Kicking Horse, Panorama and Fernie

Since the last blog we have had a bunch of snow so conditions are getting better. Visser and I went over to Kicking Horse for a day, then down to Panorama and finally to Fernie. We hit some great snow at the top of Fernie and Panorama. It was good stuff. The next few days I am planning on skiing Sunshine and Lake louise a couple more times. If it all works out correctly.

Lake Louise

Another Day another ski Hill. Me and Visser skied Lake Louise today. It was a bit chilly, but sunny and the conditions were great (at least as good as it can get without any powder). Lake Louise is, in my humble opintion, way better than Sunshine. It actually had terrane that was challenging and hugely fun. If only it was poweder it would be amazing. huge bowls equals tons of fun. So after two days at Sunshine and one at Lake Louise and some less than sleepful nights in the rental car we are back in Calgary for the night and taking tomorrow as a day for recuperation and allowing some more snow to fall (hopefully).

The Car

If plans go as we are hoping they will. Me and Visser will be picking up our car this evening and heading out early on Tuesday morning. A bunch of snow is in the forcast which should help our skiing cause. We are thinking about heading up to Kicking horse first but will depend on where the snow falls today. I want it Steep and Deep.

Sunshine

I skied Sunshine today. It was a beautiful day. Warm, sunny and good snow conditions. The hill could definitly use a lot more snow on some of the more challenging runs, but all the nice crusers are in great shape. I was planning on skiing Lake Louise on Saturday but hear that it has a lot of ice on it right now and needs some snow. So I deceided to spend another day in Calgary since I still have a lot of days left that I can ski it over the next couple weeks.

Calgary

I'm in Calgray and I can see the Mountains. The weather is beautiful which is good, but I would have to say I would rather it be stormier so there would be more fresh snow. Right now I'm just chillen at my uncle and aunts place. Hopefully over the next few days all the plans will come together so me and Visser can head out to the Mts.

All Good

I just finished my last exam of the semester! I am currently packing for my flight in the morning. I am starting to get very excited. It doesn't feel like I am going tomorrow, but I am. I will try to keep my blog updated on my travels and how the skiing is this year in the Rockies. Have a Wonderful Christmas.

Rental Car

Have you ever tried to get a rental car when you are under 25. It can be tough. I'm trying to get one for when I arrive in Calgary this week, but it is proving to be quite the challenge.

Have you Ever seen a treeplanter before? No, Well maybe you actually have and just didn't notice. OK, I don't know if that could actually happen by how planters look and smell. This was me in the middle of the Alberta Wilderness this past summer.

Jet-B fuel. I was looking through my pictures from my Mistassibi trip and came across this one. I remember this because it bothered me. I was canoeing along and noticed something on shore. I was hoping it was a paddle we had lost earlier but it was just some garbage. since we were on shore I thought I would get out and stand up for a minute. When I did so I noticed this 50 gallan barrel of Fuel about 15 feet from the shore of the river. It looked like it had been sitting there about 10 years from the rust and how much it had sunk into the ground. We would have like to remove this but we hardly could roll it. So all we were able to do was to push it as far from the river as possible (which was only another 20ft) into a bit of a hollow so if it does start to leak it won't go directly into the river. Hopefully it would have time to evaporate first. I was thinking of how that barrell would have made it to this place. For the past few kilometers of the river there was a huge fire a number of years back and this barrell was close to the edge of the burn so I am guessing it was from the people fighting that fire dropped it by accident or forgot about it somehow. It's such a great river I would hate to see it polluted by that barrell of fuel.

I was traveling down this road to make it to the headwaters of the Mistassibi in August for a 7 day whitewater canoe trip. We blew a tire on our trailer so we got stranded right here. While we were waiting and looking up and down the road for help I took this shot.

Travel Blogs

I wonder if there is a place (some web page) that shows blogs about people who are active bloggers while they are traveling. I imagine there must be something like that out there. It would be interesting to read blogs by those people. Especially if you were planning a trip to the same area that the person was traveling to. Give some good general ideas on what they liked and what they may not have liked as well. I was just thinking of this myself because blogging is a great way for travelers to keep in contact with people they know back home and along the way. Instead of writing 100 emails, simply blog it. Who knows, If I found a blog of someone who was traveling to PEI (who had done a lot of other traveling around the world) I would be at least interested in posting a comment to take them out for coffee or show them around the Island a bit so I could talk to them more about their other world travels. If the site was setup right it would do well. I wonder what sites I would get like that if I did a quick search on google.
Jon

