A new cycling club is asking, is incorporation really necessary? Spoiler alert, it is as it offers liability protection, clarity, and credibility even thought no one likes to volunteer to fill in government paperwork.
Continue readingBikes are marvels of engineering. They have come a long way from the first bone cracking wooden contraptions [1]. A bit maintenance goes a long way and helps to keep a rider from having to call in a rescue.
Calmar is a small town in central Alberta. Located in the heart of both the agricultural and energy industries of the province. Generally, the loops described below are on secondary paved highways with low to moderate traffic (except where noted). Options and side trips are provided.
On my bike club’s Facebook group a discussion ensued about the merits of allowing e-bikes on club rides. It should be noted that the club is a touring rather than a racing club so speed and winning is not a factor.
Continue readingNew Year’s resolutions are dangerous affairs, so dangerous that most people quickly abandon them for the familiar arms of bad habits. It is with this in mind that I am sharing my resolution: I no longer plan to drive to work. Dear boss, don’t worry, I am planning on coming to work just that I don’t plan to drive there.
There are of course a number of reasons to not drive:
I am comfortable enough with my parsimonious-ality to let you know my motivation is a combination of numbers #4 and #5. As for the other reasons (#1), I doubt my little Ford Ranger will make that much of a difference to climate change as compared to the 259 NEW GW of coal-fired generation plants China is bring online. Fortunately I am both capable and legally allowed to drive (#2 and #3). Besides, like the vast majority of people, I am an above average driver!
Having just come back from Vienna with a world class transit system, I will be using a system that is definitely middle of the road. Not chickens in cages seated next to me but definitely not at the Western European standard either. My son swore off the bus when going to University with horror stories of them blowing past waiting passengers at bus stops, arriving late, excessively early and surly drivers. Hopefully my adventures are more pleasant.
U2 U-Bahn (metro) crossing the Danube heading into Vienna City Center
But back to my motivations and the first is economics and while the cash flow is positive it is not great, here is how driving versus the bus stacks up:
| Factor | Driving | Bus |
| Bus Pass per Month | – | 116.00 |
| Gas Costs*/Month | 130.00 | – |
| Parking Pass**/Month | 126.15 | – |
| Insurance/Maintenance | $$$ | – |
| Total Cost | 246.15 | 116.00 |
| Cost per Work Day$$ | 12.30 | 5.80 |
| Driving time # | 30-45 minutes/day | 60-90 minutes/day |
Assuming 20 work days per month ($$), the difference in cost is about $6.50/day or about $130.00 per month or perhaps a grand a year. Mehhh, not really big enough money to be spending 100% more time in my commute, so why would anyone want to give up a comfy(ish) Ford Ranger for a bus?
My motivation is the 3.2km walk from my house to the bus depot. 3,200 metres in the morning is about 3,000 steps (of a suggested 10,000 per day total) and 40 minutes in walking meditation. Once on the bus , I plan to read. While I can listen to books in my vehicle, taking notes while driving is not recommended. There is also something peaceful about letting someone else worry about the stop and go of traffic while you either read or stare into middle space. Finally, the most important reason involves a bike.
I hope to bike commute more this year. Not having a parking pass is like burning my boats; there is no going back! Okay, I can pay for expensive day parking but that metaphor is not nearly as good as smoldering boats.
So that is my new year’s resolution and given that I just dropped $116 on a pass to get started. If I can get through January, then February should be easier, etc.. Wish me luck and if not, see you on the road in February.
The is the third leg of riding about 500km of the Iron Curtain Trail or FeCT.
| Date: | August 12, 2018 |
| Starting Point (via): | Marchegg Bahnhof |
| Weather | Sunny, warm to hot and moderate to moderate north becoming south winds. |
| Route: | South from Marchegg picking up the FeCT. Through Bratislava and exiting the trail at Mönchhof (98km total ride, 78km without re-traces and 72 km FeCT riding). |
This was supposed to be a simple ride. We picked up the trail where I had left it a few weeks ago, through Bratislava and zig zags down to a convenient railway station allowing for a good ride pick up later on… that was the plan. Instead it became a comedy of errors of route finding, construction detours, poor signage, a bit of bushwhacking, missed trains and some generous albeit drunk Austrians. All in all a good day.
I picked up the trail after a short 6km leg from Marchegg to the Friendship bridge.The route was good all the way into Bratislava. Some of the walking trails showing their age being overgrown or somewhat broken. As a warning Iron Curtain Trail signage in Bratislava is at best spotty, is hopefully not missing and at worst confusing and contradictory.
Getting to the first bridge that crossed the Danube presented our first mystery relating to signage. The route involved going far back toward the bridge proper and take a ramp up to the pedestrian walks below the deck and on the sides of the bridge. Clear signage to get you through a dark parking lot, nope. Maybe a few clues spray painted on the pavement, nope. And thus our first route finding fiasco had us trying to get up to the car deck where we discovered not pedestrian access.
