my community

I managed to find a copy of David Byrne's The Bicycle Diaries at my local library, and I'm glad I found it (I picked it up thanks to Barbara's review at The Bookworm Collective. You can read her review there find out what the book is about).

Ten pages into it, and it already has me thinking about my daily commute and how my method of transportation affects how I view my community. I don't know if this is the scope of the book, but it got me thinking.

I don't own a car, and I don't really want to own one either (db does have the company car on the weekends, so we do use all methods of transporation).  Mostly I take transit (bus & skytrain), I use my bike to run errands on my day off, or if I just feel like taking a bike ride, and I walk -- alot. What have I learned about my community and how it functions based on my daily walks? No surprise, but we are a car culture.

We live in a suburb of Vancouver. It's a thriving little city with lots going on. What I see as the hub of our town is a little pocket of shops, mostly independent businesses, that sit between, and is connected by two main commuter roads. It's a pedestrian friendly area, but also has lots of room for parking. You could get everything you need in this little area, and I suppose that was part of the attraction for the adjacent condo owners; everything is within walking distance.

Across the main road from this little hub, is the theatre where they hold screenings and events, the library, and the recreation centre. The inlet trail borders this area, and has paved and unpaved trails that run along the water. If you walk, bike, or run in one direction, it takes you to a nice picnic and beach area. If you do the same in the other direction it takes you to a larger park where concerts are held, a boat lauch is available, and there's even a small public pool, and a dog park. If you know your way around you can also connect to many of the trails that run up the mountainside.

Kitty-corner to the "hub" area is a new development that has been filled with more condos, and little shops in a pedestrian friendly area. It is attempting to mimic the original, older main hub; however, it doesn't have the independent businesses, but rather is a series of chain stores (Starbucks, Cobs Bread, Booster Juice) and has a feeling of something a little bit fake in its attempt to be quaint. I see this entire neighbourhood as being set up for after hours and weekend outdoor play.

If you don't live in either of these hubs you need a car. Walking is for the weekend only, or if you take the dog out. Some streets don't even have sidewalks. I live a fifteen minute walk up the hill from the hub, so while it is possible to walk to this area and get everything I need, it is a bit inconvenient as well because the hill is quite a hike. It's fairly steep so walking home with a load of groceries is not really what I want do. We save grocery shopping for the weekend, and we have our organic produce delivery that comes once a week. However, I do walk this hill almost daily to get home from work since the buses that do run up the hill are few and far between.

The road that runs up the hill is four lanes. It is a 50 km zone, but as you can probably guess no one does 50 km, it's usually closer to 70 or more if they're going downhill (db & I actually call this stretch of road "speed city raceway").  There are no houses along it, just trees, and pathways that lead to suburban pockets of homes. Whenever I cross paths with someone walking up or down, we always exchange a hello or a good morning. Once you hit the hub though, the greetings stop.

Off this main artery are lots of little side streets, most of which are tree-lined dead ends. The houses are close, but the yards are still large enough for good sized gardens, and backyards often face a greenbelt. Where I live is one of these streets. The homes are large (we rent of course) with wide driveways and double car garages. Even with the two car garages, many people park on the street because they have more than one or two cars (or there are renters who have cars, but no access to a garage. There's actually a little dispute going on about who can park where on the street. One of the neighbours gives out his own tickets if you park in front of his house (i'm not kidding). 

So my community is a commuting one. The cars file down in the morning and file home at night (have you seen Edward Scissorhands? It's like that). It is truly suburban in that respect. The community is set up to move these cars to and from work as efficiently as possible. Bikes? There are few bike lanes, so you're really you're on your own for commuting. Afterall, biking is a weekend activity reserved for the trails.

To bike or not to bike. I'm balancing my running with my biking and I'm finding it tricky. I'm training for the half on June 28th, but the weather has been so incredibly beautiful I just want to be on my bike. If I bike too much, I get fatigued and can't always run as well as I'd like to.

I love biking to work. There's a freedom in getting on my bike and being out in the open enjoying the fresh (as fresh as it can be) air.

So this morning...I will...I'm still trying to decide.

bike and run vegan run

I think I've just about reached the end of my energy level. I've been biking and running everyday since...well...since the nice weather started sometime near the end of June.
Being on my bike feels wonderful and I finally put a mirror on it so I can actually see what's behind me. Hmm what a concept. I never thought it would make a difference, but it does make a huge difference. Now I know when the road is clear behind me and I can take up a little more room. I can tell when a car is giving me clearance as it approaches as well and that's nice to know.

I've been biking to and from work for a total of 23 k a day and it's through a relatively hilly route. I've been treating these days as cross training days so I don't mosey and try to pick up the pace when I can. Now I feel the need to have a days rest where I don't bike at all. This will be tough since the weather continues to be glorious.

On my running days I've also been biking just because that's how I get around. The end of my journey always ends with a massive hill to climb that I use to never bike all the way to the top, but now I'm doing it more often than not so I've crowned myself "queen of the mountains" (this is influenced by my daily viewing of the tour de France and the polkadot jersey going to the king of the mountains).
I need something to think about while I'm climbing the hill don't I? I try not to think about the hill at all, but rather think about how do they climb those mountains in the pyrenees?

