Red Deer, Alberta is our current home. After tossing pictures onto this blog, its time for bed. Otesha-land is a magical place, as living in a mobile, super-awesome community might be. This slog of pictures is from this winter, this last month, and last week. They're photos taken by Katrina, which Ive just recently received from her. Tata, and be well! Tyler and the rest of the Prairie Skies team. [View Full Entry]

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I made it! Booyah. We're here just outside of Calgary, just finishing our training week. How freaking awesome is it to see the mountains again. Day after tomorrow, we leave towards Calgary, where we'll stay for the weekend. After that, who knows. I applied for a Katimavik Project Leader position on the East Coast for after the tour. The interview went really well, I feel like I have the job. Since Im also male, Ive heard that I have a really good chance of getting hired, even if I wasnt that qualified. However, Im exceptionally qualified... However, Im not sure if [View Full Entry]

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And here I am. About to embark, yet again, on a dangerous, scary journey, across vast expanses of space, through time and the universe its self. However this time, the journey wont be quite as scary as one would imagine. The journey is with Otesha. Again. This time, a Tour Liason position, is what I will have. I will be in charge of everything awesome, when it comes to corresponding with communities we pass through. In return for mountains of paperwork, I do not have to fundraise for my tour. Which is awesome. The tour its self, rides two months long, [View Full Entry]

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Who knew? Who knew I could get good at something as obscure as mushing dogs. Last season, I became capable at running my own team, and capable of mangaging several other teams on trail. This year, Ive become capabale of managing MANY teams on trail, simultaneously. I know the approximate ages, metabolisms, attitudes and of course, names of the 370 dogs in our kennel. I can determine how well a pair of client drivers are doing by monitoring their dogs. Ive learned to trust our dogs aswell, as our dogs know WAAY more about dogsledding then our clients usually do. For [View Full Entry]

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And Tyler Takes a Day Off. From working 7 days a week, for the last 1.5 months, man, does it feel AWESOME to take a day to yourself, for yourself. I baked cookies! I cleaned! I fixed our washing machine, hooked up our dryer, hooked up a TV and DVD player, and cooked a kickass dinner. AND, I am succesfully overcoming all the challenges I had last winter, working at Chocpaw. I am incredibly proud of myself. I have the respect of all whom I work with, Im a kick-ass guide, and Im starting to make money. Its been incredibly challenging [View Full Entry]

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Snow? Here? No freakin' way. Here are some photos taken recently-ish. As depicted in one of the photos, WE'RE DOGSLEDDING NOW! And it rocks. Man, what a stressful sport.. so much chaos with those dogs, when we're harnessing them to take them out for a run. They produce more energy then I care to try to curb some days. And on a less-stressful note, my bicycle is still working! And Im riding it every day in the snow. And everyone thinks Im crazy. I dont, not really. Anyways, love you guys tonnes, Im off to a housewarming party! Tyler [View Full Entry]

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Here I am in South River again, with most of the staff I will be working with this winter. I had strong reservations this morning, as I sat aboard the train, cruising out of toronto. Its really daunting to re-enter this community, where I last year had a really miserable time. Even as I sat there in the dog yard this evening, about to take part in the feeding thats going to happen every day for the next 4-5 months, surrounded by hundreds of rediculously happy creatures.. I felt unhappy. Not fully content about the path I have chosen. And then [View Full Entry]

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So here I am, in Guelph, ON! Whopee! I arrived in Bolton, ON, after 6 days of frosty biking, riding about 350km. Man, I must have been going slow. Ive never been this cold, for so long, on a bike ride before. Definately puts a new.. spin, on touring. But life is well. I've adapted to the cold, the first nights of my trip were hellish, but I quickly realized what a fun time I could have camping in this season. It gave me a new challenge, and made me appreciate hot meals over an open fire that much more. In [View Full Entry]

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Yep, that's where I am. And Im on the cusp of leaving on my bike ride down to Toronto. And its sunny, and Im full from an amazing breakfast, and my bike has enough food on it for 3 or 4 days, and Im riding through places Ive never, ever been before. And it makes me happy. And I just (on friday) did a presentation/workshop about Otesha in a middle school, which was my first ever, outside of actually being in Otesha. And it made me feel really good. This coming weekend, I am co-facilitating a workshop about how to share [View Full Entry]

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They're going to be awesome, and IN VICTORIA!!!! Location: Fernwood Community Centre, 1240 Gladstone Ave, Victoria Date: Sunday, Aug 24th, at 7:30 pm What they are and what they do: Just incase you DONT know.. :) The sunshine coast tour is the Otesha tour thats running parallel to ours. And their final performance is in Victoria! They've been touring up the sunshine coast, and all over the island for the last two months on their bicycles. And if they've put anywhere near the amount of effort in to their play as we've put into ours (Im sure they have), then it [View Full Entry]

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