Oct 17 - the next biking challenge

Well, I've found my next challenge. I've signed up for a 1200k brevet in Ontario. Geoff Swarts (my Washington State riding buddy) found it and he's signed up too. I've written about these before -- the 1200km is ridden over the course of 4 days (actually 90 hours) and is equivalent to the Paris-Brest-Paris grand-daddy brevet except that the Ontario version is limited to 60 riders and the PBP has thousands. The Ontario ride is setup with overnight accommodation for the nights where the PBP you have to setup your own. Recognize that in this context "night" might be very short, depending on how well you keep up.

The ride takes place Aug 6-9 2009 which will be just after our planned 'family reunion' at the cottage on the August 1st long weekend. Prior to that I have to complete the 4 qualifying rides -- 200k, 300k, 400k and 600k. I checked the RUSA site for Florida rides and there are rides scheduled for Jan, Feb, Mar and Apr that would fill the bill except that the January one is before we get back from Whistler. I'll have to make that one up by riding something as close as possible -- say Atlanta. I will also check with the organizers to see if there is something else that I can do, like a Permanent of equivalent length. That would be easier than driving to Atlanta to do this ride.

In 2007 I rode a 200k brevet out of Bonifay north of Panama Florida but that chapter of RUSA seems to have disappeared. Perhaps Joe Arnold, the local organizer, dropped out. The ones that I'm looking at are out of Gainesville FL which is closer than Panama, only a couple of hours away.

More later ...

---------

Ok, it's morning now. I started a fire at Jason's late afternoon because the electric heat was not making much of a dent in the inside temperature -- warmer than outside but not comfy. After a couple more trips over to check on things and add some wood, the temperature was rising and Jason reported that the inside was at 21C by the time they got there -- before 7pm.

I'm not sure of their arrival time because I was out fishing -- left at 5:30 and returned a little after 7pm. The action was continuous. I was constrained by the time that it took to put minnows on hook and fish on the stringer -- 7 in total -- 1.5 lbs of meat after cleaning. With the 2 from that morning and the pike fillet we now have 2 full meals in the freezer. They're in the freezer because we have to eat the pickerel that Sandy brought home from Sudbury.

Back to the action -- it was continuous. I lost a few minnows to the hungry crowd down there. The fish would start nibbling/biting as soon as I dropped a new minnow down. It must have looked like a school of piranha down there going at the minnow. I probably would have done better to go out a little earlier. Being cloudy, dusk conditions started earlier and lasted longer. I'll have to remember that. My technique is simple -- I'm anchored in 10-11 feet of water; I let out 7-8 feet of line; I never reel that line in, just hook, pull the fish out of the water into the boat, re-minnow the line and drop it back down. I could do this without a rod & reel. Two of the catch from last night dropped into the boat off the hook.

Speaking of being hooked ... am I hooked at this point ? Alex thinks so. Could I go out 365 days per year and catch crappie ? No .... I'll have to come up with a routine. Weekends off ? Rainy days off ? Any excuse off ? Winter off ? -- that one definitely ! Not here off ... yes ! No minnows off ... ? don't know, apparently they go for fake worms too -- I'll have to try that one at some point. I expect that I'd have to jig the line to get them interested. I need a motorized worm ! Evenings are definitely more pleasant -- warmer and there is a logical end to it (dark). I'll go out this morning although it's cold out there, about 0C. I see that later this week it's supposed to get down to -7C ... brrr ! not a good time to be whizzing around on the water.

Abby came with me -- the fishing dog of the north. I think that she gets bored out there. It was absolutely still, flat calm and I could hear people talking in a boat about a mile down the lake. I could see where they were because they were wearing blaze orange. Moose season starts here on Monday and lasts for 6 days so the hunters are all in their camps and ready. Some are clearly duck hunting at night -- I can hear them shooting -- and some are fishing, waiting for the season to start.

I have been carrying my little Olympus Infinity Stylus 35mm pocket camera with me for the last week and gradually shooting the 36 frame film that has been in the camera for at least a couple of years. Yesterday I developed that roll, using the home-made bleach and the development times recommended and it turned out very well. I have not done any scans yet but visually the negatives look well exposed, good contrast and density. I still have a roll in the F100 that I have not completed. It will be interesting to see how that one turns out. You would think that the F100 would take better pictures ... but it's amazing how well landscape-type shots turn out with these small cameras. I used to carry this one on bike trips and skiing and got some incredible results.

As the water bath was heating up in the darkroom I hung pictures on the peg-board so the darkroom is now "decorated" as it were with some memorable photos. Elsewhere in the basement Sandy was painting. I could start mounting baseboard because she has finished -- two coats -- quite a bit already.

Stef prepared dinner -- coq au vin along with green beans and oven roasted potatoes -- quite good. The chicken recipe was one that she was trying from www.epicurious.com -- a web site that Sandy found and has bookmarked.

The leaves are down from the trees ... the weather is getting colder ... hunting season is in full swing ... a typical fall. Three more weeks and we head south ... and I get back on the bike. It's too cold (for me) to ride outside. My legs deserve this time off ... yeah right !

That's it ...