HawthorneVillager.com

Yawn.

Oh well. I tried.

Hey... wanna meet up at Subway for lunch?

Which one? You pick.

_________________

Walk
Skate
Play tiddly winks
Bike
Chess
Checkers
Bake
Create stained glass windows
Shop
Go to movies
Work out
Read
Play video games
Swim
Read Hawthorne Villager
Follow politics
Home repair jobs
Mentor young people
Family driver
Feed the needy
Shovel snow for my neighbours
Cut lawn for neighbours
Walk my kin's dogs
Play 649
Crossword puzzles
Price match

Just a typical day.

I thought the buses were only during the pan am games so athletes and staff can park on site. why are they shuttling now?

Hmmm. No sex or feminine toy (batteries not included) time?

_________________

Feminine toys? My wife doesn't need any. We get our 10 seconds in many a time.

@Martin: This is what I am saying. All the things that suck about Milton...cookie cutter houses, chain restaurants, and dreadful strip plazas... This is not one of them. It is actually a pretty unique thing to have given that this is 1 or 2 facilities of this caliber in all of USA/CAN. I mean Australia for comparison has 60 tracks, 6 of which are indoors for comparison. It can totally be sustainable in the vicinity of the countries most populous region and 100km from the border.

What Martin said is right. Amazing mountain biking, road cycling, and now track cycling. A total hotbed. And from what I gather the Canadian cycling organization will be HQ'd here in the velodrome. It could be great for the town.

I don't think you going to be seeing any gold medal hockey games at the local hockey arena (nothing wrong with that). But its a cool opportunity to see some of the worlds best come to our town for competitions (not just PanAm games). I recall riding at Forest City in London in 2009 and seeing a whole bunch of people who made the drive from the States to compete there. And that is a pretty damn small rinky dink track in a converted hockey arena.

@Princess: I imagine the parking lot isn't fully complete. I imagine they will finish it and the rest of the exterior/landscaping the spring. There are about 100 spots right now and most of the spots were being used for the athletes/staff/coaches competing at the Canadian Track Nationals since they probably have a lots of gear to unload into the facility (bikes, rollers, tools, etc). Once this event and the Milton International Track challenge are over, the parking lot should be sufficient for normal use of the facility.

Nice try, Peter Gilgan.

Personally DGAF about this thing, but agree it's a positive for 'The Town', so that's good enough for me. This assumes maintenance costs are held in check.

One note: I like Kelso, but how the hell did Kelso get ranked #4??? Kelso is great to have such close by, don't get me wrong, but it one of the widest more eroded networks of singletrack I've ever ridden. Calling it singletrack is giving it too much credit. And the amount of shortcuts people have poached around some of the technical sections.

Touche. The list is not scientific by any means considering Hardwood is surprisingly low on it and I don't even see Albion listed at all.

Tickets for the Pan Am Games at Hardwood are running at $40. I'll be there, bruhh. I also bench 350, bro.

_________________

I would like to make it out to Hardwood, and as much as I love MTB and do lots of MTB racing, I am torn on whether to buy tickets. Do you know much about the spectator areas? Any race I've ever watched at hardwood usually consists of a bunch of people crowded around the bone shaker...and then you wait until they come back around.

Now if they go all Olympic level with cable cams and a jumbo-tron...it might be more worthwhile!

I don't know yet, but my buddy and I were wondering the same thing. We're hoping that we get some free access to roam around, otherwise it will be the biggest waste of $40 and an hour's drive ever.

_________________

Good points. I guess I am just sad to see how widened the trails have become. Have you ridden the Hydrocut?

When are we going to organize a Hawthorne Villager MTB day. So you can all make fun of me on my one gear bike, rigid fork, and lycra shorts???


@Martin: If you find anything out, send me a PM. I have a contact to someone who lives in Craighurst and is close with the Hardwood people. Maybe he can shed some light.

My only concern is the ongoing costs and the question of why did Montreal close theirs in 92

That is only 16 years later when they get rid of it. Seems pretty quick to close it up.

Why will it work here, and not in Montreal?

They closed it 7 years before Lance Armstrong put road racing on the map and before normal guys like nspace started wearing lycra on a Sunday morning ride.

_________________