2009 is a rest year for me. There will be no 1200K randonnees this year, and no extended cycling tours. I hadn't intended to make 2009 a rest year ... but life happened:

1. I needed to focus on finishing my last semester at University.
   
   
2. I needed to focus on my 9-week practicum.
   
   
3. A kidney stone landed me in the hospital for surgery.
   
   
4. The very destructive bushfire in Australia devastated both Rowan and me.
   
   
5. I had a massive quantity of sorting and packing to do in preparation for the next phase of my life.
   
   
6. Winter in Australia is very rainy, and it was difficult to get out from the remote cabin where we live.
   
   
7. I developed DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) from my flight to Australia which landed me in the hospital for 2 weeks.

However, through it all I still cycled when I could ... I'm building up my cycling fitness again ... and I'm not about to give it up!!

The rest of this page are my "big" rides this year, complete with a photo gallery of each. The stories are on this page. Please click the links for the photos ...

April 10, 11, 12 - Easter Weekend Rides

My father and I did a 47 km ride on Good Friday to start the weekend off. It was a gorgeous spring day with sun, very little wind, and a temperature of about +15°C. There were no leaves coming out at that point, and the snow was just melting, but the roads were good. We had been regularly riding 21-km rides after work up and down the local "C and E" trail all week, so we were prepared for a weekend of riding.

Our route took us all the way up the Burnt Lake Trail, over to Hwy 11, and back into Red Deer.

On Easter Saturday, my father and I did a 53.12 km ride using part of the Burnt Lake trail west of Red Deer as our route. It was another beautiful spring day with +16°C, a bit of wind, and sun.

On Easter Sunday, I went to church with my mother, and then I went out for a ride and ended up covering 68.13 km!! I didn't think it would be that far, but that was fine with me. I cycled up Hwy 11 to the back entrance of Sylvan Lake, and then back to Red Deer through Sylvan Lake.

It was another warmish day, although I got chilly at a few points when the sun went behind clouds or when the wind kicked up. The lake was still covered in ice, and the town was very quiet. April is in between the ice fishing and snowmobiling season and the beach season, so there were just a few people walking along the lake shore.

My legs were a little bit tired by the end of the ride. I had ridden 9 days in a row ... that's almost a record for me. I was hoping to get out on Monday too, but the weather turned a bit nasty ... it started to snow.

All told for the weekend, however, I rode 168.25 km ... just over 100 miles. Not bad for an April weekend.

May 2 - Central Alberta (100 km)

On the first weekend in May, my father, Kim (Buglady), a friend of hers (Eily), and I did a metric century (100 km) here in Central Alberta.

The day started a bit chilly at -2°C, but was sunny and the wind was light. I should have used my inhaler before I started the ride, but had left it in another bag and didn't think of it till I started. However, it didn't take long till we started to warm up and shed some layers, and the temperature finally peaked at +15°C. Beautiful day!

The route was rural and somewhat rolling. I wished the trees had their leaves out, but it was nice to have most of the snow gone finally. I hoped that would be the end of it.

Our route took us up Hwy 11 where we encountered some construction. My father got through the construction first and had to wait on the other side for the rest of us to be let through. Somehow Eily ended up in the middle of it all when we had to stop to let the construction crew do their thing. Fortunately we were all OK and continued on.

We turned north at Hwy 20 into Sylvan Lake, and continued up Jarvis hill, and then down to Rainy Creek Road. Rainy Creek Road is a lovely road with shoulders, smooth pavement, and very little traffic. It is one of my favorite roads in the central Alberta area. We turned south onto Hwy 766 to go into Eckville where we stopped for some snacks and a bit of a break. Eckville has great pizza!!

It's a bit of a climb out of Eckville, and then we turned back onto Hwy 11 to return to Red Deer. Although Hwy 11 was quite a bit busier than the previous roads, it fortunately has wide shoulders to keep us out of the way of traffic.

We rode at a comfortable pace and all pretty much stuck together throughout the ride. I really enjoyed the ride ... it was great having Buglady and her friend out there! And it was wonderful to spend a day outside in the sun and on our bicycles.

May 9 - Sabre Century (100 miles)

When Sydney, my oldest female cat, passed away, I rode a century in her memory. When Sabre passed away I wanted to do the same thing. It took a while, but I have finally done it, and I spent quite a bit of time thinking of him as I rode.

