And Now for Mont Sainte Anne

It was a great few days after the MTB Nationals wrapped up as I took my time heading down to Mont Sainte Anne. I had a short week with no commitments before Friday and being at MSA (or so I thought). First let me wrap up a couple of things from Saint Félicien. On Sunday Al Morka dropped by with a couple of miniature cup-cakes and birthday wishes. They had been celebrating Emily Batty's 24th birthday and he save me a couple. Nice touch, thanks! I enjoyed them in the evening as desert, with a glass of scotch.

A regular sized glass with miniature cupcake and ice cubes

The other cool thing on Sunday was seeing Jon Barnes take his second National Championship, in Master Expert 30-39. Jon's a great guy, very generous and playful. He was ferocious on the course though and it came down to the final hard climb before he was able to shed his rival for good.

Jon Barnes

As I was sitting around relaxing, a couple of the folks who work at the MTB centre wandered over and said hi. We chatted a bit about the trails, the event and they asked if I would be staying the night and doing some riding. That was my plan and it was great when they gave me a map and some suggestions for great trails. It turns out one of them was Eric Maltais who is in charge of trail maintenance... he's a great guy and if you ever get up there be sure to say hi. And ride the trails on the other side of the river, they're spectacular.

Lots of rocks to ride

Then it was on the road again, with a loop planned that would take me through Saguenay and down along the fjord. It was a nice drive, great weather, and eventually no cell or internet reception of any kind... I was officially offline. I got a campsite at Saguenay National Park, in from Rivière Éternité. The campsite was ok, the location was great. Here's a shot of the fjord.

Baie Éternité

The next morning I got back on the road and headed for the St. Lawrence down at Saint-Simon. That was where my phone kept chiming in as a flood of email arrived. It was now Tues. morning and I discovered that the Canadian Olympic MTB team was going to be announced at MSA the next day... so much for a long slow week. I did have the rest of the day to motor along toward Beaupré though, good thing as the hills in that part of Quebec are impressive. Road signs with grade indications in lots of places; 18% was the steepest I saw. My camper was struggling to make it up some of those hills. Still... beautiful countryside.

Low tide on the St Lawrence

I camped in a spot close to my destination, cheap camping and lots of interesting company; I was camped between the ferrets and the alpaca.  Then it was on to MSA for the announcement on Wed. Here's the team who were selected, some very talented women and men.

Set up at Saint-Félicien

This is the first entry for the ROAD TRIP, I'm now at the first race destination in the 3 weekend adventure.

It was two nights on the road to get here but I'm now camped next to the media center at the Canadian MTB Championships happening in St-Félicien on Saturday and Sunday. It's a beautiful spot, very cycling friendly too! The course should be challenging and fun to photograph.

Command Center for the Nationals

Speaking of photogenic, so was the route getting up here! St-Félicien is about 200 KM north of Quebec City and about as far up as the pavement goes. The area up here is very cycling-friendly and there are lots of trails and paths. And lots of cyclists on them. I am guessing that's helped along by government investment... whatever the source it's all good! As for getting here...
The "most civilized" route up is through the Jacques Cartier Park and wildlife preserve. That only means that there was a gas station along the way. The most frequently spotted sign is "beware of moose". I love how remote it was though and had a fabulous spot to camp for the night with nothing but the sounds of nature to keep me company.

Lunch on the Jacques Cartier River

A panoramic of my little campsite on the lake

It seems I'm writing this entry in reverse, may as well continue. The first day/night was tripping from TO to Bourget via Almonte. Its not like I haven't gotten to see Frank Condelli a fair bit over the past month between the visit in late May (2 times) and then BusFusion in early June, it's just that I arranged with him to get a grey water holding tank for Babe and this was the opportunity to install it. What a chore that turned out to be! The space is tight, the brackets are finicky and we had to move a propane line to be able to fit the tank in too. All in all it was 3 hours of sweat and curses and I'm now the proud owner of a holding tank. Definitely good for camping in parking lots like I'm now in. Here's a shot of positioning the tank, plus on of Frank's shop... seems it's camping time so there are lots of volks getting him to work on theirs!

A tight fit

Welcome to the land of the Vanagon

One parting shot... this is from the Tim Hortons in Perth on the way east. Made me smile, hope it brings a smile to your face too.

