Category Archives: travel

bikes, Canada, MTB, roadtrip, travel

A little more BC riding

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Making bagels seemed to go pretty well last week for the most part – I was able to get through the last of my three shifts with no little (or large) stuff ups, leave sixty-six dozen bagels in the fridge & finish earlier than I had been the previous week. A more-interesting-than-other-jobs opportunity came up at the temping agency – two or three months working at the cement plant fifteen minutes down the road. It pays a little more & I jumped at the opportunity to get back in to industry a bit & maybe get the brain ticking over a bit. It does mean that with my commitment to the Bagel Co (& a certain fondness for doing a little bit of baking a week), that I will be doing two (maybe three) doubles a week – sadly the first one will be on my birthday (that’ll be one to remember). Summer break is due to finish shortly, so the number of bagels required during the week should drop off & make life a little easier.

It seemed that a lot of the smoke from the BC wildfires had decided to visit Canmore on Friday morning & then sit in the valley for the rest of the day – it was pretty hard to see more than a few hundred metres across town (Calgary & Edmonton were worse apparently). Sitting around thinking about the possibilities of the next few days’ riding, I got another great job offer from PPP. This one was quite different – basically the owner of PPP (who works in Calgary) was going through town to Salmon Arm for a family reunion over the weekend. Having just returned from vacation, she had heaps of work to do & wanted someone to drive while she sat in the back & worked. So I played chauffeur for the weekend – & in return I got the weekend in BC, paid for six hours’ driving each way, put up in a comfortable hotel, the car for the weekend & more than enough spending money to cover the rest of my meals & a lift ticket at Silver Star (more of that later). So I jumped at the opportunity, with the one condition being that I could take my bike, for a weekend on new trails. So after a rush-pack, Nancy turned up at 4.30 on Friday afternoon. I had been dreading having to drive some huge SUV or pick-up for 400 km, but I was pleased to have a nice little turbo Audi (& a stick shift too) to drive around for the weekend (it went like stink). The Friday evening drive through all the construction was a bit of a drag, we eventually got to the family reunion at about 9.30 (gained an hour going in to Pacific Standard Time), I dropped Nancy off (after having been fed well by the rest of the family) & had the rest of the weekend to myself.

When I was riding with Quintin two weeks ago he was raving about the downhill trails (lift-assisted) at Silver Star & also mentioned how there was a good range of trails for different riding styles. So on Saturday, when the smoke didn’t look too bad I loaded up the car & made the seventy-five minute drive south to Vernon & up to Silver Star. Here I sort of joined the downhill set; sure, I didn’t have a full-face helmet, body armour, flat pedals & 8″+ travel on my bike – but I didn’t have to ride up hill for more than five seconds at a time so it was more ‘Downhill’ than I’d ever been. The day started pretty mild, but fine & I started to hit the blue trails. Super Star was my most ridden – it really did make one feel like a better rider. In parts it flowed really nicely & for once I was actually clearing & landing (modest) table-tops. Another trail, LTG, had lots of wooden features on it – about half of which I could ride. The snaky wall-ride at the start & this series of planks & teeter-totters were most enjoyable.

After ten runs on various trails my hands were pretty sore (by the end of the day I was having to uncurl my fingers by pulling them back with my other hand or the handlebars – I perhaps over inflated my (measly 2.1″) tyre in the hope of avoiding more pinch flats. Strangely, I was quite exhausted by 4 pm & as it was getting quite cold at the top of the chair lift I called it a day & headed back to Salmon Arm.

It was a lazy start to Sunday with a nice lie in & then lounging on the couch reading a Rebus novel (Resurrection Men – pretty good so far, not sure how I’ve missed this one in the past) before checking out. The grey & wet weather didn’t exactly have me bounding out the door, but I was determined to check out some local trails before I had to pick Nancy up at five. Five minutes down the road were the South Canoe trails – I managed to start chatting to a couple of local roadies that had ditched the skinny tyres for the day & were heading up the hill on their Giant Reigns.

Once I finally organised myself, we all headed up the fire-road – they were planning on heading up to some lodge & then doing a big loop back to town. It eventuated that they joined me for a bit more singletrack than they were planning on – I was more than happy to have local guides & people to talk to. The forest was really reminding me of riding in Rotorua – damp dirt-based singletrack, through beautiful green undergrowth & big tall plantation forest, & it flowed well too. I was really enjoying it & trying to show the roadies up (not too difficult). After we had been riding up for about an hour (with a brief singletrack interlude), I realised that we were now above the trail network & if I went any further with my new riding buddies, I’d be on fire-road for ages – so I hit the first trail down (Lee’s it turned out – this one was quite new). The few features were super slippery from the overnight rain & that made the otherwise easy wood rather tricky to negotiate without losing one’s front wheel.

