Spring is right round the corner!

The days have been alternating between just above and just below zero.  The snow from our front field is mostly gone, driving into town, those same fields are pretty much all mud.

I loved spending time on my little Baja beach.

A couple of weeks ago, I took the Serow from the shed and brought it into my workshop.  This is a 1992 223cc dual purpose bike, four of which I brought in that year for use on the National Motorcycle Training program, a program I had a very long history with.  As I was preparing to move from Ft Mac, I bought the two remaining Serows, and they served me very well for the next 20 years, even 'nearly' getting a cover for a story I wrote about riding the Baja peninsula back in 2004.

Spring in PEI

It's a simple bike, 223cc's, a 6 speed transmission, adjustable suspension and reliable as a pet rock. 

Maintenance

Over the years I put many happy miles/kilometers tooling around on the many gravel back roads on both sides of the Rockies, in Baja and locally near Calgary.  The Powder face Trail, route 66, MacLean Creek trail, Spray Lakes trail, the KVR and more.  Apart from routine oil changes, a few bits here and there, the bike hasn't cost me hardly a dime.  I sold one to my youngest niece prior to moving east and kept the other one for myself.



Over the weekend and today I put new tires on, the originals now 24 years old and although not entirely worn out, I do like riding some soft stuff and new knobs will be helpful for that

Original tires

. 

Countershaft

Sprocket changes 16tooth vs 15.

 This bike is just over 13K km now and is still running strong. 

Grease the swing-arm pivot

Installed 16 T

After riding it in the last D2D rally in New Brunswick two years ago I purchased a 16T counter shaft sprocket which I just installed.  This will raise the gearing slightly, enabling me to travel if not faster at road speeds but a little less frantically.

One of many covered bridges in N.B. on the D2D

Most of my riding on these bikes is done on trails and the 6 speed transmission does allow me an almost trials like pace in low gear.  I can't wait to see how the taller gearing will work for me.  Of course my XT 600 has raised gearing for better road manners and recently I finally found an almost ideal set-up for my XT 350 I keep down south.

All buttoned up!

With new rubber, different gearing, a fully charged battery installed (I trickle charge everything routinely during the off season) I have only to check and adjust the 2 valves, and change the motor oil and I will be ready to go as soon as spring breaks.

Brenda was commenting on my ability to do much of this work myself.  My tool box although not as complete as it was when I was in the MC business, is still sufficient to do many repairs or replacements myself.  I did the tires the old way, levers and toes on the ground.  The manual tire changer I bought a few years back is sitting unused, it will need some modifications before it's usable.

C'mon Spring!

I'm chomping at the bit to get rolling, hopefully there will be no more snowstorms and perhaps by March I can actually get on the road although it's unlikely trails will be opened for quite some time.  It will take a lot warmer weather than +3 degrees and lots of it at that to  melt the snow on the little back lanes I like to ride.

Trevor has been working on his KLR 650 and we are talking about a back road trip in June.  I'd ride my 600, itself a veteran of many rides over the years.

Wacky Winter

Thirty years ago, when I had a motorcycle/snowmobile/atv business out here on the east coast of Canada, we experienced real four seasons weather as a rule.  There were years when we could not get enough snowmobiles, it was twenty feet deep!  I was buying them from Ontario when they had no snow.  Other years, you could not give away a sled.

Pretty nice winter day!

Well guess what, somethings never change.  

2012, our first winter on the Island was incredible short and mild, I even had my TTR out for a ride around the grass track February first.  For the two following winters, we had so much snow, I plumb near wore myself and my equipment out trying to stay on top of things.

Fast forward to 2015/2016 and so far there has been less than a dozen stormy episodes and at no time have I been stressed.  Sure the Cub Cadet broke a shear pin or two and the odd time the auger got jammed by a rock, but to be sure, it's been a low snow year.  People around here are already talking bikes.  I'm sure we haven't seen the last of the seasons blizzards in fact it's blowing around the few inches that fell today and I will likely have the Bear out in the morning to clear it before I head to C 'Town to... look at scooters.

