actually parties and then more parties ....
combination of pictures from Calgary/Calahoo/St Albert events and a couple of bike rides.
<<http://picasaweb.google.com/philip.story/KimSBirthday#>>
Friday, May 22, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
The retreat from Moscow
When I was 16 I set off on a 3 day survival weekend with two friends - Magnus and Stephen. We had watched the news the week before about a survival expert who had used tracking techniques to help capture a serial killer. Following this there was much hype in the media about suviving in the wild etc. so this promoted us to see how we would fair heading out to the Yorkshire moors with only a survival bag (plastic bivvy bag) to sleep in for a few days. Probably as a precursor to a career in the SAS. My mum dropped the 3 of us off on Thursday and I made it very clear that she was not to pick us back up until the Sunday at the arranged meeting point - whatever we said if we happened to call up before that time and begged and pleaded for her to fetch us. As we left the car it started to rain and rain and continued to pour constantly through the night. We were cold and wet, lying in plastic bags in the dark by a river in the middle of nowhere. Of course the next morning we walked straight to a telephone box, called my mum and she came and picked us up straight away.
I mention this as for some reason this story came to mind as I got up out of the tent in the morning. My mum obviously couldn't rescue us this time but maybe Jody could....
The temperature had fallen down to around 32F. The snow hadn't really settled but it was raining/sleeting with a strong wind off the river. My sleeping bag was wet from the tent fly touching against the inner tent and one of my shoes was soaking having been pushed out under the tent runoff. It was fun putting that shoe on.
Despite the wet sleeping bag I had actually been ok during the night but Kim just hadn't been able to keep warm. Now we were both freezing as we tried to cook breakfast. All our gloves were soaking wet so it was very difficult to do anything after a few minutes as our hands would get numb. As you can imagine the first thought that crosses your mind is - What a lovely day for a bike ride". That's when old timer turned up with the news that the temperature was dropping and that the campsite up the road was 1000ft higher (and hence colder).
We thought about sticking it out a day at this campsite but in the end concerned about ice on the roads we decided to head back to Calgary and regroup. The trip had been a success in that we had found out a) we were completely unprepared for cold and wet combined b) without Len - one of us needs to bring the rum !
Some pics - sorry very few as hand froze to camera.
What we later found out to be a large one person tent.
I mention this as for some reason this story came to mind as I got up out of the tent in the morning. My mum obviously couldn't rescue us this time but maybe Jody could....
The temperature had fallen down to around 32F. The snow hadn't really settled but it was raining/sleeting with a strong wind off the river. My sleeping bag was wet from the tent fly touching against the inner tent and one of my shoes was soaking having been pushed out under the tent runoff. It was fun putting that shoe on.
Despite the wet sleeping bag I had actually been ok during the night but Kim just hadn't been able to keep warm. Now we were both freezing as we tried to cook breakfast. All our gloves were soaking wet so it was very difficult to do anything after a few minutes as our hands would get numb. As you can imagine the first thought that crosses your mind is - What a lovely day for a bike ride". That's when old timer turned up with the news that the temperature was dropping and that the campsite up the road was 1000ft higher (and hence colder).
We thought about sticking it out a day at this campsite but in the end concerned about ice on the roads we decided to head back to Calgary and regroup. The trip had been a success in that we had found out a) we were completely unprepared for cold and wet combined b) without Len - one of us needs to bring the rum !
Some pics - sorry very few as hand froze to camera.
What we later found out to be a large one person tent.
Maybe an RV tour of Canada is a better idea.
We managed the return trip in about 3 hours. (2 hours faster than on the way there) - the kaiser is back !
The wet weather cycle gear worked out well and also looked really cool ! It was clear we were New Yorkers ...
Monday, May 18, 2009
The Chinook blows ...
For those of you with long term memories I mentioned in the last post that we were about to be heading off on a 3 day tester trip. With the bikes finally loaded up and glorious sunshine we set off full of optimisim for our first outing. Kim's bike with load was about 85 pounds not including water and mine with the additon of the Bob trailer was about 110. We had not made much of an effort to restrict weight at this point as we had carried out a quick ride round the block and it didn't seem that bad. I had estimated the distance to the camp we planned to stay at to be about 40km and so we expected to be able to complete that in about a couple of hours.
Here are the before pictures ..
Still all smiles at this point ..
One man and his Bob ..