Coming back on to the road we had just ridden up, next it was on to the appropriately named:

This started out really mild & it got me out of the rain that had started to set in – it came out on to a nice clearing for a while that on a fine day would have given a fantastic view. The trail then changed in to a nice flowy section then suddenly there was a big switchback & the trail plunged steeply down for quite some time. I was pleased to get down there mostly in control & without bailing. All of a sudden the trail was back to being tame again. I was spat back on the road near the transmission tower that we had passed earlier, so in the rain I headed back up for ten minutes to reach Lumpy. This was also a very damp trail that had some nice steep, but easily rideable, sections piled in with some fun little features (also some I wasn’t going to touch). Although quite gloomy in the trees, it was still beautiful & nice to riding some smooth & sublime trails. Getting a little cold in my shirt & rainjacket I’d had enough climbing for the day, so continued down on to the lower trails (much tamer & wider) to the car. Of course, when I got back to the car it cleared up & nice warm sunlight beat down to dry me out a little. I wasn’t too disappointed – I had some great BC riding & was off to a local brew pub (they’re everywhere in North America it would seem) for a late & very large lunch.

We got back to Canmore at a reasonable hour (10.30) & I was determined to get to bed & get some sleep before what will be a sixty-hour, five-day week. Of course, as always when you need to sleep, I couldn’t. I think this was mostly trying to work out whether Megan & Alex’s sudden trip to Calgary was anything to be concerned about – hopefully it’s just precautionary & the little one arrives safely soon. Plus, with the spare car gone & a little confusion getting keys for the other Outback I had to find a new way to the cement factory for my new job in the morning. Steve came through for me & leant me his very new & very large Dodge Ram pick-up – I managed not to knock anyone over & was stoked to find the steering wheel heater – fantastic little device that is on chilly mornings. Despite my tired state, I enjoyed getting back in to an industrial environment & seeing things that are quite familiar to me. They have two kilns there (4 & 5), I thought 4 looked about the same size as one of the ones at NZS – then I realised that the other half of it was behind the building in the middle. It’s one long kiln! 5 is more the size I’m used to.

bikes, Canada, friends, MTB, travel

Kelowna & old friends

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It must have been a couple of weeks since my last musings, & that has mostly been a blur of (strangely) mostly work. Although, checking the Riding Diary worksheet there have been enough entries in those two weeks to keep the legs ticking over nicely. Rather surprisingly (& to my amusement & I’m sure the amusement of others) I managed to land a part time job baking bagels at the Bagel Company a two-minute walk from home (super convenient). I had a applied on a bit of a whim a few weeks previously & had forgotten about that application – along with plenty of others; the advertised full-time position somewhere along the line had changed in to part-time. So it looks like I’ll be doing two or three evening shifts mid-week of about eight to ten hours each (depending on how good I get). It’s nice to have a job where I have to think a little more than labouring or housekeeping & be pretty organised. I’ve had a few training shifts & am now solo baking some pretty scrummy muffins & fifty-odd dozen bagels a shift. Another advantage is the evening shifts – so far I’ve finished my solo stints at two in the morning, but I’m sure I can get that back to before one, at least with a bit more experience. So that frees up the day for activities – not crucial now, but come the middle of winter & eight hours of daylight, it’ll be nice to be able to get out & about skiing & such forth on the clear winter days. While I was starting training for baking, I was also working a bit at a construction site – so with a couple of double shifts & a day marshaling traffic at the Calgary Half-Ironman I pulled my first 60+ hour week of work in ages – it didn’t happen much at the steel mill as there wasn’t much overtime for supervisors, but I do remember doing six twelve-hour shifts back to back, this wasn’t quite as brutal (a word that I’ve heard a lot over the last few days – more of that later).

Unfortunately, with the change in work schedule & Alex & Megan escaping to the Bugaboos (a provincial park in east BC) I’ve had to get used to a few more solo rides recently. Those have been pretty quiet & close to home – quiet mostly because I finally got around to replacing the bent brake rotors on my bike with nice shiny flat ones. Also I took my cluster off & gave the freewheel a good clean & grease – so with that & the Rock n Roll lube that came in the package from the UK my bike has a lot fewer sounds going on. That does mean that I’m starting to notice other ones that were previously masked. Early last week I started trading emails with a high school friend, Krysta, who seems to have been in Canada pretty much since university & is back in Kelowna, BC, after a year traveling through the Americas (drive through the North, backing through Central & South) with her (recently) fiancee, Steve. It worked out for all of us that the proceeding weekend was the best for me to visit – so with a couple of night shifts under my belt – & the (once again) kind loan of Megan & Alex’s second car I was off to spend my second weekend in BC. After packing up all my stuff (with a bike, I never travel lightly) I first had to ride in to Banff to pick up the car – of course, just as I was about to leave a huge thunderstorm storm rolled in & soaked town. Not overly keen to get struck by a bit of rogue electricity, I held off a bit before hitting the not-quite-complete Legacy Trail between Canmore & Banff (five rather crucial bridges are missing still from this bike path that runs alongside the TransCanada Highway). The trail took just under an hour & I was quite warm most of the way – over dressed in jacket & leggings for the rain that stayed away.

