After working long hours over the past few months on the City of Surrey’s Canada Day and Fusion Festival, I scheduled a nice five day long weekend to the Comox Valley to work on the course design for the final MOMAR of the season.

Joining me once again, were my friends from Victoria: Kris, Michelle, and Kari. These guys are always keen on packing as much adventure activities into a weekend as possible and that’s exactly what we did.

The team… Kris Clarke, me (Bryan Tasaka), Kari Frazer, and Michelle Relf

We stayed at the Riding Fool Hostel in Cumberland which is owned by MOMAR regular Jeremy Grasby.

We arrived in Cumberland on Friday night and went for dinner at The Great Escape. The service is excellent and the food is amazing.

Saturday morning. Liz Tribe joined us for our first ride of the trip. Liz has been awesome at helping me with the course design and time trialing the various route options. She has a killer trek planned!

Michelle and Kari flowing through the trails in the Comox Valley.  We rode for 2.5 hours in the 30 degree heat. It was so hot but fun the whole way.

Immediately following the ride, we did a quick change of clothes, grabbed lunch to go and drove to the Nymph Falls Orienteering Meet. Sarah Seads was helping the Victoria Orienteers organize the race and gave out some race tips.

Here’s MOMAR’s Orienteering Stage Director, Carl Coger.  Carl spent Monday working on the course design for the “O” stage in the Cumberland MOMAR. Be ready!

There were three course options and we decided to do the 4km route. I went solo and Kris, Kari, and Michelle did it as a team.  We had to collect 16 checkpoints and we were given the maps about 30 minutes prior to the start of the race. I had a route all planned out but just before the start, I was told that you had to get the CPs in order. Off I went looking for CP #1. I thought I would find it easy but NOOOOOOOO… I spent the next 15 minutes trying to find it. I finally figured it out and then I couldn’t find #2! NOOOOO…. I slowed it down and by then I was used to the scale and the rest of the CPs were easy.  Still, it made for a LONG day of running/walking/bushwhacking. No results to comment on (and no desire to either ;0) ).  Kris, Michelle, and Kari didn’t have any issues with any of the CPs and put in a good time.

Here is MOMAR regular and orienteering superstar, Hayden Earle, at the final CP.  Photo by Sarah Seads.

Following the “O” meet we went for a dip in the Puntledge River and a nap on the rocks.

A view of rapids on the Puntledge River.

After 5+hours of adventures, we had a well deserved dinner at the Old House Restaurant in Courtenay. We followed up dinner with a trip to the Waverly Hotel where Gary Comeau was playing live. It was a high energy show but we were exhausted and only lasted one set and one beer.

It’s the Japanese in me taking photos of the food with my BB.

Sunday morning and a nice ride scouting some different areas for potential inclusion into the MOMAR. I wonder if any of the locals can figure out where I took this photo?

Sunday evening we booked boats from Comox Valley Kayaks and headed out in the estuary for a paddle out to an beautiful sandy beach on the Comox spit (not sure what the actual name is).

The paddle was incredibly scenic with many wildlife sightings.

Relaxing on the beach on the ‘comox spit.’

Monday morning… Lox and Bagels for breakfast at Tarbell’s. Great food and service right beside Dodge City Cycles and below the Riding Fool Hostel.

Our third and final ride of the weekend was supposed to be a fun and short ride on trails that I wasn’t planning on using for the MOMAR.  Two hours later, I’m now considerng a complete revision to the bike stage…

What a weekend! Four days of fun in the Comox Valley and I’m really looking forward to the MOMAR on Sept 26th. That race will mark the end of our 10th season and we are planning on celebrating in a big way! I look forward to seeing you all there!