Tyler's Trailway

As we move closer and closer to the holiday season, the selection at the local LCBO becomes better and better.   Now if you don’t live in Ontario, well then you probably don’t know what the LCBO is… It is a great place that you can purchase your alcohol needs, whether it is beer, wine, spirits etc.   Shameless LCBO plug checked off the list… Luckily for me, having dinner at a friends’ place recently allowed me to try Junction Road Brewing’s Black Lager.   With a name like Black Lager, you would assume that it is a Black Lager, and well you would be correct…. It is a black lager… It would be funny though if when you poured out the black lager that it was red or clearer, that would really mess with your perspective.   But I digress, The Junction Road Brewery Black Lager was just that a Black Lager. As you can tell by the photo in the post, well the Black Lager pours Black, surprise surprise.   That being said, it poured out a nice dark beer with a ...

With having a now over 1 year old little girl, the time has come for her to be on the bike with me, maybe not so much on single track, but just on gravel rides.  I have used the pull behind trailer with her in it, and that worked awesome, but with the recommendation from another rider about a Weeride carrier, I had to check it out.  Really, anything to do with bikes I have to research.... Its an obsession I think... I have looked around at other carriers, just trying to see what options are out there before Liesje (pronounced Alicia, but without the A) gets onto a Balance Bike.  A couple came up, the Weeride , as well as the Macride child seat. I ended up choosing the Weeride, solely based on other recommendations.  Word of mouth is probably one of the best sales features out there, plus the internet... There's a lot of stuff on the internet..  I have read alot on the Macride, and all the reviews I have read have been positive as well. Installation was fa...

It's been a little while since I've done a beer review, and after having a glass of Black Oak Brewing Company's Nut Brown Ale, I decided that it was a great opportunity to share my thoughts, feelings and insight.... Well mainly thoughts, but hey its a start.   Like any beer review it is all based on personal preferences, so like any local craft brewery, go out and try them.  You may find ones you really like, but also it supports local businesses.  Now that my public service announcement is finished, I guess I should probably write about the beer itself.... Can't really call it a beer review unless you talk about beer.  As you can tell I'm just really dragging this all on, like a bad joke that goes on and on and on...   Luckily for me, and I guess whoever is reading this, is that I ended up snapping a photo of the beer, as well as a glass with the deliciousness in it.  As you can tell, the appearance is a reddish brown bo...

Well if you hadn't heard of the Sausage Suit ITT, I can give you a very brief synopsis.... It is a 15+km lap of singletrack, with no mass start.  Riders are released every 30 seconds by the most energetic start you can imagine.  With Janet calling down the time for you, "5, 4, 3, 2, Go!",  you are ready to hit the trails for 1 or 2 laps of the most fun you can legally have on a bike.. Dan Marshall from Substance Projects hosts the event at Dufferin Forest, which is our home trails, so that does give some of us a bit of an advantage.  But like always at the end of the day, it is meant to be a fun day on your bike in the forest. We lucked out with weather, it wasn't snowing!  It was bloody cold hovering around 8 degrees or so.  But with that being said, it was the perfect temperature to ride in.  There was no set start order, so you strategically placed yourself on when and who you wanted to start around.  In our little grouping, Co...

It has been too long since I've done a beer review.  That's not saying I have stopped drinking beer altogether, just curbed it slightly to focus on biking.    That being said, when I do grab a beer, I've become picky, and wanting to try new ones, and recently at Redline Brewery, I picked up a can of Wide Open Modern Pils.   First off, if you have never been to the brewery / brew pub in Barrie, it is worth the trip.  The food is delicious, and the beer selection, well it is all in house beer, so you know it is going to be good.  Also, the nice thing is, after you have tried a couple different ones on a flight, you can go to the store and buy cans, which I did with the Wide Open.  http://www.redlinebrewhouse.com/the-beers/wide-open/ From Redline's website: There is a reason the classics are held in high regard. Sometimes we need to make a small change in order to move forward and build on what has come before us. This thinking ...

Crank the Shield - Sault Ste Marie Superfly Racing, Algoma Highlands Conservacy, Agawa Canyon Tour Train, Outspoken Brewing, Stokley Creek Lodge, Searchmont Resort, Tourism Northern Ontario, Sneaky Socks, Velorution and Sault Ste Marie.  Without the people and the companies behind Crank the Shiels - SSM (Sault Ste Marie) than this past weekend would have not happened.  Without Sean and his countless volunteers, I don't think anyone can say thank you enough.  Usually I leave the thank yous to the end, but in this instance, they all need to be thanked and thanked and thanked. What was Crank the Shield - SSM, well it was a 3 day mountain bike point to point adventure in the Algoma region of Ontario.  Did it dissapoint? Not at all! Lets take a look back at our Journey.  Months and months ago on a winter ride, Chris and I had a chat about Crank, and decided we could do it as a tag team.  The idea of doing it tag team was mainly to provide a second challeng...

Some folks may have heard of this loop, some may not, but all should add this to their bucket-list.  The Simcoe County Loop Trail is a 160+km Trail around Simcoe County.  I must say what the county has done to promote cycling is truly amazing.  The Simcoe County Loop trail is mainly gravel based, or paved rail trail, so overall not a lot of elevation gain, but there is some so don't kid yourself. For our 2-day ride, we decided to start and finish in downtown Barrie.  Mark and I were on our fat bikes with gear, Chris was on his plus bike.  If I were to have one criticism on the whole trip would be finding a parking spot for an overnight stay.  Luckily for us, Chris knows the guys at Tilemaster so we were able to leave our cars there overnight. With overcast and drizzly sky, we unloaded our bikes from the vehicles, and loaded them up with gear for a couple days of biking.  For 2 days of biking, it is much easier to pack everything, as you rea...

Well this past weekend was the annual Chico Racing Summer Solstice, which comprises of a 24hr mountain bike relay race.  As always, this event is held at Albion Hills Conservation Area, in Palgrave Ontario.  This race is the largest 24hr event in North America, with approx. 2500 riders from all over the place converging for a weekend of camping and racing.  This year, I joined Derek and Bike Right for a social 9 person team, which after doing the race solo before, it is a nice reprieve.  The nice part of this event is that you can head up on Friday after work and set up camp, and that's it, you are there camping for the weekend!  Derek got the normal campsite, which is right on the side of the trail and hecklers corner, which is about 400+m from the finish line.  Perfect spot to sit down and watch the festivities. Our team this year comprised of Lars, myself, Tracey, Michelle, Shawna, Eric, Josh, Jamie and Derek, so we had both a fast team as...