What started out to be a rumoured four-hour drive to Kelowna turned in to a bit of an epic. Up past Lake Louise the TransCanada goes back to single carriage way for most of the time. I stopped briefly at the Spiral Tunnels lookout to see where the Canadian Pacific Railway used two large spirals to turn what was once a 4.5% gradient (& incredibly dangerous) in to a much more manageable slope. Just as I got out of the car it started pissing down & I got pretty wet. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see two ends of the same train poking out different ends of the lower spiral. Shortly after my jeans got a good chance to dry out as I sat in the same queue for construction for about an hour and a half. Traffic management at roadworks on Canada’s main highway is poor to say the least – of course, when we actually drove past the bridge there was no work to be seen. By now I was in BC & driving through new (to me) national parks – Yoho, Glacier & Mt Revelstoke. Oddly, the speed limit for most of this rather wide highway was only 90 km/hr – but as in about one-thousand kilometres (the return trip) of driving I only saw one police car it was no surprise the heavy traffic sat quite comfortable about twenty percent higher than that. Turning off the TransCanada & on to the south bound part of the annoyingly circuitous (damn mountains) route I was back in to the land of strip malls & numerous billboards – also there must have been nice lakes close by as there were plenty of boat yards (& all to many houseboats on the lakes – Sicamous claiming to be the houseboat capital of Canada). Eventually I found Steve & Krysta’s house in SE Kelowna at a reasonable hour – this only really being achieved by gaining an hour from going from Mountain TIme to Pacific Time. Quite exhausted, it was nice catching up, sharing travelling stories, eating & looking around & enjoying the increase in temperature from being in the Rockies – not to mention being made cups of tea (not quite up to Trish’s five+-a-day!).

After a much needed sleep-in due to the evening shifts, long drive & time zone change it was up for a breakfast of bagels (I wonder where they came from) & planning for the day. Various ideas were floated – eventually we decided the weather wasn’t quite hot enough to go tubing down at Penticton (the weather was warmer than I was used to but overcast & a lot cooler than Kelowna has had for most of the summer). So, Krysta took me downtown for a brief look there & a small hike up Knox Mountain to help me get a better understanding of where Kelowna sits in the Okanagan valley.

After a quick bite to eat at home, the bikes were organised & loaded on the trailer & Steve shuttled us (another mate, Tyler, joined us) up to the Kettle Valley Rail Trail. The trailhead near the Myra Canyon Trestles was packed with cars & as we road along the wide gentle trail we passed many groups of all ages on bike & foot.

It sure is a popular place. There eighteen trestles where it got a bit steep for the railway to stick just to the canyonside. We managed to get over these without knocking anyone over the side (they could get a bit congested with large groups on the bridges). One could still easily see the damage done in the large wildfire in Okanagan Mountain Park in seven years ago.

After about half of the twelve kilometre section with the trestles, the crowds began to thin significantly & our speed picked up. As we didn’t have to ride back to the trailhead, we dived off the side on to the Myra Bailout singletrack. It was great to be riding down (mostly) gentle dirt track that just flowed. It reminds me of home a bit – smooth trail, no rocks & few roots. Of course, I flew off a little lip & landed on the only pile of rocks – knowing straight after landing that I would get a flat. A minute or so later here I was:

I am at least getting a lot quicker at changing tubes & we quickly back enjoying the trail. Somehow, this part of the park had escaped the fire (it’s odd how there can be localised sections that are unharmed while everything around them has been seriously burnt) & it nice riding through the greenery. Reaching the FSR (Forestry Service Road seems to be a common TLA on maps around here) where we were supposed to head back in town, we decided after some consultation with the family group we kept seeing on the trail to carry on down the signposted singletrack hiding at the edge of the parking lot. None of us were too impressed with the odd pinch climb, but soon we were shooting down more singletrack.

I swapped cameras with Tyler so we could actually have some riding photos of ourselves. It wasn’t entirely successful, the first time I was just about to come in to shot I ended up riding through a wild rose bush & I think this is where I ripped the lockout dial off my forks – grrrr (although it’s mostly cosmetic). Here are a couple of the best of Krysta & I ripping down the last little bit – I didn’t realise that this went straight on to the road, just as well there were no cars coming for me to T-bone in to.

We didn’t come out of the trails as far round as we feared we might, so we had a pretty cruisy ride home through some of the Okanagan Valley’s famed orchards.

It’s never a good sign when you turn up to a barbecue & there is no one home. After confirming that the BBQ was actually half an hour or more up the other side of Lake Okanagan, we hit a local pub for dinner before arriving at the house of Steve & Krysta’s friend – Clint – to watch some UFC. My first time watching UFC was quite cold as Clint had lined his basement & decked out almost entirely in Edmonton Oilers hockey memorabilia & started the themed painting of the room & one of the massive TVs were down there – along with the beer fridge. UFC was funny in parts, but after one guy dominated the big fight of the night & then lost in the last minute I was left feeling rather cheated. Once again, trying to find the equivalent Canadian word for ‘bogan’ came up – Clint’s younger half-brother being a case in point. Still no success. Either way he drives an RX7 batmobile & was quite pleased with it & its acceleration (140 in third on suburban streets was enough for Steve – & I can’t say I blame him) – that’s just a little odd after growing up in the Bay & studying in Palmy – rotaries engines are just so annoying & have so many bad associations in my mind. Steve didn’t really get the English humour of Top Gear’s South American episode – but I thought he & Krysta might enjoy seeing a different adventure in that part of the world. Not quite as amusing the second time seeing it, but still good television all the same.

