going over niagara paul's: May 2012

Wednesday 30 May 2012

BAYFIELD INLET - THE ISLAND: HUMMINGBIRD SERIES

Not to be confused with the Hummingbird Centre.

Isn't always the case. I painted the whole cabin except this little patch under the porch that the whole world will now see.

Have quite the flock of hummingbirds. Hard to believe, but they will empty the feeder in three-four days. Sometimes there are up to four trying to feed at once.

Coming soon: GIANT turtle and snakes

TIME OFF FROM DEMOLITION BEHAIVOR.

Day of rest in Parry Sound Sunday. Read the PS Beacon while I watched the Giro, sandwiched by the Monaco GP and the Indy 500, sandwiched by Pizzavilla and Dairy Queen.

Lei e benvenuto e bene fatto Ryder!!You to Dario.

Sunday 27 May 2012

PARIS TO ANCASTER 2012, ROGER HAMMOND, PAUL NEMY - ROGER & ME & our P2A

May 27, 2012

On this day that a Canadian has captured the Maglia Rosa of the Giro D'Italia, I post my little epic ride from this past April. Much was written about my guest and the event, Roger Hammond and the Paris 2 Ancaster Cycling Classic.

The articles below gives a general overview.

For over a century the roads of northern Europe have been home to the toughest bicycle races in the world. The most famous of these, Paris to Roubaix, takes place each spring over brutal cobblestone roads that have been preserved in their historic condition for over 100 years.

Inspired by this classic race, the Paris to Ancaster has taken place for the past eighteen years over the roughest farm lanes, trails and gravel roads we can find. Combined with unpredictable spring weather and the largest field of riders assembled in Canada, it has become a classic race experience for everyone from average riders to Canadian Olympians. Join us on April 15, 2012 to become part of the history of this unique race.

Roger & Me

News

Roger Hammond races Paris to Ancaster

By Kirsten Frattini - Published March 15, 2012

Great Britain’s Roger Hammond will participate in the upcoming Classics-style Paris to Ancaster held on Sunday, April 15 in Ontario.

The high profile road racer will lead a field that also includes Canadians Mike Garrigan, a former national cyclo-cross champion who won Paris to Ancaster last year, Aaron Schooler and former Olympians Sue Palmer-Komar and Leigh Hobson.

Recently retired from the professional ranks, Hammond has a world-class palmares that includes a junior world championships title, multiple British national road and cyclo-cross championship wins and podium finishes at Paris-Roubaix, Gent-Wevelgem, Tour of Britain, Tour of Qatar and Tour of Denmark. He competed for teams Discovery Channel, T-Mobile, Team High Road, Cervelo TestTeam and Garmin-Cervelo.

Hammond first came to Canada in 1990 as a junior rider to compete in the former Under19 Fonthill Lumbar Niagara Grand Prix. He won the three-day race that was organized by Tim Farrar, the current Co-Chair of Paris to Ancaster, and funded by the owner of Fonthill Lumbar, Paul Nemy.

“Given that Roger is now retired, Tim Farrar thought it would be a good idea to bookend Roger’s professional career with races in Canada,” said the event’s media consultant, Mike O’Drowsky. “Tim contacted Michael Barry, a local Toronto rider who rides for Sky Procycling, and asked if he could contact Roger to see if he would be interested in coming to Paris to Ancaster. Michael did, Roger was, and a deal was struck. Roger will be staying with Paul Nemy, who will also be riding Paris to Ancaster this year.

Upon Roger's arrival, we headed

to Cafe Domestique in Dundas, Ontario for a meet and greet. This place is run by Kyrs Hines and highly recommend for a great cup of coffee, hospitality, and a mecca of cycling memorbilia. It was a proud moment for me when twenty years later, Roger sign a Niagara Grand Prix jersey and Krys hung it with his world class collection. Later that day,

I was invited to do a partial course

recon with some other celebs and sponsors.

The race is over pavement, gravel side roads, rail trails,
farm fields, bush paths, forest cuts and some rather
memorable up and down chutes.

I barely got to know Roger during our race and only noted occasionally Roger's achievements over the past twenty years, so I wasn't really sure who was coming. Roger turned out to be of the highest level as a cycling ambassador, house guest, story teller, bike washer, .... Most evident, Roger arrived as a new Father. He and his wife had their first child only two weeks before he arrived. Our quiet time at home was punctuated with Roger sticking his I-Phone in my face with the latest picture of Eva. Pleasant for Kate and I, our time at home with this former Professional in a sport that can be quite vicious, was spent trading stories of when Hyla and Nicola were infants and what Roger has to look(be prepared) for. Roger also had an "Auntie" in Niagara Falls, which only further brought out the "family" in Roger.

This brief Paris 2 Ancaster youtube gives a partial look at the event.

We didn't have any surmountable rain in Southern Ontario for six weeks till two hours before the first wave was sent off. Turned my race into my little epic.