Back in '82, a mild winter, I signed with Yamaha to sell their line of Beluga CV 80 scooters.  Little fan cooled two stroke two seaters, they didn't go over well. Not because the weren't a good product but because dealers were reluctant to be seen as 'scooter shops' rather than motorcycle shops.  Thankfully that is mostly history now a days, I for one really like scooters.

Gotta watch out for hazards...

In my upstairs living room I have a Honda Passport 70 in my bookcase with 223 actual kilometers on the clock.  Downstairs I have an almost identical machine that I bought through E Bay from a Phoenix seller years before I owned a home there.

Breaking trail with the Indy Lite.

Of course my mule when I am there is a Chinese four stroke 150 that pretty much does everything I ask of it including hauling bits of lumber at times.

Last fall I sold my Tomos Velo 150 Retro locally and I am prowling for a mid sized replacement.  The Velo was fun on the Island, but with a small fuel tank and limited speed from its 6.75 hp engine just not suitable for any off Island riding.  I don't want nor need a large displacement scooter, I have several bikes that we can ride two-up off Island, what I want is a reasonably fast, lighter weight comfortable scooter that we can take the occasional highway ride with and yet use it around here in place of the 150.  There are several on my "shopping list" and tomorrow Trevor and I are going shopping!  My criteria is fairly mild, an engine large enough to give 100 kph sustained speeds, maneuverability, storage space and economy.  I'm most interested in the 250-400cc capacity, each end having it's pros and cons.

What can I say, it gets pretty warm on a sunny day behind the cab.

Got my winter boots and 'BAJA' shorts on

Okay enough of that.

While down south, I did a desert loop with my (9.75hp) Adventure totaling 270km and that ride was mucho fun and cost me 4.50 in gas!  Did I wish for anything physically larger?  No.  Did I want more power, yes another 10 hp would have made things less stressful on the few freeways I occasionally travel.  Do I need a 100 mph scooter... heck no, I have bikes for that.

Tomorrow should be fun.

In the meanwhile I did get my Indy Lite running and in fact have used her several times in the woods locally and of course some of the local trails and fields.  I brought her into the garage, jacked up the front end and took the skis off for some needed maintenance.  Steering had gotten so bad, I had no choice.  With some clean-up and fresh grease applied to the bearing surfaces, she handles so much better! 

There is something to be said for fresh powder that no one else has marked, on a sunny day with a temperature that doesn't require bundling up like a WW1 Spad pilot!  This afternoon there was very little snow left but by this evening, everything was white once again.  My days of Star Trekking* on a sled are gone for the most part, I enjoy riding, despise digging/lifting/breaking my back getting stuck in deep drifts!

No doubt Old Man winter is not quite done with us yet and as Brenda aptly reminds me, last winter the big snows didn't come until now.

In the meantime, tomorrow we'll be sitting on thick scooter seats, Visa card in hand!

Pristine breaking trail.

*Breaking trail, going where no man had gone before, at least not at the time

Time, she's a movin' on...

Early Morning

YOU know, if you get up in the morning and go to bed at night, and do nothing in between, time passes.  If you get up in the morning and climb Everest, time still passes.

Looking south on County Line road towards Long River

I'm into my 61st year now and time... she seems to be hurtling by at Warp factor three and accelerating!  So many of my friends are sending out "Getting Old" emails, I'm beginning to wonder if they're getting old?!

Anyway, I digress...

What a weird month, reminders of winter 2012 our first on the Island.  I've cleared the driveway four times and never more than a foot or so and maybe a handful of drifts reaching as high as three feet. 

Haven't hardly broken a sweat.  Last night there was ample snow on the ground to ride the Polaris... today the driveway is bare and green grass is showing obliterating my 15" wide tracks from just days ago.  My thermometer shows 5C!

After two record breaking winters in a row, I wonder if this will be an early spring like 2013 had been?

Mostly mussel and oyster shells, mounds of them!

Optimistic Brenda reminds me that last year we didn't get our huge dumps until the end of January and beyond, I hope she's wrong, I'd enjoy an early spring, birds out again, dry pavement.  There was still snow up the hill in the woods the first week of June!