Things were going pretty well for the first 10 mins until we hit the first hill. Suddenly the laws of physics came into being and the life was sucked out of my legs. Ok this was going to be a bit harder than expected but Kim seemed to be doing Ok so I presumed I'd get used to it fairly soon. That was until the wind hit head on at the crest of the hill. I was moving at about 5 mph but with near maximal effort. Maybe training for this would have been a good idea after all. Note: I had briefly forgotten that the Kaiser never trains except during races*
Kim's version of the Lance Armstrong look back at mile 18..
actually they never did seem any closer than this.
Here are the before pictures ..
Still all smiles at this point ..
One man and his Bob ..
Things were going pretty well for the first 10 mins until we hit the first hill. Suddenly the laws of physics came into being and the life was sucked out of my legs. Ok this was going to be a bit harder than expected but Kim seemed to be doing Ok so I presumed I'd get used to it fairly soon. That was until the wind hit head on at the crest of the hill. I was moving at about 5 mph but with near maximal effort. Maybe training for this would have been a good idea after all. Note: I had briefly forgotten that the Kaiser never trains except during races*2 hours later we reached the Calgary city limits. (13.6 miles). We had thought that we were pretty much at the outskirts of the city when we left so this was news to us. As we reached 22 miles Kim was starting to get a bit concerned about how much distance we had still to go. It was at this point that I thought I should probably tell her something that I had realised about an hour before. The campsite was 40 miles not 40 km - my bad. Normally on a bike that wouldn't be a bit deal but today it was.
Although this probably sounds ridiculous to any cyclists out there, we really didn't think we could make it that far. The significantly net uphill with the constant head wind and mentally draining slow speed were taking their toll on us. We needed a plan B. I checked the map and saw what looked like a possible campsite a few miles ahead. We figured that if that didn't work we might have to head to Bragg Creek and stay in a motel - not a very good start.
As luck had it we found the campsite and were met at the gate by the camp warden (an old timer with a long grey beard who looked like he knew a thing or two about camping). Once he heard that we were planning to keep going up the mountain the next day he looked a bit concerned saying that snow was on the way and they expected a significant temperature drop. We pondered this as we set up our tent (technically Kim set up the tent but I'm a team player).
It had taken us 5 hours to go 31 miles and we were wiped out. It had been a net uphill but we hadn't even gotten into the mountains yet and the serious climbing. Thoughts of cycling to Prince Rupert in a week were starting to look like a bit of a stretch. Maybe we would have to re-scope the trip.
But tomorrow is another day ...
To be continued ...
Kim's version of the Lance Armstrong look back at mile 18..
At last a downhill - the mountains finally getting closer
actually they never did seem any closer than this.
* Jan Ullrich reference for Paul ...
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Its all about the bikes ...
Finally ready for our first 3 day tour on the bikes after a few days of packing and picking up missing wet weather gear and some bear spray. The plan is to do a full test as if we were traveling for a month with just the supplies we have on the bike.
Picture of bikes pre-gear back in the good ol US of A.
The fully loaded bikes felt very heavy after the first 30 min test ride round the flag neighbourhood yesterday. Think this will be harder than expected given current lack of fitness.
One for the road
back in a few days ...
Friday, May 8, 2009
Kananaskis ..
After a day chilling we headed out to expore the local trails to the South of Calgary. This area is known as Kananaskis country. I (Phil) happened to have had a map of Kananaskis on my wall at work for the last three years but had never actually been so was keen to check it out. It turned out to be an amazing place and was only about a 30 min drive from where we are staying here at Jody's. We headed down a trail near the car park that looked like it would be about an 8 mile run.
Here are a few pictures. This time the white stuff isn't salt.
<<http://picasaweb.google.com/philip.story/KananaskisRunA#>>
Here are a few pictures. This time the white stuff isn't salt.
<<http://picasaweb.google.com/philip.story/KananaskisRunA#>>
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Calgary and the mountains
The last leg of the drive across the country took us out of the praire towards the edge of the Rocky mountains. We were only driving for 7 hours so for once didn't have to get up at 5am so took some time out to chill. Unfortunately we were in the least Super of the Super 8s. For some reason the rooms had got smaller and the amenities reduced as we moved West although staying in pet friendly Super 8s the whole way. In Fort Francis there had been a swimming pool, hot tub and free membership to the next door gym and an amazing breakfast buffet.
Still it felt more like being on holiday as it was a beautiful clear day, the speed limit had increased to 110 and the gas price was falling again as we approached the oil fields.
