Sunday, March 17, 2024

St Patrick No Legs



A repeat weekend from last weekend making me immediately concerned I was quickly turning into one of those weekend warrior types now that I am a highfalutin Monday to Friday type and all.

Ok did that first sentence make any sense? Cause I'm not sure of what to think doing some quick re-reads.. 

Hold on. I'll read that again slowly. Give me five minutes. Why don't you watch a five minute youtube video while I do a reread. heres one for you.

I said repeat weekend cause it was a repeat weekend from last. A lame late Saturday Leduc Telford run followed by a heavy legged pillow muscled ride this time on the appropriate bike trying to avoid puddles and slop but it was near impossible. 

I was not  happy putting this sweet new bike through this.

The ride from Strathcona High school and across the river via groat road Bridge and then eventually crossed back via the new Walterdale which had an un unusually high number of millennial folk out with their SLR's (yes I do it too) and camera phones (again me) taking pictures of them and that bridge. 

I am still amazed at the attention that bridge gets. It is quite nice, for sure yes. The graffiti has started to take over as expected in the obvious areas making me wonder if this was a free graffiti wall like that one that runs along the LRT tracks along through the seedy stadium district.

Was that the direction of the city on this? A free graffiti wall? Forgive me if it is but if it wasn't, what were they thinking? 

No legs in the ride but I made the climbs so that's all right with me I guess. 

Could be a slow week again. Oh shit I forgot about beer reviews. Were overdue but bikes rule more so we will see. 

potty break 2024, no i didn't ride into this, please don't do that 8pats self on pretentious back..

 

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Telford the Great


It was another lame roll today through Leduc's wet district after another week of inactivity. the melt is on as Winter is slowly dying making things in the valley quite wet and dirty and now I do not have a bike that I don't give a shit about anymore which kept me away from the shitty conditions.

So today was the day to test things and I chose Leduc to see how bad the wetness was and it was up there on the wetness scale which makes me really question the river valley. 

Yes as you guessed this ride was very uneventful and riding the zippy gravel bike around there is a slightly better feeling in awesome as opposed to that fat bike.

First ride on the Octane One for twenty-four. Giddy up.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Pillow Legs and a Short Valley Loop


Pillow sack legs full of flour seemed to want to slow me down on an Old Timers start where I immediately turned around after starting on West Coast as it was pocket marked with steps and ruts. Once I turned around I went the opposite way towards the glorious Tawatinâ and crossed the Low Level and came back to the Tawatina and crossed and rode Bird House Trail and climbed up to the multi use in the Ewok area.

I wanted to avoid a group of walkers further down the trail.I mean... they were going the same way I was and would have been kind of annoying to pass by.

The snow was fine and I took the multi use along the Riverside golf course avoiding the climbs and crossed the Capilano bridge and rode up the sweet switchbacks of Lowclass and retreated on Higher Education due to warm sink in pocket marked snow.

I rode the paved like a chump instead and eventually found my way back to the truck happy the ride was over.




 

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Wrong Bike Yet Again



Another return to the usual after a rather hopeful day turned into a family hang out at the Pet Expo which trumped a big ride as these things never happen anymore. 

The ride started in the late dusk and a burst of energy hit me as I rolled down the trail on my fat bike as it had been a while as I wussed out cause of the cold weather. I had realized quickly though that I could have ridden the newly refurbished for the season Octane One gravel bike. Thank you Revolution Cycle.

Critters were seen including a porcupine up a bird feeder. He was huge and I stopped to take the phone out for a picture and turned the bike around but he was already gone. Darkness was everywhere and I rode over the boardwalk on the return upwards back to the truck. 

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Beer Friday (yes we know its saturday) Stanley Park Brewing, TrailHopper IPA


This post is brought to you by Google Chrome!

 Well here we are and as promised a beer review happened after a miserably failed ride attempt at Telford Lake in Leduc. I got out of the car and sniffed the cold and snowy air armed without bike lights and the sun was going down soon so it wasn't a big sell to me to say screw it. Im gonna go to Leduc Brewery for a pint instead. 