It rained overnight and I was a bit concerned that it would continue to rain in the morning, but the sky was clearing as we got ready to go. My father and I met Willi and Dan at Tim Hortons and we all set off together. Willi and Dan were doing my 300K route, I was aiming for a century, and my father was out for a shorter ride. Willi and Dan took off shortly after the start - they were on the clock and needed to make their controls in time. My father and I rode more or less together to Sylvan Lake when my father headed for home.

I continued on, and despite the fact that I took a shortcut, I arrived at the Eckville control only about 5 minutes before Willi and Dan got there. Last week there was no wind to speak of. This week there was wind ... and it was slowing me down!

Willi and I rode together for a few minutes after the Eckville control, and then he caught up to Dan and they disappeared in the distance to successfully complete their 300K.

Meanwhile I was slogging up the hills toward Leslieville ... but I knew that when I reached the top of the last hill, the view would definitely be worth it! You can see the whole valley spread out around, with the mountains in the distance. It's beautiful. :)

A short time later I was in Leslieville. I like the Leslieville store ... it's more than just a small-town grocery store or convenience store. They've got some good stuff in there! I had an orange pop and a delicious, and fairly large, butter tart square. Mmmmmm!

I had been watching the clouds, and keeping my eye on two storm cells forming between me and home. Shortly after I got back onto Hwy 11, heading for home, the most distant storm cell sent out a billowy white arm toward me. It started to rain as I rolled into the parking lot of a school, and just as I got under shelter it started to hail. I waited for the hail to pass, and then set off, but the closer storm got me and soaked me. It was like they were hunting me down!! They grouped together and grew into a large thunderhead that followed me back to Red Deer.

I got into Red Deer with 17 km to go. Unfortunately the wind really kicked up because of the storm, so I spent the last hour or so trying to make up 17 km by riding back and forth, and round and round ... often being blown about by the wind.

I was exhausted when I got in. This was the first century I've done since November, and the longest ride by far since November. I've gotten out of practice!! But I was so glad to have the chance to ride a century for Sabre before I left Canada.

I showered and then napped for 1.5 hours ... but I still felt pretty wiped out. I'm out of shape!!

May 11 - David Thompson Highway (87.4 km)

My father and I went to the mountains to ride today! I wanted to do another ride or two in the Rocky Mountains before I departed to Australia ... so this was one of them. We ended up leaving Red Deer about 10 am and driving to a little spot called the Cline River Staging Area where we were able to park our van and get the bicycles ready to go. We set off on our ride at about 12:30.

It took us 3 hours to get to Saskatchewan River Crossing ... there was quite a headwind! I also suspect that the general terrain is uphill on the westward trip to SRC. It always seems more difficult riding that direction, but the hilliness gives me a chance to stop and take photos.

We stopped for a break at Saskatchewan River Crossing, and then cycled back to the van. What had taken us 3 hours on the way out, took us only 2 hours on the way back. Tailwinds are great!!

It was mainly cloudy out there and rain threatened to fall on us, but it didn't ... no more than a few drops anyway. The temp also reached about 14°C. So it turned out to be quite a nice day. :)

It was beautifully quiet out there ... hardly any traffic and hardly any people. :) There were times all I could hear was the noise my bicycle was making as I rode ... so peaceful! That part of Hwy 11 has to be one of my favorite roads in the world.

I am very tired though, and I noticed that my father went to bed early. My legs have had quite a workout in the last few days!! We covered 87.4 km today ... plus the 162 km just a couple days ago!

May 16 - David Thompson Highway (87.4 km)

The May 11th ride wasn't enough for me. I needed to get back into the mountains to ride one more time. So my father and I headed in again, but just a bit earlier than we did the previous time. We were set to go by about 11:30 am this time.

Once again it was overcast and cool, with a high of about 14°C, but it cleared off a little toward the end of the day. And once again we had strong headwinds all the way out to Saskatchewan River Crossing where we stopped for snacks. Unfortunately the tailwind on the return trip wasn't as good as I'd hoped ... not as good as it was on the 11th. Coming back was definitely easier, but we were pretty worn out from the outgoing trip.

