Oregon: The Cycling Revolution of the Scenic Bikeways
When we got back from cycling in Central America last year we had a pile of Adventure Cyclist Magazines to read. From all the articles I read in the next months, one in particular drew my attention. It was about cycling the Old West Scenic Bikeway near John Day, in Eastern Oregon. The first thing that caught my eye was the use of the word Bikeway. It means a route marked especially for cyclists, taking into account traffic, scenery, road conditions, interest, communities along the way and more. The other one was John Day. I actually know a person whose name is John Day, so I was excited to find that…
Phelix Hut: A White Easter
It was 8pm on Thursday evening, and we were still undecided on what we would be doing on the Easter Long weekend, Friday to Monday. I guess we are kind of last minute people. That’s actually one of the privileges of owning a car – we can decide where we want to go, when and with who. A long look at various weather forecasts concluded that sub-par weather was coming from all directions. Our friend Anne was also looking for something to do, for three days. Finally we decided that given the bad weather, a trip to a comfy hut was in order, enter Phelix. We picked up Anne at…
- Backcountry Skiing, British Columbia (and nearby), Gulf Islands and Sunshine Coast, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Tetrahedron: A Stagette Party in the Backcountry
On a sunny Saturday morning nine of us headed to Tetrahedron, on the Sunshine Coast to celebrate Pascale’s upcoming marriage, on a girls only trip, also known as a Stagette. I was excited by my late pick up time of 7:55am, especially due to the fact that Gili left our nice warm bed before dawn. Sometimes it’s nicer to be on a relaxing easy going trip than on a slog fest. Of course, I was also happy to go on a trip with a bunch of cheerful people and to explore a place I haven’t been to before. We met with the rest of the crew at Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal.…
Mt. Breakenridge: The Mountain at the End of the Lake
The seed for this trip was planted five years ago. Maya and I were cycling up the east side of Harrison Lake, a majestic turquoise jewel. It was a beautiful spring weekend, and we kept on admiring the snow capped mountains of the Chehalis Range, on the other side of the lake. But my eyes were drawn to another mountain, at the opposite end of the lake, easily visible despite being 60km away. Last weekend I finally made it back, to stand at the top of that pointy white giant, the same one which had appeared so far and out of reach. I woke up at the ungodly hour of…
Marriot Basin: Another Perfect “Weekend”
Last week we started our “weekend” on Monday which made perfect sense since the weekend was rainy and wet and then suddenly on Monday the sun showed up for a couple of days making it a wonderful opportunity for a trip to the mountains. For a while now we said that we’ll try to “cherry pick” the timing for our trips according to the weather and not according to the weekends. This is even better when going to places that are crowded during the conventional weekends, such as Elfin or Marriot Basin. So when Vancouver was getting ready to start the week we left early enough to avoid the traffic…
Iago Peak: When Everything Falls Right Into Place
There are those rare days in skiing that are a combination of both perfect sunny weather and excellent snow conditions. Last Sunday was one of those days, so we were off to the Coquihalla for some backcountry skiing. It was our third day in a row of skiing, but each day was of a different type. On Friday we skied downhill on Cypress. It was the first day of spring and probably the best skiing conditions we have had up there the whole season. On Saturday we went to Cypress again, but this time for some really nice and relaxing cross country skiing. It snowed the whole day and the…
Elfin Lakes: A Different Kind of Weekend
The Elfin Lakes Hut is often crowded, to the point where there are people sleeping on the floor, and one finds it difficult to sleep since people are constantly coming and going. All that is needed to avoid the crowds is a small timing change: instead of Saturday to Sunday, we made our weekend Sunday to Monday, and lo and behold, we had the hut almost to ourselves. Except for a surprisingly quiet group of teenagers from the older version of the scouts, who actually ended up sleeping in a roomy snow cave which they dug out the back of the hut. One of their guides slept under a shelter…
Central America Route Notes
By popular demand, here’s the approximate route we took on our five month cycling trip from Panama to Belize. As well, we’ve written down detailed route notes below, by country. We tried to take quiet backroads when possible, to stay off the Pan-American Highway, although this “highway” is sometimes as quiet as a small backroad. This is the “dry” version, focusing on the technical details: which places we stayed at, roads we took and would recommend (or wouldn’t recommend!), and some food recommendations. This post would probably only be interesting for people planning to cycle tour in Central America. We also have the much more interesting blog posts about each…
The “Different Israels” Inside of Israel
Being from Israel is not easy… Everyone has heard something about Israel, and often it’s not the good things. It is probably one of the places that people have the most misconceptions about, prejudices and strong opinions even without knowing much. Lately, while travelling we started saying that we are from Canada when asked, it just seemed easier, simpler if you like. But the fact is that we were both born and raised in Israel and (still) have lived there for most of our lives, even though each time we visit we feel a bit more like tourists, and a bit less like locals. Don’t misunderstand me either, I’m the…
Amsterdam: “Every Day is a Critical Mass”
In my sweetest dreams I see a city where everyone cycles – everywhere. No matter if you’re old or young, on your way to work or to the pub – you ride. This is what I do in Vancouver, and so do many of my friends. But a recent brief visit to Amsterdam made me realize how far Vancouver, and most other North American cities, still have to go. A while ago, during one of the biggest June Critical Masses, where hundreds of cyclists take over the streets of Vancouver for one afternoon, we spoke to a group of cyclists from Holland who participated in a bike conference in Vancouver.…
