If you ever get tried of stories about my dog, then you can just skip this post. It's fine. I won't take it personally. Not everyone is a dog person.
But seriously, what's wrong with you?........
We left early, like really early, on Friday morning to make the 6|:30 ferry to departure bay.
It really is amazing what you can fit into my car. My Nissan Rogue was packed to the gills with bike stuff, camping stuff, paddle boards, blankets and pillows, a cooler, a cappuccino machine, cloths and a largish brown bear. The Rogue has never let me down but a full size pickup is on the shopping list. I'm hoping for 2027 to make this acquisition.
BC ferries has set up an amazing little dog friendly area on the upper car deck with chairs and benches. This is the sweet summertime traveling spot. No kids, just dog friendly people and views of the water and sometimes whales. It's bare bones but it's awesome!
Getting off the ferry we headed to Save on foods to pack the car even fuller. Nic put 2 large bags of groceries at her feet and we drove up to Lantzville to get our Pleasureway camper rental.
Rich calls this glamping but we disagree. Smallish vans like this are nice, but requires a lot of set up and tare down time. Set up the bed when you get to the site, but put it all away when you need travel storage. And I'm not bragging or anything, but I poop bigger than this bathroom.
One of the best choices we made was to bring our De Longhi espresso machine. Wherever we had hookups, ie, first 3 nights, we had Cappuccinos . Such a nice way to start the camping morning.
Nicbucks is open!
We planned this trip around my Brothers annual BBQ. All are invited and those who show are fed burgers and hot dogs. So far I've only ever had burgers, but Cameron doesn't cheap out. He gets the keg burgers from Costco. So good!
This is a pic of most of the young-ins that showed up. Natalie and her kids, Pat's teenager, Sami(pants) Allistair and Sonja's 3 kids.
You may not know it, but you're looking a a picture of a Unicorn. All 4 dogs down and resting is something I never thought I'd see. Normally Ozzie spends his time at Cameron's trying to hump his dog, Angus, the black lab. Ken brought Barkly, John brought Daisy. The 4 played the whole time I think except this maybe this moment only.
2 nights at the Qualicum First Nations Campground. The only negative comment I have is there is little or no shade. I kept thinking, thank god it's cool and overcast. If it was hot and sunny, we'd all have been roasting. Other than that, our spot was perfect. Right next to the cabins where Natalie and Pat were staying. A large space for Ozzie to wander out the back of our campsite.
This was our view on Saturday morning. Pretty nice.
Sunday morning found is driving into Cumberland for a bike ride. We parked the van near the trail head and started off for Soba no Michi, the climbing trail. Thirsty Beaver, Teapot and the Crafty Butchers were like visiting an old friend. Nic and both got into the flow zone right away.
We were really proud of our pup too. Our Cumberland ride was probably the longest of his ride career. 3.5 hours since the climbing trail is so mellow. But he ran it like he'd done it 100 times.
Before the ride, I got a call from the Cumberland Lake Campground. I was asked to change to site 16 instead of 17. They had a family that wanted to take the 2 sites next to each other.
Ok No problem I said.
Overall, the Cumberland Lake campground is great, but by agreeing to change sites, I agreed to camp in the wet spot. The rain set in hard Monday morning and it seemed the entire campground was draining through our site. I won't show all the pics I took, but neither site 15 or 17, or basically any other site there had this issue. What is one of Murphy's Laws, no good deed goes unpunished? It really made packing up and heading to Miracle Beach
I was able to contact Kelsey at the Cumberland camp ground a few days later. I told her I felt somewhat screwed by the situation. She happily refunded my money for the one night and said I should try to find her next time I wanted to camp there so she could help out further.
I was really impressed by this and just wanted to mention in here in my post. I'd say none of the campsites we visited on our trip were perfect. But the way she handled my complaint makes me want to go back.
Well done, you!
We arrive in Miracle Beach for an agreed upon rest day. The rain that day sucked but we did our best to adapt. We used the awning to cover the picnic table and played our second game of Brass Lancashire. |Both Brass games are excellent. We were able, barely, to keep this game from getting wet.
We packed in the game and went inside for a late afternoon sip of scotch. Nothing else to do besides sit and chill.
Ozzie thinks this plate of cheese, humus and crackers is his.
Yeah actually, a lot of it was.
Our table(attachment) had just enough room for 7 Wonder Duel. Another fave.
Ozzie was really well behaved on our trip. For 5 nights he shared our bed space and let us sleep in. The rest was rare and nice, but I think the fact that we rode and paddle boarded most of the trip tired him out. Plus all the plays he got in with his friends. The whole trip was really nice in that regards.
Ozzie will often stare at us in such a way that makes us wonder what he is asking for. It turns out this is the facial expression of our dog when is waiting for me to get up and go to the bathroom so he can steal my spot in bet.
Recorded for later reference, Ozzie.
The morning view from Miracle Beach. Nice but not where it's at.
Saratoga beach has the white sand and is much more dog friendly. I didn't get it on video, but Ozzie went nuts here. Sand, water and other off leash dogs! As our dogs matures, a display of the zoomies gets more and more rare. But zoomies will bring me back to Saratoga beach eventually.
Back to the site for Taco Tuesday and a game a Carcassonne.
Ozzie napped out the rest of his trip. We packed up Wednesday morning and got the Pleasureway back to Lantzille 30 mins late.