Still it felt more like being on holiday as it was a beautiful clear day, the speed limit had increased to 110 and the gas price was falling again as we approached the oil fields.
It was important to have a GPS so we didn't get lost.
Strange looking white lakes appear along the route. At first we assumed this was snow/ice but didn't seem likely with temperatures in the 60s. These actually turned out to be salt lakes. 
Man Walking across Canada ?
Its difficult to see from the picture but there was someone pushing a cart along the highway about halfway between Regina and Calgary. Looked like he was in it for the long haul. Wow. Arriving in Calgary
Liam and Newton face off ..
Rest of the pictures
Cross Canada Reflections.
As Kim put it "Canadian radio blows...".
As an impartial observer I would have to agree with this statement based on the empirical evidence. It seems that reason lies in the Canadian goverment policy that requires all domestic radio stations to devote some percentage of songs to Canadian bands/artists. The effect of this is that the radio stations are stuck playing over and over again a few hits from Canadian 'b' artists that never really made it outside Canada. I guess the idea is to enable a few people (the artists) to benefit economically at the expense of 30 million people (aka the Canadians). It partially explains why 90% of Canadians live within a few miles of the US border.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
The Regina Monologues
The link to the pics first this time if you want to skip the verbage.
The scenery changes from mini mountains to prairie as we finally leave Ontario.
<<http://picasaweb.google.com/philip.story/ToRegina#>>
The journey from Fort Francis to Regina took us from Ontario - surely the largest Canadian province* to Saskatchewen - definitely the flatest. On the way we passed briefly through Manatoba helped by the speed limit increase from 90 to 100. It felt weird being able to pass through a province in less than a day after the two and a half day drive through Ontario. We started to feel like we were making some progress across the continent.
Why is there no one on the Trans Canada Highway around the great Lakes ?
It really does seem strange why there are so few cars on the main highway across Canada which links most of the largest Canadian cities in this region. After a couple of days on the trip a few answers began to become apparent.
a) Gas is about 30% more expensive in Canada than the US. At least it felt that way with a gut estimate.
b) Accomodation is more expensive in Canada. Kim looked into booking a Super 8 hotel in Fort Francis and International Falls - just across the river and the Fort Francis (Canadian) hotel was about 30 US dollars more ! This was consistently true when we scoped out the trip initially via the US also.
c) Its quicker to go through the US.
Each day the garmin tried to get us to go back to the US to get to our Canadian destination. In fact, we nearly ended up going back over the border by mistake for that reason and had to explain to the Canadian immigration that we hadn't really left Canada. [Newton took advantage of the confusion and made a dash for the US but border guard was too quick for him. Back to the drawing board.]
Historical aside: the border around the lakes was determined at the treaty following the war of 1812 as the point that the two sides were occupying at the time. It therefore ends up being a bit more uneven than that established further west along the 49th parallel which was agreed later in the 1840s.
The net result of all this is that (I'm guessing) most people travel through the US when moving between Quebec, Ontario and Manatoba. For us however it was good to have the roads to ourselves whatever the reason.
* Ontario is in fact just the 4th largest province if you include the territories which puts in perspective how big Canada in fact is.
The scenery changes from mini mountains to prairie as we finally leave Ontario.
<<http://picasaweb.google.com/philip.story/ToRegina#>>
The journey from Fort Francis to Regina took us from Ontario - surely the largest Canadian province* to Saskatchewen - definitely the flatest. On the way we passed briefly through Manatoba helped by the speed limit increase from 90 to 100. It felt weird being able to pass through a province in less than a day after the two and a half day drive through Ontario. We started to feel like we were making some progress across the continent.
Other than that the journey was pretty uneventful on this leg so I thought I'd address one buring question:
Why is there no one on the Trans Canada Highway around the great Lakes ?
It really does seem strange why there are so few cars on the main highway across Canada which links most of the largest Canadian cities in this region. After a couple of days on the trip a few answers began to become apparent.
a) Gas is about 30% more expensive in Canada than the US. At least it felt that way with a gut estimate.
b) Accomodation is more expensive in Canada. Kim looked into booking a Super 8 hotel in Fort Francis and International Falls - just across the river and the Fort Francis (Canadian) hotel was about 30 US dollars more ! This was consistently true when we scoped out the trip initially via the US also.
c) Its quicker to go through the US.
