Todays Riding Conditions

Looking out my window

This is more of a "trying to look out my window". This is the view of my car windscreen with snow on it. Not the best view as you can see.

#outmywindow #photos

Out My Window

So yesterday i took a photo looking out the window of a beautiful morning in which the mountains were clearly seen. Today, well, lets just say the weather can change so quickly. You couldn't even see the mountains and the snow was coming down heavy before this photo was taken. The snow plows had already been through at this point as you can see the roads had been "salted" and the traffic had started clearing it up a bit.

Out My Window  If you are wondering what "Out My Window" is all about, it is a bunch of photos that are taken by me of the view looking out my window. I always find it interesting to look back and see what i thought was interesting earlier in my life.

February 15th 2012

Looking out my window.
A view of the street and mountains Looking South from the Living room.
Penticton

Lost Moose Lodge

Took a ride up to the Lost Moose Lodge situated above Penticton. The road from Penticton heads in a vertical direction and just seems to keep on going all the way to the Lodge. I rode this knowing that it was going to be a solid ride and boy, i was not proven wrong. For 8km the road just seems to climb at an average grade of 8% which totals around 2050 ft of climbing. Today this took me roughly 1 and a half hours.
The way down is a lot quicker only taking me 15 minutes which is kind of lucky because my fingers were frozen by the time i got half way down the mountain.
This has been my biggest climb to date (626 metres/ 2050ft). I stopped a few times taking photos so no doubt in the future, i shall surpass the time i did today with a much better time. The mountain bike was the choice for today and it was probably the wise decision because the lower gear ratios allowed me to spin up the mountain rather then grind my way up the mountain like i would have on the road bike.

Strava - Looking for the Moose

A place to stay forever

This is a cache that i found that was pretty well hidden. It took me a bit to find but it is now one that i can add to my arsenal of caches that i know now to look for when i am out hunting.
Penticton - A Place to Stay Forever

Sicamous

The Sicamous, Penticton, BC Canada
8th February 2012.

Okanagan Lake

4th February 2012
View From Munson Mountain, Penticton. Bridget and i were up here looking for a couple of Caches. I am still learning the basics of Geocaching and spent a good 20-30 minutes looking for a Smaller cache that i went past so many times. Bridget happened to find the first cache of the day after looking in a spot that i had looked but things look differently to others. So after learning a valuable lesson, the second cache we went in search for was a lot simpler and only took us a few minutes to find.

GeoCache

Today I went for a look for some GeoCaches in the area and found 1 out of 4 that i looked for.
Fuzzy 56, Fuzzy Lakawana and Fuzzy SOEC were the caches that i couldn't find today. Hopefully i get them next time.

The one i did find was
Bridge to Ikeda
N 49° 30.225 W 119° 35.472
Link: Geocaching.com
Found it! - January 28th 2012

Wind Warning

Warnings

South Okanagan - including Penticton
3:34 PM PST Tuesday 24 January 2012
Wind warning for
South Okanagan - including Penticton issued

Wind gusts expected to reach 90 km/h late this afternoon through this evening over the South Okanagan.
Currently strong winds are being generated over parts of the southern interior ahead of the weather system. Wind gusts reaching 90 km/h are forecast for late this afternoon through this evening over the South Okanagan. As the system passes through the interior overnight, winds of 70 km/h gusting to 90 are expected to develop in its wake for the Fraser Canyon. The winds will abate through Wednesday morning. 

The worst of it

So up until now, winter has avoided us pretty well and we have been enjoying some above average temperatures that have been allowing us to get out and about. However today (18th January, 2012) has been the coldest of all with the high being at around -13c. Not only did we have the low temperatures, we also had some snow on and off during the day which has made the roads a little scary to drive on.
Coming into town today, i actually had a bit of a scare when i came up to a traffic light and the roads were a little more slippery then i anticipated and had my ABS on my car come on and had my car fishtailing a little. All this happened at a reasonable 30 km/h but when you have someone else in the car, you worry more about them then yourself.
Below is a picture of Downtown Penticton on the 17th January. Today the roads were totally white.

 

Sumac Ridge on the 17th January 2012

Maps

Came across a great site for making maps.
Open Street Map

OpenStreetMap is a free editable map of the whole world. It is made by people like you.
OpenStreetMap allows you to view, edit and use geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on Earth.

Snow Shoe

It's that time of the year again and the snow has fallen up at Apex. Currently the snow base is 105cm and it apparently grew over night with 9cm of new snow.