Mudhole

THIS month I've been out and about on both the Big Bear and the Trail Lite.  No where in particular but I did explore some trails with the quad that I haven't been on before, which... considering this is tiny little PEI, is unusual.  By trails I don't mean in the sense of riding in British Columbia on the defunct Kettle Valley rail line or in some desert track in the mountains surrounding Phx.  These are more wood trails that people used to get from on field to another when tractors were much smaller than they are today.  Just the fact that what little snow was in the woods was generally crusty made for fairly easy riding and one stream/mudhole was frozen enough to get me through without having to push or winch!

Get stuck back here, you're winching.   That's about 3' of snow covered by a thin crust.

I spent a couple of hours in slightly below zero riding around the hood.  Nobody about, too little snow for sleds but just enough to make things interesting through the woods for moi!

It really is pretty country you know, not wild like it would have been when the French first arrived but still, even in winter, pretty.

Traversing an open field which would usually be posted for snowmobiles this time of year.

WE live in a little valley with a couple of active springs, in fact they are abundant in this area, hence the name "Spring Valley".  Summer or winter looking out the front window calms me and with all the stuff that is usually happening around the household, calm is a rare commodity and one I don't take for granted.

Lots of these little trails around.

Open stream from one of the many springs.

I've been rotating the batteries on the chargers, trying to keep some life in them.  I replaced five altogether last season and just replaced the unit in my Blazer.  It still carried the 11 year old AC Delco it came equipped with when I bought the vehicle new.  I guess a decade is pretty good life huh...

The seasonal pond down back on our place, frozen... today.

I have several tasks to do in the spring, getting the shed finished being one, putting the rear replacement tire on the 225 and at the same time installing the petcock kit, needle and seat in the carburetor and replacing the 15 tooth counter shaft with a 16 I picked up two visits ago down south.  This should lower my road revs a wee bit without taking away from the low end power. 

Yamaha Big Bear doing what it does best.

I have several trips in mind this year, last year I was away during the early summer in the Rockies and of course down south in the fall, so really didn't get to ride much locally.  I had sold my Velo scooter in the fall and hope to replace it with a larger model capable of off Island riding with my sweetie on the pillion.  I'm looking in the 300-400 cc range and have a couple in mind now.  I'd like to do some back-roading in N.B. where there are many small paved or gravel roads off the beaten path riding my 600 and perhaps a visit to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  If we do indeed get an early start to this season, I might just be able to fit things in.

Here's hoping that I have some things to do as time passes :)

This is the Irishtown Community Hall, for sale too!

Winter strikes again!

I apologize for being tardy with updates...

 

I just returned from Phx prior to Christmas and only 36 hours after my pal Phoenix was put to sleep.  To be perfectly honest, I have been bummed since and sure I will be for some time yet.  All my cat pals over the years have been special to me, but some stand out and little Phx was certainly one of them.  Just the fact that he found 'us/me" just before Christmas 2010, 9 months after my long time pal Einstein died, was significant in itself.  After finding his way into the living room, my heart and my Blazer... he covered a lot of ground with me, first the long January winter drive to Calgary and then 18 months later, as my co-pilot moving across this vast country to our current home on the wast coast. He was only 5 years of age.

Since my return, winter has hit with a vengeance, a very pregnant Lisa and Rick had come and gone after a Christmas visit and I've spent yesterday all day clearing snow from a  blizzard the night before.  Even today I will be out shortly to deal with the drifting from last night.

Last year was a record winter, cold and snowy, and I truly hope we get a break this year and have a milder time of it.  I actually like clearing snow but in small proportions!



Of course this time of year, my motorcycling takes a back seat to keeping the place warm, the driveways and decks clear and the vehicles running as they should.  That doesn't mean I don't think bikes believe me I do.  Been thinking of finally doing the Trans Labrador highway in Quebec and Newfoundland.  The road is much paved by now nothing like it was when I first lived here and thought about it thirty years ago, but nevertheless it would be quite the trip on either my XT 600 or V Strom 650.  We shall see...



In addition the Moto-East Maritime magazine is still simmering on the back burner.  Launching a new magazine is fraught with peril, it's not as easy as one-two-three.  There are a hundred considerations to make to get it off the ground.  More on that later.

Today, I plan on finishing the yard, catching up on emails (I am waaaay behind being behind) and of course this Blog. 

