Mountain Biking - Had An Awesome Ride!!

It was about 6:30pm, already dark, and I am headed out for a nice easy spin. The trail was at the top of the escarpement in Hamilton. The was no noise, no people, lots of fog that made the ride kinda seem surreal. I got lost in the moment. I felt like I was the only person on earth, riding in this beautiful forest, with all bright leaves around.
What made the ride even more amazing was the FIVE deer I saw during the ride. I saw the Mother deer with her 2 children that she gave birth to in the spring. (I always hope that I will see her when I ride there, and I always do too!!) Then the deer romping and jumping thru the clearing, finally as I am flying down this amazing long hill back to the trail head, I come around a bit of a bend, and there is a magestic stag with a huge rack of antlers standing 20 feet ahead of me. He looks at me, flips his head and takes off.

This is one of the many reasons why I LOVE TO MTB. :love:

The escarpment is nice. I have some friends that live there and I used to visit often (when I was still working in hamilton)

Mountain biking really gets you out there, even when near a big city. Congrats on the ride :)

Sounds like fun. Good to hear you enjoyed it.

Glad you liked the ride!!

I also live in Hamilton. Most of the time, we ride the Dundas conservation area, the golf course, the peak (escarpment of Dundas), waterdown, the Bruce trail...etc

There are surprising many good trails around here....

Oh yeah, Mael, since I am in Software Engineering here at McMaster, how is the job market out in BC, and I know you must be loving it out there with soo many trails around you :mad:

Ming

Don't hate :D

Company right in whistler called paradata. Market is pretty small here specifically. BC wide it is pretty strong but we also tend to make less and pay more out here then in ontario...but thats the price we pay for having many mountains at our doorsteps. You would probably fly out here and shoot me if I told you how many trails I had within a 1 hour circumference of my doorstep. :D It all makes it worthwhile.

Don't hate :D

Company right in whistler called paradata. Market is pretty small here specifically. BC wide it is pretty strong but we also tend to make less and pay more out here then in ontario...but thats the price we pay for having many mountains at our doorsteps. You would probably fly out here and shoot me if I told you how many trails I had within a 1 hour circumference of my doorstep. :D It all makes it worthwhile.

I think you said somewhere around 300 before lol....

Many of my friends want to move to BC, and I may do the same once I graduate. Oh yeah, a buddy of a buddy origionally from Brantford is now working for Whilster. Pretty cool eh? :D

Ming

YOU ride waterdown??? I LIVE IN WATERDOWN, small world...

YOU ride waterdown??? I LIVE IN WATERDOWN, small world...
Lol....yeah...there seem to be many members on this forum from southern Ontario.

We usually drive up to Snake road, and ride the waterdown trails there. Sometimes, we ride up sydenham rd, and go into waterdown trails from there. Those trails are really fun eh?? :)

Ming

Those trails are really fun eh?? :)

Ming

http://www.shwaxinator.com/images/strangebrew.jpg
silly canadians :beer:


oh yeah and it sounded like a fun ride..........eh. :)

man, i'd love to make a trip out to waterdown one day... a couple of guys who post on dropmachine.com are from around there. they've posted some pictures of some nice shore-style trails, which got me wanting to check the place out one time...

turtlegirl, sounds like you had a fun time. i'm jealous, heh. i haven't been out to ride since ramadan started and i started fasting... hopefully it isn't too cold in november and there isn't any snow so i can take a rip through the don valley before winter really starts.

http://www.shwaxinator.com/images/strangebrew.jpg
silly canadians :beer:


Lol...we all live in igloos too and drive cars with square wheels :D

Ming

man, i'd love to make a trip out to waterdown one day... a couple of guys who post on dropmachine.com are from around there. they've posted some pictures of some nice shore-style trails, which got me wanting to check the place out one time...


You should check out Kelso (Milton) next year since the bike trails are closed there :'( I'm hoping for some nice weather so I can break my suspension in before I put it away for good this winter. I dont even have it tuned properly yet!!!

Ming

Waterdown is my favourite local place to ride, it does have some really cool shore-style stuff, a lot of maintence has been done recently too.

Yeah Maelstrom, all of our friends that we used to ride waterdown with, all moved out to whistler. One guy from our 24hrs team just moved in sept and works for MEC.

All of our other MTB friends will not ride waterdown with us anymore, say its too hard. :cry: Big babies

Waterdown is my favourite local place to ride, it does have some really cool shore-style stuff, a lot of maintence has been done recently too.

Yeah Maelstrom, all of our friends that we used to ride waterdown with, all moved out to whistler. One guy from our 24hrs team just moved in sept and works for MEC.

All of our other MTB friends will not ride waterdown with us anymore, say its too hard. :cry: Big babies

Lol...waterdown does have some steep, short climbs that take quite a bit to do. Also, the first time I rode waterdown with my friend who was once 4th in Canada in the 14-17 age category on a road bike, I was ready to die. So it's really not surprising to hear some people complain about the difficulty of the trails.

All us Hamiltonians should get together next year for a waterdown ride. It might be fun! :D

Ming

I think you said somewhere around 300 before lol....

Many of my friends want to move to BC, and I may do the same once I graduate. Oh yeah, a buddy of a buddy origionally from Brantford is now working for Whilster. Pretty cool eh? :D

Ming

300 what?...

Whistler isn't bad to work for, but they pay crap. 1st teir support is pretty low on the totum pole. I actually work right besides there at the Westin.

Waterdown is my favourite local place to ride, it does have some really cool shore-style stuff, a lot of maintence has been done recently too.

Yeah Maelstrom, all of our friends that we used to ride waterdown with, all moved out to whistler. One guy from our 24hrs team just moved in sept and works for MEC.

All of our other MTB friends will not ride waterdown with us anymore, say its too hard. :cry: Big babies

Seems to be the place. I am actually doing a road trip next year to get out. I wanna move away from whistler within 3 years :)

300 what?...

Whistler isn't bad to work for, but they pay crap. 1st teir support is pretty low on the totum pole. I actually work right besides there at the Westin.

I thought you said you had around 300 trails within 30 minutes of your house in one of your posts before. 1st teir support is usually pretty low everywhere. I almost got a job as a 1st teir support guy this summer, but I ended up turning it down and worked as a programmer :D

The strange thing at the company I worked for this summer within the tech support department is that the less you know about the system and/or computers, the more you got paid :eek: LOL...Those guys are the bilingual customer support guys, while the real techies get paid around $12/hr, which really isn't enough to live on in Toronto.

Give me a shout before you come this way...we should go riding somewhere around here :)

oh 300 trails ahhh...yeah give or take...I obviously have never counted them but thats gotta e pretty close...

I don't plan to come home anytime soon. Doing a road trip for my vacation. I have seen enough of Ontario in the 25 years I lived there ;) Thanks for the offer, if it ever happens and you are still on here I will pm you.