Still it was beautiful out there ... there were lots of little yellow birds, deer of a couple varieties, and some mountain sheep. And of course, breath-taking scenery. I took lots of photos. :)

I am very glad that my father and I were able to share another day of cycling in the Canadian Rockies, and I hope we'll be able to do more rides there in upcoming years.

May 17 - Markerville Creamery Ride

Today my parents and I went to my church together, we had lunch, and then I set off to cycle to Markerville, a tiny town southwest of Red Deer, with the plan that my parents would come out in the van a bit later, and we would meet at Markerville to have ice cream at the historic Creamery.

We've been doing something like this since 2006 when I "discovered" Markerville on an exploratory ride, and wanted to do it one more time before I left for Australia. I decided to include this ride in my "big rides" of 2009 because the intention was to ride the whole 80 km, and because of the tradition of going to Markerville with my family.

The ride out to Markerville is about 40 km each way. When I started, it was a lovely afternoon ... sunny, 22°C with a bit of a wind. Not bad at all! And then the wind picked up, the clouds rolled in, and the temperature dropped. In no time at all the temp was down to about 14°C, and I was fighting 50 km/h winds gusting to 65 km/h.

It wasn't too bad while I was on RR #10, an empty country road going past Ridgewood. There were some trees to block the wind, the northish wind was mainly at my back, and I had room to be blown all over the highway if I was hit with a crosswind. But then I turned onto Hwy 592, a busier highway, and it became a real struggle to keep the bicycle from being blown into the way of traffic, and a struggle to keep moving forward. That highway is also one of the few in Alberta without shoulders, so that wasn't helping matters at all.

When I reached the 30 km point, with 10 km to go, I pulled over at a farm with lots of trees, and stood in their driveway debating about what to do next.

Fortunately a few moments later, my parents came by with the van, so we loaded the bicycle into the van and continued on to Markerville where we had a quick ice cream. The temperature was dropping even more and wind was howling!

The temp continued to drop through the evening and night ... and by the end of the next day, we had 13.4 cm of snow.

May 23 - Central Alberta Circuit (80 km)

I drove to Bentley, found a nice place to park on a side street, and set off from there. My route took me along Gull Lake ... a very quiet, scenic road which I found a couple years ago, and really like. It has a few hills, but nothing too difficult, and there are some nice views of the lake. I reached Hwy 53 and headed for Rimbey, but stopped almost immediately ... distracted by Snowmobile Heaven. Who knew something like that existed in my area! I find things like that fascinating, so I had to take photos.

I reached Rimbey and found it full of motorcyclists ... I guess they are all coming out of the woodwork too, with the good weather. And then I got lost in Rimbey. I had entered it a different way than I usually do, and made a turn where I should have gone straight. Rimbey is, however, very small so it didn't take too long to figure it out. At the outskirts of town I stopped to eat and also to take off my long sleeved top and knee warmers ... it was too warm for them! In fact, a temperature thing in Rimbey told me it was 24°C.

The road I chose for the way back to the Medicine Hills was one I had not cycled before. I knew it existed, but didn't know if it was paved all the way down, and didn't know what sort of condition it was in. Out of curiosity I drove it a few days before this ride to see what it was like, and was impressed. It was beautiful!

As I cycled, I took some shots of old houses, duck ponds, and Rimbey from a distance. And then I was into the Medicine Hills where Herbie greeted me. You know who Herbie is, don't you? See my photos if you're not sure. :)

I topped a hill, and stopped to take some photos of the ski hill behind me, when I heard the unmistakable sound of a cyclist coming to a stop. It was a guy from Rocky Mountain House who was just as surprised as I was at seeing another cyclist on the road. He also cycles long distances ... I think he's a triathlete ... so we chatted briefly, and then went our separate ways.

Up another hill and I was able to get a shot of Bentley before beginning the final descent. This ride ended up being a comfortable 80 km.

And then I picked up some water and snacks ... water for the guys doing my 400K brevet, snacks for me. I drove out to find them, chatted with them briefly, gave them some water, and headed home.

May 24 - Sylvan Lake Circuit (55.6 km)

Sunday was another bright and sunny, 22°C day so I decided to do a ride to Sylvan Lake and back. I headed up the Burnt Lake Trail, across into the town of Sylvan Lake, and along beside the lake.

That's a nice loop with a bit of variety to the scenery and terrain.