July 2024 brought us a mild heat wave, relatively speaking. Nic and I are committed to having our rides done before the heat gets up there. We decided to start our Saturday morning in Squamish by heading up Friday night and crashing at our friends house. Unpack, drink a beer, play a few hands of the Crew and try to go to sleep. Up at 6 and to the Half Nelson trail head for 7:30. Everyone had a great ride. It was good to see Rich have a good ride down. He took a pass on the Tsudo Pseuga portion of the ride, instead opting to grab Ozzie and take him down to the bottom lot for a rest.
Some good eats in the day and walk on the Ocean front to check out the kite surfers.
Another early Sunday and off to Brohm Lake for paddle and a swim. Our dog was tired by then and very barky. Nic and I need to investigate this behavior as he echos off the lake and disturbs the peace. Not only that, when you swim with him he tries to drown you. I had a couple of good knocks to head in the process.
It was a great weekend though, the only annoyance were the obnoxious Persians in the parking lot trying to get us to give them our parking spots before we were ready to leave. We had 4 douche bags trying to move cars around and cram into spaces that were to small, one of them parking right up against the passenger door just before we were about to go. One guy asked Rich to change spots as they were packing up and kicked up a fuss when told no. Seriously? Is that polite in your country?
Our parks are getting seriously over taxed these days. If there aren't garbage cans at the site, that doesn't mean you should just leave your beer cans and paper plates in a box on the side of the park. It means that it's not managed and you should pack out your own shit.
Our parks all need new signage that reads "Don't be an Asshole".
The 2024 ride season got underway today. First ride of the year and first since the holidays. It's been rough. I had to survive some big repair bills on my car and bike, and the body is getting used to the saddle again. But it's good to be back.
Subo and us made it up to 7th for the first time in what seemed like ages last weekend. It was Ozzie's first time on that trail so I'd have to assume we hadn't ridden 7th at all last year.
It was like visiting an old friend. We all had a good ride and decided the next weekend we'd dial up another stranger.
We shuttled up to CBC and rode the classic CBC Neds lap. Another trail combo we hadn't done in years. Hats off to the trail builders. Neds and CBC both are now challenging enough to keep you on your toes, but have enough flow to make you feel like you can actually ride a bike! It was such a great day of riding, and just enough for the brown bear who was zonked when done.
Nic rides some wood work on CBC and Ozzie shows her the way to the bridge.
Sometimes when you find yourself of trails you haven't ridden in a while, everything can just click right in. I left the day stoked to head back up to CBC again, maybe in October. It was such a good ride!
Sunday we took our paddle boards up to Brohm lake north of Squamish. It took Ozzie just a few seconds to hitch a ride with Nic.These photos were staged, of course, but you can take my word for it. As soon as he saw Nic getting settled on her board he wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
My mind often wanders back to February 2022 when Nic was apprehensive about getting a dog. Yesterday he joined her on her first paddle in many years. Ozzie has been a perfect fit for us.
Life is life. It goes, it changes again and again and then it ends...as all things do. I have recently ended my career as a Karate-ka. In March I announced what could be interpreted as a soft retirement from something I have done for the past 16 years. I still remember the day my sister invited me to try Karate with her and her husband in Tsawassen. Seems a long time ago. It was a small decision that would have a huge impact on my life, including a year in Japan, the driver for starting this blog. But now so many years into my training, a body that seems to refuse to get more flexible, and a level of enthusiasm that just cannot make up for it. I decided that my heart wasn't where it needed to be to set a good example for my kohai. Looking back now, I should have stopped grading after Shodan. Maybe my only regret in my karate training life. It did make me a better person and I met some amazing people, some of whom I consider friends.
Never say never, I may re-surface with an occasional drop in.
Until very recently, this is the last photo I have from a ride with my wife. Here she is with our good friend Brett. Later that day, we would drive in Surrey to change our lives forever.
We met and picked up our Chocolate Lab, Ozzie, from the breeder who brought him down from Burns Lake.
This of course was over 2 months ago now. Just about every photo on my phone since is of Ozzie. But here online, just so I never forget the day we were finally able to own a puppy.
Crazy cute, we loved him instantly.
And our neighbours kids were excited for us. They came over on the first day to help us walk him.
Chris chills next to our sleeping puppy...
...and later that day the Eatons would come over. Ozzie would snore in Izzys lap the whole time they were visiting.
This Ozzie watching the Canucks play Buffalo.
Nic and I have been taking turns going on rides most weekends. I often wake up and do a solo lap so she can ride with friends at the normal time. This all of course while Ozzie grows to a point where he can be a trail dog without us worrying about wrecking his joints. We should be green light on this by June 2023, I hope.
My first week with him, I had to be at my desk at 5:30am for Powershell training. Considering I would sleep on the couch for the first 3 days while we worked on crate training, I'd be surprised if I remembered any of my training.
One thing he does well is sleep when I need to ignore him.
For some reason this picture always reminds me of Bilbo Baggins in the animated Hobbit movie from the 1970's.
He's getting big fast, and turning into a tank. Heavy and dense even for his size, he can really pull on his leash when he wants to.
We keep him busy. Its maybe not be a wise choice to allow him on the couch, but I think we'll only ever get to do the puppy thing once in our lives so 'F' it as they say. Watching him konk out on Nic's lap from time to time is worth it.
Being puppy parents, as you might guess, comes with challenges. But my life is completely different now and I wanted that after being pretty much the same guy for past several years.
Nic has a few nicknames for Ozzie, the main one being Monkey, because that's what he is.
Karate out, Ozzie in. For now at least, this blog is Just about Monkey. And bike rides and board games I guess.
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