Winter in Park City

Well, winter has finally arrived which means skiing, hiking, snowshoeing and all the fun stuff. I was even lucky enough to go sledding with the neighbors kids yesterday. Felt right at home building a start ramp, luge track with a jump and massive berm at the bottom. The ratio of work to sledding wasn't perfect but the track is now perfect.

I only have a week and half left in this amazing place so there are a few adventures I need to make happen. With two big mountains to climb with big bowls there is a change that my snowshoes with act like skis if I lean on the back and point down the hill, it would be sweet if a mini avalanche started because then I would feel like Vin Diesel in XXX. It been a great time in a new place this winter, as everything was different, even riding the rollers looking at a different wall was nice.

I was also able to experience SunDance. Lots of the experience came from traffic and grocery shopping, I did learn that people high up in the World of SunDance liked filling their shopping cart with boxes of cereal, super cheap beer and cookies. They also added rice milk or almond milk I believe because it just was in the gluten free aisle and if your important you have to be "gluten free" and make sure people know it! Although I don't think they realized the 6-pack of bakery cookies(that were 300 cal a piece) were not gluten free along with the boxes of Captain Crunch, Honey Nut Cheerios and Kashi GoLean.. It was better when you were at Whole Foods, but just because there is chocolate, cookies and candy at Whole Foods doesn't mean it makes it good for you.. I was fortunate enough to take in more movies in theater's in one week than I took in in all of 2011. I would recommend when Liberal Arts and Robot and Frank come into theater's to check them out!

Next Friday is the FIS freestyle ski Word Cup at Deer Valley in Park City. I am definitely going to swing by and check out the aerial's, I may even learn a few tricks to try and master my back flip on the dirt-jump bike.

On Feb 10 I`ll be heading down to Tucson for year 3 of bicycle riding in the sunny desert. I will be staying some of my favourite french people, I`m going to have to go back 5 years to Gr 11 and try and remember that language that I technically got my second language in. From there it's off to Mellow Johnny's for MTB race #1 of the season, It's not actually at, as Mr Kabush would put it, one nuts ranch as they have changed venues..dang.

Yesterday I was out running and came across what I would call a small cow moose compared to the one's near my house in Peachland..I got nice and close for a picture and it kinda of trotted my way for a few steps and then took off. But it wasn't getting away that easy. I have heard of people getting chased by the moose here but I didn't fully believe it as when I see animals back home I usually taunt them a little. So I turned the IPhone on video and started running towards it and one I got within about 10 ft it turned and started chasing me..It didn't totally occur to me to that before I started chasing it that it was bigger, faster and scarier than me..I tried this herding method back in November and it just ran away, so today I was going for it 100% In my mind a herding success would have been touching it and running away nicely with no problems. But this one turned back as I didn't pre-plan very well with being in a open field, 1 ft of snow and a ways into a good day of working out. This video explains all, but I did nearly trip and get trampled, please ignor my scaredness noises it was only human to be scared shitless while getting chased by a 700 lbs animal that has four legs to run on versus my two. It's actually a shame CX season is over because I felt that was the fastest I've run in years, and the first time my HR was hit 200 in months!

On another note there is all these new "Sh*t __ Say" videos coming out on YouTube..Oh Canada Eh!

                                       

Well SunDance is now in full swing here in Park City. In case you know Is kind of sweet. My grocery shopping is now happening everyday..as I like to watch the important people buy food. The #1 pick seems to be a 30 pack of bud light, honey but Cheerios, and chips. The people need to come bu our place an try out some real food! I would have to figure out a way to be not creepy, different, pretend I don't know who they are and suggest a food eating session. But in a way that's sounds a lot better and not as retarded as I just put it.

It's snowing here too and it's seems that since winter is only just arriving no one remembers how to drive. For example; don't go into a corner with 5 inches of fresh snow faster than posted speeds and slam on your brakes thinking your car will automatically turn and maybe stop for you just because it's AWD. Don't tail gate people on a steep hill and slam on your brakes when you think the guy in front of you is going to "maybe" brake. Don't drive 15 mph in the fast lane, people get agitated and pass you and then crash themselves. Don't start to actually drive conducive to road conditions after you've driven through them and now are on dry roads. Stop sucking at driving and carry on. That is my see, think, laugh, enjoy, get agitated and write down story for the day. Byeeee

Little update from this past week. I watched girls in tight clothes do some cool tricks, went bicycle riding on some snow to see a sweet reservoir and the today I made a tasty lunch. Yum yum yum.

Best of 2011

Well we are into the 2012 and 2011 already seems way back. For myself I had probably the funnest year of my life. Traveling around, enjoying the Okanagan, friends and family..you know all the good stuff.

The travels went like this:
Peachland-Victoria-Peachland-Tucson-Peachland-Vancouver BC-Peachland-Sunshine Coast BC-Peachland-Mt Tremblant QC-Baie-St-Paul QC-Barrie ON-Peachland- Mt-St-Anne QC- Albany NY-Peachland- Canmore AB-Edmonton AB-Peachland-Champery Switzerland-Peachland-Seatle WA- Peachland-Vancouver BC-Peachland-Boulder CO-Peachland-Kamloops BC-Peachland-Toronto ON-Peachland-Park City UT-Peachland-Park City UT. Whoa, there was a few trips this year..So mad I didn't hunker down and get my Elite status with Air Canada.

The year started off with some local snowshoe racing with the mang Aart:

Kept snowshoeing with the attempt to get fit:

It snowed like record amounts so that meant driving was fun and my biceps liked all the shoving too..:
                                     

Spent a week at casa a la Plaxton in Victoria riding bicycles:

I also kept hydrated, as most people forget to throughout the winter:

Then I went to Tucson to ride bikes in the desert:

Team Bike Barn won the Okanagan World Champs, the Ski2Sea (http://ski2sea.ca/):

Riding bikes in the best place on earth!

Spent May in the Quebec and Ontario and had learned to cut hair, raced bikes, watched Caunks loose:

In June I shotgunned beer and raced Super D`s:

In July I was in Quebec, New York and Alberta racing bikes with the National Team while pretending to be hockey players for the flights:

Did some hiking in Canmore, caught some air, won my first Pro race in Edmonton and watched two boys develop love for eachother:

Went to Switzerland in September, racing World Champs, Slept on the floor in an airport, Watched a Catharine Pendral win Worlds, Cheered my voice away, Did a mountain top border crossing with the US of A guys, had coffee explosions, loved life.

In the fall I raced some euro`s in cyclo-cross, raced Axel Merckx on mtb`s, grew mullets and moustaches for cx nationals, moved down to Park City for the winter, went skeet shooting over Christmas:

Well I must 2011 was hard to beat, but I will do my best to make every year better until I can't anymore, which will probably be when I have to start a 9-5 job.. Which means I am looking for some support to help make this cycling thing I do the #1 income and full time job to be fit and race around the world.

Pretty thankful to all my supporters that make this happen, being my parents, grandparents, friends, Rocky Mountain Bicycles, The Bike Barn, Canadian Cycling Association, Cycling BC, Haywood Securities, Canadian Metis Society, some helpful un-named amazing people!

Here is the Best of 2011 highlight video! Check it out and give me some views please!!

Putting my brain to work while enjoying a delicious lunch. Next up is getting my tan on under these blue bird skies. Some days life is just too stressful.