Yes I get your judging of my sad glutinous behaviour. My intent was to go there as my reward for probably laying first tracks around the lake which now instead some other super cool guy (with slicked back hair) will get that honour and I salute you sir!

Ok, sorry I lost track of my typing I think. Geez... I should really proof read these things more. 

Stanley Park Brewing is making it's debut on Lonebiker but I swear I've had them on here before. Some more searches turned up negative so welcome to the brewery named after that amazing park I have never been to.  The brewery does have a restaurant and brew pub to add the the lustre and it all looks quite great. 

The pour showed a very clean looking IPA that sported a thick one fingered head which was kind of strange as most IPA's pour kinda dirty but I was also quite intrigued. It had a nice but faint smell of some sort of fruit variety... grapefruit maybe. The faint smell could be the fault of mine. 

It tasted quite swell and went down with no complaints other than it being an IPA and having no IPA backkick. I'd guess cause thats the way things are now.. a few people complained to the breweries and now we don't have that classic IPA backkick anymore.

Damnit.... sorry I lost track again. This is one is quite top notch. A nice earthy grapefruit taste paired well with mild hints of dark chocolate for some strange reason. Was I trying too hard on this one to come up with chocolate? ok... toffee? All that being said it still had the tones of an IPA with that slightly edgy IPA taste... sans badass aftertaste. 

Still quite a great beer though. Sure glad I solved that huge browser problem eh? 

This beer gets 4 suds out of 5. 





Friday, March 1, 2024

Happy Friday

Terribly sorry for the lack of content kids. You would think things would pick up on here with no more long pointless work days (and nights) but I gotta be honest.. 

I wimped out cause of the cold. Here is hoping for some rides this weekend but I am a weak man right now and enjoy hiding from this newfound winter in Alberta so we were gonna do a beer review tonight but apparently MacBooks lose functions in relation to blogger through their crappy Safari browser meaning no pictures getting uploaded to Lonebiker anytime soon.. 

Don't cry kids. We will figure this shit out. Wait! I have Google Chrome on here! Gonna go do a test run now hold on… 

Listen to this song from this Goddess while you wait and when your done just scroll down to see what happened in Lonebiker headquarters as we try to fix this emergency.


Ding Ding Ding! Google Chrome is the winner. Oh my God! Lonebiker is saved. Interns are crying. I just saw an executive hug the beer pourer. 

Pretty fucking disappointing on Apples end for this to happen. This laptop was bought exclusively for Lonebiker and watching anime porn and that's it! 

In fact it's downright bullshit. Pretty crappy deal there Apple.  Go slap someone with an iPhone this weekend would ya? 

Beer Friday tomorrow. Unless a ride happens.. 

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Fort Icekatchewan




 Some sketchy moments today as it seemed to be a bit icy and then it transitioned to super sketchy icy as I started in Turner park and made it down the steep hill thinking things would be ok.

It was fine until I got past the new railroad bridge detour. It was a bit icy on the way up but those Dillenger's seemed to do what they were supposed to and I rode up with zero issues. After that all the sun exposed trail sections were pure ice and those areas are in the steeps. 

I awkwardly carried my bike up and down those hills until I found a way up to the paved. I could have stayed on it but I'm old and have a job that relies on me with no broken bones. I felt no shame cradling my bike down some of those sections.

I rode lame paved up to the boat launch and knew the easy side of this trail system would be fine and it was. The ride on that section made the whole paved section that much more worth it. I grew a lot of respect for the Train in Vain section of the trail which I wasn't all that impressed with before. Is it a winter bike thing? better in the winter? 

Will see come summer. I did try to ride most of the new trails dug in on that side over the last five years. I have been avoiding them because I tend to stay in my lane a little too much. 

So you ask… Fort Saskatchewan again? I figured it had the best snow based on my last ride in the south Henday area. 

The fun ended when I returned to the boat launch and wanting to avoid hurting myself rode a fat bike all the way back on the paved. Oooooof… I missed my new gravel bike in those moments today. 

All in all.. Top notch ride kids. 

St Patrick No Legs

A repeat weekend from last weekend making me immediately concerned I was quickly turning into one of those weekend warrior types now that I ...