McGuffin, whose names I know from canoeing circles -- they paddle across vast stretches of Canada, and photograph & write about their travels. In this film, with an art historian friend, they go in search of the spots from which members of the Group of Seven painted the landscapes of the Canadian Shield a century ago. Their search takes them into the country north of Sault Ste Marie, particularly the Agawa Canyon, and into the immediate hinterland of the north shore of Superior a couple of hundred kms N of the Soo.

The paintings of the Group of Seven (& their buddy Tom Thomson) are sublime; to see them juxtaposed with today's photos of the same spots, and to see & almost feel the videos of the canoes that took them there -- well, I got hopelessly weepy and sentimental.

You can, if you're resourceful, cycle to to some of those places. The Algoma Central Railway runs a train into the Agawa Canyon, which both the Group of Seven and the modern doccie team used, and there are MTB trails accessible from the line.  The Trans-Canada Highway along the north shore of Superior is spoken of as a "signature" drive or ride, and indeed cyclists do make that tour. The route carries a lot of truck traffic, though, and much of the road has inadequate shoulders. So, I won't cycle it until the Gvt of Ontario either gets trucks off the road & onto the old Canadian Pacific railway line which parallels the highway; or adds real shoulders which cyclists can use. I'm not holding my breath for either one.  Have to say, too, that I rode this route (W to E, so that I was on the lake side of the road) in the summer of 2103 on Hans, my airhead, and I was disappointed: too many trucks, & not enough pull-offs for the view.  I did stop at some quiet coves, such as the one below, but not enough of them to make up for the fact that the road was so overrun with trucks. (I hadn't travelled that road since my first crossing in 1972; in those days, the railway carried a lot of the freight.)

Andre Jute

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Re: Rides 2015 — add yours
« Reply #209 on: October 29, 2015, 08:53:39 PM »
Fascinating that they can still find the places where the artists stood. It tells you something about geological time and landscape time and tree time (the treescape is hardly changed!), and how short three score years and ten really is. Thanks for sharing, John.