Up a bit earlier on Sunday – Krysta & I were off to do the done thing around here take a look at some of the many wineries. It was a bit like being around the southern lakes in NZ – mountains surrounding lakes & vineyards perched on the side. The first one, Mission Hill Family Estate, had clearly had a lot of capital sunk in to it – the architecture was pretty impressive, as were the views. We did an hour tour & tasting session – there was a very cheesy video at the start & Krysta & I were cringing every time the ex-Montana Wine Chief Winemaker opened his mouth, it was pretty bad Kiwi accent. Obviously, it was rather cool in the cellar & all the arches & darkness made it feel like I was back under a big old cathedral in Europe somewhere.

After popping in to Quail’s Gate & doing a bit more tasting & trying not to spend too many dollars we headed out for another little hike.

This time it was about half an hour up Boucherie to get a view from the west side of the lake back to the city. It was quite warm in patches, we were surprised at how few boats were out on the lake – obviously these people are spoilt by good summer weather, it wasn’t that bad. This hill had also taken a hit from a fire & as it was so rocky hadn’t really recovered too well. Over the weekend I was learning a lot about trees & forests from Krysta who works in the industry. As I was in BC, this continually reminded me of not wanting to do this, but rather wanting to be a lumberjack. Leaping from tree to tree as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia! The giant redwood, the larch, the fir, the mighty scots pine, the smell of fresh cut timber, the crash of mighty trees, with my best girlie by my side, we’d sing, sing, sing… A bit more relaxing at home introducing Krysta to slightly newer Brit comedy in the form of The IT Crowd before heading out to their weekly dinner at Steve’s parents. Great food, nice homegrown raspberries & good company. A few episodes of TBBT when we got home – the early ones with great lines such as: “as much chance… as the Hubble telescope does of discovering that at the centre of every black hole is a little man with a flashlight searching for a circuit breaker” and “Our babies will be smart & beautiful” “Not to mention, imaginary.” and “What if she ends up with a toddler who doesn’t know if he should use an integral or a differential to solve for the area under a curve?” “I’m sure she’ll still love him.” “I wouldn’t.”.

It turned out that Krysta had to start back at work on Monday with a ten-day field trip. This worked out well as I could meet up with Quintin – a friend we used to car pool with to primary school in the Mount back in the eighties & one I have not really seen since. Quintin seems to have been chasing the ski season around the globe for the last few years driving snow cats (the groomers) & is finally enjoying a summer in BC while he does a firefighting course (more learning about bushfires for me). He’s recently bought a full noise DH bike & with its Fox 40s it stands in loud contrast to my tame little 4″ softtail. We had to find something suitable for both of us. Popping in to a bikeshop, we soon had a map & some local advice. We ended up back near where we had ended up on Saturday’s ride – just a little further west. It was mostly climbing up a hill for an hour in overcast conditions – I obviously had the advantage there with a bike that was probably fifty percent lighter & legs that are now well used to climbing. At the top we met a guy from Nelson (NZ, not BC) who had only been in town for a month – the only other biker we saw. We rode together for a while until he went off exploring further up the hill & we hit the Vapour Trail. It was great fun & a little pedally to start with so I was able to keep up. The middle section got a lot more technical & rocky & dusty – I was doing pretty well trying to chase Quintin. But I should’ve been a bit more wary, I completely stuffed up the last little technical drop at speed & landed quite heavily on a whole heap of flat, loose rocks on back of my left shoulder & my left hip. No damage to the bike & hopefully just bruises & scratches that will heal up in a week or so – but my shoulder is pretty sore, but usable. I was noticeably slower over the last of the descent – but all in all, it was another great ride & the trail was really neat. It’s just a while since I’ve had to chase someone who is a lot faster than me downhill. After more catching up over a beer & pizza, it was back to Steve & Krysta’s to clean up & hit the rode. Thankfully the trip was only five & three-quarter hours this time; it’s a long time that I’ve driven five hundred kilometres straight through, but in Canada it doesn’t seem to be a long way. Fog in places made the road works & general lack of reflectors (that’s not just in the construction zones) even worse than usual – but I made it home safely. I must also note that Canadian drivers have an annoying tendency to drive behind you with their lights on beam – it’s dazzling, even with the mirror dipped, & makes looking forward even more difficult.

So a great weekend excursion & I must get around to getting my own vehicle soon so I can continue to explore this great area – wheels are in motion, my Albertan driving licence is on the way.

city, Europe, national park, travel

An awful lot of talking (for me, probably not for some)

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Another airport, another chance to sit down & update these musings. This time it is Madrid Baribas Airport & I am at the end of ten days in Spain. Due to a slight adjustment in my sleeping hours towards what seems to be the Spanish norm & a very intense week I am having a little trouble remembering exactly all that I have done & seen in my brief time here. I do remember that for my first three days (spent in Madrid) the weather was pretty average (by London standards, bad by Madrid standards) – cloud, light rain & cold. First impressions were of the Metro from the airport in to the city – & those impressions have lasted; the Madrid metro has all the good things about it that the metro in Paris has (quick, on time, regular trains, clear & easy to understand maps & signage), but it is also much cleaner & newer & with far fewer beggars. In the central city my hostel was easy to find and about average. I think Thursday afternoon & evening were spent walking around the central city & getting orientated – which is very easy to do & I found plenty of parks, small side streets & hills to keep me interested.