I had one HELL of a ride. I had never ridin it before, but was in mean, get her done, keep my head down and ride mode. 60km. Had a great ride and proud to get the SCCC colours dirty!

Cook a former World Champion a few meals, he then washes
your bike for you.

April 15, 2012 (Ancaster, ON) – Sunday, about 2,000 cyclists braved rainy conditions to compete in the 19th annual Paris to Ancaster Bicycle Race (P2A). Toronto-based cyclist Mike Garrigan was the top male cyclist for the 60km race for the third consecutive year with a time of one hour, 45 minutes and 23 seconds. Mandy Dreyer of Dundas, Ontario, was the top female in the 60km race with a time of two hours, 12 minutes and 14 seconds.

“We had a great day today,” says John Thorpe, Co-Chair, P2A. “P2A has gained a reputation as being a challenging course to ride, and today’s rainy weather helped to make the course especially tough. Congratulations on behalf of the organizers to everyone who came out to test their mettle in one of Ontario’s toughest races.”

OVERALL

849/1313

#1051

NEMY, Paul

LM50-59

135/213

793

3h 23' 36"

1h 35' 12"

17.7

P2A3

AGE GROUP 50-59

135/213

#1051

NEMY, Paul

RIDGEVILLE

INDEPENDENT

3h 23' 36"

1h 24' 28"

17.7

P2A3

Saturday 26 May 2012

D40 DEMOLITION: ONE OF FOUR.

Gone but not forgotten: My arms hurt.

Before.

Orchestrated destruction.

During.

The whole construction of this building was
evident of Horst's commercial building business.
Much styled after a'70's strip mall. The flat
roof are layers of asphalt board, tar and stone.
More a kin to a cottage in New Jersey.

We are not talking some pop can aluminum siding here. This is steel. (if I get it to Parry Sound, I'll get .06 cents a pound. Can't wait. Going to buy myself a Peanut Buster Parfait with the money). Perfect for a Georgian Bay tornado and those flying fish. Or are they swimming birds?

After

Our Fridge

Was very hot out. Water looked very cool. Packed up fridge to early. Even with the temps in the high 20's, I keep a fire going to burn residual material. Packing up all asphalt material for dump. Was so hot could pour the roof into pails. Very un-up-north aroma.

Preliminary plans have our eating, activity, hanging out table and sitting area here. Might try some sort of see threw floor over the water. I would like to be able to have my coffee and bacon, eggs, hash browns and toast while I look into the channel. That way if I see a fish, I can through my line in.

The portion still standing will roughly be our kitchen. To take full advantage of the view, above the eating area we plan on putting a combination crow's nest, bedroom, observatory, fire lookout, Widow's watch, Punjab family Rajbinson treehouse. (Might steal the Robinson's water system. Would love to be in bed and have a coconut shell conveyer get me a glass of water)

Thursday 24 May 2012

BAYFIELD INLET, D40, HOLIDAY SERIES: VICTORIA DAY 2012

What to many is the official start of the summer, turned out to be summer indeed. We started the weekend with a beautiful boat ride coming in late Thursday evening and finished with some unrelenting sun and summer heat on Sunday.

Stained, sealed and delivered.

. We wanted to celebrate this Royal Holiday in true fashion and no better way than putting some cabinets together. We have always needed some extra storage in the cabin and now thanks to Kate, presto!

The weather was significantly warm enough that we
didn't need to hot tub but still fun.
The bay was definitely to COLD for rinsing.
We got the thing so hot on Sunday that we didn't even get in.
Should have brought some lobsters.

Jolly good job!

Nice match

Letting our free flags fly.

Pickerel and chips and spinach with our Shitake mushrooms and tarter sauce and lemon and I don't think we need much more. Yes I did put malt vinegar on and of course some salt! Didn't feel like ketchup today. Didn't need coleslaw with the spinach. The Brits can have their Haddock but I'll take Pickerel any day. I would like to say we caught it, but got it from the guy in Nobel. Will write one day about Nobel. Fish, dynamite and Avro Arrow engines.

Wednesday 23 May 2012

BAYFIELD INLET, ONTARIO - HOLIDAY SERIES, EASTER, 2012

APRIL 6 & 7, 2012

Due to a unprecedented mild winter, Kate & I spent Easter on the island. Our cottage season have always started on or around the first of May. Quite often coinciding with ice out. This year due to some serious climate change, ice out was, what little there have been, in March. Much to our surprise, our trusted hand at Thompson Marina, Corey, was able to get our boat in the water. As the pictures show, it was a spectacular weekend to start our season.

Kate loading up our boat. As evident at the marina, our weekend was quite quiet.

Luckily we found most everything on the island in good order after winter.

Easter Moonrise

One thing that I saw, and will have to work hard to view it again, was the a sunrise and a full moon set within a minute of eachother. It's quite cool to see a moon set into Georgian Bay.