There's no ice on the lake anymore ... I think the last of it melted a few days ago ... and the beach was full of people. There weren't too many people in the water, however. I wonder why not!!

May 29 - Nova Ride (87.8 km)

With just a bit of time left in Canada, I decided to do a farewell tour out to the place where I've spent a lot of time working in between school. My route was my usual commuting route, plus a bit. I thought I would take a few photos of that commute to help me remember it. It was definitely not the typical urban commute.

The route started by going along the quiet, pretty, and rural "C and E" trail. From there it passed through the busiest and most urban part of the route along Hwy 2A to Blackfalds. That area is going through a lot of industrial development and is turning into a massive industrial park. But even so it still has some rural areas in it. Just before Blackfalds, I turned onto Hwy 597 which took me out into the country. The road can be somewhat busy in the mornings, but it has an adequate shoulder to keep cyclists out of the way of the traffic. In the evenings it had hardly any traffic on it at all. A right turn, and then a left turn on a couple small rural roads, and I would arrive at Nova.

The commute was about 70 km round trip, and took me about 1.5 hours each way. During the summers I worked out there, I tried to do that commute anywhere from one to three times a week. Three times a week, plus the long rides I was doing on weekends, was about all I could handle. But I enjoyed the ride ... it was a great way to start the day.

On this occasion, it was a gorgeous sunny day at +26°C, with a wind. I cycled out, stopped to take photos ... spent some time chatting to coworkers and saying my good-byes ... and then cycled back. I miss the place and the people there.

I added a bit at the end of the route to cover a bit more distance because another goal was within sight! Read on!!

May 30 - Sylvan Lake Circuit (56.4)

I had a goal in mind for the month and was getting close to reaching it, so I dashed out for a ride to Sylvan Lake and back.

The ride out was nice with a tailwind and not much traffic. I did the usual route along Burnt Lake trail and across into Sylvan Lake, then along the lake and back into Red Deer on Hwy 11A ... but the ride back was a bit more of a challenge. I couldn't believe the amount of traffic! It was bumper to bumper in both directions.

Just try to find a place to stop to discreetly dig a large flying ant or some such thing out of your jersey when there's traffic like that going on!!

May 31 - Clive Ride (100.3 km)

1015.9 km for the month of May ... to complete the 1000 km in a month challenge! I told you I had a goal!! I had to ride 515 km in the last 10 days of May in order to do it, but this 100.3 km ride put me over. :) :)

I didn't have any thoughts of aiming for 1000 km goal at the beginning of the month because I hadn't been riding all that much this past spring with everything else going on, but with 10 days to go, I realized I could possibly do it ... so I rode my butt off.

And about the 100.3 km ride ...

The plan was to ride just over 40 km to my friend's place, stop and have a nice chat with her (one of the last times I'll see her), and then ride just over 40 km home. The weather was supposed to be sunny, +18°C, with virtually no wind.

As I was rolling the bicycle out of the garage, I discovered my front tire was flat. I had ridden through some uneven construction pavement on the Sylvan ride the day before, and had a sneaking suspicion I might have pinch flatted, but it held up all the way through that ride so I didn't think anything more of it. I took all my tools out of my trunk bag, changed the tire, put the wheel back on the bicycle ..... and rode off ........................... without my tools!! Without my tire levers, tubes, multi-tool etc. etc.

I didn't discover my mistake until about 20 km up the road ... so I just kept going. But it wasn't 40 km to my friend's place ... it was much closer to 50 km.

It was beautiful out there all the way to my friend's place ... nice weather, nice central Alberta scenery. I had a lovely, long visit ... and then I had to head home.

While I had been visiting, the wind had come up ... 50 km/h, and I was riding right into it for half the ride back. Bit of a workout!! The clouds also rolled in, and the temperature dropped. I froze after the ride!!

I was also starving ... I had a 250 calorie Ensure, a 150 calorie iced tea, a 200 calorie poptart (which I found in my handlebar bag!), and a 100 calorie cookie in the 20 hours prior to arriving home at the end of the ride. Not really enough for a ride of that distance.

I've also never done a ride of that distance with no tools and equipment to fix any sort of problem that might happen to me on the road ... what a way to tempt fate. I don't think I want to do that again. Fortunately, all was well and nothing went wrong ... and I reached my goal.

