Writings and Ramblings

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Today, I'm going to tell you all about my commute:

First I start from:49 09' 14.67" N x 122 54' 27.95" W...

Then I ride thru the schoolyard and past the church out onto 84th avenue, here:

I head west on 84th, to where it curves 'round and meets Nordel Way. I then ride down the Nordel Way Hill:

Quite the thrill ride, huh? But not nearly so much fun having to ride back UP this sucker during the afternoon heat. It's the bane of my existence...

Oh, and there's this really interesting hairpin turn at the bottom that takes you underneath the Nordel Way hill. The trail runs paralell to some railway tracks (out of frame to the left) before turning west underneath Nordel...

From there, I head across the Planet Ice Sports Centre parking lot and onto...

THE ALEX FRASER BRIDGE.

Sorry...It's not really that big a deal. The slope isn't even that steep, it's just really, really, really, reallyreallyreally long...

Boy, that's a long way up, eh?

Quite the view from up top, eh?

Annnd the view just keeps on going...

...and going...

Eventually, I reach the other side of the bridge...so I take a break for a couple of minutes until I reach the bottom...

Then, a quick dash across Annacis Island and over the channel on the other side of the Island...

...nice view, huh?

Here is where I dice with death on those mornings when I'm running late. I hop over the concrete barrier and ride DOWN THE ON RAMP onto Westminster Hwy. Oncoming traffic has very little visibility of the top of the ramp, so I have to time my descent carefully and start down when there's a break in traffic...

If I DON'T feel like living dangerously, I'll ride down the bike ramp, past yet another hairpin turn at the bottom, and head west on the dike road. This leads me out onto Westminster hwy about 1.5 km further west...here:

BTW, this corner smells really good during the summer...