The Squamidian Report – Aug. 23 / 08
Issue #326
Including:
From The Shores Of Lake Huron
The Ontarion
Hi All,
It has been so hot out here lately that it’s melting the wax in my ears. Or, it’s been so hot the pavement is melting. Well, you get it. It has been very hot. On that note, I did a run up to Whistler on the bike last Saturday to drop in on Ryan. The bike has an air temp gauge and the gauge was buried right over as far as it would go on the hot side of the scale. Last time it did that we were riding through the BC Interior on the first leg of that trip we took. Anyway, Ryan was manning the sound booth for the main stage right there in the village square at the foot of the ski / bike run at the bottom of the mountain.
The Crankworks mountain bike competition was on and there were bumper-to-bumper people all over the place. The sun beat down relentlessly as the thousands of scantily clad, mostly young crowd milled around as they watched the event. Basically, the event is mountain biking to the extreme. The young riders, the best in the world, come shooting down the mountainside, over jumps and ramps. They do twists and flips and all sorts of tricks. Some crash and have to be carried off the course. To help set the atmosphere, painfully loud music is pumped into the area. I guess kids like it that way.
The booth Ryan was running was for controlling the sound from the soundstage once the big-name bands started playing after the biking competition was over. I hung out with him for a couple of hours and watched the event from the relative comfort of the shade provided by the tent roof over his equipment, but it was still very hot. I could have stayed and watch the stage show from this privileged position but I’d been working in the heat all week and loud noise and large crowds are not my thing so I left after a while and headed back down the highway for home. The ride home was much more comfortable as the sun was going down, bring the temperature with it. And on the way home, the bike turned 25,000 clicks. Not bad for just over a year and a quarter old, eh?
*
Kind of an interesting thing happened up in the mountains above us a few days ago. At least interesting for guys like Warren and myself who tend to ‘see’ the neat stuff around us. If you recall, we did a dirt bike run up onto Brohm Ridge a couple of weeks ago. I wrote about it and posted some pictures. One of those pictures, the first one on the page, showed the ice field that sits between the two peaks of Mt Garibaldi. Brohm Ridge is part of that mountain, running off to the west from below the second peak. The picture showed the high, vertical ice cliff of the glacier’s edge, created as chunks of ice fall away.
Move forward in time a couple of weeks… We were working down in the Industrial Park and from there, there is a great view of the mountain, including the glacier. First thing that morning when I looked up, the face of the ice cliff was unchanged compared to when we were up on the Ridge. However, when we looked up about mid morning, it had changed. The cliff had collapsed, forming an arm of ice that reached down the steep slope. No way of knowing how much ice kept right on going down into the inaccessible valley below but I would imagine a fair amount would have.
Now, the mountaintop is too far away for an ordinary digital camera to get a good shot of the ice detail. However, I happened to have my spotter scope in the truck, and one of the guys at work had his camera with him. My spotter scope is optimized for looking at birds and animals relatively close by, not for looking across 10 miles of open air at mountainside scenery. But we improvised, and used the scope as a zoom for the camera. We pointed the scope at the glacier and held the camera up to the eyepiece. The resulting picture turned out not too bad, and kind of interesting. It can be seen at:
http://www.thedougsite.net/Brohm%20Ridge/brohm5.htm
And just to keep life interesting, after setting hot records all over BC last weekend, we were setting cold records by the middle of the week. In fact, the whole upper structure of Mt Garibaldi, from just above Brohm Ridge, was covered in fresh snow on Friday morning. That’s the second time this summer that we have had a snowfall up in the mountains.
doug
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Greetings everyone, it's been awhile since I last participated with a contribution to the newsletter. Between being busy and many other things I found the weeks had come and gone.
I had been quite busy with the fishing derby committee as I was a part of the whole process which took place from July 28 to August 11. This year there has been a lot of strong winds to contend with on the lake. The two weeks of the derby pretty much everyday except maybe three were extremely windy. The first day the waves were 4 to 5 foot high and the second day they were up to 6 to seven feet. I was out in the rough water but it sure wasn't easy to fish. My boat managed to catch 40 fish over the two-week period but no derby winner. This was our 25th year and I have fished every one of the derbies without catching the elusive derby winner oh well!
Last Saturday Southampton had their 150-anniversary celebration (actually it started on the Thursday and lasted until Sunday). I understand it was a successful event. Glad to hear that. It was also the Grey-Bruce touring associations 25th annual toy ride which I have ridden in about maybe ten of them.