Like most old European cities, the streets are mostly small & twisty – but with some quite wide arterial routes that help one from getting at all lost. I made the mistake of bringing a very good book with me (thanks a lot Neil) – the second in the Millennium trilogy by Steig Larsson, where one of the main characters is the most unlikely hero (if you like a good thriller/crime novel with a decent plot, I would do well to recommend these books – that’s for you Dad), so when I got sick of walking around in the gloom it didn’t take much to persuade me to go back to the hostel & read. Madrid of course likes to party, so my few nights at the hostel did not exactly provide me with sound sleep to prepare me for the exhausting week at Vaughan Town.

Back to Madrid, Friday was spent at various galleries & museums. The most famous of which are the Museo Nacional de Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum & the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. The Prado was a great collection of art & is a much more manageable size than the Louvre – a lot of Goya, Raphael, Bosch, Titian & pieces from other Spanish & European artists. My favourite of the three was the Thyssen – the landscapes (my favourite – I get a little sick of endless religious art – Rest on the road to Eygpt, & so on – & portraits of people that I know nothing about) there were fantastic & it wasn’t as crowded as the Prado. I’m still a complete ignoramus when it comes to modern art, so there was little to interest me in the Sofia. My antipathy towards modern art was well reflected by one of the first rooms I went in to in the Sofia – a long room painted in white that had a few slabs of steel of various lengths standing on their long edges. How a room that looks like the guys in the caster have got a little keen with the slab cutter & then done a little extra scarfing can be construed as art is completely beyond me. Steel can be used to great effect in architecture, but slabs are hardly interesting enough to look at as art.

Even Picasso’s Guernica was disappointing – needless to say was the highlight of the Sofia for me was the viewing point of the city from the third or fourth floor. Also that day was a rail museum which were interesting enough considering there was very little translation in to English & my Spanish can generously be described as poor.

A bit of lie in on Saturday, conceding that my book was much better than the weather, before heading to the Palacio Real de Madrid (the royal palace of Madrid). Thanks to my Madrid Card (which is not nearly the great value that the London, New York & Paris Passes have proved to be) I was able to skip the ever-growing queue to get in. Another typical impressive palace, but thankfully not nearly as extravagant or large as Versailles – but pretty fancy all the same.

I also spent a bit of time wandering around some of the many parks & green areas in Madrid, which were very nice considering the drizzle.

That night was a small tapas evening at a bar for the English-speaking volunteers to meet each other before the week of a lot of talking, something I was unsure I was up to but willing to give it a go. It was a little strange to speaking only English in Madrid, but nice to meet people with accents from all over the world. The night continued for a few of us in various other bars & I was back in the hostel late for me, but early by Spanish standards & the curse of “I know I have to get up early to meet some form of transport & so now I can’t sleep” struck & I had very little sleep before dragging myself out of bed & off to meet the coach & most of the rest of the other Anglos I would be spending the week with – one bonus of being kept awake was the conclusion of my book, I’m looking forward to starting the third one & the movie of the first installment that is just being released in English. A pleasant drive through the Spanish countryside for three hours south-west(ish) & we were almost in Portugal before we stopped at the hotel in the National Park that would be our home for the week.

Most of the Spaniards at this particular course work in the hospitality industry & quite a few of them work for the same chain of government owned hotels & know each other; even so I imagine there were quite a few nerves on their part as the program kicked off with introductions from all participants & a basic outline of how the week would work. The whole idea of the program is to improve the English conversation of the Spaniards & get them used to hearing different accents (of which we had quite a few – different parts of England, Glaswegian, Aberdeen, Irish, American, French & my Kiwi one – thankfully, a lot of the more difficult accents for the Spaniards to understand [including mine] had been softened somewhat by travel). We must have had about twenty one-to-one sessions during the week, each of the three meals of the day were at tables of two Anglos & two Spaniards, a few group activities of the team building type & the socialising were all of course in English – it was quite intense for the native English speakers, & was clearly exhausting for the Spaniards who had to think almost every time they said or heard anything. I was surprised that I managed to talk so much, even if I often found myself repeating similar stories to numerous people. Of course, working & growing up in NZ were common subjects (which started to make me a little homesick after the third or fourth time) as well as my trips to Kenya & Canada and also what I was planning on doing in Britain. For me, it was a great way to meet some local people (rather than just being a tourist the whole time), understand the country & culture, & get to know some great people.

Perhaps the most surreal part of the week was during the evening meeting (a chance to perform a song, skit, tell a story or so on) on Monday night when two different groups of people got up & performed Argument Clinic and the Four Yorkshiremen skits made famous by Monty Python. I was slightly annoyed I missed the opportunity to participate in those – the saddest thing would have been that I could have probably done so without a script. These sketches led in to a long discussion at dinner with one of the Spaniards about Python & how well it translates in to Spanish, our favourite movies & lines – that was one conversation I would never had thought I would have! After a couple of grey days, the sun came out for the rest of the week on Tuesday & many of my one-to-ones were spent walking in to the small village close by, or the opposite direction down the road, to escape the confines of the hotel & ward off cabin fever.