Ten days later I was on an airplane, heading for Australia.

November 1-3 - Melbourne Cup Weekend - Grampians (Hub-and-Spoke Tour)

It's Melbourne Cup weekend here in Victoria, Australia. "Cup Day" is tomorrow (Tuesday) so many people take the Monday off as well making it a long, long weekend. That's what we did, and we decided to visit the Grampians, a place we had both visited very briefly on the Great Southern Randonnee in 2004.

We've been having a lovely weekend away here in Halls Gap, in the heart of the Grampians. Yesterday we cycled out to Stawell and back ... a loop route ... and we covered 72.63 km which is the longest distance I have ridden since May. That makes me feel much better about the possibility of doing a 100 km ride in a couple weeks. But it is almost completely flat out that way. The Grampians rise abruptly out of plains similar to Manitoba. I thought it was almost amusing that we travel from the mountains, to another mountain area ... and then go cycling in the plains. :)

Today we cycled down toward Dunkeld, but not nearly that far. The total trip was 58.1 km. That was hillier and more mountanous than yesterday's trip. We met a cycletourist coming the other way and chatted briefly. I guessed he was from the US midwest based on his accent. Later, we met up with him again back here in Halls Gap just when we returned and I asked him where he was from .... Nebraska! I was right!!

While we were cycling the temperature reached 32.6C (91F) degrees, in the shade, and then went up from there to a high of 33.4C (92F) ... warm and toasty here.

After we showered (3 showers so far this weekend) ... we decided to drive (this was a tour involving a combination of driving and cycling) up to a lookout point, and pulled over on the way up to take a photo of something called Elephant Hide rock ... a massive rock formation that looks something like an elephant hide. While I was taking photos, Rowan decided to check his cell phone. I turned around and he was waving at me to get in the van and he had a great big smile on his face.

While we were out cycling we had received a call.

I have been officially accepted into Australia!!! I have been granted a Partner (Temporary) (Subclass 820) visa which means that I am now free to work, travel in and out of Australia, and live here with Rowan for the next two years.

November 14 - Pyrenees Magic 100K (100 km)

When I could barely walk around the block back in August because of my DVT, I hoped to be able to do a metric century bicycle ride before Christmas.

Well, it's DONE!!

Today I rode the Pyrenees Magic 100K put on by Audax Australia!!

The ride attracted somewhere between 100 and 150 people, which surprised Rowan and me when we arrived at the Start/Finish area in Avoca. Audax/Randonneuring events in the Canadian Prairies don't attract anywhere near that number of people. We'd be lucky to get 10 - 15 people out.

The ride was also fully supported including manned controls with food provided, medical personnel, and a sweep vehicle. That's the second Audax/Randonneuring event, under 1200K, I've done that has had manned controls!! I'm used to persuading gas station attendents out in the middle of nowhere to sign my brevet card to prove I've been there.

The route is relatively flat, although it did have a few challenging climbs in the middle. The temperature today was probably the biggest challenge, topping out at 36C (97F) in the shade, and likely at least 40C (104F) in the sun.

The registration started at 8 am, and already the temperature was warming up. We registered and then relaxed in the shade waiting for the 9 am start time. We knew of one other rider that was going to be there, and managed to find him in the crowd. Steve was riding a tandem with a visually-impaired rider as stoker!

At 9 am Rowan and I started the ride. The fairly brisk pace was all right for me for about 15 km, and then I started to struggle with it and we had to slow down a bit. The hilly part started, gently, around the 20 km point. By the time we reached 35 km, my legs informed me that they needed something to eat. Fortunately there were a lot of trees along the route so we were able to find a shady place to stop for a moment.

The first control was at about the 45 km point and was a welcome sight. We refilled our bottles and ate, and I "bathed" in cold water in the washroom. I was so impressed that, although we were near the back of the pack, there was still ample food, water, etc. available!

The second control was at about the 75 km point, but those 30 km were the hilliest part of the route including one particularly steep hill which had me down to 5 km/h. Slow and steady is the way I handle hills ... especially when it is nearly 40C out there. I made it to the top of all the hills without walking any of them.

The second control had a big cooler full of ice!!! Wonderful!!! They also had lots of water and fruit for the riders, as well as spray bottles full of water for us to spray each other with.

