Saputo Burnaby 4 track-racing contests will make heads spin
December 30, 2010
Surrey road and track rider Cody Campbell hopes to wrap up a stellar season at the year-end Burnaby 4 races.
UPDATE: As racing wrapped up at the Burnaby Velodrome on December 30, Cody Campbell finished in the points with a respectable 9th place overall in the elite men’s standings, well ahead of better known and more experienced riders. Well done!
ACCESS: For details on the Saputo Burnaby 4, see www.burnaby4.com. The Burnaby Velodrome is located on the north side of Burnaby Mountain on the Barnet Highway (Highway 7A), 1.5 kilometres east of Vancouver. It can be reached by taking the 160 bus, which runs between Burrard Station and Port Coquitlam Station.
Round and round the cyclists go at the Burnaby Velodrome.
Frankly, it’s enough to make anyone’s head spin, particularly when it comes to watching the year-end Saputo Burnaby 4 track-racing contests.
But this isn’t the usual weekly matchup.
From December 27 to 30, an international field of pro elite riders, including Olympians and world champions, will saddle up at the Harry Jerome Sports Centre’s velodrome, which has served as the Canadian national track-racing training centre since 2009.
The incentive?
Cash, of course, but just as importantly valuable International Cycling Union points, which determine riders’ rankings in their season-long quests for overall supremacy.
“Outside of the national championships, this is the first time in Canada in 20 years that there will be ICU points awarded for track races,” said event organizer Jeremy Storie, the person largely responsible for the success of the centre’s Learn to Ride program for youth and adult cyclists.
When we visited earlier this month, Storie was putting a dozen Burnaby Velodrome Club elite riders through their twice-weekly paces.
The sports centre’s ribbed white inflatable dome is a nostalgic reminder of similarly shaped B.C. Place’s roof prior to its industrial-strength make-over.
Once through the doors, the rumbling sound of rubber on wood filled the air.
Storie explained that the lower-than-average turnout was attributable to a world cup race in Cali, Colombia, that had lured many local riders, such as North Vancouver’s Zach Bell, who has already won two world cup races this year including November’s season-opening event in Australia.
“The reason we got funding from Heritage Canada for the Saputo Burnaby 4 is that we’re providing Canadian athletes a chance to race at home against a topnotch field,” Storie emphasized, “without having to travel.”
One of the club riders present was Cody Campbell, whom we first interviewed several years ago when the now-20-year-old was still attending North Surrey Secondary.
On hiatus from classes at SFU’s campus atop nearby Burnaby Mountain, Campbell said he’s currently focusing exclusively on his career as a member of Lance Armstrong’s Trek-LIVESTRONG under-23 continental road-racing team.
“I’ve met Lance at several of our training camps,” Campbell said. “He’s a real inspiration to my dream of representing Canada at the Olympics and riding in the Tour de France. It’s going to take a lot more hard work to get me there.”
Although Campbell has switched from track racing to road racing, time spent at the velodrome abets his loftier ambitions.
“Track riding makes me a better road racer. Because there are no brakes on these bikes, I learn handling techniques at high speeds. It’s as simple as bike racing gets and teaches you tactics. Plus, the track is covered, so it gives me a cozy place to train at this time of year.”
If you’ve ever watched a road race during the annual B.C. Superweek in July, such as the Tour de Gastown, you know the thrill of seeing riders whiz past before disappearing from sight.
As much as Storie said he admired the weeklong road-racing extravaganza, he claimed that Superweek couldn’t hold a candle to the talent that’s been attracted to the Burnaby 4 spectacle:
“No disrespect intended, but there’s so much buzz surrounding these four days. Unlike road racing, at the velodrome you’re never more than 50 metres from racers like our own Svein Tuft and Washington state’s Tyler Farrar, who are coming off outstanding road-race seasons. Sarah Hammer from California is the reigning world champion in pursuit, as well as the Pan American Games champion in the Omnium. Best of all, watch out for Tara Whitten from Edmonton, double gold medallist in the ICU points race and Omnium at the 2010 ICU World Championships.”