Brenda is gone to Charlottetown for the day, Anna is at school (I hope) and the cats are fed.

Stay tuned, I haven't dropped off the face of the planet as some of my friends thought, more to come.

Cheers

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

That time again ...

Once again, as the year 2015 draws to a close, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and the best for the New Year coming.

Hopefully your year passing was more better than not and next year you'll accomplish even some of the goals on your list.

Do that ride you've been thinking of for years even if its a solo jaunt to a nearby location for an ice cream that you haven't visited for years.  It can be anything up to and including an epic adventure.  Sky is the limit friends.

I've been fortunate in having met so many people over the years that shared my desire for exploration.  Too many to name here but here's a couple off the top of my head.

John and John, you know who you are, opening business', promoting motorcycling and snowmobiling and generally living life.

Marilyn and Ron, and the other Baja vets that I got to know over the years.  Good on ya!

Ronnie of course, he's still motoring, buying and selling.  He has a good life and I commend him for living it.

Frenda Brenda, glad we met when we did, maybe someday you'll find someone to re run the Forestry road with!

Darlene, for giving it your all in everything you do:)

Tom, because he's Tom.

Judy, for graciously loaning me her Boo every year.

Berti, for all your help in making my European Dream possible.

All my cats past and present and future.

My daughters of course, every time I think of you, I absolutely beam with pride.  What intelligent, caring, loving girls you are.
Of course the men in your lives... Kevin and Rick.  Onward and upward guys!

Anna... ahem, for making everyday, err... exciting.

... and not to be left out, Brenda.  I said I'd never get married again, but like Bond says

"Never say never."

 MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY AND   FULLFILLING NEW YEAR

To my buddy... R.I.P

Co-Pilot

It's still dark as I begin writing this.

Here's the little guy sitting on my patio, waiting for his invite inside 2010

I've returned from Phoenix Arizona to a topsy turvy home.  Lots happened in the weeks I was gone, much of it not good.  I haven't blogged for a bit because it's been depressing to tell the truth.  I've started several times but erased each time.  Even now I am not certain I'll get through this in one go.

Anna and Phx, both so small 5 years ago

You see, it's been 5 years since I first set eyes on a little feral kitten, born down the street from me in my little community in Glendale.

I first saw him and his sister (a black and white) as they sat in the sun in the middle of one of the parking lots a few feet apart.  At that time cats were being littered in the 'wild' three times a year.  Public places were over run with feral cats.  Cats roamed freely, males fighting for turf, getting vicious, cut up, beat up.  Many ended up maimed or dead.

This one little kitten I saw around a number of times, he seemed to be actually looking for a home.  He was turfed out of at least two places and the first time I got close to him, he actually took some ham from me, not getting too close.  He reminded me in a way of Einstein, the abandoned cat I'd adopted (or he adopted me I don't remember which exactly) twenty years earlier, he had died March 31st that year, 2010... and this little guy left me with an impression.

"I'm IN!!"

I was still living in Calgary at the time and had driven down instead of flying.  I had company in nieces Cindy (whose birthday we celebrated that November) and her older sister Liz.  They'd left after their week and Brenda and Anna were arriving in just a few days.

Somehow mother and daughter ended up with this little kitten at my home, but my rule was he couldn't come in the house, I was not ready to get into another cat so soon after Einsteins passing.

I even went to far as to build him a sheltered box with a towel in it just outside my patio.  He would meow and meow first exercising what would become the most vocal of all the cats I'd ever have, he grew into a regular Pavarotti!

Christmas day 2010 he finally got into the house and stayed!  He was part of the only Christmas I've had in Glendale and had become a part of my life.

When the girls left, and it was obvious the little guy had no intentions of looking any further, he'd found his place... I didn't think he could survive such a long trip 'home' and especially in the dead of winter.  I tried the Humane society, the local pet shops that had adoption programs, nobody wanted to take him, there were simply too many feral cats to deal with.  His options were slim so I decided to start driving him short distances in the two weeks I had remaining before heading north.

