Neighbourhood Shred

With the new snow boards from Grandpa and Gran, waiting for two weeks until their first board lesson just didn't seam doable. So we crossed the street to the sledding hill and gave the new boards a whirl. Temps above freezing were an added bonus. And, it was a good excuse to snap a few pictures on my new (3rd time I've bought this camera) Fuji X100. Maybe I won't sell this one in a few months...

2013 Alberta Blizzard

Living in northern climates can really test your metal sometimes. We're just seeing the last of a winter blizzard that's kept me unable to drive to work, and kept me busy shoveling, snow blowing and pushing out stuck neighbors. Sometimes the snow from my blower was so thick and the wind blowing it right into my face making it so I couldn't even breathe. It was like being stuck under water, but with snow and -17C. Most of the work is done, highways still closed and the fireplace is on. Time to hunker down and enjoy it.

Spring time in Alberta

Ian Tyson isn't wrong. We've had a few glimpses of the seasonal change we've been looking forward to, and the bam! More snow. More cold. More ice covered roads on the early morning drive to work.

Cinco de Mayo

Fun day today with some of the guys I work with. We're all kinda gun nuts and thought it'd be fun to all get together and shoot stuff. 6 of us, 9 guns and 1,300 rounds makes for a good time.

For the rifles we shot wax candles, and the shotguns we had clay pigeons. We also chopped down some dead trees with our guns. All kinds of redneck:)

It was cold and rainy this morning, and it's getting worse as the day goes on. We've got about 2 inches of wet snow this afternoon. We usually celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a big feast of fish tacos. Tonight however we're just making some comfort food: variations of the grilled cheese sandwich. Nice when it's snowing outside.

Fernie Snowmobiling Pic Dump

A few weekends ago, me and 3 good friends had a weekend away, just to be men. Men in the mountains. With horsepower. I tell you, it was one of the best weekends of my life.

I'm back in Fernie now with my family taking some time to relax, unwind and catch up on things. Including blogging.

If you've never been on top of a mountain, in 4 feet of fresh powder, with no sounds what-so-ever, you've never experience just how incredible this harsh and unforgiving country can be. Mountains are amazing. We had a lot of snow the first two days of riding but on the third day, Sunday, we were given a gift. It was incredible.

the 4 of us on the trail up to the play areas (powder bowls)

this is where we were going to. untouched powder, 4 feet deep. heaven.

we did end up having to tow one sled out. as luck would have it, we were just finishing up on our last day when the trouble came. nice.

sometimes the best way to get un-stuck is just to roll your machine over. why not stand on it while upside down huh?

on Saturday we chopped down a dead tree and enjoyed a campfire at lunch

heaps of high-fives went around!

when the snow is this deep, you need to be careful where and when you stop. this stuff is so easy to get stuck in!

stuck

stuck and digging (did waaayy too much of this on Saturday)

met up with another group of guys. good visiting, and then a bit of one-uping each other with the audience. good fun.

on Sunday, it was really this warm. We ate lunch shirtless. about 45 minutes. awesome!

the fun with snowmobiling, is you can climb like no other machine. but, every now and then (or quite often) you get stuck. that's a pretty steep grade.

Snowmobiling

I suppose I'll keep the odd post coming. I've resolved that it might not be very frequent, and I've removed the pressure I'd put on myself to "make sure this makes it to the blog" that was keeping me from enjoying activities I was doing, and blogging about them. But, if I happen to have a camera around, and happen to snap a few frames, I'll probably get to posting it here. More low key, and enjoyable. That's the whole point of sharing via a blog isn't it? It's supposed to be fun? And it is.

This past Friday, 3 of my good friends and I were lucky enough to all schedule a day off, and head out on our snowmobiles. Our sweet wives thought it would be good for us to have a day off, absolved of our fatherly duties and just hang out and be guys for a while. We've got amazing wives! And, when guys are being guys, it often leads to a bit of craziness and in my case, stupidity.

Case in point: When I get behind the throttle of anything fast, I like to let caution flee from my mind. I love the feeling of being scared. It's a rush that has gotten me in trouble more than a time or two. I'd written off my sport bike 3 times, and was hospitalized once. But after I got to the point where I could wheelie for over 2 miles, shift through all 6 gears and top out at 140 miles per hour (not kph, MPH) all without letting the front tire touch the ground, that is a true reward.

Back to the snowmobiling. We're planning a weekend trip to the mountains to sled, and we viewed this day as a "test" ride. Kind of a chance to ride together and familiarize ourselves with each others riding style. We were just cruising the priairies, riding in the irrigation canals and blazing across the frozen lakes. We'd stop whenever we found a piece of terrain that offered a chance to play around. Once such piece was a nice snowdrift on a frozen lake.

My friend Brad said, "hey, I'm gonna try a superman!" I thought it was a great idea. Only problem: you need some serious airtime to pull of a full extension superman and land it. I tried a few times, couldn't quite get the full extension I wanted and then decided I'd just let it all hang out. Full extension, try and pull the landing, but mostly worry about full extension. I got the full extension I wanted, and the landing, well, there just wasn't time. The good news: we had video rolling. The bad news, I fractured my elbow. But, in the end, the pain was worth the split second of glory.

