Camping and Crossing and Weddings Oh My

       A bit of an adventurous weekend!! First camping trip with the BOB trailer....and I’m really glad I wasn’t the one pulling the trailer. I’ve got all the camping gear, but some of it is older and some of it is really heavy, so we had that poor trailer loaded to the gills.....so full the bag wouldn’t even close! And I had to carry a bag with a few extras too. What did we pack???? Tent, 2 sleeping pads, 2 sleeping bags (one really large heavy one), 2 small camp pillows, 2 small puffy jackets, a few snacks and just enough clothes for a nice Salt Spring wedding. It would have been interesting to know the weight of that thing.

     When we came up with the idea, I had every intention of pulling the trailer. Strength workout!! Or even splitting it up and sharing the load. But chivalry stepped in and Regan insisted he pull the damn thing....the whole way! Nice and flat out to the ferry, under 90 mins of cruising speed on the flattest route possible. 30 min ferry ride in the sun. Then 45 mins of hills!! Having been over to Salt Spring only twice before (Regan’s first time), I had a little amnesia on just how many hills there are. I had planned to take the back route, avoiding the main road, but on the first climb out of the ferry terminal we looked at the hill and decided against that route.

    If you’ve never had the chance to pull a BOB trailer before, it’s actually really hard work. Add a 70 pound fat suit and try to climb an already hard hill!! And because of how the BOB mounts to the bike, on the rear axle, you can’t actually stand to climb either...the weight of the trailer just pulls the bike over and makes it very wobbly. I don’t think I’ve seen Regan suffering this much before...thank you chivalry!

    Quick set up of the tent, shower and thankfully a pick up from Sylvia......the B&B was a lot farther away then it looks on the map. Congratulations to Chyrs and Scotty on the beautiful wedding! And I killed the game of bocci!! After the supper and reception Regan chanced a look outside to see a pretty wild wind storm had come up and we hadn’t pegged down the tent!! Yikes. Nothing had blown away, but we spent a little bit of a restless night listening to branches falling down all around us.

     On the way home, we had planned to hit some of the trails on the island, but after a slow morning we headed straight for the 1:30 ferry over to Crofton. Thank you Dave Phaf for taking our trailer home for us  3 ½ hours over the Malahat on the cross bikes and back into town....we were both so knackered that we were in bed and passed out before 9pm.

     With just enough time to recover, Monday night I held my first women’s learn to cross clinic and it turned out awesome! 20 women, some having never tried cyclocross before, showed up and I went over the basics to get them through the first Cross on the Rocks this weekend in Victoria. Thank you Eboost and Stan’s NoTubes for the samples!

    Getting ready for Cross Vegas as its coming up way too fast!