Each day the garmin tried to get us to go back to the US to get to our Canadian destination. In fact, we nearly ended up going back over the border by mistake for that reason and had to explain to the Canadian immigration that we hadn't really left Canada. [Newton took advantage of the confusion and made a dash for the US but border guard was too quick for him. Back to the drawing board.]
Historical aside: the border around the lakes was determined at the treaty following the war of 1812 as the point that the two sides were occupying at the time. It therefore ends up being a bit more uneven than that established further west along the 49th parallel which was agreed later in the 1840s.
The net result of all this is that (I'm guessing) most people travel through the US when moving between Quebec, Ontario and Manatoba. For us however it was good to have the roads to ourselves whatever the reason.
* Ontario is in fact just the 4th largest province if you include the territories which puts in perspective how big Canada in fact is.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Lake Superior and the Mounties
The next stretch took us from Sualt Ste. Marie to Fort Francis. Fort Francis was slightly out of the way but was on the Candian side of the border from International Falls. We thought that we may still be able to see the falls from the Canadian side but hadn't done any research beforehand to check this.
For the next 12 hours the road winds its way around the Northern shore of Lake Superior. I had imagined this would be flatish forrest with some lake views but it felt similar to driving through the mountains. Again practically no other vehicles on the road. Practically. About 2 hours into the drive I came round a corner and spotted the second car I had seen all day. This was unfortunate for me for three reasons. Firstly I was speeding , secondly it was a police car and thirdly although driving towards us round a corner he somehow had his radar gun out and managed to clock me over the limit. We didn't see another car for about another hour so i felt pretty hard done by but - I was speeding so it was a fair cop.
Sorry no pics of the Mountie.
The rest of the day was uneventful apart from checking out the scenery. I did a poor job with the camera but here are some shots taken from the Terry Fox memorial along the highway of sureal looking table islands in Lake Superior.
An aside: For those that don't know of him - Terry Fox was diagnosed with bone cancer and forced to have his leg amputated above the knee. After seeing other cancer patients suffer he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He managed to run 26 miles a day and before he was forced to withdraw had completed over 5,373 kilometres (3,339 miles) - the resulting foundation to date has raised over $400 million . Pretty unbelievable.
Link to all photos of this section
Sunday, May 3, 2009
To Sault Ste. Marie
We had decided to break up the journey across Canada into approximately 12 hour chunks. Thinking this was about as much driving that we and the cats could handle in one go and also enable us to do most of the driving during daylight. The first leg took us from Montreal to Sault Ste. Marie. Sault is apparently prounouced Sue.
[Personal trivia note: my parents did in fact name me Sault but unfortunately everyone prounouced it as read so I never got to grow up tough.]
We were pretty much dreading the drive across Canada but it turned out to be actually really enjoyable. This was due mostly to the surprisingly beautiful scenery in Ontario and the absolute lack of traffic once we were about 2 hours out of Montreal. I had been warned by Helen M. but it was still a shock that the "Trans Canada Highway" turns out to be just a regular two lane road most of the way and feels like you are in a National park on a weekday.
Maggie and Newton make a bid for freedom at Tim Horton's (more detailed cat updates for Ross in a future blog)
The way we should have been crossing the country
Man vs Wild
The Trans Canada highway just outside Sault Ste. Marie
Rush hour on the Trans Canada
[Personal trivia note: my parents did in fact name me Sault but unfortunately everyone prounouced it as read so I never got to grow up tough.]
We were pretty much dreading the drive across Canada but it turned out to be actually really enjoyable. This was due mostly to the surprisingly beautiful scenery in Ontario and the absolute lack of traffic once we were about 2 hours out of Montreal. I had been warned by Helen M. but it was still a shock that the "Trans Canada Highway" turns out to be just a regular two lane road most of the way and feels like you are in a National park on a weekday.
Maggie and Newton make a bid for freedom at Tim Horton's (more detailed cat updates for Ross in a future blog)
The way we should have been crossing the country
Man vs Wild
The Trans Canada highway just outside Sault Ste. Marie
Rush hour on the Trans Canada
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Montreal
After all the packing, cleaning and farewell partying in the US we were pretty tired so it was good to have a couple of days just chilling in Montreal before the drive west. We had a hotel fairly close to Old Montreal but its still a big city and took some time to get oriented. First order of the day was to sample the famous french cuisine. In Quebec this can mean only Poutine and smoked ham.
So what is Poutine ?
