June 29, 2009 - Hike to Brunswick Lake

Another day in the mountains for Jeff and I - picture below at Brunswick Lake

This time we drove out to Howe Sound to do the north end of the How Sound Crest Trail. We snowshoe the south end a lot in the winter but had never been to the north end (28.9km from end to end). The new Sea-to-Sky Hwy made finding the start a bit more tricky (our hiking guide is more than 10 years old) but we did manage to find it off the Porteau Rd exit. The start of the hike is a bit boring taking you up some sometimes steep gravel road for about 3.7km. After that is gets much more interesting while you climb up Deeks Creek along Phi Alpha Falls. Most of the climbing is done by the time you reach Deeks Lake, the first of three scenic lakes on that hike. The trail continues on along the creek surrounded by tall cliffs on both sides. The next lake, Hanover Lake, is even prettier than the first with the high mountains in the back and is turquoise water color. You also had to cross the creek a couple times using natural log jams and rocks - not always easy with the water level as it was. After climbing up next to another waterfall you reach Brunswick Lake - our final destination. The trail does continue on but one would have to walk through the lake - no bridge or logs to cross on - maybe later in the summer the water level drops enough to expose the rocks and make it a dry crossing. All in all a great hike - 6.5hrs in total including 30min rest at Brunswick Lake (the book said 10hrs), gaining almost 1200m in elevation and covering nearly 20km in distance. For more pictures go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/krade1709/BrunswickLakeHike29June2009#

June 28, 2009: Lotus Race

Another long week of training is over. Lots of sprint interval workouts ranging from 20 sec to 2 min long. 11 hrs of paddling on Deer Lake over the course of the week. Jeff and I tried the Vajda Supersonic 3 - nice K1 (I will try to get a picture next week).

And the highlight of the week - Lotus Small Boat Race out of Barnett Marine Park today.

A mix of sun and clouds and a building westerly wind greeted us at the Lotus Club House. Jodi and I looked at the chop in the inlet and were glad to be racing the ~10km long course in our double surfski together. Jeff was using his Bumble BeEvo.

Pre-Race: Jodi (right) and I with the double surfski

Jodi and I made the mistake lining up for the start on the right with the current and the wind pushing us off course a bit. By the time we got to Boulder Island Jeff, Chris, John and another surfski double with Mike & Cam were ahead of us. We pushed hard after the turn into the wind and made up a little ground on the guys. Jeff all sudden dropped back behind us because of a bunch of weeds on his rudder. When we rounded Mac Barge we finally had the wind behind us. But with the strong ebb current going the opposite direction, the waves weren't actually moving that fast. Most of the guys made the mistake to stay too far off shore trying to ride the waves while Jodi and I tugged in closer to shore to stay out of the current. We passed John and were making up ground on Chris who was now second behind Mike & Cam in the other double. Jeff almost caught up with us again staying even closer to shore. We almost caught Chris but he stayed 13 sec ahead of us and Jeff was just a couple second behind us. Third overall isn't too shabby for an all women's double. Nevermind - Cam is Mike's son and 11 years old. They well deserved to win!!!!

Post Race: That was a hard race and we tried to really pick it up at the finish to beat Chris

Post race: The winning team of Mike and Cam

June 21, 2009: Hike to Lindsay Lake

On Sunday, we decided to do a hike instead of another paddle. We trained all week with the kids on Deer Lake. Lots of short sprints such as 35 times 1 min sprint on 1 min rest. Hard work.

The day started overcast but by the time we left home the sun was outin South Vancouver. That changed though the closer we got to the mountains around Buntzen Lake north of Port Moody. There were big black clouds farther up the valley. Nevertheless it was still dry when we started the climb up on the ridge on the east side of Buntzen Lake. Once we finished the climb up to the ridge the clouds caught up with us and it started raining a bit. But the trail is extremely beautiful up here situated within old growth forrest alng some tiny but pretty lakes. We also encountered some old snow up here on the trail still (high point 1100m). After Lindsay Lake we turned west along the lookout route with some great vsitas if not for the clouds and rain. Still well worth it!!! A few more rained out cloudy pictures can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/krade1709/LindsayLakeHike21June2009#

Rain at Lindsay Lake cut our break down to a couple minutes. Temperatures are quite a bit colder up here in the rain and clouds. Good thing we brough some long sleeves with us.

