Steveston: Along the Arbutus Greenway and the Dike
The ride to Steveston is one of our favourite local rides, but it just got a whole lot better. Now, with the new Arbutus Greenway we can leave our place and to ride all the way to Steveston, 25 km away, almost all on designated bikeways, aside from a short section in Richmond. It’s been a while since our last ride there, and so we decided to make it into a day trip, which was also good preparation for our longer cycling trip starting the weekend after. Neil also enjoyed riding a long section of the Arbutus Greenway. The opening of this Greenway is one of the best things that…
Pemberton & Whistler: The Art of Moving Slow
Once again we decided to do the Slow Food Cycle Sunday in Pemberton. Our last time was three years ago, and this time Neil joined us, which made the ride even slower, which I didn’t think was possible after last time. We also didn’t exactly start early. We only left Vancouver at around 9am, and made it to Pemberton around lunch time. It actually made more sense because by the time we got there we were ready to eat. It didn’t take long to get the bikes and trailer set up and we started riding from our car, Neil on his balance bike. We had a lot of good things…
Park Butte Lookout: A Smoky Weekend in the Mountains
It was hazy and smoky in Vancouver for a few days before the BC Day long weekend, but we still decided to go ahead with our weekend plans of hiking around Mt. Baker in the US. We honestly didn’t give too much thought to the smoke and didn’t really think it was a big issue in Vancouver. Maybe we also thought that the smoke would magically disappear once we crossed the border. It turned out however that the smoke in the US was much worse, and that’s not just a a metaphor. We managed to leave reasonably early on Friday and headed east. We originally planned to cross the border…
Brandywine Meadows: Plenty of Time to Smell the Roses
The forecast was calling for another sunny weekend and we were both itching to get out of the city and do something outdoors. A good friend invited us for a picnic on Sunday afternoon on the beach and we really wanted to go, so whatever we were doing, we had to be back quite early on Sunday. At first we were thinking of doing something around Mt. Baker across the border. Luckily we came to our senses at around 10:30am on Saturday when we realized that the drive would take us about 3 hours + we’d need to cross the border and the hike wasn’t as short as we thought.…
Salt Spring Island: Mini-Vacation in (our) Style
My birthday was coming up and all I really wanted was to wake up in our tent by the ocean. I remembered years ago that we spent my birthday weekend on Salt Spring Island and how magical the place was. We camped at Ruckle Provincial Park twice and it’s definitely one of my favourite campgrounds. With the huge space there you never feel it’s overcrowded even when the campground is completely full. Of course there is the extra advantage that it’s a walk-in campground, so no need to worry about cars, hearing generators and car doors slamming. One can just enjoy the sounds of the ocean and the occasional ferry…
Princeton-Tulameen Loop: An All-Canadian Weekend
On the week leading to Canada Day we hosted a family with two kids through Warmshowers who intended to bike from Vancouver to Montreal, where they are from. While crossing Canada by bike never really appealed to me personally (although I do admire this family for trying), I love exploring different areas of Canada by bike on much shorter trips. And what’s a better time to explore your own country (or your adoptive country) than on its national holiday? We left on Friday, stopped for lunch in the not so impressive town of Abbotsford and carried on till Princeton which felt very long because of traffic, and also just because…
Brew Hut: Dilemmas in the Mountains
Staying at a hut now poses us with a dilemma: is it right for us to subject other hut-goers to spending a weekend with our toddler (as great as he is)? On the one hand, surely we should not be constrained to stay away from huts just since we have a toddler. Don’t we have as much right as anyone else to share a mountain hut? then there’s the fact that there are plenty of hut-goers that are even less polite or considerate than a toddler. On the other hand, it’s perfectly understandable if other people would like to spend a quiet weekend out in the mountains, away from their kids…
Quarry Rock: The Trial Hike
Quarry Rock is a nice hike when we want to experiment with our abilities. We first went there with Gili’s dad when I was still recovering from my broken arm injury five years ago. We also went up there when I was about 37 weeks pregnant and I remembered it to be very long and challenging. Then we went there again last year with Neil in the carrier and finally we went there once again a few weeks ago to test Neil’s hiking abilities. Hiking season is upon us and Neil is getting heavier. We are not sure how far we’ll manage to hike this summer if Gili needs to carry…
Washington and Idaho: Hail, Warmshowers and Sunshine
Our trips are known for their rocky starts. So we were not surprised when we were all packed and ready to go on our first four day ride when it started hailing and blowing winds like in the Wizard of Oz. We both looked at each other and we knew that this ride was not going to happen and we should come up with a Plan B. In fact this whole trip was a Plan B. We were actually planning to go to Oregon and cycle some of the Scenic Bikeways we haven’t done already. However, when Gili went to pick up the rental car (we don’t own a car at…
Family Cycling Adventure in Northland, New Zealand (Video)
On Christmas Eve 2016 we left Vancouver and hopped on a 14 hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand. Skipping Christmas altogether, we landed in sunny NZ with our bikes, trailer, and Neil, our almost two year old toddler. We decided to head north from Auckland to an area called Northland where we spent the next month cycling. Despite the narrow and hilly roads we had a great time. Incredible views, long sandy beaches, too much fish n’ chips, and many friendly Kiwis all around.
