Winter Wonderland

Well, right after the Stewart Mountain race, the skies started to dump the white stuff until we had a winter wonderland in Victoria and all around the island and coastal mainland. While this isn't extremely uncommon, it's not very common to have so much as once and also to have it last so long. With all the snow, the city half shut down with the small number of snowplows trying to do there thing. At first the snow wasn't too bad and I was able to still ride into work on the ice and snow filled lochside trail with my studded ice tires but eventually, this became too much. The ice became like a skating rink on parts of the road that forced me to move to Cordova Bay road which was now narrower and scarey with all the Victoria drivers with my life in there hands (trust me, this is not a good thing and no one knows what to do when it snows).

You can complain about the snow if you want (and most people do) but you can't argue that it's not pretty and it also brightens up the winter where were used to dark and dreary conditions for months.

Lochside road filled with snow. I tried to bike in to work but turned around after a couple of blocks. The snow was just too deep to keep the bike straight. It would have been some effort to just keep it at a normal walking speed. I worked from home that day!

Cordova Bay with snow filled islands in the distance.

The first signs of snow still didn't stop the Thursday Night winter solstice ride!

Meeting up with the crew for some fresh handmade eggnog

Kim and I spent Christmas Day and Boxing Day up at Jeff Reimer and Kristen Magnusens' place up in Parksville. We spent the two days out on the snowshoes with there three german shepards who kept us all company. It was so nice to spend some good time with them and enjoy some the winter snow.

Big Bear stuck on the bridge

Unfortunately, we couldn't make the lookout that we wanted to as our progress was slow due to the deep white stuff. It was still worth it though.

Cameron Lake

Snowshoeing out in Englishman River Conservation Area

Jeff and Kristen took us to a pretty cool steep eroded bank on the river.

After we left Parksville, Kim and I took the ferry over to visit Gary and Jackie in North Van for the annual Robbins Christmas bash. It was great to see lots of people I haven't seen in ages. Yes, I drank a lot but not quite as much as Robbins who hugged the toilet for a bit the next morning... er, afternoon. We still managed to walk around downtown Van, watched the Polar Express in 3D at the Imax, and built a snowman on the beach in Stanely park. It was a great long weekend and I'm looking forward to some additional downtime over new years and the days following.

Hope you're all having a great time off to visit friends and family.

Happy Holidays!

Todd & Kim