Biking the Port Hills to Sumner

Saturday morning I met up with my friends Dale and Nora to go for a bike ride up over the Port Hills, down to Sumner Beach, and back home. We set out at ten. I was a bit sore from ultimate frisbee the evening before and as we began the climb to the top of the Port Hills I wished that I'd had Dale's foresight and saved my legs for the ride.

Nora had to turn around as we began to go uphill because her bike wouldn't shift down. She decided to bike the flat to Sumner and meet us there.

Going to do the slide show thing again since people seemed to like it. Remember to check the captions.

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It was about an hour of biking uphill before the road leveled off a bit as we rode along the tops of the hills. going down the Port Hills into Sumner was intense. Dale's speedo read 83kmph. We were going uncomfortably fast, especially for me on my thirty year old 32 USD cycle with its wobbly wheels.

When we stopped in Sumner and sat down for a good bite to eat I felt the happiest I can remember feeling in a long time. The sun was shining on me, I was sitting at the beach, I had conquered the road that all of the serious local road cyclists do. I had been on what I considered to be my "last legs" for half of the ride uphill and yet, somehow, managed to ride the whole way up. I was saying to myself most of the time, "Damn I'm going to have to walk part of this".

That feeling of achievement mixed with the exciting downhill, the ocean waves, the alps in the distance, and the sun rays on my face... Like I said... I felt the happiest I can remember feeling, perhaps ever.