He did okay gradually doing several hours at a time, not happy, yowling at first in the bone chilling fashion cats are noted for but when the day came to lock the door for the final time, he had a bed on the passenger seat, his litter box food and water on the folded rear seats and over my head was a pillow with a birds eye view of the road.  The trip didn't start out smoothly, I thought the shrieking was going to drive me batty as we headed towards Kingman on route 60, but eventually things settled into a routine and for the most part he'd settle in after we got on the road and in three days including a border crossing where he sat on my lap, the customs agent asking me if he was a good traveler and I replied actually, yes he was.

Phoenix as I had named him, settled into his Calgary life, was fixed and became my constant companion.

Phx and Willy overlooking Spring Valley

When it came time for the BIG move east, I bundled him into the rear cab of my pick-up truck and we, together, began the biggest journey of his life, 5000 kms across Canada, a drive that was fraught with problems and 11 very long days.



Once here, he settled into this home like this is where he was meant to be.  It was safer than the city, had lots of grounds to roam, mice to catch, foxes to ponder and true to his wild side, he fit right in.

Later that year (2012) we added a 6 year old female that needed a home and a little underweight boy in a bubble kitty from the shelter.  We now had three cats in the house and we loved it.  Abby, Willy and Phx didn't always get along but for the most part, Phx was the Alpha and took his place at the top of the brood.



Since then I have been back to his home and every time I walk or ride by the unit where his life began, or look out at my huge shade tree he would routinely climb as a kitten or seeing little Boo patrolling the fence just as a little kitten named Phoenix once did, I smile a wide smile.

Little Boo patrolling the fence and tree in Glendale

As I was preparing to leave before dawn on a Saturday morning for this last trip, he sat at the door and I said to him as I usually did...

"You're the man of the house now pal, look after things for me while I'm gone and I'll see you soon."

Abby

I began the normal moving in task upon arrival down south, repairing some damage caused by a break-in last spring, getting bikes and scooter geared up, groceries, making little Boo feel right at home... normal things.

Into the middle of my trip, while talking to Brenda she tells me that my pal, my co-pilot didn't seem very chipper.  Within a day he was at our local vet and they thought there was something amiss after taking blood for testing.  He was back the very next day and had 53cc of fluid drained from his chest cavity, his pleural sack putting pressure on his lungs causing difficulty breathing.

After that initial visit they suspected heart problems or maybe even cancer, only further testing which we did at the facility of the Atlantic Vet College in Charlottetown proved was cancer.  Within two weeks of that first Skype conversation, my boy died.  In fact he died the day before I was to return to PEI.

My Tree.  My fence.  My Home. First of three with me.  He was so tiny:)

To say I was besides myself with grief, heartbroken, would not be doing it justice. People that have never felt closeness with dogs or cats can't imagine the bond that develops between people and animals.

This wonderful, little kitten that grew up into a robust healthy house cat, that had traveled over 7500 kilometers with me through desert heat, sub zero blizzard weather and across thousands of miles of Canada, he left us too soon, much to soon.

Einstein in his latter years.

Einstein was diagnosed with feline epilepsy and not expected to live longer than 5 years... yet he survived and outlasted younger cats and was with me for 19 years.  Little Phx, who I was told had  'wildcat' in his genes, who I was certain would outlive me, just took sick and died, barely 5 years old.

Phx loved my bikes!

I'd had other co-pilot kitties, Maggie the most notable next to Phx.  I found her while riding one day on a back trail on the Island, brought her and her brother home in my helmet wrapped up in my vented racing jersey.  She died just after her 1st birthday from the anesthetic while being spayed.

Phoenix was unique! A singer, individual, one of a kind like Einstein before him.

He just loved being outside, it's where he was born after all.

After Einstein I didn't think there would be another such cat in my life, I didn't think I could love another cat more than him, and I didn't.

What this little gray feral kitten that spent five great years in my life did, was to grow my heart even larger!

He had that effect on me.
He was my pal.
He was my co-pilot, my wingcat.



I cannot tell anyone how much I will miss him, I myself don't know...  but forever after, his spirit will roam among the mice and foxes of our little Spring Valley.

He'd gone nose to nose once with this little female red fox.

God speed little Phoenix on to Rainbow Bridge...





                                 

                                

                                         
                                          Phoenix the cat Summer 2010 December 5, 2015

                                                       R.I.P my friend, my co pilot.