Last weekend we went Camping, out at a cabin about an hour south of revelstoke. The cabin has been cleaned up after almost being moved/destroyed and is now a nice private spot above a lake with a nice beech.
We turned up friday afternoon and settled in to the cabin, went fishing, cooked some food and marshmallows on the fire and then got to know the locals (a few mice) before bed.
The next morning we woke early, went fishing, went for a bit of a walk, rolled a few rocks into the river, had a quick swim (very cold) and finished the day with a bon fire beside the lake (biggest bon fire ever) with some damper before bed.
On sunday we cleaned up, more fishing (still no fish) and drove back to revy after a bit of sight seeing.
Monday - made plans to go to the rockies with ants then went to a party, was a good night
Tuesday - hungover, got sorted for camping, left revey about 2.pm heading towards golden and yoho national park. Saw elk and hairy marmot's on the way to the campsite at the Takakkaw falls (second largest in canada). Nice campsite.
Next morning woke early to walk/run up to the yoho glacier. apparently only a 18km round trip with 250 meters of elevation gain. more like 22 km round trip with 500 m elevation gain. eventually made it to the glacier, took some photo's then back to the car before the weather turned. very worth while, if not sketchy tramp. Drove to Banff national park and checked out Mordine Lake and Lake Louise (Mordine Lake was better). Drove to Campground at Johnston Canyon. Saw some deer with massive fluffy tails, no bears yet.
Next morning walked up Johnston Canyon, saw the lower and upper falls then carried on to the ink pots. felt like we were in bear country, saw no bears. Returned to car and drove through the Kootenay rockies. More Deer, but no bears. Saw an eagle, massive. Decide to drive back to revy. Was a good trip lots of photos.
Ants has decided to get a job so the plans for next week are a solo misson through jasper national park with some mountain biking with the boys either side.
Boom
Andrew
Friday, June 25, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Kicking horse
Last week was taken up with odd jobs, mountain biking, running, visiting Begbie falls, moving out of the basement, visiting the historic ski jump in Revelstoke ( it is high - those guys must have had some decent cohonies) and waiting for the weekend.
After getting pretty happy around the fire on Friday night we were all a bit slow moving around the house Saturday morning. Managed to get on the road at about ten in the morning on our way to golden and kicking horse mountain bike park. the road between \Revelstoke and Golden had some impressive views and we stopped for a few photo opportunities. Passed through a time zone so lost an hour. After getting supplies we headed straight to the park, kitted up, and set of for the lifts. bit of a line for the gondola up to the top of the mountain, it is a 1100 vertical climb from top to bottom. Amazing views from the gondola and really started to enjoy the scenery. did a couple of runs down the mountain. first section is a long road (snow still covers some of the single track) which gets the body warmed up for single track further down the mountain. then form there on it's all sweet single track. did a couple of runs, got my first puncture, started to hit a few jumps. bike are awesome and soak up a lot of the lack of skill.
Camped the night at Cedar lake, lake is not fed by any rivers so quite warm but very muddy. Cooked a nice feed of pasta and bacon, tops and enjoyed a camp fire. the leaves of the dried trees we were burning must have a very flammable chemical in them cause they would go up like anything. can see way bear grills could make it in Canada, not to hard to start a fire at all. We were entertained by a pair of drunk teenagers in the next door campsite. Campsite is only ten minutes from the ski field so perfect base for mountain biking. quite a few mountain bikers using it two.
Next day woke to the sound of wolves howling in the distance. continued on and off for about an hour, mint! up the mountain for opening at 10.30. explored more trails, another flat, a few falls but started to get more confidence. Lunch at the restaurant at the top of the hill. Beautiful views. more trails after lunch, more jumps. Boys did a double black course, not my cup of tea but maybe in the future. multiple runs takes it out of the body and muscles were starting to feel it by the end of the day, one more short run and it was off home. Stopped in to dairy queen for legendary blizzard ice cream. a little sun burnt at this stage with nice patterns from the body armour.
most people have full one downhill bikes at the parks. but it is great to go up there and be able to do everything every one else is on our all mountain bikes, a lot of fun, just a bit harder on the body. have purchased some goggles to deal with the dust but loving the mountain biking so far. need to work on berms. resorts are good because you can do multiple runs and improve over the space of a day. Awesome. Aim is to make it to ten runs in a day - will be sore after that day
Camping and more mountain biking planned for later on in this week.
Saw a bear and some mountain goats on the way back from golden, squrils are awesome
Boom
Andy
After getting pretty happy around the fire on Friday night we were all a bit slow moving around the house Saturday morning. Managed to get on the road at about ten in the morning on our way to golden and kicking horse mountain bike park. the road between \Revelstoke and Golden had some impressive views and we stopped for a few photo opportunities. Passed through a time zone so lost an hour. After getting supplies we headed straight to the park, kitted up, and set of for the lifts. bit of a line for the gondola up to the top of the mountain, it is a 1100 vertical climb from top to bottom. Amazing views from the gondola and really started to enjoy the scenery. did a couple of runs down the mountain. first section is a long road (snow still covers some of the single track) which gets the body warmed up for single track further down the mountain. then form there on it's all sweet single track. did a couple of runs, got my first puncture, started to hit a few jumps. bike are awesome and soak up a lot of the lack of skill.