If not for the clouds one could see Indian Arm and Mount Seymour below and behind me at the Pulpit Lookout.

June 2009 - first half: Round Bowen Race & Relaxing

Ah - my first month off and the weather is gorgeous. Sunny and hot for 3 weeks in a row - one could think I deserve that!!

What's up for this month - well some racing of course, lots of relaxing and coming up with our training plan for the World Masters Games in Sydney in October. After training for long distance racing all winter long till now, the speed is pretty poor. So from now on we'll do intervals measured in seconds rather than hours.

Finally I have time to update all my blogs and online albums to share my life again with friends and family (something which has suffered the last few year with work and training). So take the time and read some previous blogs - well all posted today. We'll see how long I last.

June 3rd: Bike trip with Rene through the Mount Seymour Demonstartion Forrest. A nice shady ride with only little hill on mostly paved road. No cars. Only trees, water and an owl. For more picture see here: http://picasaweb.google.com/krade1709/MtSeymourDemonstrationForrestBikeTourWRene03June2009#

June 7th: Round Bowen Race in Howe Sound, 32km - Double Surfski with Jeff. The one race we had been training for so hard all winter. Hours in the gym, on the elliptical trainer and indoor kayaking machines, on running trails and paddling of course. And how did we do - not bad but nobody to race with really. Okay there wer two very fast men's double kayaks way ahead of us but they were clearly a class better than us. Oh well, we improved our time from last year although the conditions were considerably slower. The weater was great and the usual BBQ afterwards fantastic. Check out Jeff's race report at http://surfskibc.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/race-results-round-bowen-challenge/ or the BCKC blog http://burnabylake.com/blog/index.html

Good form...

into the finish

June 8th-11th: Fishing Trip to Blue Lake in the interior of BC near Merritt. We haven't been fishing in years and it was about time!!! What a relaxing trip - no fish for me, no bear sighting (usually we see at least one in that area), lots of moskitoes (way more than in May when we used to go in past year) but great warm weather, lots of deer and butterflies and even more relaxing. Jeff and I could not believe how we survived without it for so long. If you are interested in lots of pcitures check out the online album at http://picasaweb.google.com/krade1709/BlueLakeFishingTrip0811June2009#. A couple pics below to wet the appetite:

Tough road to get to the Lake

Beautiful Blue Lake

Jeff in his boat fishing

My view for hours sitting in my float tube

June 13-14th: Ted Houk Memorial Sprint Regatta in Seattle WA. After all this long distance racing the first sprint regatta for me. My speed was pretty pathetic in the K1 but racing team boat was a lot of fun (check also: http://burnabylake.com/blog/index.html).

After my the 1000m K1 race

The girls for K2/K4 - Kiran, I, Rebecca & Kristin

June 15th: Hiking up Grouse Mountain. After a 1hr 03 hike up the BCMC trail we got to enjoy the grizzlies chasing each other on top of Grouse (behind the fence of course). They put on a great show. More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/krade1709/GrizzliesOnGrouseMtn15June2009#

May 2009: Lots of Racing and Finishing up at Kodak

Most May weekends were taken up by kayak racing (see further below). And I didn't have to be worried about not getting any work done. My last month at Kodak wrapping up. Two more projects had to be complete and I managed to finish the last one and presented it to the Core Team on May 26. All sudden life takes on a different meaning again when you don't have to worry about how you get all those 5million things done at work, train for racing and try to eat and sleep inbetween. I am looking forward to taking some time off (well - if a job would come up I'll take it) and train for the World Masters Games in Sydney Oct 2009.