Just as ski cross competition has emerged as the new kid on the slopes at world cup venues over the past three years, Omnium racing has taken centre stage at track races leading up to its official Olympic debut at the 2012 Summer Games in London.
Storie described Omnium as “the decathlon of cycling. It comprises all the skills required on the track. Riders take part in five events in one day. It’s a mix of sprint and endurance races. The longest race is a 100 laps/20 kilometres for men and 80 laps/16 kilometres for women. The shortest is the flying 250-metre sprint.”
Three evenings of races precede the daylong Omnium that crowns the Burnaby 4.
“This really is far more than just a series of races,” Storie said. “It’s an event modelled on similar multiday, wildly popular competitions in Europe that are more like watching Cirque du Soleil with a bike race going on at the same time. Entertainer Eugene Ripper kicks things off with a performance on the first night. We’ve got trials rider Ryan Leech from Port Moody putting on his show the next evening. There will be food and microbrew and lots of opportunity for local track racers to show their stuff, including an Alley Cat Scramble for bike couriers, along with two hours of pro elite races each night. A light show will transform the dome into a party atmosphere. Check out videos of the Gent 6 Day posted on YouTube to get an idea of what we’re aspiring to bring to the velodrome.”
Wrap your head around that.
Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie
VanDusen and Butchart Gardens bring light to Yuletide celebrations
December 20, 2010
Life-size storybook-themed mannequins like Little Miss Muffet twirl around a stage in Victoria’s Butchart Gardens’ holiday display.
ACCESS: The VanDusen Botanical Garden’s Festival of Lights runs through January 2 and is open daily except December 25 from 4:30 to 9 p.m. The Butchart Gardens are located in Brentwood Bay, 23 kilometres north of Victoria and 20 kilometres south of B.C. Ferries’ Swartz Bay terminal. The Magic of Christmas runs through January 6. More information on Butchart Gardens is included in our travel guide Best Weekend Getaways from Vancouver.
The calendar may be divided into four seasons, but as most celebrants know, Christmas is a fifth season all its own—a time of inner reflection that basks in the uplifting prospect of renewal.
Although nature may be throttling back on growth for the next few months, at least the sun begins to strengthen and days lengthen in response.
As a way of celebrating the winter solstice, VanDusen Botanical Garden director Harry Jongerden glories in the annual Festival of Lights mounted by his staff.
“People look at me quizzically when I say lighting up plants is a good way to enhance nature,” he told us. “Yet this is the time of year when plants tend to get ignored. To decorate them with lights is to be reminded of their abiding presence.”
After an eight-year stint as head gardener at the Stratford Festival in Ontario earlier in his career, Jongerden admitted he has a background of sorts in show business.
Yet VanDusen is his first experience with light shows.
“I’ve arrived to discover this is a big event that brings in sufficient revenue to support the garden year-round.”
Jongerden pointed out that Stanley Park’s yearly Bright Nights event is put on by members of the B.C. Professional Fire Fighters Association Burn Fund, and VanDusen’s festival is the only such civic affair entirely staged by Vancouver park board employees.
“It gives staff the chance to display the artistic talent of gardeners while at the same time heightening the garden’s reputation with the public.”
As much as the Festival of Lights appeals primarily to families, Jongerden observed that the month-long gala is just as much a couples’ activity.
“It’s a date night. I see an awful lot of visitors strolling hand in hand.”
With the wintry romance of Christmas in the air, VanDusen’s team of garden elves lobbied Jongerden to add more variety to the festival’s Dancing Lights musical presentation.
To that end, tunes with “a jazzy, dreamy feel” now accompany one of the twice-hourly performances of choreographed lights centred on Livingstone Lake.
And such lights!
The saturation of colours is an enchanting display that not only enrobes bushes and tree branches but also fires up drifts of ornamental glass tulips that glow defiantly with the prospect of spring.
The cumulative effect is magical enough to cleanse even the most die-hard skeptic of humbug.
Once the high-octane advent of Christmas crescendoes, take time to bask in the afterglow.
Tradition prescribes a well-earned break.
In the Middle Ages, the 12 days of Christmastide were ones of continuous feasting and merrymaking.
