HOLA MEXICO!!!

This one's for you Tasaka!

We need a MOMAR here!

Well, I just got back from a 10 day trip in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and wow what a good time! The area there is absolutely fantastic. While the City itself is teathing with Gringos, you don't have to go far to see the true Mexican culture and take in the vast mountainous terrain. Instead of writing for hours, I put together a collection of some good photos that show the highlights of the trip. Enjoy!

Mount Rainier on the flight down

I had to include this one (especially for Gary and Megan). This is a shot of the last stage of the 2007 Baja Travesia including the last trek, last kayak, and finish in San Felipe. Just happend to be flying over!

The reason Kim and I went down in the first place was to attend and celebrate the wedding of Roger and Carol MacLeod. Both Roger and Carol have been MOMAR regulars with Carol having won every race in her category that she entered. I first met both of them in late 2005 and it was through them that got me into the my first MOMAR in Cumberland. We ended up winning the team of four co-ed and it has just gone from there. The wedding was very nice and it was great to meet some of their family and enjoy time on the beach with everyone.

Beach Time!

Iguana in Action


View of old Puerto Vallarta. Kim and I walked up some steep stairs that led by little Mexican apartments where the locals played music, made food in little hibatchees, or just hung out with some cervezas. This was the view from the top.

A beach sand Budda in Puerto Vallarta

Old cobble streets that you would think would just destroy the cars in this City. However, there are tons of old cars including old VW buses and bugs. They must either just fix them or they just don't care.

A group of us in the wedding party went on a 52km bike trip that led from this small town (I forget the name) to the beach village of Yelapa. The ride was primarily old road with lots and lots of long climbs. Very Fun!

From left to Right: tour guide helper, Me, Kim, Bob, Natasha, Matt, Roger, and our awesome tour guide Alexandro. Natasha is Carol's race partner (The Snot Sisters) and was our fourth teammate in the Cumberland MOMAR in 05.

In the mountains for the first time

A short break in a small Village

Matt pushing up the climb with Natasha in background

Bob feeling the heat (and I thought I sweat a lot!)

Another small village

A stop for some refreshments, some local stares, and a donky ride.

Look at that gorgeous flowering tree. Alexandro said that this is the biggest tree of this kind that he has ever seen.

Sometimes we had to watch what was around the corner!!!

After a sweat view from the top (the first photo up top), he headed down a super sandy and super fast road down into the Village of Yelapa. It reminded me of some bike videos where they're riding downhill bikes down the paths of the town.

The finish in Yelapa

Since Yelapa is a ferry in only Village (except if you Mountain Bike in :) ) we took a water taxi back to a pickup point.

Our great tour guide

ROAD TRIP!!!

We rented a small car and went on a road trip for four days to get out of resort town and see what Mexico is all about. We were not disappointed. The first place we stopped was the small beach surf town of San Fransico.

A sweat beach with a nice sunset.

When we were walking the beach we ran into a group of people who were part of a turtle rehibilitation program. They collect the eggs on the beach, store them in coolers with sand until they hatch, and then release them at sunset to make their way into the ocean. They are a type of large sea turtle.

In San Fran we stayed in one of these 'luxury' palapas

A nice view from up the coast

We headed in land and started to see the big mountains. There were many volcanoes including this one.

Nice countryside

We stopped at a volcanic information pullout where the area was covered in broken up lava flow rock. It was pretty cool. You could see the rock flow going all the way up to the blown off peak of the volcano.

One of the many small towns we visited

The City of Tequila where Tequila was first discovered. It is the most active distillery area with over 24 Tequila factories.

The towns in Mexico are all the same. There is a large public gathering area with lots of benches, trees and gardens for people to enjoy. Surrounding this is usually a large church, the 'municipal office' and several main shops. Mexicans definitely know how to make a town centre. They were always filled with people and were a gathering place for many different purposes.

Some locals enjoying the shade of high noon.

No visit to Tequila is complete without a tour to a Tequila plant. Tequila is made from the heart (or as they call it the pineapple) of the Agave cactus. Once they are slow cooked for three days the starches turn to sugers and the at this stage they actually taste quite good.

After a Tequila tour and diner which included no less than seven shots on the house (to try and get you to buy the restaurants sponsored Tequila) I was completely pissed! I did not sleep well that night!

The road trip continues.

Our last stop before our return to Puerto Vallarta was to the mountain Village of San Sebastien. The peak in the background is one of the highest in the area at probably around 2000m. We found out that there is a road that heads almost right to the top to a radio tour. We were debating walking the road all the way up but as I was still not feeling good from my night with madame Tequila, we decided to see what our mini rental car could do. Good thing it was a standard. 1st gear for 45 minutes of climbing.

