Coffeeneuring 1 – The Base Ride, Oct 5

I came across an interesting blog about Coffeeneuring that posed the challenge of cycling to 7 different coffee shops over the next 6 weekends. You can read all the rules on the blog site but I thought that I would give it a try. I may cheat a bit, considering that we may have snow on the ground by Halloween, and so may condense the coffee rides into a shorter time frame. I know, there are more than a few Edmontonians who ride through the winter but I am not one of them.  Call me a wimp or just multifaceted.  Once the snow hits, it’s time to break out the skis.  Anyway, since the group that I cycle with is quite civilized and almost always stops for coffee somewhere along the route, I figured that I would give this a try. I will amend the rules to include mid-week rides where necessary.

First ride of the challenge is our regular road ride from St. Albert out to the army base at Namao and back.  It has a little of everything – multi-use trails, suburban streets, quiet country roads, and a busy highway (but with a good shoulder) with a lovely training hill.  We do a few variations of the route but it generally averages around 50 km.  Click here to view it.  We have probably done the route a dozen times over the summer, with as few as 4 people and as many as 10.  We always stop for coffee at the Tim Horton’s on the base, which is usually around the 35 km mark.  After a relaxing beverage and, perhaps, a fat-filled deep-fried sugary treat, we head back out to complete the loop back to St. Albert. The faster riders in the group generally kick it up for the last few klicks and I’m holding on to the bars too tightly to snap off any photos of that part.

Nice quiet country roads to ride on.

Great multi-use trail beside the Sturgeon River in Sturgeon County.

A refreshing break at Tim’s on the base.

Maybe they will get the hint to buy a bike rack. Till then, we will put the bikes where we can see them.

A woodsy, ergo leafy at this time of year, part of the trail around the base.