Camped the night at Cedar lake, lake is not fed by any rivers so quite warm but very muddy. Cooked a nice feed of pasta and bacon, tops and enjoyed a camp fire. the leaves of the dried trees we were burning must have a very flammable chemical in them cause they would go up like anything. can see way bear grills could make it in Canada, not to hard to start a fire at all. We were entertained by a pair of drunk teenagers in the next door campsite. Campsite is only ten minutes from the ski field so perfect base for mountain biking. quite a few mountain bikers using it two.
Next day woke to the sound of wolves howling in the distance. continued on and off for about an hour, mint! up the mountain for opening at 10.30. explored more trails, another flat, a few falls but started to get more confidence. Lunch at the restaurant at the top of the hill. Beautiful views. more trails after lunch, more jumps. Boys did a double black course, not my cup of tea but maybe in the future. multiple runs takes it out of the body and muscles were starting to feel it by the end of the day, one more short run and it was off home. Stopped in to dairy queen for legendary blizzard ice cream. a little sun burnt at this stage with nice patterns from the body armour.
most people have full one downhill bikes at the parks. but it is great to go up there and be able to do everything every one else is on our all mountain bikes, a lot of fun, just a bit harder on the body. have purchased some goggles to deal with the dust but loving the mountain biking so far. need to work on berms. resorts are good because you can do multiple runs and improve over the space of a day. Awesome. Aim is to make it to ten runs in a day - will be sore after that day
Camping and more mountain biking planned for later on in this week.
Saw a bear and some mountain goats on the way back from golden, squrils are awesome
Boom
Andy
Monday, June 7, 2010
A week in revelstoke
So we've been in Revelstoke for just over a week now. its a small Town surrounded by big mountains. kinda got an ohakune. i love the small town feel of it. we are quite close to the middle of town, which is far from the outside of town. so walk everywhere. it is awesome
Arrived Tuesday, Wednesday woke up with a few jobs to do. Me and Ants are shacked up in the basement with a cardboard wall between us, and no door. We have some carpet on the floor and a window each. Ants is gonna raise up his bed and put a nice floor in. i might just raise the bed up. went searching for free wood. found enough to make a sweet cloths rack out of (it is pretty sweet) Ants did the building and i was on design and holding things. First ride on the bike in the afternoon along a little trail in town to get used to the bike. found the skate park and railed some jumps. suspension is so much fun!!!
Thursday - more jobs in the morning, then went for a cross country mountain bike. heaps of fun. bikes are pretty hard to pedal up hill (there not designed to do that) but just kill anything on the downhill. No need to chose a smooth line like on the hard tail, just roll over anything in the way (awesome). Ran into a tree across the track (first crash)
Friday - noise boy wanted to climb the old ski slopes to find a ski. This hill was massive and steep and a good 2 1/2 hour climb to the top. Amazing how the plants and wild life change as you climb. And how it gets harder to climb as you get higher. Ants chased a bush turkey, found lots of coin left over from the ski season. had lunch, climbed some more, got to snow level, found the ski. boys attempted to single ski down, mixed results. Continued down - was just as hard down as it was up. Saw a brown bear near the bottom, in the trees. it was running away from us when we saw it then stopped and had a look at us. Awesome.
Friday night and we went to some hot pools in the bush. On the way out of town the muffler fell off the van, picked it up on the way back. was a noise trip to and from hot pools. Hot pools were across a ferry. there is no road around the lake so the government just put on a free ferry. took some sweet photos, hot pools were awesome - nice temperature and all to ourselves. got back at about one o clock
Saturday - woke up, fixed muffler. don't know how but its back on there. went for first real downhill mountain bike. was quite nervous and it showed in the riding. trails are way different to anything I've ridden in NZ. steeper, faster and with a lot more structures. did two runs and feel off the log ride twice. no big deal. boys road some massive things. was impressive. bike are awesome and just eat up everything
Had a party on Saturday night. lit a fire in a barrel at the house. was very warm. got fairly merry at the house before hitting town. live band so danced the night away with the locals. plenty of antics on the way to, and back from town. good times.
Sunday - hungover brunch. all you can eat breakfast for fifteen dollars with waffles and rhubarb crumble. was awesome. had three massive plates (ants said if i did three he would pay for laundry -sweet free laundry). was so good, waffles are amazing. Chilled at the house for a couple of hours before mountain biking. tried really hard to control nerves on first run and was starting to get more confidence. did a second run on different (new track). very steep first section, really enjoyed it. halfway down next section something clicked and i started doing more stuff. Did a massive rock roll over, Hugh. will have to get a photo of it at some stage - and a drop of. fell off. was awesome. loved it.
Mountain bike runs to far - Boulder 4, kicking horse 0
Time to do the dishes before a run today. me and ants are a cooking, dishes team. really good to share the work load.
