Summer Preview

It's 9:45 pm, and my upstairs room has got to be twenty degrees. Feels like summer has officially begun, thankfully, although I may have to re-think this upstairs room. On Thursday morning when I woke up it was -3 outside, so this blast of heat is certainly a welcome respite from burning wood!

I've been crazy busy, with both work and my own personal outdoor education program which consists of mountain biking paired with par 3 golf after the long days of work. Yes, Gold Bridge actually has its own little golf course, complete with sand traps and everything! I have surprised myself, shooting lots of 4s. Maybe this game isn't half bad. I don't foresee myself ever playing a "proper" round of 18 holes, but nine holes of rustic par 3, clubs in hand with balls in the bush to spare--if you don't mind a few pack rat nibbles--is just my style.

This weekend I was in Whistler skiing with my Mom who can still kick my ass on skis any day of the week. One of my best friends, Peter, came up to join us on Saturday. The sun was blaring off the snow, and we sped over run after run of pristine piste with a couple of beers and a burger on a patio for lunch. How I love you, spring skiing, but after this weekend I now feel officially in summer mode.

My Mom and I had a two-sport day on Saturday: skiing followed by an evening canoe ride.

Had a doctor's appointment in Whistler today, and on my way back I drove all the way to the Duffey Lake and the road was CLOSED where they had been blasting avalanches with a helicopter. Turns out one of the slides buried the road, and DUH they didn't have an excavator handy to clear it, so one was being driven up from Pemberton.

The wait, according to the highways guy, was expected to be three to four hours. Within minutes I was back in my car, pulling a u-turn to head over the Highline road that connects Gold Bridge through Shalath. I hadn't taken it before, and what a DRIVE! Windy, rough and hilly, steep drop-offs, dramatic views of the valley--just how I like my road travel ;)

View from the Highline, complete with power lines. The road exists because it follows the Hydro towers that come from Shalath juiced up with power from the dam.

I was following another truck, since I didn't know where to go, and they accidentally ran over the tail of a rubber boa! Rubber boas are snakes that are at risk in this area, and so I stopped to help the poor little guy off the road. It was not able to slither very far, so I ended up picking up its cool silky body and putting it in a bush over the side of the embankment. It will probably die, and if I had the proper supplies I would have brought it back so we could at least attempt to nurse it back to health away from the watchful eyes of eagle predators. At least then if it died in the classroom we could donate its body to science and dissect it. Snakes often sun themselves in the middle of roads a lot around here, and then when a car comes it is so loud that their sensory systems become overloaded. It's like they don't even realize that something is coming because it is too large for them to detect, so they just sit still until the last minute, and then they are driven over.

Speaking of dissections, I had a couple of guys up from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to do a fish dissection for our class. It was AWESOME!!!!!! There are pics and write-ups on our school blog, so check them out here.

Kevin popping out the eye of the fish to pass it around. He literally took the whole animal apart, piece by piece. We examined all the organs, and even took a look at how flexible the spine and bones were. 

Other than skiing and golfing, I have been mountain biking like crazy! Last week I got in three rides after work. Not bad for someone who works long hours. Guess that's the benefit to living just minutes away from epic bike trails, and to having the light around late into the evening. I'm still very much a beginner with downhill, but in the last few days I started to notice a ton of improvement in my balance. Next on the list might just be a new bike, and perhaps I should invest in a full-face helmet too ;)

A little bedtime song: "Goodnight Moon" by Said the Whale