Check out the video:

Cheers,

Jeremy

Even when it's cold out, I feel sorry for those stuck in cars

I'm sure they're taking pity on me too, out there, in the cold, riding a bike. If they only knew how great it is.

I do still need to work on my winter gear though. Nasty cold fingers again. It was -9C (15F) and -14C (7F) with the windchill, and my skiing gloves just don't do the trick. This surprises me as they are good gloves, and while on the ski hills, they're always great. Must be the wind. I'm gonna look into a set of poggies, or some snowmobile mitts. Flirting with frostbite isn't much fun, and limits time outside. Today after about 15 minutes I was in pain. Shut the ride down at an hour, and again, pain when I came inside.

Still beats being stuck in a car!

Ride yer bike!

Morning ritual.....

.....shoveling snow. Kind of a warming up of the Soots' engine if ya know what I mean.

First Blizzard of the season!

Weekend blizzard fun. Neighbors having to clear my front door so I could get out of my house, shoveling 5 foot drifts behind my truck with a quad, and spending 3 solid hours clearing a 7 foot drift that built up against my garage door. Ah, what fun. Such is the life in Southern Alberta in the winter. Many plans cancelled, and happily opt to just stay inside, consuming copious amounts of coffee and hot chocolate while in pajama pants and watching movies with the kids. Sometimes, unplanned weekends are better than anything we could have planned.

Riding to work this morning was interesting. -27C (-17F) when I headed out the door. Still most of the sidewalks were covered, so I was forced to share the narrow paths between drifts on the roads. Even my back-routes were complete drifted, to the point that it would be carrying the bike through waist deep snow. I figured it’d be better to risk the ice, and take it easy, that to get to work sweating like a stuck guy on a bike. Biffed it once at a low speed. Two footed landing though, no harm done.

It’s amazing how weird your bike sounds when riding in this kind of cold. Tires on the snow are deafeningly loud, and brakes make noises that I’ve never heard before. Cranks creak when you wax on them, and I think I could hear the KM frame complaining. While it was cold, it was a good. Sure beats starting up my truck, letting it warm up for 30 minutes, riding in it even though it hasn’t really warmed up inside, and then doing it all over again. Thanks, but I’ll just get a quick fresh blast of wintery goodness, and then enjoy the sweet feeling of appendages unthawing after the journey. If you’ve experience such sensations, you’re really missing out! Regardless of the weather, ride yer bike!

Cheers.

Spring time in Alberta?

Once again, true to it's reputation, spring time in Alberta shows it's ugly side. Yesterday there were people in shorts. This is getting old.

Tour de Strathmore

With all the snow from this morning, I figured it’d be wise to ride the pink bike with studs for lunch. I did a little exploring of Strathmore, and I’ve come to the conclusion that you can actually have some fun without leaving the town limits. There are great canals, wooded parks, and dirt bike paths for exploring.

Right off the bat, I found a nifty window scraper on east boundary road. I normally don’t pick up too much while I’m riding, but since I don’t have a decent scraper for my car, I figured this would be worth my while. I stole a Christophe toe straps from my burrito wrap, and lashed my new treasure onto my rear rack. One thing I like about leather toe straps is they have a little stretch in them compared to their synthetic counterparts. I was able to zip that sucker nice and tight and it didn’t even think about moving, even when riding some rough gravel.

All the cool kids ride with widow scrapers on their racks. You heard it here first.

Next I cut along the canals, which was a real workout. Once speed is great for riding when you want exercise. Sometimes, you’re spinning out of control, sometimes, your legs scream at you as you try for the next revolution on the pedals. Pond hockey season is drawings to a close.

Winding my way aimlessly though town, I figured I’d better give Grey’s park a tour. I used to practice trials on the boulders when I lived in town, but hadn’t ridden there for several years. The paths have been expanded and they are a really nice, hard packed gravel/dirt. Lots of Canadian geese telling me to buzz off as I rode through. Nice to have them coming back home.

I ended up on the other side of town with 10 minutes to be back at work (not that I’m all that constrained to a schedule, but I try to be not much longer than 1 hr for lunch rides). I boogied the paved bike paths on the way back, and made a stop in at the recycling yard. The bike I rode today even was one found at the recycling last year. Sometimes it’s surprising what bikes people have just left there for the taking. The Apollo, my old Bianchi, and as I mentioned the pink bike I rode today were all free via the recycling yard. Heck, I even found the Christophe toe straps that I use to lash my burrito with here. I (heart) free bikes. While I was there I ran into my buddy Cory. He and I have coffee Friday @ 10:30, and he was quite excited to see me today. Cory is the king of haul stuff on a bike. He's hauled things on his bike that I wouldn't even attempt. And yet he seems to do it quite well. His bike is a BSO replacement from when he was hit last year. His trailer is atrocious. Homemade, everything cobbled together with zip ties and duct tape. But he puts more miles a year on his bicycle than I do on mine, so I have respect for the man.

He showed me his old brake pads that he just had changed at Canadian Tire. I would say it was high time.

Ride yer bike kids.