Once across the bridge, the routing out of Bratislava consisted of a single sign directing us with vague ‘somewhere in that general direction’ accuracy. Needless to say, bring a VERY good map to Bratislava, take it VERY slow and watch carefully and either a GPS or a Slovak enable smart phone are good additions as well.
The Hungarian/Austrian/Slovak borders south of Bratislava are a series of jagged saw tooth projections into each others territories. Given that this border was heavily fortified, it must have taken enormous manpower given the elongations the border contours would have caused – which of course is exactly why the Hungarians opened the border because they could not afford to fix the then aging infrastructure.
Once again signage is okay to non-existence so be prepared to do a bit of route finding along the way. Say hello to the occasional Austrian soldier who is keeping vigil because of the recent waves of migration from the eastern countries. Of course one of the joys of route finding is being completely off the grid. That happened in one leg when we ended up ‘bush whacking’ over a fairly overgrown trail and then enjoyed a few km of gravel roads until we could pick up a hard top surface riding into our final destination, Mönchhof.
From Mönchhof we thought we would enjoy a beer and meal in Neusiedler See (lake). Alas we got off at the wrong station which may be just as well as there does not seem to be much in the way of services. Nevertheless found cold beer and a passable Chinese supper at another train station. As we were leaving, some nearby Austrians invited us for a drink – a nice hospitable gesture – that caused us to miss our train by about 30 seconds. Little did we know that next train just happened to be not an hour later but a full two hours later.
So, an eventful ride that was about 20km longer than intended marked by lots of route finding, generous invitations, missing signs and a very strange train schedule!
60km of the FeCT. Map courtesy of bikemap.net.
Route map (purged of all the bits where we circled around lost).
The trusty steed at the Devin memorial
These guys were feeding bread crumbs to the Carp in the water. Those are not rapids but were instead a few hundred large carp fighting for the food.
The Sea can in the distance where for the soldiers monitoring this remote out post. Note the deer just to the left of the road.
Tri-corner where Austria, Slovakia and Hungry meet. I was Austrian and Gift (right) was feeling a bit more Hungari(an)
| Date | Distance | Name | Impressions/Comments |
| 2018-07-15 | 66 km | Retz to Laa | A great section with lots of things to see. |
| 2018-08-05 | 60km | Laa to Hohenau (almost) | Rolling hills, lots of rural-ness. |
| 2018-08-14 | 10 km | Bernhardsthal to Hohenau am March | A stub ride to finish the gap. |
| 2018-07-15 | 52.7 km | Hohenau to Friendship Bridge | Green and very flat; accessible from Vienna. |
| 2018-08-12 | 72 | Friendship Bridge to Mönchhof | Bring a good map and plan to route find! |
The is the second leg of riding about 500km of the Iron Curtain Trail or FeCT.
| Date: | August 5, 2018 |
| Starting Point (via): | Laa Bahnhof |
| Weather | Sunny, hot and moderate to strong NW winds. |
| Route: | East from Laa with a small North jog into the Czech Republic (52km and all FeCT riding). |
This was a fill in section and unfortunately I have small gap of about 10km. Alas the 35C temperatures and not wanting to miss a train both depleted me and forced the decision. As for the section, not bad. I would take the Austrian section between Retz and Laa over this bit but this is nitpicking.
The tour was was rural Austria/Czech at its best. Through in a few castles, ancient churches and you have yourself a great ride. Mostly on ashpalt but enough rough pavement and gravel to make you want to leave your pricey road bike at home. In fact a soft tail or shocks would have been good for these sections.
The route itself was through rolling hills and there was some good sections about the history of the Iron Curtain… with the catch that you have to be able to read Czech. The Czech side seemed a bit more developed than the section from Retz to Laa and there were lots of locals on their bikes with kids and large groups.
As for the Iron Curtain, it has largely disappeared other than the memorials and the occasional machine gun emplacement. This of course is a good thing and the whole point of this trail…
60km of the FeCT. Map courtesy of bikemap.net.
Laa to Hohenau (almost)
Wien Kellers
Heading North into the town of Mikulov
| Date | Distance | Name | Impressions/Comments |
| 2018-07-15 | 66 km | Retz to Laa | A great section with lots of things to see. |
| 2018-08-05 | 60km | Laa to Hohenau (almost) | Rolling hills, lots of rural-ness. |
| 2018-07-15 | 52.7 km | Hohenau to Friendship Bridge | Green and very flat; accessible from Vienna. |
| 2018-08-12 | 10 km | Bernhardsthal to Hohenau am March | A stub ride to finish the gap. |
These are some notes from a December 3, 2017 historical walk I did for the Edmonton Bicycle and Touring Club. This was a combination of a stroll, historical and social notes. See my sources below if you want to read more.