Much like VanDusen, Victoria’s Butchart Gardens do their best to sustain the Yuletide enchantment as long as possible.
Over the past two decades, the privately owned, family-operated garden has mounted the Magic of Christmas, with displays of storybook-themed mannequins throughout much of the 22-hectare property.
The garden’s public-relations director, Graham Bell, said that “next to the late-spring-to-early-fall season, the month-long celebration is the second-biggest blip on our radar. The amount of preparation is massive. In June, we start making the bows that we use to dress up the trees. By October, while the gardeners are planting bulbs, we’re stringing lights and suspending the big glass balls at the entrance.”
Given that many of the displays are mounted in the garden’s lakes and ponds, an early start to preparations before ice forms is a must.
When it comes to lights, few displays outperform VanDusen’s intensity.
By the same token, Butchart’s amusing decorations are presented on a scale unmatched elsewhere.
As visitors stroll along pathways that lead through sheltering forests and old quarries similar to those in Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Park, larger-than-life tableaux modelled on images from the carol
“The Twelve Days of Christmas” appear.
The more familiar you are with the lyrics, the quicker you’ll pick up on the humour.
For example, three French hens sip espresso in a café.
Farther along, four toucans perched on spreading branches make calls on mobile phones.
You get the picture.
Entirely unexpected are the nine life-size—and lifelike—dancing feminine figurines lifted from the pages of children’s storybooks, such as Cinderella, Little Miss Muffet, and Snow White, who twirl around an outdoor stage mounted beside a towering sequoia grove.
In the midst of the seasonal displays is an equally enthralling menagerie of 30 carved wooden animals mounted on the Rose Carousel.
Watching bears, horses, orcas, and ostriches circle inside the domed Children’s Pavilion is enough to trigger a dizzy spell.
Step outside for some fresh air, where the aromatic scent of cedars further enhances the esprit de Noël.
Yet after making the rounds of the garden, don’t be surprised if you have a nagging sense of having missed something.
Where are the 12 drummers drumming?
As you head home from this land of make-believe, look up.
There stand a dozen toy soldiers beating out a mute tattoo among the stars.
And to all a good night.
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie
Snowshoers make tracks in ancient forest
December 20, 2010
Laurella Gabert guides visitors through the towering stands of old cedar near Prince George.
Here’s our first winter adventure feature of the 2010-2011 season and it’s a sweet one, especially now that early snowfalls have blanketed the Anciet Forest Trail with champagne powder.
Access: For details on snowshoe tours in the ancient forest, visit tht Outdoor Life Adventure website. Find tourism information on Prince George and northern B.C. at the Hello BC website.
Prince George is B.C.’s bull’s-eye.
Not only does the timber capital anchor the centre of the province, it’s also a point of convergence for winter adventure in the north.
On offer is a smorgasbord of recreational options: speed skating, dogsledding, Nordic and alpine skiing, and snowshoeing.
Small wonder that “PG” will host the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
Last January, the Outdoor Life Adventure Co. guided us on a snowshoe trip through an ancient forest.
In a region with forests devastated by mountain pine beetles, it was wonderful to discover pockets of ancient cedars that rival those on Cougar Mountain in Whistler or the slopes surrounding Chilliwack Lake in the Fraser Valley.
Neither of the latter offers quick access from a major thoroughfare, as does the grove east of Prince George adjacent to the Yellowhead Highway.
“We’re just discovering the significance of this area,” David Connell said while tramping beneath cedar boughs heavily laden with fresh powder snow.
Since 2007, the professor in the University of Northern British Columbia’s school of environmental planning has studied the community and economic benefits of non-timber use of this former cut block in the inland rain forest.
“There’s a sense of ‘being’ here that you won’t find elsewhere—the sense of appreciation for who we are as human beings,” he observed. “Tourists tell us that one of the highlights of a trip here is the sense of discovering a place that’s not very well known or publicized. This is one of a dozen such unique sites in the world.”
Numbers tell the tale.
Since its official opening in 2006, the Ancient Forest Trail has grown hugely in popularity, from an initial visitor count of hundreds to almost 10,000 in 2009.
