Colleen Gosse

Paddling and walking and biking oh my!

This week was another lovely week outside! I tried to go surfing on Tuesday but wasn’t feeling up for it that day so I watched some pals from the beach and enjoyed the most beautiful morning. I did still wanted to get some paddling in that day, so we decided to take the canoe out for the afternoon. It was a little windy so we decided to go to Shubie park where it’s protected. It was such a nice afternoon! We’ve been so fortunate with the weather this fall. 

On Wednesday Christian wanted to go to Value Village so we decided to bike over. This time we dusted off Christian’s bike, put some air in the tires and got out just after supper. We took the Atlantic View Trail over and ran into lots of other people out enjoying the trail. After finding some treasures at VV we made our way back with the sun setting over the bridge. What a dream!

I keep telling my friends that the best part of this challenge has been to have an excuse to get moving outside. We could have been going on all of these adventures but we hadn’t been. This challenge has been the best nudge to get outside and I’m enjoying this fall so much because of it. 

Thanks for the continued support and I hope you’ll join me outside ☺️

Rum runners trail

Gnomes and scarecrows

Last weekend was lovely. After a night of backyard camping, my nephew and I decided to go for a little trail stroll on what he calls the ‘gnome trail’ near my parents’ place. It’s a sweet little community trail with gnomes hidden all along the trail. Bram is so much fun and showed me where each gnome was. It’s really nice that he could lead the way the whole time. When we got back to the house, we tried to go for a group bike ride with my niece, but my mom’s bike, which I was going to borrow, had two flats, so we’ll have to get those fixed up for next time.   

On Sunday, I wanted to try another section of the Trans-Canada trail, and it also happened to be the scarecrow festival in Mahone Bay, so we drove down to check it out along with the Run Runners trail.  The bike shop in town is closed on Sundays, so we decided to just go for a little walk and see a section of the Run Runners trail, which was gorgeous. I would also love to come back and rent a bike. 

Not so many kms, but really nice quality time with some of my favourite people. I think that’s been my favourite part of the challenge: inviting folks to come along with me and checking out trails I’ve always meant to visit. It’s been so nice!

Biking and Beaning

Beach bike

Biking and Beaning

Thank you SO much everyone for your support so far. I’m proud to say we’re off to a great start. 

If we’ve chatted in the last year I’ve probably annoyed you talking about how much I love my e-bike. I take it to work most days and I think it’s the best commute I’ve ever had. I’ve always been nervous to bike in Halifax because of all of the hills and not wanting to show up to work sweaty. Well taking my e-bike most days has had me feeling like a real cyclist, I’ve been scoffing as I whiz by cars stuck in traffic, breezing through the fine Dartmouth bike lanes, down to the water and into our bike room. I’ve been feeling so confident in my cycling skills, when I signed up for this challenge I thought what a great excuse to get back to the Bike and Bean for a bike ride. We came here and did the exact same ride 7 years ago for Christian’s birthday. So, on the first day of the challenge I rented Christian and I two bikes for a nice leisurely bike ride along what’s got to be one of the nicest places to cycle in NS. 

I love my e-bike, but it’s not the easiest to transport, so we opted to rent bikes there. We got kitted up with two sleek black bikes - I couldn’t believe how light they were! It was a dream. We got on the trail and it was just gorgeous. It felt a little chilly out at first but once we got moving it was perfect! I was nervous for Christian since he hadn’t been biking in a while, I thought “I hope he makes out ok on our ride”. Well we got moving and I very quickly realized I’ve been getting a little over-confident in my actual cycling skills. I rediscovered muscles I forgot I had, I remembered that gears can make your life a lot easier and realized the importance of seat placement. Those small challenges were easy to forget when you’re cruising lakeside and then rolling seaside, smelling apple trees, passing old rock walls and other small reminders of the former rail line and wondering what it would have been like living in some of the historic homes along the path that seem much too close to a railroad. We even ran into two friends on the trail! 

Poor Christian, who I was worried wouldn’t be able to keep up with me, actually had the opposite problem. He had to slow down so much for me it was hard for him to bike that slowly. His only complaint was that his bike seat was too hard, so I’m taking that as permission to get him some padded shorts for Christmas :) 

We made it as far as the beach. It was beautiful - white sand and turquoise water. No swimming this time, but we enjoyed some granola bars and lots of water, loaded back up on sunblock and headed back to the cafe. I managed to go even slower on the way back so we had to split up a bit on the way back. We did make it back for a delicious lunch at the cafe. I had a grilled cheese that reminded me of the High Plains Drifter at the Tall and Small and Christian had a wrap.

All in all, it was a humbling first ride (for me), but it was such a beautiful day I hardly noticed while we were out and about (Sunday was not a fun day for my quads).  I hope we can get out there again during this challenge!

Thanks to Christian for biking along with me and everyone for the support.

Colleen