Happy Camping Day

Road Trip and ROAD TRIP

This past weekend marked my 3rd BusFusion, a great VW campout held in Almonte ON. It was great to be back and connect with lots of volks I only get to see at times like this as well as new friends and some who are becoming like family. It's a very cool and hard to explain experience, at least to anyone who hasn't had the experience personally. I'll put up a gallery of photos from the event (or at least the part of it we were able to attend) soon.

This minor road trip saw us head out early for the second year in a row as the Albion Ontario Cup MTB race was happening on the Sunday. So like last year we packed up and headed to Albion to camp for one more night making it 3 nights in total. I know Andrea wasn't happy with her result, I'm glad we put in the effort to be there and make it happen.

So that's the Road Trip. Very similar to the one I did to cover the Gatineau races in May which was also a VW and bicycle weekend. As for the ROAD TRIP:

I will be heading off to cover the Canadian MTB championships and then the two UCI World Cup races held here in eastern North America. That will span the next 3 weekends and I'd guess could be 4,000 miles of travel (I haven't used Google or any map tools to estimate, I've just made sure I have lots of time to get from one to the next).

The Nationals are in Saint Félicien which is well off the beaten path. The Mont Sainte Anne World Cup is one I've covered for a few years now so I'm comfortable with what to expect there.Windham will be a new experience and will take me across the border into lower New York State. I have camping arranged for all of them and I'll see where I end up in between.

One thing's for sure... it's going to be a busy month!

Wet and Wild @ Hardwood

What a difference between the race conditions at Mansfield and those for the Trek Store Canada Cup held this past weekend at Hardwood Ski and Bike! I'm just finished processing my photos (3,127 not counting iPhone pics and video interviews) and have delivered all the galleries and interviews so I can now spend a little time on this blog again.

I pre-rode the Canada Cup course a little over a week before the race and it was still dry and about as dusty as the Mansfield course was for the Epic 8. That all changed the Friday before race day as a wet front moved in and stuck around for the weekend. It made for more dramatic images, although my cameras didn't like getting that wet. I had one lens fog up badly come podium time so the shots I took with it are "artsy". Yet another reason to keep 2 cameras at hand!

The event had two days of activity and festivity with pre-ride clinics and the ever popular autograph session with the Trek Canada team (plus Subaru-Trek racer Emily Batty). Another highlight for this year was the participation of BC native Geoff Kabush who races for Scott - 3 Rox along with Amanda Sin, Cameron Jette and a great bunch of talented racers. Thanks to the wonders of Facebook I've seen him at the wheel of a beautiful bay window bus so I asked him to hop into Babe for a photo shoot. It wasn't until we talked about classic VW buses that I realized that photo was of him in his own '76 Bulli. Of course that lead to a conversation about repairs, engine rebuilds and the delights of owning one of these classics. Geoff isn't home enough to get to drive his much, I hope it was a nice distraction to get to sit in one while on the road. He and 4 other team members were "camped" in a large RV which is a great way for a team to travel. More comfort, less character than an old VW though? Here's a shot of Geoff in Babe:

For contrast here's a shot of Emily Batty in the latest hot wheels from Subaru (the BRZ). I enjoyed capturing the contrast in vehicles knowing both of these athletes are the high powered engines hooked up to their high tech bikes. The BRZ would certainly take my camper in any sprint...

As for race day it started out reasonably dry for the first two starts and then the skies opened up for the elite races. It reminded me of the first time I got to see Kabush win, the last Bromont World Cup (2008?) was a messy affair and seemed to suit him well. This race saw him start out cautiously, mark all his rivals, and then put the hammer down midway through the race to solo to victory. Batty was marked by all of her rivals from the start and it took her a couple of laps to shed them all. Impressive racing by the top riders, and a great part of the training / lead up to the Olympics for the select few who will be picked. Both Batty and Kabush should be there as part of the Canadian MTB squad. The race was important for a lot of other riders too... one was Sandra Walter who has been dominating the Canada Cup circuit and for her a podium finish was enough to seal the deal on the overall title.

I'll wrap this post up with a few photos from the race. The full galleries are online at KraikerPhoto.com.

I've posted a handful of photos in a few places including Facebook, I'll put one last shot up here to remind everyone about how challenging Boneshaker is. I think the photo says it all.