Thanksgiving Fall Hike

We went out to the Gatineau park on Sentier de la Chute.

The Fall leaves were perfect.

Imogen is getting the standing-on-two-legs thing down.

Next week, Imogen is going 'across the pond' to Dresden Germany while her dad goes to a conference. Perhaps her first meat will be bratwurst.

Cyclocross with the kiddos

Stacey and I managed to get the whole gang (minus Crowder the dog, sadly) out to the races on Sunday. Portland has quite the cyclocross scene. Rumor was that there were over 1500 racers. Here, I manage to get Cadel's attention for a photo -

But here we see he's really more interested in watching the riders down by the track. The velodrome is crazy! We weren't supposed to ride on the track surface but some riders took advantage of the banks anyway. Senja was attached to Stacey and napped for most of the race.


Cadel helped me walk my bike back to the car.

Camping in the Escalante

On our trip to Utah, Imogen took her first camping trip.

 Our new tent has just enough room for two adults to sleep crammed into the corners of the tent, and one baby to sprawl out like an X in the middle.

Hilarity ensued.

And hikes in the Escalante.

Hikes to sandstone arches.

We also went to Capitol Reef National Park, to the old town of Fruita to pick heirloom apples unique to the area. 

Imogen's first taste of Fruit.

All this leading to a bit of a sunburn, but Immy didn't seem to mind.

You talkin' to me? You talkin' to the dragon?

Cadel got a very fun gift from honorary Auntie Marissa (with him in the second picture).

Perfect canal paddle

This last weekend, I had the perfect day:

Start early with a 90k (55 mile) Cyclelogik group ride through the farm country northwest of Ottawa. I did not bring food and I was very hungry when I got back so we walked to our neighborhood's raddest new spot Hintonburger. 

The weather was perfect: sunny with a predicted high of 72 degrees and a very slight breeze. 

Using the aforementioned urban portage, we went on a paddle on the canal: 

We paddled to a canal-side restaurant for drinks and to relax a bit.

Imogen and La Lissa.

Beer!---it looks like I just rolled out of bed, with my Fruita Colorado Headless Chicken Festival shirt on...

It was a good day.

Urban canoe portage to Dow's Lake

Soon we will have a report of the Escalante camping trip when the pics come, but until then I'll show you our latest mode of urban canoe portage.

Our house is about six blocks to the Byward canal that runs through downtown Ottawa. Our point of access is a widening of the canal where it runs through Dow's lake, a small pond just south of our house. On a sunny day people kayak, paddle boat, and park their big motor boats on the lake and eat at one of the many bad floating restaurants that line the lake.

To go the six blocks, we used to hassle with lifting our huge canoe on to the top of our car and parking it in a pay parking lot by the lake. This seemed like a huge hassle, so recently we purchased a small trailer for the boat that balances at the middle. Now we do a much simpler portage while Imogen is delivered to the launch in the jogger/stroller. At some point I will engineer a hitch on my bike for an ultra-fast portage-du-velo.

We used a U-shaped breasfeeding pad in the bow of the boat to support Imogen on her first paddle. 

It started to sprinkle rain, so we only paddled for a short while, but Imogen was in to it, sort of.

Thanks to our paddling friends Gwen and Borden for their foresight in getting us an infant life jacket for X-mas. Its good to have friends that think this way when it comes to babies. If the weather holds, we plan on getting out for a proper paddle-camp trip to the islands of Lac Poisson Blanc in Quebec this weekend.

Meeting Imy and the Springbar Tent

Lily met Imogen last week. Chances are they will be involved in and adventure someday.


I finally got some new poles for my parents old(er than me) Springbar tent. We set it up in the backyard today for inspection and cleaning. I'll probably bring it in to Kirkham's to have the floor seams restitched, but otherwise the tent is in excellent condition.

Lily guards the entrance.




And then goes on the prowl.

Let's see how this goes.

Here's a little blog experiment. I'd love to keep up with how the junior rockwallers are doing. I understand that the juniors can keep us occupied and off the bike/crag/snow/keyboard, but maybe we can have a virtual chat about their doings and the challenges they present to us, just like we'd hang out in the gear room and muse about skis, bikes, routes, and races.

How about it?