When are we really not busy

I always like it when people say things like "I can't wait till winter when things are not as busy as they are now". In all reality if you keep yourself that busy now, when it comes to winter you will most likely be just as busy. It is just that you cannot think that far ahead to see all that is going to be going on. I know for me the winter looks extremely busy. As busy as I am right now? I would say no, mainly because I am in Exam period at University so I am totally consumed with that for the next week. If we are people that are always busy we are always going to be busy no matter what time of year it is.
Jon

Lets go Digital

Ever since the major price reduction of digital cameras and prints I would have to say they are a much better camera for any amateur or even semi-professional photographer. To get that great shot sometimes several pictures are needed and for the amateur such as myself on a 35mm I find it hard to take a shot of the same thing 4 times to get that perfect pict. I know for myself in 2003 when I was hiking Grose Morne National Park in NFLD we only had 4 rolls of film so had to be conservative, but there were so many amazing shots it was hard to resist taking the shots at the first to save a few picts for later along the trail. A digital camera could have fixed that problem. My camera (3.2MP) right now at best quality can take 350 picts or so on a 512mb card. In all reality that 350 picts could be more like 700 picts and only keep the best ones and delete the ones that don't turn out as desired. I know for my next trip traveling the US it was a huge advantage to have my digital camera were I did take almost 400 pictures (not all on best quality). In all reality I would have taken almost 1000 picts but many were not a good angle or otherwise so I deleted. All I have to say is Lets go Digital.
Jon

Excitement

I'm starting to get excited! About what you may say? About going out west to ski that is! Hopefully the snow will keep falling in the Rockies so there will be a sweet base by the time I get out there to ski the powder. Before that I have to keep my mind on school and studies though.

Back in the warmer days of summer when I was down in Maine helping out at camp. One of the days I had the opportunity drive down to Baxter State Park and hike up Mount Katahdin. This mountain is the end of the Appalation trail so it was interesting to see one person on the top who had just finished the trail. I would have to say he was not sweating nearly as much as I was. Me and a friend (Zac) climbed up from amphitheater along the knife's edge then down Taylor. It was a great day and a great hike to end my summer travels.

Jon

Snow Again

It seems a bit early, but we have had two days already this year were snow has stayed on the ground for at least one day. Last night was the first occasion for the year to have the plows running. I know it's mid November but it simply feels too early to be snowing that much already. It's a fact of life I suppose to have some interesting weather once in a while. I should be out there enjoying it making snow men again or something. I am really hoping that it is snowing this much out west in the Rockies so when I am out there over Christmas I will have some sweet skiing!

Jon

Sand-Spit

I know I have talked about beach biking before, but it is really exciting to see the different possibilities for biking on PEI this time of year. It is, I will admit, a little colder than the summer but this time of year the beach is much firmer to bike on and there are very few people out there so no one will really be put out if you bike by them (like they would be anyway). It is a great way to explore new beaches and places you may have never know about before. I however will not be responsible it you take out a good mountain bike worth more than my car and get the bearings and gears full of sand and salt. I take a couple old beaters. For instance my last time out biking I lost my seat and my handle bars came loose. A few minor repairs and it will be up and going again. Get out Explore your Island.

Jon

Kentucky

When I say Kentucky, originally about 5 months ago I always thought about the State of Kentucky in the USA. It's funny how that changed to now thinking about my little cat named Kentucky. (funny name you may say for a cat, but my sister named it for were she now lives and teaches). I really don't know what a cat is thinking, but Kentucky can spend hours simply sitting by my fish tank looking at the fish and occasionally sticking her paw into the tank for a swipe at one that she thinks is close enough. She keeps doing it, even though she will never, ever get a hold of one (at least I don't think she will). It's funny to watch, she gets so excited!

Jon

Hotmail

I was checking my hotmail account, which I do not use very often, when I noticed that I had 250MB of space. I always remember normally being close to the limit of like 2MB. I wonder when they decieded to change to catch up to the competion. I have a gmail account that has 1GB but really, unless I upload my whole photo collection, how am I going to use 1GB of space. With hotmail increasing its mailbox size I believe that will greatly decrease the demand for the new gmail accounts once the novelty wears off. Already I found it hard to believe that the email address that I wanted was taken since it was my name but it was. Unbelievable!!

Jon

Dot INFO

Now is the time to get domain names. At least cheap ones from godaddy.com, they have their .info domains on sale right now (for a couple days at least) for super cheap. I know that .info is not as good as a good .com name but it is really hard to find a good .com name that is still available. Check it out. at godaddy.com

Jon

Hockey Again

Last night I was able to finally strap on my skates agian after the summer. It was a great feeling to finally jump out onto the ice and glide away smoothly. It was a tough game however seeing that there were no spair players so I was on the ice the whole game. For the first game of the season that is a tough thing to do. I suppose I shouldn't lie for any game of the season that is a tough feat. It was a lot of fun and I had a fabulous time. I need to do a few minor adjustments to my equipment before Satardy's big game, but other than that I am ready.

