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The last time I posted, Anne and I were happily skiing our asses off, and enjoying Christmas. Wow. That was a long time ago! Now it's Spring, and all the snow has disappeared from town, and is starting to leave the mountains. It's bittersweet, no more skiing, but now I get to start enjoying the beautiful trails again on my runs. Bitumen can get so boring. Also, I'd like to officially state that I now hate shoveling snow. It only takes one season here to thoroughly get that
right out of my system. Even with our wonderful neighbor snow-blowing our driveway on the worst days.
The closing parts of the ski season had some fun events, including "The Dummy Downhill" which is sort of like the Birdman Rally in Melbourne, but with an intelligent difference being that Canadians are smart enough to use dummies in place of their live inventors. It was a hoot, and there were some crazy rockets, planes, bikes, and other unrecognizable contraptions...
Just for the record, the Ski Hill had 11.1 metres of snow this year. Bulla, stick that in your pipe and smoke it! :-)
The weather has been both hot/dry and wet/cold.
Snow Shoeing
Anne helping an old man on the trail :-) (just kidding dave!) I've been sunburnt one day, then running the next day with all my winter gear in the rain. Variety is the spice of life!
Sometimes Fernie can feel like living in a timewarp. Never has this felt more so when Anne decided to be Madonna for an 80's night. Although I love 80's music, I got the shakes at the thought of re-living the decade, and left her in the capable hands of Michael Jackson, Sonny Crockett, and other unmentionables (aka Angie, Mick and Chris). Pictures attached. Unfortunately Anne's personality precludes using them as bribes. In fact she may end up using them in her personal resume... :-). Just like Anne, she and Darla ended up centre stage in the local press.
Anne and I have travelled to Vancouver to compete in my first marathon. It's only been 20 years in the making, but I am happy to say my first marathon is in the bag. 3 hours and 45 minutes. For me it was like being born at the starting line, dying at about mile 22, and going to heaven at the end - 26.2 miles. Now I am an addict, already training 50+ miles per week,
Dummy Downhill
There it goes! and targeting the Toronto marathon in September to "BQ" - Qualify for the Boston Marathon.
After Vancouver, we wandered our way back home the long way. Squamish, Whistler, Kamloops, Revelstoke, Golden, and Invermere. This really is a beautiful country. There is a lot of work being done to cater for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler. Now that is a big Ski Hill, but I still love my Fernie.
Spring is the time the bears are really hungry, so I have conceded to popular opinion and purchased some bear spray for my long runs on the trails. Don't check back here to see any bear encounters. If I don't see one, I will not be disappointed. The instructions on this spray are a bit disconcerting though. The spray is only useful within 5 metres of a bears face, and you need to ensure your down wind of the spray direction, otherwise you'll just blind yourself and be spicing up his dinner! I can just envisage myself standing there, 3 feet from a bear, asking him to stay still so I can spray him with some pepper spray! omg! Everything is so much bigger in real life. These things
Dummy Downhill
Look at that rocket go! are not Koala's - Both my feet comfortably fit in a single bear print. Perhaps I'll need to say 'Please' when I ask him to stay still.
Anne is in training for a 1/2 marathon in October. She has teamed up with a few girls here and training every day. Ian and I are in a 10k local run this Sunday, Anne is threatening to join us!!. Must be something in the water, perhaps? Anne came for a run with Ian and I on Friday...........saw a Moose with 2 babies behind the dyke, sorry we didn't have a camera to take photos!! But they were beautiful!
The dogs are relatively well. Dougall once again needs to have an operation - she has a cyst on her paw that needs to be removed. She is always in the wars, but endlessly happy. A lesson for us all. Hopefully all will go well. I have her on a diet, and she has already lost a couple of kilo's. Anne thinks I am starving her, but Anne is such a softy. Otis is well, getting older, sleeping more often, and cracks in his unbreakable endurance have started to appear. Just like
Ian and Coco.
Last day's of skiing his dad, he is now getting sore legs when he runs for too long. Is age catching up, or is it just sympathy pains? I think perhaps a bit of arthritis.
We are planning on a few more trips than last year. Vegas, San Fran, New York, and perhaps Chicago. All is contingent upon attaining another US tourist Visa. Easy when you apply in for a single visit, but harder when you want a 12 month multiple entry.
We have heard from a lot of you guys, and it's really great. A friend of ours Dave from Melbourne came for a whirlwind visit (36 hours!), on one of his Netapp trips. Whilst here, we took him on a hike (sorry we almost gave you a heart attack!), a quick trip to the ski hill for hot chocolate and Nachos, Fernie guided tour, including the Fernie pub, which in itself should be a tourist attraction, replete with country music and disco ball. A drive out into the wilderness with obligatory snow-fight, which Anne won with her mega-snowball. Morning of departure he was off snowmobiling with Ian for a couple of hours before we shipped him back to Calgary. We
Dave's Hike
The snow is deep here, or perhaps Dave has grown? promise to go easy on you next time! 😱
Hopefully more of you guys can make it out here soon! Take care, and talk to you soon!
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Chris
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Once again I am in awe just looking at the photos. Heaven on Earth.