Settling in to life in North Van (yes, I have moved to North Vancouver, new job starts next week) has revealed some unexpected difficulties…
Irony – escaping the heat in Bakersfield to a record setting heat wave in BC… so, I’m hiding out in the local library using their wireless. their wireless AND their air conditioning…
Equipment – 53×14 ( maybe 16?) without brakes was fine in Bakersfield, but the streets of North Van may require some modifications. Just getting to Obsession was exciting to say the least, skidding down the hills to limit my speed and still prepared to execute a bailout right turn in traffic if necessary (only needed once). Picked up the minimum addition, front brake and lever, with a likely cog change to come…
North Shore riding includes numerous roots. Rocks. Bridges, Ladders. Teeters. Skinnies. Logs. Steeps. It can only be ridden on full Sus bikes. With platforms Full face helmets. Body armor. North Shore hype be damned! It goes without saying that I intend to ride my Walt as much as possible. The only thing I won’t do is huck. Or gap jumps. But, I wouldn’t huck or do gap jumps on another bike either (although, we are prolly hitting a raining camp coming up at Whistler. Learn to ride them big bikes..)
Last night after work (okay, Em went to work, I ran some errands and started the Ikea Assembly Project (IAP), which went well until the last piece had a material error requiring another trip to Ikea this morning resulting in more IAPs, and a complete closet rebuild courtesy of Rohn’s Hardware), we rolled out to ride Mt. Fromme. After climbing to the top of the seven switchbacks, we dropped into the aptly named, Seventh Secret..
Enter at own risk.
Emily rolls through, chicking me on more than a few sections.
much, much STIL!!
When we hit Crinkum Crankum, I was gaining the feel of the steep descents; you enter these concave manmades without any visual of the exit. Just get behind the saddle
still loving the rocks…
With one flat tire delay, we had a nice afterwork ride over a couple of hours. Lots of new terrain for me to explore, with Emily leading the way…
One last thing that I learned, and that you have clearly observed by now. The G10 is a great camera in a well lit scenario. Seems to suck mightily in the trees. I don’t think it’s just me, although this is quite different from the conditions to which I am accustomed.. I’ll see what I can do to get some better pictures up in here
and maybe, just maybe, with new trail to ride, new sights to see, a new city to explore, a much happier outlook on life, I’ll resume adding posts with regularity.
Awesome! Enjoy your new home and say hi to Emily.
I assume you’ve tried the manual settings on the G10? Increase the ISO, set f-Stop to something like 5.6 or lower (but then your depth of field decreases), and shutter speed as slow as you can bear unless blur is something you want. And then there is the flash to use.
Does the G10 have image stabilization – I forget?
Anyway, have fun!!
Ed