Elbow Loop ride

Lou and I took the opportunity to knock off a circuit of this classic local ride recently. Here are some pictures. It's about 43 km round, with 900 m of height difference between the start and the Tombstone Pass. There's a fair bit of up and down along the way though, and although most of the riding is easy, it can feel like a long day by the time you're on the final stretch.

Canoe trip: Banff to Canmore

Just back from holidays in France, and the canoe was looking rather sad and neglected (we can tell). So to cheer her up, we took off with the Bow Waters club for a lovely short paddle down the Bow River. For us this was an important trip because although we've pottered about on the Ghost-Cochrane, the lower Bow, Columbia and similar reaches, we'd never partnered our boat on a 'proper' stretch of Rockies fast water. This reach is graded maybe 1+ to 2. We found it pretty straightforward, athough the close-together paddle positions in our highly-rockered boat does lead to over-compensation (i.e. random-looking spins usually occurring during moments of high stress before sweepers). We've got a long way to go....

It was a great trip, and has got us excited about taking on numerous other reaches at the 1+ to 2+ grade. Thanks to Tina from BWCC for arranging it. As a bonus, we got to drink Grizzly Paw beer afterwards and enjoy hearing about how our fellow paddlers got flipped off by a fat old lady in the parking lot. Good times! More pictures here.

Cycling in France

Bit of a backlog on the blog, but I doubt anyone will have noticed except me. In July Lou and I joined my family for a couple of weeks in France. I fully recommend cycling in the Dordogne area. There are plenty of ups and downs crossing the limestone country, with spectacular views and quiet lanes all around. Pictured is Lou at Rocamadour. After visiting the tourist tat heaven that is the high street, we descended to the bottom of the gorge and rode back up and out - this was one of many decent climbs on that day's 80 km tour. You can see the road out in the background of the first photo.

For a change from the peace and quiet we took in a stage of the Tour, which was a memorable outing.

We also did a bit of paddling, but the river in this area is so packed with tourists in boats, rubber rings, lilos and cruisers that at times you could have almost crossed the river without getting your feet wet. It's certainly not somewhere to escape the masses, although there are some pleasant vistas.

After two weeks with the family we spent three days in Fontainebleau. I did some bouldering, but Lou didn't enjoy that side of the trip - she said she didn't feel the love for Font like I did. That said, we also put in a couple of decent rides in the forest, and found that road bikes are a good way to get around the place, although a mountain bike would allow you to escape the world entirely, as there are many tracks through large expanses of the ancient forest.