The ride started off in Sauble Beach at the community center and ended up in Port Elgin after about a 2 1/2 hour ride non-stop including stop signs and traffic lights etc. They have a number of outriders that go ahead and stop traffic so the parade of 65 bikes can carry on. It’s quite impressive being in the long line of bikes going through the little and big towns. All the rider have toys bungeed to the bikes which get donated at the end of the ride for different charities.
Well Saturday is my annual fish fry so I keep checking the weather hoping for no rain. It looks good so far. There will be between 100 and 150 people there waiting to gobble up fish and what ever everyone brings. It's always a good time to be had by all.
I must sign off for now everyone have a safe and happy week,
****
Hello everybody!
I haven’t heard much about the weather out in BC
lately so I guess they must be enjoying summer weather finally! We certainly
have been experiencing lovely warm sunny days lately and hopefully we’re in for
a good weekend. They say that Sunday might bring a chance of showers but I
guess we can put up with that for a day. Next week looks good according to the
5 day forecast. This kind of report is a motorcyclist’s dream, especially one
that is retired and can ride any time on any day when the weather is this
beautiful. LOL! Ain’t life grand? I finally received the saddlebags I ordered
two months ago for my motorcycle. They came from Germany to Rhode Island and
then to me. They weren’t supposed to be here until Sept 17th but
they came in early. I received them a week ago and had them mounted the same
Friday afternoon. What a relief it is to finally be able to take a few things
along when I go on a bike ride. Adam and I decided to take a ride down to Port
Colbourne last Sunday to see if we could view a ship or two traveling the
Welland Canal. We were lucky to arrive at the Lake Erie end of the canal just
as a huge freighter from Canada
Steamship Lines was approaching the lake exit. We watched as it passed by
only a few metres out from the wall we were parked on with our motorcycles.
It’s quite a thrilling sight to see from close range. To think that our former
Prime Minister Paul Martin is the billionaire owner of this gigantic company is
also impressive. I guess when you think of it he really didn’t need the paltry
salary of the highest office in this land after all!
The one thing that does bother me about it is that
the ships of his fleet, so I’ve heard, are registered as being from the Caiman
Islands. It is said that the Martin family does this to avoid having to pay the
taxes that would be required by Canada if the fleet were registered here in
Canada. Now that’s a man to be admired as a former Prime Minister wouldn’t you
say? NOT!
At least the ships are impressive if not his
business practices.
*
The ride was a lot of fun. We took all the back
roads and avoided the Queen E. Riding is a lot more fun when you can cruise at
a less hectic speed and enjoy the scenery around you. Of course you can’t gawk
as much as you can when you’re driving a car but you do get to see some
interesting and beautiful scenery along the way. We passed many other
motorcycles along the route and they all make an effort to wave to you as they
pass. This can sometimes be a bit of a hazard to respond to their waves because
of traffic you must be vigilant about when you’re operating a motorcycle. I’m
sure most riders would understand when you don’t wave back but there are those
that would take a non-response as a personal snub rather than a safety move.
The main thing that was different about this ride
for me was the fact that I was able to take along whatever I wanted without
having to limit myself to items that fit in my pockets. My new saddlebags are
actually rectangular cases made of aluminum with a top lid opening. They are
made in Germany and compliment my new bike very well. I can’t see how anyone
who rides a motorcycle can do without saddlebags. I certainly won’t ride
without them again. I also received the air horns I ordered this week and
installed them as well. I still have to wire them but that won’t take much with
the help of Adam. I look forward to having them operational so I can let anyone
that gets in my way or threatens me know that I’m about to hit them! Hopefully
these horns will make for safer riding than the stock equipment horn that
sounded exactly like “Beep Beep” the Roadrunner in the cartoons. It was a joke
to think that most people could hear and react to that toy like warning device.
I think that motorcycle manufacturers should install louder horns right from
the get go. Nothing says “Hey Dummy…get out of my way!” like a good set of Air
Horns! LOL!
*
Well, that’s about it for this week! Thanks for
tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next time in The
Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… Greg.
PS: Something To Think About>
With the number of motorcycles on our roads
increasing every day, please keep an eye open for them when you’re driving in
your car and give them a little extra room!
****
Have a good one..
the doug
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