Water, Water Everywhere...
Storm & Sunshine on Permanent #75
by Cheryl Lynch

Susan, Nigel and I rode our customized WWE (starting on Hastings St) yesterday in 10h. Great route. The first 100 is hard, the second 100 is easy (especially if you have a tailwind back from Steveston like we did). The first 100 was harder yesterday because of the storm going to Horseshoe Bay.

It was dry to start and the weather radar had shown a system moving through Vancouver for the first couple of hours, which we rode through and which included hail, although we missed the worst of it up at the Caulfield exit, where there was 2 cm or so of it still on the shoulder, and where the eastbound traffic was being routed around an accident. The ride up and back on the Sea to Sky was cold but dry, the temperatures were low and we were soaked, and I think we all considered turning around at Lions Bay and calling it a training (or coffee shop) ride. There was fresh snow on the Lions and on the Sechelt range.

On our way back from Porteau Cove we stopped and watched a large group of white-sided dolphins that were swimming and leaping out of the water close to shore in Howe Sound.

Amazingly the sun came out when we got back into West Vancouver and we (the majority of us) gradually warmed up for the remainder of the ride, which stayed dry. Coming back through West Vancouver there were riders wearing shorts and light tops who appeared to be happily oblivious of the storm that had gone through a few hours earlier as they passed us, in our wet winter riding gear.

I didn't advertise on the discussion list because we weren't sure which day we were going to ride until Friday as the weather was uncertain. In hindsight I'm glad I didn't encourage others (other than Nigel and Susan) to go out to Porteau and almost get hypothermic!

October 21, 2012