Points of interest and route
This is the last of 3 blogs concerning my 2017 riding of the Kettle Valley. The good intentions were to hub and spoke out of Penticton and complete three rides: 1) Osoyoos North to Penticton; 2) Skaha Lake 3) Chute Lake to Penticton.
The road up to Chute Lake was impressive. At times a 12% grade with numerous switch backs on a sandy gravel surface. It was challenging enough in dry weather I could only imagine the climb after a recent rain or snow fall. Slick as snot comes to mind (to use a technical term).
The road deposits you at the Chute Lake Resort and the lake itself. The KVR passes the lake from a point further east and our original put-in, Myra Lake. Had we started from Myra, the distance would have been 80KM. A bit out of reach for a first ride of the area so Chute Lake was a reasonable compromise.
Mileage Signs en route.
The first 5KM or so of the ride was mush. Mush in this context means sandy soil that quickly absorbed one’s tires and made it nearly impossible to ride. In some places a raised shoulder provided enough terra firma to allow for some speed but often this effort was absorbed with a return to the mushy middle of the trail. Lower air pressure likely could have compensated and I suspect a good fat bike tire would have glided over this section of trail with barely a whimper or note of the mush underneath.
After this initial section, the trail began to harden to a more uniform gravel bed that was generally fine to ride on. Given the altitude gained on the road up to the put-in, vistas were available aplenty. One portion of the trail that was closed was a U-shaped Adra tunnel.
Currently barricaded, the tunnel is about 500M long and takes a north/south orientated track to an east/west exit/entrance. Appeals for donations are made for the tunnel’s restoration which would be great. In the mean time a steep descent provides a cut off for the tunnel. A fun ride down, it would be a hard ride/push up! Coming from descent side of the tunnel, the temperature appreciably drops at 10C in the gloom of its entrance.
In front of the closed Adra tunnel.
From the tunnel, the ride is a gentle descent past numerous historical markers including a number of rock ovens used to bake bread during the KVR’s construction. Other markers include the foundation for a long-since dismantled water tower, a larger Ponderosa Pine and things of that ilk.
One of the great vistas with Summer Land across Okanagan Lake.
Our transport picked us up still high above Penticton. The trail however continues down into the city along the KVR route and as well along a city constructed trail. Finding the trail required a small bit of route finding as one section would end and the next would start-up to half a block away. A disappeared trail general meant a scan up and down the road to see where the city put the next piece.
Overall, this is a great section of trail. The ride from Myra Lake to Penticton is very doable on a good mountain/fat bike. Likely this would be an all day affair particularly with a car shuttle. Given the remoteness of the initial section, an available support vehicle would be a strongly desirable additional feature. In other words, Penticton KVR – I will be back!
This is the second of a set of 3 blogs concerning my 2017 riding of the Kettle Valley. The good intentions were to hub and spoke out of Penticton and complete three rides: 1) Osoyoos North to Penticton; 2) Skaha Lake 3) Chute Lake to Penticton.
Unfortunately my partner in riding had an unanticipated work commitment and the planned ride could not occur. Nevertheless, the ride we did was a perfect little putz with a too large ice cream in the middle.
Skaha Lake is just south of Penticton and like most of Okanagan lakes is narrow and long. Smaller than most lakes, it is 11.8km long and book ended by Penticton to the North and Okanagan Falls to the south. This ride took us from our motel at the north end of Skaha south along the west side of the lake to Okanagan Falls.
Although the trail was empty when I rode it the previously day, on this day there were about a dozen cyclists and walkers using the trail. The trail itself deposits you at the beach in Okanagan Falls and from this location the logical thing is to look for ice cream.
Vista Skaha Lake from the west side.
On the south side of the town is an ice cream institution, Tickleberries. A combination of ice cream gift and junk shop, they are known for their generous portions so I thought I would be smart by ordering a childrens cone. Apparently in the Okanagan, children are capable of eating two fist size scopes of ice cream! Either they are very tough or have a morbid obesity problem.
Like most large lakes in British Columbia, there is a distinct East and West side (mostly because the mountain ranges generally in BC run North/South). Our return was along the East road and generally it was uneventful and occasionally pulled the user up into a mid-level vista of the lake. Good asphalt and a reasonable shoulder. We took a short detour back into Penticton to find a cold beer and then rode out to the hotel.
A nice albeit short ride of about 30km with moderate undulations in climbs and descents. Suitable for an older child reasonably comfortable on a bike. This could be a tune up and a first day ride if just arriving in the area. The one factor is the amount of fine grit and sand on the west side which tends to cover the bike and running gear. Like other trails in the KVR, a good chain cleaner is a must post ride!
One of the many historical and natural sites along the route.
Organizational Biology 