We were directed down a road and just when we started to get into our stride, we were stopped by a secret control run by an older couple. They were lovely people, spraying us with cold water, offering us more ice from a big cooler, and giving us gummy candies.

By then we only had a little over 20 km to go, and we had a tailwind all the way in. We cruised along at a good pace along flat, quiet roads to the end. It helped that there was a bit of cloud cover through this part, and trees now and then, for shade.

I handled the heat fairly well given that I have just come out of a whole year of winter (from about mid-October 2008 to mid-October 2009). I had some minor cramping (left foot, right side of back, left calf, and then my right foot right at the end), and I've got a mild case of heat rash, but otherwise I feel pretty good. I did drink an incredible amount for me, so perhaps that helped.

When we arrived there were still quite a few people around, and Steve, who had finished earlier, was there to greet us as well.

So I've completed my goal of doing a 100 km ride before Christmas ... well before Christmas.

November 30 - Bellarine Cycling Event (165 km)

When we decided to ride the 165 km distance, I think we were still on something of a "high" from completing the 100 km distance on the Pyrenees Magic. I think we also counted on getting a lot more cycling in than we did between the two events.

As it happened, it poured buckets on the one weekend in between the two rides, so we didn't get out for a ride ... and I started a job that has me standing all day long, putting my back into a great deal of pain, three days before the event.

So with that background we got ready for the Bellarine 165. I was looking forward to this event, not so much for the event itself, but because it would be my first century since May, and it was along the coast of the Bellarine Peninsula within sight of the ocean. Beautiful! I had also ridden basically the same route, but the other direction, in 2004 at the start of the Great Southern. Only I remember none of it because it was dark by then ... so I wanted to see where I'd ridden.

We set off about 5 minutes later than the rest of the riders from Eastern Park in Geelong, but that doesn't bother us because we tend to hang off the back anyway. And it gave me a chance to work on my cue sheet skills. I'm not used to following a cue sheet.

The ride to the first control was pretty good. There were a few hills, but nothing unmanagable. But we didn't have much time to spare when we got there. The ride to the next control was lovely. It was all along the ocean (the bay) which I really enjoyed. It was, however, windy ... so while it was flat, there was the challenge of the wind. And then it poured on us just before the second control. Nevertheless, we made it there with 45 minutes to spare.

Not long after the second control Rowan flatted. There was a lot of broken glass on the course so that wasn't too much of a surprise. But it did eat into our time.

I pulled a lot in this section because I don't mind the wind ... and the wind was steadily increasing. Rowan isn't so fond of wind. I was distracted by the gorgeous scenery ... the ocean was a beautiful dark blue and turquoise colour, and crashed into the beach with large white waves. It was great!!

By about 115 km, I was starting to tire, and my back and right leg started to cramp up and become rather painful. But I still felt fairly strong. However, as we turned out of Bells Beach, we were faced with a massive climb. I couldn't do it. Neither could Rowan. He is usually a much stronger climber than me (he does better on the hills and I do better in the wind), but both his legs cramped badly, and we both ended up walking. We walked a few more hills after that too.

All that walking ate into our time quite a bit, and with 2 km to go to the third control, we were out of time. So we took a shortcut to a main road ... a road we suspected (correctly) was flatter than some of the others in the area. We also had a great tailwind.

At the first gas station we came to, we stopped for a traditional favourite of long distance cyclists ... potato chips and coke! Unfortunately as I set off again, I had a flat front tire. We kept pumping my tire up every 3 or 4 km for the rest of the ride. I still need to fix that tire.

Revived by the calories, liquid, and salt we carried on hoping to connect up with the route again, but missed it and had to backtrack to find it. This added a bit to our distance, and when we pulled back into Eastern Park, we were almost at a century distance. Down the road and back, and we finished a century ... 161 km (100 miles)!! And it only took us ..... 11 hours!!!

It was a century even though it wasn't the one we set out to do. But we learned a few things ... we are both out of shape!! We need to do a lot more riding before tackling a distance like that again. I also need to do a lot more work on my core. And we could both stand to lose a bit more weight. We also need to pay more attention to hydration and electrolyte consumption. Both of us cramped quite a bit, more than we should have, and that might have been prevented by consuming more liquid and electrolytes. So it was a re-learning experience.