And of course we went for beers again on our last day. Less people but more drunk as the pictures below show (Tim was taking the pictures).

Jeff & I

Carlos

Rene

David

Racing (also check out the BCKC Blog http://burnabylake.com/blog/index.html and Jeff's surfski blog, links below):


May 2nd: Whatcom Classics on Whatcom Lake in Bellingham WA, 20km - Double Surfski with Jeff (http://surfskibc.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/race-results-may-2-at-bellingham/).

Mid way

May 9th: Fort Langley Classics on Bedwell Channel/Fraser River - Flatwater Marathon in K1. A 20km course with one 100m portage after the first 8km and a tight turn in a little creek on lap 2. Also check out Jeff's surfski blog for race reports and results/links http://surfskibc.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/race-results-may-9-at-fort-langley-and-may-10-at-deep-cove/

Racing down river - obviously

May 10th: Tour de Indian Arm in Deep Cove, 19km - Double Surfski with Jeff

Pulling of the beach before the race.

May 16th: Orca Challenge, Anacortes WA, 39km - Double Surfski with Jeff. The course goes around a couple Island in the San Juan Island Area. No orca sightings but one sealion. For a good race report, rsults and links check here: http://surfskibc.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/race-results-may-16-san-juan-orca-challenge/

May 24th: Jericho Classics, Vancouver BC, 10km - Double Surfski with Jodi. No pictures unfortunately but check out this link: http://surfskibc.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/race-results-may-24-at-jericho/

Race stats: Strong headwind on the way out - nice wave riding back

And Jeff and I did some R&R as well - walking around Burnaby Lake (usually our kayaking training spot) and watching the turtles, geese, ducks and beavers:

April 2009 - Spring is here?

Spring finally has started but it is still too cold out. Nevertheless, the cherry blossoms are out now:

Jeff bought himself a new surfski - the Bumble BeEvo - see picture below:

We did the first hike of the season up Lynn Creek but there was still lots of snow even at lower elavation. Fore more pictures go to http://picasaweb.google.com/krade1709/LynnValleyHike10April2009#:


The Deep Cove Tuesday Night Racing Series started again - from now till September each Tuesday evening at 7pm. If you are interested to follow the results check out Deep Coves Canoe&Kayak website at http://www.deepcovekayak.com/rental-and-lessons/racing/tnr-current-results/:

Jeff in his new boat chasing Jean

Me finishing

Last but not least - the first flat water race. "Spring Run Off" Marathon in the gorge in Victoria on April 18th. Jeff and I competed in K2 - 30km as 5x6km laps paddling and 100m portages inbetween laps. Check out the BCKC blog as well for a link to additional racing pictures http://burnabylake.com/blog/2009_04_01_archive.html

The BCKC team above

Race stats

March 2009 - An Era comes to an End

Well - it was fun and hard work as long as it lasted but Kodak finally decided to close down the inkjet TAG team in Vancouver. After over 7 years, inkjet consumables development and inkjet proofing support at Creo/Kodak will stop at the end of May 2009. A real sad day for me having to tell coworkers/friends that this will be happening - more so than knowing I am loosing my job as well.

Nevertheless we celebrated our new gained freedom in the bar afterwords - and lots of the alumni joined us for it. For more pictures please go to http://picasaweb.google.com/krade1709/AnEraComesToAnEndCreoKodak27Mar2009#

The girls: Kendra, Heide, Tatyana, Marie & Jennifer

The Boys: Florin, Terry, Tim & Rene

February/March 2009 - Winter is not over yet

Unbelievable - it snowed again in the city. Will this winter never end?

View from our balcony into the townhouse complex on March 9th

We had a little bit of a break in February although it stayed unseasonal cold. Two kayak races happened before the snow caught us again. Shack Attack Race in Nanaimo on Feb 22 and the first race of the season out of Jericho beach on Feb 14

Our finish at the Jericho race