Jon

OOOOOOUCH!!

I was shopping at Canadian Tire on Friday, just randomly looking around, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted what I was looking for. I got excited and bent down to pick it up, at which time I felt a large piece of metal poke my head. One of the hanger hooks was sticking out and jabbed me on top of my head and man did it hurt. Itwas bleeding and I probabbly looked like a drunk man disorientated and wondering what just happend to me. If they had little rubber/plastick ends on those hangers this situation could have been remedied. I suppose if I looked where my head was going also I could have avoided this adverse situation as well. Whatever the case I have a scab there now, but feel I have enough hair to cover it so no harm done overall.

Jon

Golfing

Golf for me is almost as frustrating as bowling. I want to do good and try, but just can't get that straight drive or the perfect chip/put. Then the frustraion starts and it becomes even harder. I think it's a lot of fun though, to get out and hack away. This time of year is wonderful to golf also. Lots of great discounts can be found out there on many of the spectacular island courses. I hope you get a chance to get out and have fun.

Jon

Planet Earth

I was sitting here in my (unfortunately) very messy room looking at a poster I have of the Earth from Apollo 17 en route to the Moon. The poster is getting older and a bit worse for wear, but still I really enjoy it seeing this sphere of life in the midst of absolute darkness. The earth truly looks like a delicate object in the picture, possilby because it is the size of a basketball in the picture, but looks more like a marble so if it were dropped it would be smashed. In all reality I suppose that in comparitive thinking this would be so. The earth can be a sensitive place and we must strive to be good stewards of this planet that we live on for possible future generations.

Jon

Blogging by Mail

Thought I would give the blogging by email feature a try this evening. I could see this as possibly being a very useful tool some day in the near future. If this works, that would be great. If however this never makes it to my weblog I really won't be too overly disapointed.

Jon

Rockies '04

I did it. I purchased my plane tickets to fly to Calgary for Christmas break. The plan is to meet up with a friend I know there with a car. We then are going to follow the snow and ski the Rockies from Fernie to Kicking Horse and hopefully make it over to Whistler as well. Lots of planning still to do but it's going to be fun.

Jon

Crossroads '04

Grace Baptist Church's first Crossroads youth retreat was held this weekend. It was a great weekend of getting to know new people and growing closer to the Lord. Kelvin Hood and Al Cabral were the speakers and brought forth wonderful messages to the youth and leaders alike.
The hight of the activities for the weekend were the go-cart races. Everyone has their helmets on, they run to what they feel is the best cart. The carts are started up then let go. The water is flying from an early morning rain and causing the use of caution because of the ease of spinning out on the slippery track. I would most likely be biased to say who won, but me and Steve were bumping and squeeling our carts together for most of the race. The most un-nerving part of carting is when I was in my car driving home I almost felt like I was back in the carts and needed to have the gas pressed all the way down the whole time. Thankfully I quickly remembered that is not the case before too long.
I feel the Lord truly blessed all that was done over the weekend.

Jon

GB

The first official meeting of the GB's took place. It was great to get an idea of were everyone in the group was at. I found it extreamly intersting in how much the group was truely intrested in not only having a business, but businesses that help the Island and Islanders. I feel great things are going to come from this group and I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Jon

Beach Biking

I always have found it fun to take my bike out to the beach and go for a ride along the shore. On my way home from University today I decided it would be a beautiful day to do so. I strapped my bike rack on to my civic hatch back then my bike and headed out. In less than twenty minutes I am on the beach enjoying the sun and working up a sweet even with the cool ocean breeze. I would have to say it must be awfully hard on my bike to be going through the salt water and all the sand, but for the shere enjoyment it is well worth it.

Books Again I know

I happend to be searching for my University text books online to try to get some type of special when I happend to find an article in The New York Times. It basically states how the major publishers sell the same books that we buy here in North America at a fraction of the cost just for adding Interational Eddition to the front of the book. It is definitly kindof fustrating, but with the internet and some work one may be able to get a good deal on a new book.


Still on the book issue I feel us students should lobby the goverment that our text books should be included as another cost of being a student and tax deductable. What do you think?

University Books

I always wonder how University books cost so much. I know there is a lot of R&D that goes into them but still, 150 bucks for a book, really! In subjects like first and second year calculus why do those books need to be updated every two years. It's not like they are finding new methods to do integrals and derivitives. Whatever the case it really doesn't matter too much It was more that I just wanted to type something into my first weblog. ME