The Organ Grinder

My Canmore real estate business took a back seat for the day on June 13th as I competed the inaugural 5 hour mountain bike race at the Canmore Nordic Centre called the ‘Organ Grinder’.

The Canmore Nordic Centre have, over the past year, had a real focus on cutting new trails throughout the complex which has re-ignited the excitement in the Mountain Bike community in Canmore.  The new trails and trail system that the Nordic Centre have developed for the Mountain Biking community at large needs to be commended, they have trails for all abilities and levels and they are attracting riders from near and far.

The race course for the Organ Grinder used a system of trails that made one lap about 12kms long and used both old and new trails.  Primarily run all on single track the course had everything that makes mountain biking fun – tight gnarly climbs with exposed roots and rock, steep descents, rock drops, table top jumps, bermed corners and long steep double track climbs that made your legs feel like they were about to fall off.  Put all these elements together in a 12km lap, add 200+ mountain bikers and 28 degree heat and you have great race on your hands.

My race was tempered by a chest cold I’d been fighting for a few days and made breathing a little more difficult that usual so I rode a conservative race, which for me means taking my time on all the climbs and letting everything hang out on the fast, fun, technical descents – I decided early on in the day that if I was going to push my body while feeling under the weather I was damn sure I was going to enjoy it as much as I could.

I ended the day completing 5 laps or 62.5km in the 5 hours of racing, 1 less lap than I had as a goal but 5 more than I thought was going to be able to complete when I woke up that morning, so overall a great day on the bike.  I have no doubt that this will become an annual event and all the talk amongst the competitors at the end of the day was how much fun the course was.  A huge shout out needs to go out the race organizers and all the volunteers that helped marshal the course and cook the great BBQ after the racing was done.  These events would never happen without the support of volunteers and I know all the racers appreciate what they do to ensure these races are successful.

It’s been back to work for the past 2 weeks since the race but now I’m starting to focus on the next race I am competing in – the 24 hours of Adrenaline on July 26th.  Thankfully I will not be competing as a Solo competitor but I am on a five-man team that will try and compete for the title in that division of the race.  Keep an eye out on this blog for a race update once I’m done.  Until then, I need to get back on the bike and continue the training.

Calgary Giver 8 Race

Canmore on the morning of May 30th was zero degrees with a little rain and snow in the air.  I was up at 6am to prepare for a mountain bike race I was participating in at Calgary Olympic Park starting at 9am.  I was registered as half of a two man team to race the 8 hour mountain bike race and I’ve got to be honest, I wasn’t real motivated when I took a look out of the window.

Don’t get me wrong, the only thing I enjoy more than riding my Mountain bike is spending time with my wife and kids but I’m more of what my friends call a ‘fair weather rider’.  To make matters even less motivating was the fact that it had been snowing and raining for about three days straight prior to to Sunday so I knew the course was going to be a mix of slick wet root and rocks and deep slippery mud.

My race partner had even called me on Saturday night giving me the opportunity to quit before I began – he was in Calgary already and had taken a look at the course.  He’d told me that if he wasn’t in Calgary already he’d be calling me to drop out but as I was the one that had to drive in from Canmore early Sunday morning it was my decision.  I  seriously thought about it, but then I could hear the stories he’d be telling all our friends that asked about the race “Yeah, I wanted to race but Richard didn’t want to ride in the mud and cold” – there was no way I was going to be the one to quit without giving it a try.

Sunday morning at Calgary Olympic Park didn’t disappoint for weather, there was snow on the ground and it was freezing cold – below zero for sure – which is exponentially colder when wearing bike shorts and bike shirts.  The race organizers gave their pre-race talk and let us know that they had to change the course layout due to the weather and that the 8 hour race would still take place although if the weather deteriorated they would stop it after 4 hours.

At 9am the horn sounded and the race started.  My race partner and I were taking it in turns to each ride a lap.  He rode the first lap and his words of wisdom when he came around for the first exchange was “it’s real slick out there, be careful”.  As I started out and hit the trail it soon became obvious that the trail was very trecherous.  Most racers in front of me were taking it very cautiously as they tried to get used to riding in such slick conditions.  The rocks and roots on the climbs made it near impossible to climb on the bike and the first 10 minutes of the lap I spent more time walking than riding my bike.  Once at the top of the first few hills the trail went into the trees where we had to battle deep mud, off camber trails with mud so wet that it looked and felt like Chocolate fondue and more really wet slippery tree roots.

