Terra Nova 08

[ishy]

Told 08 was to be the last running of the Terra Nova, a Canadian event I always said I would do but never did, this being possibly the last running I thought I had better go.

So I let my mate Adrian Lewis know I intended going and it might be an event he would also like, he in turn got his mate John Harker to join the team, and Fri night before the event they showed up at my house after a ten or so hour drive from California.

So 5:30 am sat morning the three of us set off in the Chevy astro cruiser headed for Vancouver island, a four and a half hour drive to Port Angeles up past the scenic Olympic mountains, then a 90 minute ferry crossing from Port Angeles to Victoria, arriving at Lake Cowichan the start of the event around 4:30pm.

The whole weekend was a lot of fun, with a well organized event, with a top notch food service provided by the wife's and spouses of the committee, providing lunch both days half way round the course, Canadian thanks giving dinner after the first day ride, and fully cooked breakfast before setting out for the second days ride.

First day was bright and sunny all day, with many places to get pictures from high on the mountain tracks, the course was much like a Monday or Saturday in the SSDT without the sections, and all went well without any problems or worries.

Below, my favorite climb of the event

Sunday had a splash of rain so the rain jacket came out, and the days ride was the previous days course backwards.

Lunch break on day two, hot Smokey sausage, hot veggie soup, bread roll with turkey, stuffing, candy bar to round it off, another fist full of Smokey sausage, I was feeling like a bloated sheep on Rannock moor, after the ladies serving lunch chased us off for being greedy buggers, so we set off for the second half of the days ride.

Well we got on to this gravel road and started sending them on a bit, I leading and Adrian Lewis and John Harker, hot on my heels

the four bangers were singing on quite nicely.

Rounding a downhill bend at a fair rate of knots, I noticed a fair lump of road was missing and a culvert pipe suspended over the canyon of doom!!! being both agile and nimble I got the pickle to slide sideways and managed to skinny past the canyon on the bank side.

Alas!! my mate left it a little too late, what the daft bugger was trying to do sliding sideways down the culvert suspended above the canyon I will never know, but it looked soooooo cool until he ran out of pipe, then the severity of the situation sank in and whoa this is going to hurt flashed through my mind.

I ran over to see if the bike was OK, only to see it upside down steaming in a sad heap in the canyon and the pilot looking like a lost lobster spitting sand.

The first order of business was get some photo's of the mega get off! then three of us set about the task of dragging the bike out of the hole.

Notice the tyre mark end of pipe

We all came back tired but in one peice and sporting a big grin, had a great weekend and thank the team at Victoria motor club for a job well done.

Edited October 17, 2008 by ishy

[outlaw dave]

Hey Ish - Thanks for posting - Talked to Stan & he said it was a lot of Fun.