Ottawa to Van: A 39C Odyssey – Part 2
Posted by Prashant - 14/07/09 at 09:07:27 amNot only did select members of 39C (i.e. Marc Boudreau) send me a huge helping of photos from their Vancouver trip that I posted just yesterday, but Kyle Lafleur also sent me a story detailing their whole trip as well as a big handful of new photos. Click below to read the whole story and check out all of Kyle’s photos.
Hood picnic with shopping cart chairs.
It started as an idea on the way to Montreal one day…the idea of taking a few weeks to drive out to Vancouver and back. It was soon becoming a reality. Everyone had the time booked off well in advance, it was going to be the 39C road trip to Van. A week before the trip Leland Nightengale from Toronto and Andrew Gobbo from Hamilton decided they were going to come along for the ride, It was now 39C + 2 = Team Dilly Dally, the equation in reverse is Team Dilly Dally = 6 dudes with A.D.D.
We left Friday after work and were Sudbury bound for the night. After being on the road for a few hours and passing a beer or two from car to car while driving we decided to just pick up Leland in Sudbury at the Greyhound station and continue on to Thunder Bay which would total 20 hours of driving from Ottawa. The night was crazy as we drove through a gnarly rain storm causing us to reduce speed to 50 km/h sometimes. It was a long first night.
Passing beers.
The next morning we were a few hours out of Thunder Bay when Jaime was pulled over for going too fast. While he was being ticketed we pulled over in the small town we were in, walked 20 feet from the car and found 3 good looking handrails and a pre-fab park, the ground was soaked, especially in the skatepark but after sitting in a car for 17 hours it was game on. We rode for a short while, got some breakfast and kept on keepin’ on. We drove through Thunder Bay and stopped in Dryden for the night, they have a fun concrete park and some dialed places to camp and one pretty sweet local that sold us his most of his case of beer because we got there after hours.
Jamie’s car pulled over.
Sunday we got up feeling rested after being up for a couple days, we packed up camp and headed to Kenora to ride big Ben’s home park for the day. The place is really fun and has something for everyone: bowls, ledges, rails, a place to swim and a grocery store next to it. Once the session died there we got back on the road to make it to Winnipeg before dark. We made it before dark but so did the rain, only allowing us to get a quick session in at the Forks (the Winnipeg Skate Plaza). Once we were done drinking in a parking lot we headed over to visit Prasheel Gopal and Ben Kauffman at their hotel as they were in town doing a few shows. We had a few drinks and that was that.
We woke up in the morning at Gobbo’s buddies house to find that the rain had stopped and the ground was drying, we got some breakfast and headed straight to the Forks. The place is insane to say the least, you’ll just have to look at pictures and then you’ll just have to go there. After spending the majority of the day there we trekked over to another Winnipeg park which also looked like a dream and was a nice change from the skate plaza because all this park required you to do was pedal your ass off and jump everything….or go as slow as you can and do 30 foot icepick grinds. We were all tired from a long day in the blistering hot sun and decided to not drive to far and just get a hotel for the night.
Winnipeg Skate Plaza.
Blistering hot sun.
We met up with Prasheel.
The next day was spent driving across the the Praries to Saskatoon. It was a very flat drive but the Prairies were nice to see, its crazy how far you can actually see sometimes, its also really windy. We arrived in Saskatoon late after noon and rode the park for a little bit. After a while we left and a local show us around to a few street spots near by. We weren’t digging Saskatoon and didn’t even want to spend the night there so we called up Ted Bambrick, who is residing in Edmonton, and told him we were on our way out and we’d be there around 3:00 Am. He couldn’t of been happier. By the time we got there the sun was coming up, although being that far north the sky doesn’t ever get completely pitch black. Close, but not completely.
Ted called into work the next morning and brought us around in his T-top Trans Am that he painted himself to a few local parks in Edmonton. It was still very windy out and most of us just took it easy and watched Ted ride. When we were done riding we watched Ted jump into his car Dukes of Hazzard style because the door didn’t open. We got some donairs (the Shwarma of Alberta) and went and threw a couple loonies at some strippers. Once we got back to Teds house Boudreau and Jaime decided they wanted to try and do some wizard training by playing Wizard Sticks (when you finish you beer you tape it to the bottom of the next beer, you keep going until your stick is taller then you…then your a wizard). They both got 12 down and were both 3 cans short….they also tryed to complete this in a span of 3 hours.
Ted’s car.
Ted himself.
Those two woke up feeling like champs in the morning. Ted was gone to work and it was time to start the final drive to Vancouver. It was just another day of driving, we stopped in a smaller town right along the mountain line and rode the concrete park for maybe an hour just to stretch out and then it was back to driving. We ended up on a bit of a detour and it was probably the best wrong turn ever made. We were still on our way to Van but it was going to take a bit longer. Taking the wrong turn we got to go by Mt. Robson which is the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. There was an information building at the base of mountain and it had a good looking rail on the side of it. Jeff manned up and slid a big rail in front of a bigger mountain in the rain with a snapped chain and slow leak in his front tire. We kept driving and came upon a sign that read “Little Hells Gate National Park” we decided it sounded pretty interesting and went driving down the trail looking for a place to camp, we ended up setting up camp right on the look out platform for Little Hells Gate (Which was a narrow spot in the river where the water rushed heavily). It was a little hard to get the fire started as it had just finished raining but city boy Leland got it going and that was probably the best night of camping I’ve ever had.
Mount Robson handrail.
The best camping spot ever.