The further the trail progressed the more it stayed the same and at the end of the first lap I stopped and spent a good 10 minutes wondering what the heck I was doing at 10am on a Sunday morning racing in these conditions.  Then my race partner came back around and I went back out on my second lap without even thinking.

The longer the race went the more comfortable we became on the trail and the faster our lap times became.  The trail also started to dry out and was much easier to ride after about 4 hours.  At the 5 hour mark we both looked at each other, decided we’d had fun, were pretty tired and ended our day a few hours early while we could look back at the race as a fun time of racing in the mud.

Deadgoat racing were the race team to host the race and they did a fantastic job of being hosts.  To all the guys and girls that competed in the Solo division – I think you’re nuts to race for 8 hours straight and even more nuts to do it in those types of conditions but congratulations to all of you on your efforts.

I will be back next year, I’m already hoping for better weather – and I will stay and race until the end.  Next up is the Organ Grinder race in Canmore on June 13th.  A 5 hour mountain bike race at the Nordic Centre and I can’t wait to race the trails in my back yard.

On the Edge

Canmore is a resort town with a large community of part-time residents. These part-time residents primarily buy in Canmore for the Resort Lifestyle. A place to getaway for a few weeks a year, or every weekend where they can take advantage of the Mountains and the outdoor lifestyle.

So where do the full time residents of Canmore go for a vacation? I know I typically like to stay in Canmore during the summer months (long-weekends being the exception) because the summers are short and I want to take advantage of the nice weather so as a family we have stayed in Canmore for the past few years and vacationed right in town.

Last year we decided to change all that and went to a couple of new places within Canada during the summer to get away, this year we’ve bought a tent and all the camping gear and will explore more of Canada throughout the summer. This past week I did what many Canmorites do come the Spring, I headed down to Mountain bike mecca’s of Fruita and St. George in Colorado and Utah respectively.

As you may have already guessed there is a large community of mountain bikers and mountain biking families in Canmore and it’s become almost a

Taking in the view

right of passage in the community to head down South in the Spring to get some early trail riding in and improve the fitness for the coming season. Popular places for Canmore residents to go to include not only Fruita and St. George but also Moab and Hawaii.

When you live in such a beautiful place as Canmore it’s sometimes hard to leave for a vacation as there is so much to do here in town but after my latest trip I think I’ll be marking a Spring road trip in my diary for every year from now on. This year it was a guy’s trip, next year it could well include the family as my boys would really enjoy riding their bikes on the trails South of the Border.

So, are you a Canmore resident? Do you go away in the Spring / Summer months on vacation or are you like me and tend to stick around town? If you do go away where do you go and why? I’d love to hear of your favorite vacation places too.

Last week was my first week of vacation since last summer, myself and four other guys packed a truck with our bikes and camping gear and headed South to Fruita, Colorado and Hurricane, Utah for a week long Mountain Bike Trip.

I should make it clear that we were all given permission by our wives and family to go for a week, I actually think they were looking forward to a week without us more than we were looking forward to a week of biking as they were very excited for us to go.

I’ll post more photo’s in a few days once I’ve had an opportunity to sort through them but I wanted to post this video I took with my helmet camera of a ride we did on Gooseberry Mesa.

Gooseberry  Mesa is a renowned ride in the Mountain bike World, the Mesa sits at about 5000ft above sea level in a small town called Hurricane in Southern Utah.  The Mesa itself is primarily Slick rock so very similar to the Mountain Biking in Moab, just with lots less people and much more slick rock to ride on.

This video shows about two minutes of our more than 4 and half hours of slick rock riding we did on the day and highlights just how close to the Mesa’s Edge the trail takes you.  It’s a phenomenal trail and an absolute blast to ride.  The slick rock itself has trails for almost all abilities although this section isn’t for the faint of hearted.  Hope you enjoy the video clip.

Easter Sunday is always a fun day in my household.  Typically the kids wake up early and as excited as they are on Christmas morning as they look for their first clue on the now traditional Greaves family Easter Sunday morning Egg hunt.

This year was no different.  They were up at about 6:30am to start the hunt.  What’s nice now is that they are at an age where we don’t have to get up with them to help search for eggs.  It’s a special time when you can hear the kids having a blast solving the clues my wife had written out the night before and hidden around the house and yard while you are both lying in bed relaxing, knowing they wouldn’t want you helping them anyway.

This year was even more special for the kids, their Grandparents were staying with us from Ontario and they hold a special place in the kids hearts and the kids really enjoy spending time with them and showing them the fishing holes and ski hills in and around Canmore.