As Outdoor Life Adventure Co. owner-operator Laurella Gabert sees it, there’s a good reason for that: “There aren’t that many places for tourists to stop along Highway 16 [Yellowhead Highway] in the Robson Valley, so a lot of them pull in here to break up their journey.”
Unlike many recent arrivals who offer similar reasons for having settled locally—blaming the SDG, or Some Damn Guy/Girl, syndrome—Gabert lays claim to deep roots.
“In the early 1900s, my great-grandparents got off the train in the middle of nowhere, cleared bush, and started a mill.”
Today, Via Rail service between Jasper and Prince George still drops visitors at her family’s doorstep in what are now the twin hamlets of Loos and Crescent Spur.
“The railway runs right through the middle,” she said. “It [Crescent Spur] is a strange little community of perhaps 37 people. My husband, Trevor, and I moved here with our kids seven years ago after the forest industry shut down.”
With Prince George and McBride just an hour or so away, Gabert insisted that she enjoys the best of both worlds.
“Trevor and I have been in the outdoors forever. When we arrived in Crescent Spur, one of our neighbours was a long-time member of the Caledonia Ramblers, a Prince George hiking club. Talking with him led us to explore the rough footpath that the club had cleared through the so-called ancient forest, which at that time was designated a cut block and slated for logging.”
Thanks in large part to lobbying efforts by club members and local biologists like Connell—abetted by a provincial government reassessment of the tourism benefits of maintaining a visually pleasing landscape along Highway 16—the Ancient Forest Trail, then in McBride-based TRC Cedar’s timber licence, and an accompanying route on nearby Driscoll Ridge were set aside as a recreation trail and interpretive site.
“Lots of old-growth cedar in the Robson Valley is still designated as cut blocks,” Gabert related. “We lucked out that all this change was happening while we were starting our business.”
The Robson Valley spreads roughly east-west between Prince George and Valemont, and is home to endangered herds of mountain caribou.
The valley’s prime characteristic, along with the Fraser River, is its lush interior cedar-hemlock forest.
Much of the valley is classified as rain-forest wetland, which accounts for the numerous stands of western red cedar.
Whether you’re making tracks on foot or by snowshoe, no matter how many times you stand beside one of these behemoths, the scale of so much biomass on display brings you up short.
In winter, the silence that imbues the stand, aside from the occasional branches creaking in the cold, is rare refreshment indeed.
Time and again, Connell and Gabert stopped to examine distinguishing features, such as cedar trunks patterned with gold-dust lichen, which they said indicated the trees were at least 250 years old, the benchmark for ancient-forest designation.
In the years since the Caledonia Ramblers first brushed out the trail, a multitude of improvements have been added, including wooden bridges, staircases, and boardwalks, plus interpretive signs that make a snowshoe trek there not only a pleasant physical workout but a highly rewarding introduction to the intricacies of the forest environment.
“The valley is more than a location or destination,” Gabert said. “It’s a place steeped in history, rich in wildlife, rivers, mountains, and lakes that B.C. is so famous for. We’ve been exploring for years and have yet to find an equal match to its unique beauty in any of our other travels.”
Original Article
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie
West Vancouver’s Whyte Lake Trail welcomes all hikers
December 13, 2010
Brian Murfitt's dog Kali leads the way along a West Vancouver trai.
Even during this season of occasional snowfalls, hiking and dog-walking trails on the North Shore maintain a magical charm, none more alluring than in West Vancouver’s upper lands.
ACCESS: Take Exit 4 from the Upper Levels Highway and follow Westport Road a short distance west to the trail-head parking lot. For a detailed map, as well as dog-walking regulations in West Vancouver, visit westvancouver.ca/.
In the run-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics, highway construction around Horseshoe Bay left noticeable changes in West Vancouver.
Foremost in many minds was the destruction of an ecologically sensitive area at the foot of Black Mountain to make way for the bypass connection toward Squamish and Whistler.
One puzzling aftereffect of the reconfigurations was the sudden appearance of vehicles—now regularly parked—along the south side of the Upper Levels Highway near Nelson Creek.
In a quest to unravel the mystery, we recently enlisted the aid of a local resident, architect Brian Murfitt, who frequently explores trails on the North Shore’s upper lands with his dogs.