The road going up to the peak was actually in really good shape in part due to the extensive cobble work done on steep sections of the road to avoid washout. It must have taken a lot of manual labour but I'm sure it will last centuries. Those Mexicans sure know what they're doing.

The road got pretty rough near the top so we decided to walk the rest. The top afforded some phenomenal views in all directions.

The number of small re-entrants (small valleys) in the surrounding mounatins was unreal. Lots of rain in the rainy season!

Another view with the Village of San Sabastien barely visible in the centre right.

Close to the top of the peak, with noticed a sign for a Village called Real Alto which means 'really high'. It's probably around 1800m and made up of several small homes and of course, a large church.

Real Alto.

Well, our road trip was over but we still had two days left to enjoy some tours around Puerto Vallarta. The first day we went on a catamaran sailboat out to some protected bird santuary islands for some snorkling. Of course, I got pulled into having a Macaw dig it's claws into my scalp. It was a bit of a tourist trap at the marina but the people using the Macaws were part of a conservation group that tries to educates people and rehibilitates stolen birds back into the wild (the birds are taken from the wild to be sold as pets since each bird can take in over $2000).

On the way out to the snorkle site, we saw lots of humpbacks as it is currently their breading season. They swim all the way down from Alaska to mate in the warm Mexican waters.

We had lots of dolphins playing off the bows of the ship when we were sailing. Some of them were huge!

The snorkling was a lot of fun but ended up being pretty cold. After a good 50 minutes, we were ready to pack it in. The bird santuary (shown in the background) is home to the blue-footed boobies which you might have heard before in connection with the Galapagos Islands.

Fish in Action

Coral, Sea Urchans and a flurescent blue fish

With the sails up, we head back to shore

Holy Sheeet! Our last day was spent in El Eden; a nice river valley going up into the mountains and the filming location for the movie Predator (yes, a classic Swartzeneger film). We went to do a canopy zip line tour which ended up being a lot of fun. There were 12 lines with each getting progressively longer and faster. They eventually worked up to a 500m line where you reached 100km/hour. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the zip lines.

After the zip lines, we made our way to the airport to finish off an amazing trip. I was reluctant about going to Puerto Vallarta at first but was truly impressed by how nice it was, how much there is to do in the surrounding area, and how genuinely nice and happy the locals are. Whether you're into exploring the countryside, or just lying in the sun at a resort, there is definitely something for everyone.

Mexico is the BEST!!! I'll see you next year :)

TNO

Mount Washington Photos

The next day after the Yeti, Kim and I did some downhilling on Mount Washington before heading back to Victoria. It was an absolutely gorgeous day with unlimited visibility in almost any direction. Here's a taste of what you missed!

Kim at the summit with Albert Edward in background (top right)

Looking out at Strathcona Park (Albert Edward top right)

The Golden Hinde is the Tallest Mountain on Vancouver Island

You can see it just left of centre in the background

More views of Strathcona

The dome summit of Mount Washinton


The mainland Coast Mountains
From mountain, to valley, to ocean, to mountains!

TNO

Pushing It At The Yeti - Mount Washington Race Report

Lining up for my first ever snowshoe race, and the first Yeti of the year, was a bit stressful. I was just not looking forward to redlining it for two 5km laps in the snow. After a race the previous weekend, and a week that included some ultimate frisbee and a hard speed workout, my body was tired of pushing it. I was actually feeling pretty good and had I been lined up for a 40km event or a long outing for fun, I would have been more than up for it. I tried my best to do a little warmup and before I knew it, it was all go.



The Yeti's are great winter events put on by Marc Campbell. Dave Howells was the course designer who packed down some sweet singletrack through the deep white stuff up on Mt. Washington. I was pleasently surprised to see so much singletrack as, being my first race, I envisioned much more groomed trails.

While you all race individually in the Yeti, there all also team categories where the top five team members times (including at least one female) are averaged to get a team score. My adventure racing teammate and friend Gary Robbins recruited me to join Team North Shore Athletics (NSA) to try and beat out the strong Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island. This was going to be a close battle.

The 5km loop consisted of alternating short and doubletrack trails with a steep doubletrack close to the beginning in order to spread out the competitors. Close to the end, you hit a nice windy singletrack climb that than descended in long switchbacks down to an open finish line sprint. Read this a super fast and fun. What a sweet day too!

Downhill to the finish

I had been warned before the race to slow it down on the first lap as snowshoeing will really take it out of you and, if you're not careful, you might bonk hard on the the second lap. I took the advice wisely and just went hard enough to hold on to my spot. I had Justin Mark and Jeff Riemer of Helly Hansen Vancouver Island in my sights and waited for the open double track of the start of the second lap to close the gap. I caught both runners and held on to Justin until the first climb of the second lap started. This is when the Yeti started to hurt. That neon Team NSA vest/dress hurt as well!