We were lucky to be able to do so – apparently the other group were in a much smaller hotel & had a lot of snow & were stuck indoors for most of the week – it may have driven me mad. Bird watching, gypsy jump, castle… bridge. It turned out that just down the road from the hotel was one of the best places in Europe & the world to see various species of birds – vultures, eagles, storks & many others. During another one-to-one, Ricardo drove me down to the Gypsy Jump (the name – from a local legend – given to the two large rocks standing tall either side of a narrow gap in the Rio Tajo – the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula) to spot the vultures – with the aid of some binoculars & Enriques’ powerful monocular we could easily see many vultures flying around & nesting on the rocks; we were also lucky to spot a couple of the less-frequently seen black storks. Another outing was to the small castle (a keep really) on the top of the rocks above the Gypsy Jump that was built by Arabian goodness knows when – the panorama from here was spectacular & it wasn’t all that cold.

On Friday it time for goodbyes & the bus back to Madrid. After a week of way too much food & too little sleep it was nice to get back to Madrid. But of course there was that common drawback of travelling & meeting so many wonderful & interesting people – every silver lining having a cloud & all that – you go your separate ways with no guarantees of crossing paths again, but what happens there remains to be seen. Six of us English speakers found a much quieter hostel than the one I had been in the week before & after a movie for some of us, I was in bed at the comparatively early hour of one o’clock to have the best sleep I had had for some time. Up to see brilliant sunshine, pack up & on the Metro to have brunch with a distant cousin I had never met – our great-grandmothers were sisters, that makes us third cousins (I think). A very pleasant two hours meeting Christine & her roommate & once again eating well too much (not to mention three cups of tea – Christine is British after all) before heading to the airport…

Canada, family, friends, hiking, national park, snow, travel

A lot more skiing

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The ten days or so after returning from Bow Hut until departing Canada is a bit of a blur of various types of skiing & a few other activities. Having decided my arm had had enough rest (not exactly a medical opinion – more not wanting to miss the chance of any more skiing without testing it), the day after Bow Hut James & I headed up to Sunshine. We skiied a few runs off the top of Strawberry lift before I headed off to my second lesson – hoping to get a bit more control & more consistent parallel turns. I didn’t have the instructor to myself this time, but three wasn’t a bad sized class – & as last time, the lunch was huge & fantastic. During the course of the lesson I became a real skier & was bowled over by an out of control snowboarder. Apart from that it was good day with much improvement. A quiet DVD night with an ever filling lounge as people finished work (James) & got back from collecting new cars in Calgary (Megan & Alex). Megan had the rather exciting news that she was off for four days of heli-skiing courtesy of her new employers.

On Mark’s last day on Canmore, he, Adele & I went to the Nordic Center for a spot of cross-country skiing.

It turns out Mark is quite the accomplished skate skier & he spent a lot of time waiting for Adele & I as we slid along in the XC tracks (tracks groomed in the snow to fit the skinny XC skis in them).

I had not been on XC skis before, so it took a little while to get used to them – I was fine as long as I was in the tracks, but when the tracks ran out it was quite difficult to stop in a hurry as the XC skis don’t exactly have edges. Nonetheless I survived the 110 minute loop we did without falling over – XC skiing turned out to be quite the workout as you use the poles to propel you up the hills & along the flat & try to tie the propulsion with a gliding/skating action on the skis. <

Although enjoyable, it was a little boring being limited by my skill to the tracks; on the bright side, the day lodge serves a good plate of poutine. One last dip in the hot springs in Banff & we back to Canmore for our last dinner with Mark – at the Grizzly Paw. As well as making great beer (which I was not surprised about) they also make a good Ginger Beer – a rarity in North America – the sirloin was very good too. I said my goodbyes to Mark that evening as there was not much chance I was going to get up at half past four in the morning to do so. Sunday was pretty lazy as Adele & I spent the morning cleaning the cabin & the afternoon relaxing before moving back to James & Becca’s house.

Becca got the day off work for her birthday, so unsurprisingly she, Adele & I were up to the hill to celebrate with a day of skiing.

Over the course of the day we were joined by a few of her friends from working on the glacier over the previous summer. Sunshine had even managed to have a bit of fresh snow overnight to aid in the celebrations – not quite the metre Becca was asking for, but that may have been perhaps a little hopeful. Of course, we had masses of food & lunch was a pleasantly drawn out affair – it quickly wore off after a run or two. Twas a great day & I was able to explore some new lifts (new to me anyway) & didn’t fall until the ski out to the car park when I accidentally took a side route that should have had a black diamond posted before it.

The light at the top of Goat’s Eye was really flat & the snow quite icy, but the second half of that mountain was great fun. After James cooked up another storm for the birthday dinner & then it was endless games of Monopoly Deal until Becca finally picked up a “It’s My Birthday” card from the draw pile – Murphy of course saw that these cards were in short supply, & when they did come around they went in to the hands of other players.