This Easter Sunday though was a special day for me too.  Having my wife’s parent staying with us has freed up some time I would usually spend with the kids, to ride.  This year we decided to spend the day at the Calgary zoo, so I took the opportunity to break out the road bike and ride the 100km to Calgary and meet my family in the City so we could all go to the zoo together.  It was an amazing day for riding.  The temperature when I left Canmore was about -4 degrees but the day was warming up to 11 degrees by the time I would make it Calgary.  I dressed up warm and knew there would be a pretty good tail wind pushing me along the highway as I rode East from Canmore to Calgary.

I didn’t really bank on the tail wind being as strong as it was though.  As soon as I hit the highway in Calgary I knew it was going to be a pretty stunning ride and it didn’t disappoint me.  I rode the rolling, hilly highway in 2 hours 15 minutes and had a blast the whole way.  It’s not often the wind pushes you along so quickly for such a long period but I took full advantage of it as I sped towards Calgary.

Once in Calgary my family picked me up at C.O.P, I changed into some clothes and we hit the zoo, spending the rest of the day with family. The perfect Easter Sunday.

I’m looking for a new mountain bike and have been needing a new bike for a couple of years now. My current mountain bike is a Santa Cruz Heckler and I’ve ridden it for the past 5 or 6 years and is desperately in need of retiring. The Heckler has been a great bike to me, weighing in at 30lbs with 5 inches of travel front and rear it’s the perfect bike to point down hill and ride as hard and as fast you can. Climbing on the heckler was always a bit of a challenge and took a lot of physical effort.

Looking for a new Mountain Bike I wanted to the best of both worlds, but primarily was looking for something that had about 5 inches of travel but was light enough to climb well and even race some longer endurance races. After the past few months of looking I narrowed it down to the Rocky Mountain Altitude, Giant Trance and the Santa Cruz Blur LTc. I ruled out the Blur LTc as a true contender purely for the fact that I had rode a Santa Cruz for the past several years and wanted a change – not the most logical of decisions, but a decision none the less.

So it came down to the Giant Trance and the Rocky Mountain Altitude and this weekend I was able to take them both out for 3 hour rides to see which one I would ultimately end up purchasing. At this point I have to send out a HUGE thank-you to Jason at the Ski Stop (@theskistop on twitter) for allowing me to take both the bikes out of the shop for the weekend to test ride on actual trails. Typically a bike shop will allow you to ride the bike around the parking lot to see if you’ll like it but it tells you absolutely nothing about how it will handle on the trails.

I rode the Rocky Mountain Altitude first. My analysis of this bike is as follows:

Rocky Mountain Altitude

Rocky have created a very different bike with the Altitude, it’s the company’s “all mountain” bike, built for long endurance rides of several hours in length. In order to stand out from the other bikes in this category Rocky redesigned the whole bike. The largest change, compared to it’s competitors is the 76 degree seat angle on the bike putting you right above the pedals for maximum power. This position on the bike makes an incredible difference when climbing, the front wheel feels as though it’s glued to the ground even on the steepest of climbs and the bike climbs like a goat. I’ve never experienced a bike that climbs as well as this bike and responds so quickly when you put your foot down on the pedal. The pay-off for such a drastic change in geometry is that descending quickly on the steeper slopes is a little more tricky. The bike is definitely more twitchy in the front end and you have to work harder to keep the bike in a straight line over steep and fast rocky or rooty descents.

Giant Trance X1

The Giant Trance on the other hand was a completely different feel to the Rocky. Both the bikes I rode were extra-large frames, the Rocky Mountain had a top tube length of 24.2 inches and the Giant Trance had a top tube length of 25 inches. Why do I mention this? The top tube length Giant although only .8 of an inch longer, felt like I was over-reaching to hold on to the handle-bars. The bike was very large and the whole feel of the bike felt heavy and unresponsive. I had to work for every pedal stroke when I was climbing and riding the flat sections of trail and although it climbed substantially better than my Heckler, it could not match the Rocky Mountain Altitude on the climbs. The benefit of this though was that the more traditional angles of the Trance made it a hell of a lot of fun descending on. This bike really amazed me at how well it and how fast you could ride it down steep trails, rocks and roots. In fact I would also say it descended better than my Heckler and until now I’ve only ever had the best things to say about the Santa Cruz Heckler. The Trance is a bike that is an average climber, takes all your effort to get it up to speed and keep it at speed on the flats but excels when descending and allows you the confidence to descend at speed with the knowledge that you will not get bucked around by the roots and rocks that frequent the trails in these parts.