Yesterday, Bridget and I went for a snow shoe near Nickelplate Lake where we took the Snowflake Loop for a quick 1 hour hike. Overall i think we were well prepared for the hike with the only thing being that we were well over dressed with both us finding it pretty warm in our winter jackets. The only other thing we might do is add some survival equipment to our backpack, things such as matches and spare socks, things that would get us out of a sticky situation, if something ever did go wrong.

Have i also mentioned that i Love my Garmin Edge 500? Since i got it from my wonderful lovely girlfriend, Bridget, i have been using it nearly everyday to track my exercising. When it comes to workouts, i love details, things such as average speed, how far i've gone, how fast i'm going, how high i have climbed, how low i've descended and altitude. The Garmin edge yesterday told me that i was high. 6164 feet high to be exact. Twitter Photo Here you can see the Garmin Connect information for the hike. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/136637945

Here is a picture of our new snow shoes that will hopefully give us many hours of fun hiking about and exploring new areas. 

2012 Cycling Events

Currently i am working on building a list of 2012 cycling events for the Penticton Area (within 2 hour drive). There are a few events that i am interested in competing in, so over the next few weeks i will start to plan my season accordingly to best prepare myself for them.
You can see the list here http://bit.ly/tTAtX8 and there is also a link to download the PDF version which i also created.

Okanagan Hikes

Last Updated: November 12th, 2011

Penticton Area

• Ellis Ridge Trail - 3km
  -Overlooks Steep Cliffs into Ellis Creek Canyon
  -Includes views of Penticton and remains of the Garnet Forest Fire of July 1994
• Munson's Mountain
  -Great View of Penticton and Okanagan Lake
• Campbell Mountain
• Rock Oven
  -Spectacular view of Skaha Lake
• Peat Bog Trail
• Mount Nkwala / Jerry Mountain
• Brent Mountain / Sheep Rock Trail
• Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park

Naramata

• Three Blind Mice
• Okanagan Mountain Park
• Mountain Goat- Wild Horse Canyon Loop
• Kettle Valley Railway
• Naramata Creek Park 
• Rock Oven Park

Apex Mountain

• Nickel Plate

Okanagan Falls

• Thompson Property Nature Trust - 3km
  -Flat Trail on Old Roads- Watch for Signs of Big Horn Sheep, Rattlesnakes, Woodpeckers
  -Wonderful views of OK Falls and Skaha Lake

Summerland

• Giants Head Mountain - 3km
  -Panoramic Views of Summerland and Okanagan Valley

• Mt Conkle Park - KVR Trail
• Isintok Lake - PACA

Oliver

• McIntyre Bluff
• Golden Mile Trail

West Kelowna/Peachland

• Glen Canyon Regional Park - Various Routes, Over 4km
  -Marvel at 100ft High Cliffs, Unique Hoodoo Rock Formations
  -Deep Canyon
• Mt. Boucherie/Eain Lamont Park - 1-4km Round Trip
  -Extinct Volcano
  -Top Elevation 758 metres (2486 ft)
• Rose Valley Regional Park - 6km Round Trip
• McDougall Rim Trail/Hayman Lake- 9km Round Trip
• Fintry - 2-3km
  -Staircases to Triple Waterfall (400 Stairs)
• Bear Creek Park - 2.5km
• Pincushion Mountain - 3.5km
  -View of Okanagan Lake
• Hardy Falls -2km Round Trip
• Stave Pipe Trail - 4km Loop
• Lookout Ridge

Kelowna

• Knox Mountain

Penticton

Added some Photos to a Penticton Album that i am going to create on Photobucket which will hopefully showcase the City from my eyes. Hopefully i can get some great Photos to show you of my town I'm currently living in.

October 2nd 2011
Liquidation World was having a Liquidation Sale.

Cherry Lane Mall

Marks Work Warehouse

Penticton Cycling Club

Follow @pacapenticton http://twitter.com/#!/pacapenticton
Lately due to my position in PACA as Communications Director, i have been running some updates for the group. I would love for you to help me out and Follow along for the ride.

Here are some of my Tweets...
http://twitter.com/#!/pacapenticton/status/114550305168957440
http://twitter.com/#!/pacapenticton/status/111243605460520961

Director of Communications

So lately i have been pretty busy with a new position that i have adopted for the Penticton & Area Cycling Association where i am the Director of Communications which is an area which i have an interest in because it is basically Marketing.
I am at the present marketing the Third Annual Penticton Bike Festival for the club which is happening the 22nd to the 25th of September. http://www.pentictonbikefestival.com/
I have been slowly creating a list of contacts in the local area to spread the word but i am finding that email is a little unreliable as not everyone checks there emails. I will have to consider ways to communicate personally with contacts while still working my 8-4 job.