While Adele was off climbing Cascade Falls (the formation of ice that we had seen from the TransCanada every time we drove to or past Banff) with Craig, I had a relaxing morning until Becca came home in the middle of a split shift with XC skis. After a large lunch of last night’s left over roast, we were off to the Nordic Center (not before we had broken in to Scoobie [the Soobie – bare bones, but reliable Legacy] with a coat-hanger to retrieve the keys; honestly, who keeps the spare key to their car inside the car?) for another good workout. There were far fewer people on the trails this time, the sun was out & the temperature must have almost been reaching 0ÂșC – it was very pleasant. Unfortunately, the trails weren’t quite as groomed and further away from the pavilion the snow was getting quite thin & at times we were skiing on a little grass. Still, we managed to hardly stop (except for the odd photo)

& finished well worn out in forty minutes less than I had the previous time. XC skiing started to make a bit more sense.

For Adele’s last full day in Canmore (sniff, sniff) we were of course back to Sunshine for a day on the slopes (well, Becca, Adele & I were – James was off super early to climb some multi-pitch piece of ice). There was more powder around up the hill than there had been two days previous & it continued to snow for most of the day. We had a pretty good day – although Becca seemed to have a target on her back & a big flashing neon sign attached to her helmet that said “Try & Crash in to ME”; to say she had a few close calls would be putting it mildly, I was not completely without blame in one of them but managed to cross behind her just avoiding what would have been a spectacular tangle. We spent a lot of time trying to find little tracks through the untouched powder in between trees – some were better trails than others, no-one managed to wrap themselves around a tree although some tried a little harder than others.

Finding little jumps to hit also provided a good diversion from just skiing runs; of course Adele’s last runs for this trip to Canada were off the top of Strawberry.

Despite Megan having just returned from her four days of heli-skiing, we took her & Alex out dinner – ended up back at the Grizzly Paw after Adele & I rather rudely shot down the idea of sushi in flames. Adele & I were completely boring & both took the same option for mains that we had had on Saturday. I think the night will be remembered for Megan being so tired that she could hardly eat any of her pasta & me getting some of my own back on Adele – after having endured a month of conversations about gear & climbing, it was nice to have others around who would happily quote Blackadder, The Big Bang Theory & so on & Adele didn’t have a clue as to what we were talking about. Not to mention Alex’s rather amusing Communist Party T-Shirt – with the emphasis on ‘Party’.

Adele had the rather gargantuan task of trying to pack all the gear she had bought over the last month in to her Macpac & a ski-bag before James, Becca, Adele & I headed off for yet more gear shopping in Calgary before heading to the airport to drop Adele off. Surprisingly, I took an early lead in the gear-buying stakes with a pair of shoes, a pocket knife & very pleasingly a replacement pen for my Swiss Army card (yes, I still have it if you are reading this Kate Southern – it’s fantastic) – one of the most useful things in the card, at least it was until the ink ran out. Eventually, Adele found the jacket she’d been looking for for weeks & Becca got some elusive soft shell trousers (I quite happily relinquished my lead). A grand (had to get that word in once more) Indian dinner in Calgary & it was off to the airport for (dammit) goodbyes (& a few more TimBits of course).

The XC World Cup was in town over the weekend & Friday morning James & I headed out to the Nordic Center to catch a bit of the action. Now that Adele had left, the sun decided to shine all day & it was a glorious day. The event that day was the Free Technique (10 & 15 km for women & men respectively) – which was the skate style of XC skiing, not in tracks. We had enough time before James had to start work to see the sixty-odd women start & finish their time trials (staggered starts).

Some of them were really quick, I was surprised to see a Kiwi out there – apparently she is living in Canmore, she got quite a cheer from us. There was a great crowd out & the ones around us were really chatty & helpful in explaining things about the sport & the competitors. Catching the shuttle back in to town it was funny to see the main street closed off & covered in one and a half feet of snow with XC tracks set in the sides – all part of the festivities.

Back home for a quick lunch, James was off to work & I had the afternoon to myself – I seem to remember sleeping a bit before making an early dinner, Becca came home, we ate & headed to Norquay for a bit of night skiing. Norquay had just the one lift open with a couple of short floodlit runs coming back down to the daylodge. It was just as well the runs were quite wide as I probably would have plastered myself on to a tree if they were narrow – both the runs were quite fast & after a few quick runs down I started to work on my technique & stopping a bit more.

It definitely novel skiing at night; we had a much easier drive home after the dust was wiped off Scoobie’s headlights & our vision was increased by orders of magnitude. Picking James up from work we were off to watch some mixed-climbing at the local indoor rock wall; from what I could work out the competition was basically indoor rock climbing with ice axes to help. Only one competitor finished the route that we saw.

After good sleep-ins (Megan I think was still recovering from the heli-skiing) we rode the few kilometres to the Nordic Center to catch a bit more of the World Cup action. It was much more exciting the second day as the racing was head to head around a much shorter course – what we couldn’t see live, we could see relayed on the big screen. Having six racers on the course at once, with only four sets of tracks led to a few entanglements. The biggest crashes were on a tight right-hander on the last down hill. It was interesting to see the different techniques that the racers used depending on the gradient they were on. In the gap before qualifying & the finals we left the bikes (it must be noted that this was my first bike ride of the year – in February! Shocking!) at the Nordic Center before heading down to town for no reason other than to lunch – my last bagel & chocolate chai at the Bagel Company. The racing was even better after lunch, with only three & a half minute races we were quickly through the quarters & semis & in to the finals. In both finals the champion completely dominated the field to win by a large margin – a Pole in the women’s & a Swede in the men’s. The biggest cheer of course was for the local Canadian who finished third in the women’s. As an aside, I was very surprised at how many Kazakhs were competing – a lot of them made it in to the latter finals too.