Starting to hurt - 2nd Lap

When we hit some doubletrack, Jeff Reimer put on some steam and ended up passing me for the next long singletrack section up on the plateau. Shortly in, I pulled out a gel and tried to recoupe some energy. The gel really helped and suddenly I was feeling really good. I was right behind Jeff, who was going a bit slower than I would have been otherwise, but there was no way that I could have passed in the soft snow on the outside of the track. This would be my only complaint for this race. Tasaka, you should sponsor a MOMAR passing lane! I held on until the last doubletrack came before the downhill. I made my move, and caught up to Justin. I was still feeling good at this point and when we hit the downhill, I kept making sure that I didn't go too hard and bail.

A sweet shot of the final downhill

Just before we hit the bottom of the run, Justin took a hard faceplant into the snow. I slowed up to see if he was ok when he told me to go. I pushed to the finish and came in behind Gary in a solid 6th place overall.

After much anticipation, the team results came through. It was extremely close but our Team, NSA, managed to beat HH Vancouver Island by 2 seconds!!!

This was a great event that had a fun course and was enjoyed by all. Some awesome costumes out for this event as well. I you happen to be over in North Van over the next couple months, definitely check these out!

Special thanks to Kim for moving all over the course and taking some awesome photos!

TNO

PIH Pioneer 8km Road Race

This past Sunday, I attended the first road race in the Frontrunners Island Race Series. These are well put together events put on by various clubs on the island. The first race was put on by the Prairie Inn Harriers (PIH) of which I am a member and do regular training sessions with. Held in Central Saanich, the weather was overcast with sunny patches and the temperature was perfect for an 8km sprint.

While these short distance races are definitely not my focus, I'm starting to see why so many people get into them; they gauge your fitness over time and allow for a fair comparison. In trail runs, courses get changed, and the weather can greatly affect the times due to excessive mud or slippery rocks. Also, time is less important than placement. On the road, time is the important factor and road conditions are only minor issues as times will not vary greatly because of them.

Last year, with limited training, I pulled off a 30:00 time in the same race. I was happy with my result but I knew that I could easily beat that time this year. It was time to find out.

With over 500 people at the line, the race started without a hitch and soon I was red-lining it through Brentwood Bay. As the course is slightly downhill for the first kilometer, it is easy to get ahead of yourself and before you know it, you're running way faster than you should be. Knowing this, I went out strong but really tried to gauge myself once the course levelled out. I was with a small pack of runners at this point which was being separated by a larger group ahead. This gap between the groups was getting larger and I soon realized that the pack I was in was just not going at the speed I needed to go. I pulled away and tried to catch them. Unfortunately for me, the distance had grown too much and I was now in no man's land running into a headwind. In hindsight, I should have pushed the pace sooner and caught the group. Always in hindsight.

Pushing for the next Pack

I ran by myself for the rest of the race with only of couple of positions being exchanged. The last position change hurt the most. The finish is slightly uphill to the finish shoot. I had a racer on my back (who had been there for the last few kms) and a racer just in front of me. The racer behind put on a sprint, I soon followed and we both passed the guy in front. I didn't have enough left and ended up losing the sprint by 1 second. However, it just so happend that he was in my age category and I was dropped out of third place to fourth!

I came away with a decent time of 28:30; 1 1/2 minutes faster than last year and exactly where I was aiming. While my back half was slower than the front half, I still felt that I had a solid race and am looking forward to beating (no, crushing!) this PB next year!

Now, I just need to find out how to take another four minutes off to rival the leaders! ;)

TNO

Forbidden Snowshoeing

Holy Shhhhhhheeeeeettttttt!!!!! Look at that snow!!!!

I haven't experienced snow like this in a long time. With over three meters of white stuff and with more than one meter dumped in the last three days, it was hard not to be steller conditions.


Kim and I had a 'plan' for the weekend which was basically to go up island and find snow. We weren't disappointed. After the road up to Mount Washington was closed due to too much snow, yes, that's right, way too much snow, we headed up to the Forbidden Plateau which is an old ski hill that has been shut down for years. With snoeshoes on, we headed out on both Saturday and Sunday for some hard work and great fun. I now completley understand how dangerous tree wells can be (as heard in the recent story about the skier who died in Revelstoke). We not only fell in some (only up to our chest) but found some that were easily three meters deep! Go in the wrong way with no one to help you out can prove to be deadly. So, get out but go with someone.

Look at the snow cover!!! There's a two meter snowsicle on top of that one tree!

It's been dumping heaps of powder all over the place so if you haven't been out yet, do not hesitate and get out there! Check out Gary's blog for some great videos of some backcountry ski touring he's been doing.

TNO