Back Online!
The last few weeks have been fun, and frustrating!
The fun came in the form of a training camp at Hardwood Ski and Bike, and friend and former teammate Shayla Swanson’s wedding in Bozeman, Montana!
Following the wedding by my computer totally bit the dust, and then smoke rolled into Canmore making training difficult, and moving things indoors for a few days, which was less than ideal.
Things are looking up, I have a new computer, the skies are clear, though it is rather chilly out, and I was on the top of a mountain in ankle deep snow yesterday. Luckily we are headed east to Quebec for a training camp Monday, and to get a little more summer into our systems before the cold weather settles in.
Since we were in Big Sky Country for Shayla’s wedding, we decided to stay and explore West Yellowstone for a few days, luckily my camera didn’t suffer the same fate as my computer:




Old Faithful was a must see, and it was indeed impressive


Unfortunately we weren’t the only ones there…


We spent the morning soaking in the boiling river! There was a super hot river that emptied into a cooler river that made for unlimited temperature choices and the best hot spring experience ever.


Sarah and Dan forgot their tent poles…luckily I had my hula hoop and a few ropes!


On our quest to find buffalo Dan is on the lookout.


Big Sky Country Indeed.

Window to a Wicked Workout!

In an attempt to update my blog more often, I am going to try and post weekly photos of awesome workouts past and present...



Since I'm sitting in the Toronto Airport between a great few days at Hardwood Ski and Bike with the Ontario Team, and an upcoming wedding of Shayla Swanson's in Montana, I thought it might be appropriate to start with a photo from a training session in Moab, Utah. This was an amazingly mind blowing hike in Arches National Park, the photo really doesn't do this place justice.

What a Weekend!

I'm back in Almonte for a few days, and what a weekend it has been!
The International Puppet Festival is going on, and I was invited to be a special guest (not because I have anything to do with puppetry, but because Almonte is such a great supportive community).
Saturday was also Midget Training Day for Nakkertok in Almonte!! The first ever Nakkertok training session held in Almonte was quite the event, I wish it had happened 10 years ago, but I was still excited to be a part of it.


Then it was on to the Puppet Parade, where day one I got to ride in a nice shiny convertible, and day two in a 1946 Willys! There was a great turnout from locals and visitors and it was great to see so many familiar faces in the crowds.


The wonderful woman behind the Puppet Festival is Noreen Young, renowned puppeteer, and creators of Gloria, Iggy and Jay- for those of you who may remember Under the Umbrella Tree. Noreen is a pillar in our community, and it was so nice of her to invite me to be a part of the festivities.



Just some of Noreens most famous puppets- they came to my 8th Birthday Party!


Just a few of the puppets in town for the weekend...


My ride down main street on Saturday


... and Sunday


Awesome crowds out both days. I Love Almonte.

Dad and I also had a chance to get out for a run this morning, and this is what we found!...


Add fresh strawberries, corn, cherry tomatoes, and peaches, that about covers all of my favourite summer foods and activities.

Thanks for a great weekend everyone!

Sunday Morning Ride

Every once in a while I have a workout that is in a special category. I have one of those workouts where I finish and say, wow, that was one of the best skis, hikes or bike rides ever.
This weekend I had one of those days, and miraculously I brought along my camera, and even took a few photos!
Here they are:



We had an amazing crew of ladies out biking, it's rare to get to train with five other women!


The day was spectacular


The new path between Canmore and Banff makes “road” riding so much safer on a Sunday morning.


We stopped for a dip in Johnson Lake!



Thanks for a great ride ladies!

Yo-Yo, Rest time and Mountain Bike Races

It has been way too long since my last post. As usually is the case when I get tired my ability to sit in front of my computer and string words together is extremely compromised.
Needless to say I survived the last two weeks of our Yo-yo camp. I don't have any photos, but Chandra has lots, so check out her blog: www.chandracrawford.ca
Since then I've been mostly resting and trying to recover from the hardest three weeks of the year thus far.
Summer has finally hit Canmore, my garden is coming along nicely, rollerskiing in the sun is much nicer than the pouring rain!


Mountain Bike Nationals are also happening in Canmore this weekend.
It looked like a grueling race out there with a few familiar faces:

Teammate Alex Harvey, even with an upper body twice the size of everyone else he fared quite well in the U23 field.



An old Ontario Teammate of mine Catherine Vipond powering her way to a fourth place finish! You can always check her out at: www.catherinevipond.weebly.com/


The next generation of Mountain bikers:



My rest time is coming to an end, things start to ramp up again next week! I'm looking forward to some more hard training before heading east to do a Camp at Hardwood Ski and Bike in August!

Jasper!

We had a great few days of training in Jasper with a long day of training including both cycling and rollerskiing on the scenic Icefields Parkway between Jasper and Banff sandwiching an easier day where we enjoyed a run in Jasper. We are almost halfway through this period of training, so far so good!

Joel took a few photos while standing on the side of the road:

The Boys Peloton...



The Girls- much less of a peloton, we need more!




Coach Eric practicing his gun show...


Until next time,

First one Down

We survived our first Haig Camp of the season! We did lots of snowshoeing, rock-shoeing, and tree shoeing, as well as a bit of skiing.
Most of our time was spent on a more modern version of these:


The Haig has a new webcam which can be found here: http://www.winsportcanada.ca/images/haig.jpg

There is way more snow than we have ever seen up there, so we are heading to Jasper for our next 3 day stint, and then back to the glacier!