With such a beautiful & warm day we couldn’t waste the rest of it. A short drive from town & we were at the start of the track to the summit of Hi Lung (or Chinaman’s Peak). It wasn’t long before our shoes were shod with YakTraks – a wide rubber mesh surrounded by steel coil that enables one to walk on snow & ice, not quite as hardcore as crampons. We climbed pretty steadily for an hour before breaking through the tree line & the view towards Banff started to open up. After another twenty or thirty minutes of climbing through a mixture of snow, scree & slabs of rock we were at the summit looking out over Canmore, the Bow Valley, Kananaskis Country & up towards the summit of Lawrence Grassi. It was very still at the top & the sun was still out so we managed to keep warm – we had been shedding layers most of the way up as the weather was so good.

Sunday was also spent with Megan – she is the only person in Canmore that I know that has normal Saturday & Sunday weekends (& she’s pretty cool too). After some indecision as to what to do with another stunner day close to Canmore (thinking of the head gasket on the way out in the Outback) we went & paid Becca a visit & hired light touring skis (a little bit wider than XC skis). Parking in the same lot as yesterday’s walk to Hi Lung, but heading in the opposite direction we headed off (mostly) down the Goat Creek Track – this goes 19 km to Banff, but as we didn’t have someone to meet us we decided to see how far we got in a couple of hours & then turn back. It wasn’t long before I discovered that it is really hard to stop easily on these skis as there are no edges – it just so happened that the steepest hill of the day was heading down from the parking lot & I spent a fair chunk of it on the ground sliding. The trail was of course no where near as groomed & nice as those at the Nordic Center & of course the tracks were no set, rather just those that had been worn out by many previous tourers. This mean that they were generally pretty shallow & usually disappeared altogether on the downhills. We kept up quite a reasonable pace & stopped for the occasional photograph as it was a beautiful area. Just before our two hour turnaround we reached the Spray River – the snow on the hand rails over the bridge has started to turn in to pretty cool crystals. Turning around, it was of course mostly uphill back up the valley – a few people we passed thought we were nuts & perhaps we were. But as it were, as I wasn’t falling over so much & we weren’t stopping to take duplicate photos we got back to the car in the same time as it took to get to the river. Believably, half way through the return journey I was beginning to feel the lack of lunch & my gliding technique was suffering – never mind, made it back quite alright & it was another great little adventure. Who would have thought so many different types of skis existed? Not me.

For my last full day in the Rockies, I was also keen to spend it at Sunshine. It turned out to be the clearest day that I had out there. I caught a ride up there with Craig & Kelly – we did a couple of runs off Wawa together before they headed out slack-country to do a little touring. I was keen to get my money’s worth out of my lift pass for the day so I spent the day exploring bits of the hill that I hadn’t been on yet & visiting favourites. As I was by myself with no one to keep up to or avoid, I was much slower than normal & could spend the time working on my turns & stops. There was also plenty of time to take photos of the spectacular mountains.

It was also the quietest day that I had visited Sunshine – I don’t think I waited for a lift all day. It was especially dead when I hit the lifts & slopes again after an early lunch – the few people that had been on the mountain were all still inside eating. It was bliss. The light and snow at the top of Goat’s Eye was much better than it had been last week so I spent quite a bit of time on the blue runs there – a couple of the new ones were a bit steeper than I was used to, but I somehow managed without planting myself in the snow.

After Craig & Kelly got back from their little mission we did a couple of hours of Angel, Tee Pee Town, Strawberry, Jack Rabbit & Wolverine together – some amusing moments going through the trees in various parts.

When we left for the ski out at 4.30, we must pretty much had the run to ourselves – I did manage hit a big hole in Upper Canyon, but some how recovered. For the first time I managed to ride all ten lifts & not fall on a whole day on the hill. I even threw in a couple of easy black diamond runs – it turned out they were easier than some of the blue runs I’d been doing previously, go figure. Final dinner with Megan & Alex – which of course included a couple of Big Bang episodes – unfortunately, I discovered I quite like port, particularly the bottle I bought Alex, just as well I was leaving.

Not much of note on the Tuesday – somehow crammed all my gear in to my pack & small suitcase, a bit of cleaning of my room & bathroom; Becca kindly came home during her split shift & then dropped me to meet the shuttle. A few lasts – last A&W burger (they are pretty good) & last box of TimBits (these are pretty good to take on the plane – good snacks between the inadequate Air Canada meals). A great holiday – thanks especially to James & Becca, Megan & Alex, Adele, Mark, Craig & Kelly and the staff at Gear-Up for such a wonderful five weeks in & around Canmore. I would like to be back some time in the reasonably near future.