Canada Day

Ah photos again. First stop on our bike ride this morning was to pick up a new card for our camera. I've given away our destination with this photo above.

We wanted to do some biking and there's a fabulous trail that runs along the Alouette river. It's part of the trans-Canada trail and I've only just realized now that what better way could we have spent our Canada day than biking part of this famous trail that touches many communities across the country?

We kept biking and decided to go for the Golden Ears Park goal. (In the photo above, the peaks in the distance are situated in the park). db was running out of energy before we reached the park and once we got to the entrance, he wanted to stop and picnic right there by the sign. I thought maybe we could wave to those entering the park while we ate as well. Uh...no. We carried on even though we were saddle-sore and very hungry. We'd gone this far so why stop at the entrance?

Instead of going to the large (and most likely densely populated) lake, we opted for a dirt road off the main route and headed towards Mike Lake. This turned out to be mostly just a boat launch with a few trailhead entrances for some of the longer hiking routes, but we found a place to have our lunch and ate every bit of food we brought.

The bike ride home was much faster since we were going mostly downhill and we took a more paved direct route home as opposed to the winding unpaved trail (which I normally prefer, but after hours of biking the saddle really is too sore for more bumps).

About 8 k from home I finally felt my energy level crash. I was done. Once at home I checked our total distance of biking today and it turned out to be 69 km! Holy Canada Day! That's a lot of biking for two casual cyclists. db said it was a good way to spend the first day of the introduction of the Carbon Tax here in B.C. We spent the whole day on our bikes. Not a bad idea after all. Next time I think I'd like to take a tent and stay a night or two before biking back.

Well...no one seems to have received anymore junk emails from me.

db and I bought Norton anti-virus for our Mac. We had it on our old mac, but couldn't install it when we moved into the Mac OSX world and have been doing without. I ran the program and no viruses were detected so that's good news.

As for the rest of the day...

I biked to work which was a pleasure. The last two days I've biked to work. It's an 11 k route that isn't too hilly and the weather has just been beautifully warm and sunny. db has a van from work so he's been picking me up after work for the last two days which has been nice as well because today it was very hot by the time I finished work at 5:30. It would have been a very slow ride home in the heat. Instead db was there to pick me up. We loaded my bike and headed to a garden centre (surprise, surprise) to pick up a few small pots for my herb stand. Of course once there I checked out the clematis and found a beautiful one called 'The President.'
I'm hoping to guide it along the front of the house on one corner where it can cling to the stone front. I've got four other clematis on the go, but I don't know if they'll all bloom this year. Also, I've discovered a clematis looking plant next to one of the cedar trees in the backyard. I'm pretty certain I didn't plant it. So who did and when? There are all kind of new plants coming up since I cut through the landscape fabric that was laid down last year.




Okay, back to Saturday...

So we came home and went to work. There's a cedar in the front that was in desperate need of some pruning so db and I spent a couple of hours in the front doing more pruning and tidying. There's a very sad looking variegated dogwood that is almost too far gone and I may just cut it back in the fall to see if it can come back next year. We started to work on it, but I realized that it would need a little more research before I could tackle that.

Now, it's time to relax with a little wine and some pizza on the way. Somehow db still has energy to cook.

Tomorrow we're back at it. There's a juniper out of control on one side of the house and we're digging up the raised bed in the front of the house to turn it into a veg and perennial bed. I can't wait to pull up that landscape fabric! Ha!

Bamboo bikes?

It's true. pw. forwarded the bamboo bike site to me. Check out the slideshow because it is pretty amazing.

Trail biking

In the middle of doing our taxes today I suggested we get outside and enjoy the sun. I could tell that it was going to be yet another temporary break in the rainy overcast weather and if we didn't go out and enjoy it then we'd miss it. It took a little convincing. Once D. is on a project he doesn't like to stop (Virgo!) and we were well into our Schedule 1s when I threw a wrench into the plan.

Once we were outside we knew it was worth it. We biked to the trail that runs along the Whoville river and meanders through a couple of towns. The river was flowing quite rapidly and the ducks we saw floating downstream seemed to really be enjoying themselves riding the currents. Of course I have no pictures to show because I forgot to take the camera. I'm just not in the habit of having my camera on me and thus there are no scenic shots for the blog. Oh well. You'll have to take my word for it that it's a lovely trail and some of it is very narrow with large moss covered trees reaching up overhead.

There were quite a few people on the trail. I said hello to everyone and everyone says hello as well. It seems necessary for some reason. What's the etiquette on this anyway? I never said hello to people in High Park except for the runners since most runners always say hello to other runners. It's understood that this is done. D. and I biked past a couple and their boxer dog and we all exchanged hellos and I thanked them for stepping aside to let us pass. Then we did a little switchback and encountered them again, but this time no hellos were exchanged. They didn't even make eye contact with me. Can you only say hello once? Again what's the etiquette here? I'm not worrying about it too much, but I'm a little more aware since Whoville is a smaller town and people do tend to say hello to one another. Or at least it seems if you're on a trail or a small side street a hello can be used, but if you're on a main street forget it.

Anywho...it is rare that we have two days off together and while it seemed practical to take advantage of this bonus time and complete our taxes, it also seemed like a waste of a perfectly lazy day. In the end we achieved both and we both learned that we're getting refunds. Woohoo!