Boom
Andy
Arrived Tuesday, Wednesday woke up with a few jobs to do. Me and Ants are shacked up in the basement with a cardboard wall between us, and no door. We have some carpet on the floor and a window each. Ants is gonna raise up his bed and put a nice floor in. i might just raise the bed up. went searching for free wood. found enough to make a sweet cloths rack out of (it is pretty sweet) Ants did the building and i was on design and holding things. First ride on the bike in the afternoon along a little trail in town to get used to the bike. found the skate park and railed some jumps. suspension is so much fun!!!
Thursday - more jobs in the morning, then went for a cross country mountain bike. heaps of fun. bikes are pretty hard to pedal up hill (there not designed to do that) but just kill anything on the downhill. No need to chose a smooth line like on the hard tail, just roll over anything in the way (awesome). Ran into a tree across the track (first crash)
Friday - noise boy wanted to climb the old ski slopes to find a ski. This hill was massive and steep and a good 2 1/2 hour climb to the top. Amazing how the plants and wild life change as you climb. And how it gets harder to climb as you get higher. Ants chased a bush turkey, found lots of coin left over from the ski season. had lunch, climbed some more, got to snow level, found the ski. boys attempted to single ski down, mixed results. Continued down - was just as hard down as it was up. Saw a brown bear near the bottom, in the trees. it was running away from us when we saw it then stopped and had a look at us. Awesome.
Friday night and we went to some hot pools in the bush. On the way out of town the muffler fell off the van, picked it up on the way back. was a noise trip to and from hot pools. Hot pools were across a ferry. there is no road around the lake so the government just put on a free ferry. took some sweet photos, hot pools were awesome - nice temperature and all to ourselves. got back at about one o clock
Saturday - woke up, fixed muffler. don't know how but its back on there. went for first real downhill mountain bike. was quite nervous and it showed in the riding. trails are way different to anything I've ridden in NZ. steeper, faster and with a lot more structures. did two runs and feel off the log ride twice. no big deal. boys road some massive things. was impressive. bike are awesome and just eat up everything
Had a party on Saturday night. lit a fire in a barrel at the house. was very warm. got fairly merry at the house before hitting town. live band so danced the night away with the locals. plenty of antics on the way to, and back from town. good times.
Sunday - hungover brunch. all you can eat breakfast for fifteen dollars with waffles and rhubarb crumble. was awesome. had three massive plates (ants said if i did three he would pay for laundry -sweet free laundry). was so good, waffles are amazing. Chilled at the house for a couple of hours before mountain biking. tried really hard to control nerves on first run and was starting to get more confidence. did a second run on different (new track). very steep first section, really enjoyed it. halfway down next section something clicked and i started doing more stuff. Did a massive rock roll over, Hugh. will have to get a photo of it at some stage - and a drop of. fell off. was awesome. loved it.
Mountain bike runs to far - Boulder 4, kicking horse 0
Time to do the dishes before a run today. me and ants are a cooking, dishes team. really good to share the work load.
Boom
Andy
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Getting out of Vancouver
We had an above average night on Saturday involving 22 pieces of sushi for $5.00, some awesome dancing (by the boys) and some interesting dancing from the Canadians, and a glassing incident between two girls on the d floor (Jeff Reidy took some to the arm). Lots of laughs.
Sunday checked out a couple of bike stores and camping stores. Went for a ride on a few reign X's. Figured i would purchase the reign X 1 we found in Revy. Went for a run through Stanley park in Vancouver. Saw a squirl and a Racon. The racon was awesome, climbed a tree right in front of us and into this little hole. Mint.
By Monday we were all sick of Vancouver and it's poor weather. Had been cloudy every day since we turned up. Messed around in town till 3.30 at which point we went and picked up the Van. It is the law in Canada that every car must have insurance. Getting this took about two hours and it was almost six thirty before we finally rolled out the drive way.
The Van I purchased has been sitting still for a few months and has obviously gone backwards, within a kilometer of leaving we discovered the window wiper switch doesn't work and the plug was faulty. A few zip ties later and we were down to popping the hod ever time it started/stopped raining (we now just pull the fuse out/in)
We picked up the boys van and headed out of Vancouver, good to be on the road moving after a few days sitting still. On the road for a bit (Jim driving my van) and we pulled over in Hope for a feed and some fuel. At this point I stepped up and took the wheel. Jim was pretty brave sitting next to me, almost had an incident at the first intersection. Driving on the other side of the road is interesting. Key is to always position the passenger on the outside. Intersection are the most tricky.
Parked up at a nice spot just off the road, altered the van so we could a comfortable sleep by removing the back seats, took a few photos, cup of tea and bed. Woke up at 4am when sun creeped into van. need to do something about curtains!!
Back on road and into Revy at about 2pm. Scenery got better and better as we went along. Canada is a beautiful place.
Unpacked the Van and straight to the bank and then bike shop. Picked up bike. It is awesome (back to shop tomorrow to take the set post down two centimeters). Need to get used to full suspension, and 6.7 inches front and rear is quite a bit. Will take some getting used two. Riding tomorrow.
Boom, off for a run
Peace
Andy
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