Thanks to directions from Murfitt, it turned out that the cars tucked into the modestly sized, treed space belong to visitors bent on exploring an extensive section of the Trans Canada Trail with links to both the Baden-Powell Trail and West Vancouver’s recently completed Whyte Lake Trail.
A portion of funds earmarked from the Sea to Sky Highway project financed the new hiking trail.
Despite Whyte Lake Trail’s popularity, as attested to by the numerous cars in evidence on a weekday morning, many residents view the legacy as a sop for the obliterated land, a decision that at the time drew vigorous opposition from citizens.
How does the new trail stack up?
Despite the creation of 300 metres of boardwalk, a wooden bridge, strategically placed staircases, an elevated A-frame outhouse, and a floating dock on the shore of Whyte Lake, Murfitt felt that portions of the rock-and-roots trail left much to be desired.
“During rainy season, the drainage is awful,” he said. “The puddles get so large, I stick to the Trans Canada Trail, which is really a shame, since Whyte Lake is otherwise a lovely, moody part of the forest, especially at this time of year.”
In silent assent, spokes of sunlight burned through a stand of unlogged Douglas-fir forest, illuminating the ground cover of sword ferns.
The air rang with splashing sounds as Whyte Creek channelled a course downhill through a narrow cleft on its way to merge with the even more boisterous Nelson Creek.
Another trait of the new trail that Murfitt found puzzling was its designation as an on-leash dog zone.
“This is makes no sense to anyone, especially as the Trans Canada and the Baden-Powell trails are both off-leash.”
On the day we visited, though, no one on the single-track Whyte Lake Trail made any attempt to harness their pets.
In order to discover the rationale behind the ruling, we contacted the municipality of West Vancouver’s senior manager for parks, Andrew Banks.
“When we were constructing the Whyte Lake Trail two years ago, we decided that because this is an environmentally sensitive zone, people access was okay but dogs had to be on-leash. In general, when we build a trail—and there are now over 100 kilometres of trails in West Vancouver—the default is on-leash, much like the speed limit for cars is 50 kilometres per hour unless otherwise posted. Right now, we’re focusing on Ambleside and the waterfront area, where we’re installing new signs in response to requests for clarification from dog owners. At the moment, there’s not a defined policy for every trail on the upper lands.”
The North Shore upper lands are honeycombed with trails.
When well marked, they’re a godsend to hikers, whether in the company of canines or not.
Even on the dampest days, dense canopies of evergreens capture the majority of raindrops or snowflakes.
Few routes are level.
Count on experiencing an elevated metabolism and dopamine count as soon as you set out.
Dress appropriately, hike with two-footed companions, and you’ll enjoy one of the most exhilarating year-round outdoor experiences on offer in any urban setting.
One noticeable change in West Vancouver since the creation of the Whyte Lake Trail and expansion of the Trans Canada Trail has been much improved signage, particularly at intersections with the far older Baden-Powell Trail, a 48-kilometre route that links Horseshoe Bay with North Vancouver’s Deep Cove at the foot of Mount Seymour.
Whether you opt to wear flip-flops, waterproof boots, or a happy medium, Whyte Lake makes a satisfying two-hour roundtrip trek via the broad Trans Canada Trail, which offers a welcome to all comers.
For decades, bean-shaped Whyte Lake lay within the municipal watershed and remained off-limits.
That’s no longer the case.
From the parking-lot trail head, the approach passes beneath the Upper Levels Highway’s concrete struts, then climbs a slope near the old Inter-Provincial Bridge—a slice of the past well worth a look—which curves over Nelson Creek.
Carry on uphill to the first of several route choices at the entrance to Nelson Canyon Park.
The well-marked turnoff to Whyte Lake occurs about one kilometre east along the Trans Canada Trail.
Alternatively, hikers and off-leash dog walkers could just as easily follow a more level portion of the TCT west past Nelson Creek and connect with the two-kilometre Seaview Walk Trail in Horseshoe Bay.
Take your pick.
No matter which direction you choose, unleash your curiosity and off you go.
Text CR Jack Christie
Photo CR Louise Christie
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