Menagerie at Two Rivers Art Gallery

Loved this costume by an Art Gallery employee

Last night I went to the Menagerie, a Fundraiser for the local Art Gallery.  I had earned a free ticket to it by volunteering to stumble as a Zombie at the local Farmer's Market on the October 3rd weekend to advertise the event. I actually had 2 Halloween Tickets for that night.  I started the night at the Halloween Party at the Cariboo Restaurant and got my money's worth of dinner. Then as a friend wasn't coming for a while still, I moved on to the Art Gallery fundraiser event fully intending to return to the event at the Cariboo.

2011 Halloween Critical Mass

I see a magical Unicorn!

10 people showed up for the last Critical Mass for the Season. As it's much colder outside, I didn't expect the amount of people that we had last month.  Four of the group wore halloween costumes.  My favourites were the Unicorn (which looked like a smart thing to wear on such a cold night) and the Zombie in the Yellow Dress.   I think that the Unicorn got us a lot of honks and support.

The day has arrived....

Bike all geared up for Winter riding

After waiting several days in great anticipation of picking up the new 'used' bike, the day finally arrived where I would be doing just that!  It's been a hard few days, when I bought the Rocky Mountain, I bought and took it home right away.  I was just as excited to get this bike as I was when I got the RM.  I walked to work today so I could it home. ( Just a friendly reminder that I'm still looking for cute name suggestions until this weekend)

Introducing my 'New' Beater Bike

I now own the blue Norco with the Canadian Flag Bell

I have a Bike addiction!  Let me introduce you to my 'New' addition.  It's a blue Norco (Winter beater bike) that's actually in pretty good shape.

Help me decide a name for it!

Ancient Forest- Universal Boardwalk

Nowell pounds down dirt

On October 2nd, I volunteered to help out at the Ancient Forest to work on the Universal Boardwalk. I last had helped out with the boardwalk back in Spring, but I've not had a chance to go out until now.  Nowell, who has been in charge of this, has been out there 41 times this year.  He's one dedicated person!

In search of a SARAT

Squirt likes Autumn too

 In honour of Rantwick's SARAT contest, I've made this post.  What is a SARAT exactly?  According to Rantwick at http://rantwick.blogspot.com - The Second Annual Rantwick Autumn Tree Smackdown, North America's premier fall-foliage-posted-on-an-obscure-website competition, RULES! That is all.

I went on a quest yesteday to find a SARAT, but luck didn't seem to be on my side today.  I'm sorry Rantwick, maybe I'll try today again as the sun is once again out.   But I had fun with my camera and had an rather enjoyable ride.

October bike shop notes

When I took the bike to Koops Bike shop on Saturday, to get the back brake cable replaced and the back cassette tuned so the gears worked properly again, I was told that the Drive Train will be needed to be replaced next Spring.  When I had the bike tuned up at Ruckus before the bike tour this Summer, they had mentioned that it was showing wear, but that it was still good for the trip.  That was 2000 kms ago!

As I am over 9000 kms on the bike, this was expected and it will be replaced next year.  The derailleur must have got damaged in the box when it was shipped up by Greyhound after my bike trip as bike shop noticed that it was slightly bent.  That was part of the reason some of the gears weren't working properly.

Tour De Jasper 2011 - Part III

Squirt really enjoyed Tour De Jasper 2011

I woke up to the last day of riding the Tour De Jasper.  Even though this was only the beginning of my adventures, I felt sadness to the end of this great segment.  I met some wonderful people who enjoy the same passion.

First Farmer's Market of October/11

I love surprises!  Just going to the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings brings me them.  Take the one on October 1st as an example.

A rather lazy Thanksgiving Weekend

The bike enjoyed getting used  a little bit today

It's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, which means I get a 3 day weekend.  Yah!

I admit that I've had a rather lazy one.  I could have gone hiking, but I chose to hang around town.  I'm not really going anywhere for dinner, but I've made up a nice dinner for me and the birds tonight.

Tour De Jasper 2011 - Part II

When we woke up in the morning at La Salle Lake, there was no rain!  We packed up our gear, had a good hearty breakfast, and was all set to go.  I took my sweet time again as I was in no rush.  I loved this, I didn't have to rush out of bed.

September 2011 PG Critical Mass

I finally made it another Critical Mass in Prince George.  I've missed riding it since Spring as I've been busy and was away a lot.  Although I missed the one in August simply by not thinking about it until it was too late

Daily Sun News -Ozalenka Hike

Yeh! Today I received the newspaper article that I did for the Daily Sun News.  I am so stoked!   This has been a fantastic year for that, it's the second time that I had a photo published and a first for a writeup. Thank you Laura for giving me the opportunity, and thank you for editing the article.  You are an awesome editor!

The article was published in the September 22, 2011 edition of the Daily Sun News, from Sunnyside, Washington, United States on page 8. The Daily Sun News website is located at dailysunnews.com.   My friend Laura Gjovaag, is a Reporter for the newspaper and she edited the article.

I"ve posted a high def photo of the article so that you can click on it to enlarge and read the article.


The article is fuzzy in photo above, so here's a better one.  You can still see the photos in the above photo...

Tour De Jasper 2011 - Part I

Participants and Crew of Tour De Jasper 2011

Tour De Jasper has come and gone for another year, but the memories still linger.

For the tour this year, I volunteered as a sweep, which meant that I would be riding at the end of the group every day.   I had already planned on joining Jim, who is a cook on Tour De Jasper, on his tour from Jasper to Vancouver.  I was thinking of volunteering, but never got around to asking the organizer Nicole.  Jim thought that it was a good idea to volunteer as it would cut costs down on the whole trip.  I'm glad that he got me involved because I really enjoyed it!  Thanks Jim!