We woke up somewhat excited to get back on the road…but before we did anything Leland manned up and jumped into the glacier water for a swim, Gobbo got to his waste and threw in the towel and the rest of us watched them freeze. We were on the road and Van was just a matter hours away. We got side tracked when we came across the actual Hell’s gate. It was a big attraction with a gondala and they served there own Hell’s Gate beer. Hells gate itself is another narrow in the river, its close to 200 feet deep and has double the amount of water Niagara Falls has flowing through it. It was a neat stop to say least after spending the previous night at Little Hells Gate. Now we were actually on the final drive to Van. We arrived sometime in the evening and wasted no time unloading our shit at Adam Macky’s apartment (which was in North Van and had a epic balcony view of downtown Vancouver) and catching the Sea-bus into downtown. We got some solid cheap pizza and pretty much just hung around the plaza all night.
Leland with a glacier dip.
Hells Gate.
View of Vancouver.
Waking up to a view of downtown Vancouver was something I could do for the rest of my life. We slept a little late but got shit rolling kind of fast today and headed right for the Richmond park. The park was fun and the sun was hot, we tired of that pretty fast and headed downtown for a bit of street riding. We weren’t down there long when we were struck by some rain, but luckily Gobbo had lived there before and knew of a few spots we could ride in the rain. We wound up at a basketball court that had a bunch of ledges around it that were made for riding mostly pre fab but also a few coped cement ledges. We rode there for a few solid hours and then called it a day and headed back to Adams for a couple beers.
It was now Sunday. We got up, got some food and went straight to the Hastings bowl/skatepark. The lower section that you’ve probably never seen is really fun…the bowl was scary but really fun to pump around. We rode for a hour or so and then headed to the Kirkstone park to watch the Canadian Concrete series contest and just relax for a bit. There were some crazy locals flying all over the place and a good vibe all around but watching the contest got old so we drove down the street to the infamous snake run. It was a lot of fun just carving through but jumping the hips got pretty scary even with a brake. We went and got some supper headed back to Adam’s and just drank there for the night. Some people ventured up onto the roof and Jeff slept in the hallway all night.
Snake run.
Time was winding down and we only had 2 days left before the long/quick drive home. We went and met up with Leland’s buddy at yet another skatepark Monday morning. The park was called Bonsar, and it was really tight and fun with a few different sections to it. It also featured a 15′ full pipe which was a lot of fun to carve. We rode for a few hours but our main objective for the day was to head to Grouse mountain and take the gondola up to the top, so we did just that. As soon as we got there we noticed there was zip lining at the top, as soon as we were at the top we were getting geared up to zip line. There was 5 different lines to do, the longest one was over 1700 feet long, 350 feet off the ground and traveling at speeds up to 80 km/h. It was pretty epic to say the least. We went and got some really good burgers for supper then stopped for some beverages on our way to Port Coquitlam to ride one of the lit up parks. We got there and the lighting was dim, we jibbed for less then a hour and just called it a night due to shitty lighting.
Zip line action.
Zip lining again.
Last day! We didn’t do to much new stuff today. We went around downtown to a bunch of spots we had already been to get a few things done. Jaime tried his first handrail and missed his back peg, did a gooch slide until his peg caught the up right and fell over into the garden. Boudreau did the same rail after a few tries and then security tried kicking us out. After getting permission for one more try Jaime got up and with no bitch runs slid the whole rail second try. We rode a few more spots and then hit the Coquitlam park later that night (Not Port Coquitlam) and after being there for 20 minutes I got snaked by a dirt bike in the bowl. True story. About 15 minutes after that I ventured into the bush for a tinkle and came across a city run race track/trails….we barely rode the park after that. The light went out after a while and we headed back to base. Once we were there we equipped ourselves with some beers and headed down to the water front where we partied until 5:30 am. It was around 6:30 in the morning once we finally settled down for a few hours of sleep before hitting the road back home.
Race track. Racer’s ready…
Woke up around 11 feeling half rested but ready to drive. Gobbo had found a cheap flight home a few weeks later and stayed behind in Van. We got out of there around 1pm and headed for Calgary’s Millennium park which would be the last and worst stop of the trip. Driving through the mountains still hadn’t gotten old. We were not out of the mountains and in Calgary now, it was 2am when we got to Millennium which was alright because its lit 24 hours a day. The park is not very fun and all I did was pedal really fast at the full pipe. We stayed for an hour, dropped Leland off at a random Tim Hortons because he had some business to tend to in the Edmonton area. It was back to just being 39C. From Calgary we headed straight to Timmins, which means we drove for 46 hours from Vancouver to Timmins and had the short little stop in Calgary. It was a long 46 hours and was nice to be back near home soil. We spent Friday night in Timmins and got some well needed sleep.
Saturday Jaime and Boudreau showed as a few local spots. The street was gnarly, one fall and you were ground beef. We packed back into our mobile homes and finished the last 8 hours to Ottawa. Being home was nice but I would of much rather still been in Vancouver. Everyone felt the same. If you ever have the chance to drive across Canada or even just take a trip to Vancouver DON’T hesitate and you won’t regret it.
- Kyle Lafleur
Jeff is greazy.
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jesus christ jeff. you are the filthiest fucker i’ve ever known.
Comment by Landozine — July 14, 2009 #
it ain’t easy being greezy…..unless your sleezy!
Comment by COCKMASTER — July 14, 2009 #
that Winnipeg plaza looks crazy
Comment by matt — July 14, 2009 #
the final jeff pic is a pic that dad’s keep forever but don’t show their family later.
i love it.
Comment by Rich Red — July 15, 2009 #
that sounds like an amazing trip!! i wanna do that!
Comment by andrew — July 15, 2009 #