"Ravaging arteries across Quebec since 1957, poutine is more than just a culinary staple in Montreal. From analyzing critical factors such as does-the-cheese-squeak to assessing gravy thickness and color, finding -- and more often, arguing over what is -- the ultimate poutine is a proud citywide obsession. Best known as a dish combining fries, cheese curds and gravy, there are enough variants on the basic recipe to rival pizza or even sushi -- kamikaze poutine anyone ?" "
When in Rome ..
Yeah pretty shaky but first attempt at video. Hopefully this will improve.
Kim on top overlooking Montreal
Refueling French style.
So what is Poutine ?
"Ravaging arteries across Quebec since 1957, poutine is more than just a culinary staple in Montreal. From analyzing critical factors such as does-the-cheese-squeak to assessing gravy thickness and color, finding -- and more often, arguing over what is -- the ultimate poutine is a proud citywide obsession. Best known as a dish combining fries, cheese curds and gravy, there are enough variants on the basic recipe to rival pizza or even sushi -- kamikaze poutine anyone ?" "
When in Rome ..
Eating the basic variety - actually pretty tasty and probably a good staple for the weekend warrior wannabee.
After this it was time for another nap before exploring some of the city. We chanced on an interesting light show in the cathedral of Notre Dame (Our lady) in old Montreal. Pretty impressive the cathedral was loosely based on the larger version in Paris. Its most famous as the place where Celine Deon got married. The video clip below shows part of the cathedral post show.
Yeah pretty shaky but first attempt at video. Hopefully this will improve.
Next it was onto Le Vieux Dublin ...french sounding but Irish pub nonetheless for a pint of Smithwick's and Irish folk music which was pretty good. Not exactly the french jazz cafe we were hoping for but we looked around for a long time trying to find some place open for food after 9 pm. I'm sure they exist but just wandering we couldn't find much and the Canadian spring was starting to take its toll on moral.
Next day with some better weather we decided to break out the bikes and head out in the city to explore. Montreal is pretty well set up for cyclists and we saw plenty of people out on bikes and good cycling lanes around the city. With thoughts of the tour de France in mind we set out up Mont Royal which is the "mountain" (hill) overlooking Montreal. Although not exactly Alpe d'Huez it was enough to shake up the king of the mountain hopefuls. Long way to go fitnesswise before July.
Next day with some better weather we decided to break out the bikes and head out in the city to explore. Montreal is pretty well set up for cyclists and we saw plenty of people out on bikes and good cycling lanes around the city. With thoughts of the tour de France in mind we set out up Mont Royal which is the "mountain" (hill) overlooking Montreal. Although not exactly Alpe d'Huez it was enough to shake up the king of the mountain hopefuls. Long way to go fitnesswise before July.
Kim on the ascent.
Kim on top overlooking Montreal
Refueling French style.
Montreal History trivia :
Mont Royal, which we had just climbed is the mountain which gave the name to Montreal (try saying Mont Royal really fast with a french accent and you'll see why). Note: this information was obtained from a guy chatting up Kim at the top so this could be nonesense.
For more pics of Montreal check out:
Friday, May 1, 2009
Jersey to Montreal
After a last run around with Bucky and last goodbye to Marybeth we finally packed up, had the house cleaned and were ready to go by 5pm - about 6 hours behind schedule.
We managed to cram all our stuff into 8.5 feet of space after the neighbours came by and took the furniture we couldn't get in. This guy then arrived and drove away with all our stuff. He didn't know where he was supposed to be taking it - seemed confused when we said it was going to Canada. Either way not unloading it is worth a lot.
We managed to cram all our stuff into 8.5 feet of space after the neighbours came by and took the furniture we couldn't get in. This guy then arrived and drove away with all our stuff. He didn't know where he was supposed to be taking it - seemed confused when we said it was going to Canada. Either way not unloading it is worth a lot.
The garmin estimated arrival in Montreal at 10.18. 5 hours ? Are you kidding me ? Didn't feel like such a mega advenure after all - at least the first leg. But after driving for about an hour - definitely seemed a long way off.
All went well until we arrived at the Border and the customs guy asked for the title of the car. "There is no way you can bring that car in without the title - don't you have a title ?"Phil: "Oh yes - I have the title - its just in a box in a truck that's heading somewhere through the US to Calgary" At least I hoped it was heading to Calgary.
Guard: "Hmm OK - lets see what we can do"
A few minutes later we got the required stamp and were on our way into Canada.
Other than not being waterboarded at the border for my customs violation it definitely feels different being in Quebec.
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