Overall, I was torn between the two bikes but at the end of the day I chose to order the Rocky Mountain Altitude, my goal was to find a bike that could climb as well at it can descend and be light enough to race some longer endurance races. The Altitude ticked all those boxes for me and although it will undoubtedly take a little more finesse to keep it on line when descending quickly, that’s a challenge I have no issues facing. The order for the bike goes in tomorrow and I’m already pumped about the first ride.  I had a fantastic weekend on the trails around Canmore having fun on two very different bikes but it sure made it easier to find the ideal bike for my needs, something riding them around the parking lot would never have accomplished.

March 2nd in Canmore and I went for my first road rider of the year. This is two weeks earlier than I’ve ever been on the on the road bike on roads and highways around Canmore. This is the first year since I was in the Bow Valley that I’ve also experienced such a long spell of above zero weather in February. Living in Canmore and the Bow Valley for the past 18 years I’ve learnt that when it’s fourteen degrees outside at the beginning of March you can’t pass up the opportunity to get out and enjoy the weather.

It’s going to be close to 10 degrees for the rest of the week and I’m hoping to take advantage of the weather on a few more days before the inevitable March snow falls and puts the roads out of reach for a few more weeks.

The mountain bike trails are muddy and wet, the roads are dry and mostly clear of gravel. Stay off the trails if you can and give them time to dry out so we can keep them in great shape for the summer.

What other outdoor activities are people doing right now in Canmore and the Bow Valley, and how are the conditions for your sport / activity? Let me know in the comments below.

Alpine Club Trails, Canmore

It’s been another busy month so far in the Canmore real estate market and the wonderful weather throughout the month of February has made it possible to enjoy the outdoors more than is typical for me in this month.   February is usually a quiet month in Canmore for real estate and it’s usually a quiet month for my participation in outdoor activites as in previous years I haven’t taken the opportunity to enjoy such activities as snow-shoeing and skating (I don’t care too much for the really cold temperatures) and tend to spin on my trainer in the living room.

The Canmore real estate market has been busy this month and I’ve seized the opportunity to take advantage of the great warm weather we’ve had to experience a true Canmore Winter Lifestyle.  I’ve had a blast learning to skate and being able to play hockey with my kids, I was able to go snow-shoeing for a day and I’ve just bought my first pair of classic skis and will learn how to cross-country ski before the winter is finished.  With the weather being so warm I’ve also taken advantage of the days and taken the mountain bike out on some great winter rides on the local trails.

Canmore real estate is how I earn my living :: Canmore lifestyle is why I live and thrive in Canmore.  Take a look at this short movie taken with my helmet camera on one of my rides this past week.

Alberta World Cup at the Canmore Nordic Centre

Well, the Canmore World Cup weekend has been and gone and what great weekend it was. The town of Canmore, the Canmore Nordic Centre and the local business community on main street all need to be commended for a fantastic job well done. Main street Canmore looked amazing with all the snow on the street and cross-country skiers of all ages were taking advantage of the track set course to ski up and down main street with huge smiles on their faces.

All the activities on Main Street were very well attended and drew some major crowds, from the 123 kids that ski raced at the Jack Rabbit Races on Friday afternoon to the kid and mutt races and dog sled races on Saturday afternoon.

As for the professional ski racers at the Canmore Nordic Centre, Canmore athletes represented their town with pride with some great performances with the crown jewel being Sara Renner’s 3rd place finish in the Classic Sprint final. Sara seems to be peaking at just the right time for the Olympics next week! It was unbelievable to see how fast these athletes race up the hills and around the sprint track, they are an inspiration to us all and both my boys came away from

Main Street Canmore Track Set and ready to Ski

watching the races wanting to learn how to ski that fast.

A big shout out to all who were involved in the event, especially all the volunteers and race organizers and here’s hoping we will see the World Cup back in Canmore VERY soon.

The next stop for all of the athletes that competed in Canmore is the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler which starts this Friday, if you’re not able to go to the games, make sure to cheer on all our athletes as loud as you can while watching them on T.V. or the web.

Main Street Canmore :: Track Set :: Ready to Ski

This weekend promises an exciting weekend in Canmore with the town hosting the Alberta World Cup.  You can expect to see all the top cross-country ski racers in the World competing at this event as they fine tune their skills and fitness levels for the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.

There are some great activities for spectators and local ski enthusiasts alike this weekend too.  The festivities start this afternoon with amateur ski races down main street Canmore (see pictures).  For a list of all the activities visit the Alberta World Cup Website here

Come on by the RE/MAX Office this weekend, we’ll have a table set up outside with Cowbells that you can take for free to help make some noise and cheer on our Canadian Olympic Athletes.

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