Tales from the dark side

Cam and I spent last weekend riding in Jasper. We woke up saturday morning, checked the weathernetwork where we learnt that Jasper was going to be way warmer and way sunnier than edmonton. And way dryer than the down n' dirty race. So, we were Jasper bound. We rode Valley of the Five Lakes on saturday and Saturday Night Lake Loop on sunday. Valley of the Five was it's usual fun, fast self. We cleaned it in record time.
Saturday Night Loop was fun as well, but way more of a dick dance...if you will. For those that don't know, SNL is a 20 mile loop with the first 10 miles up hill and the last 10 downhill back to the starting point. After the climb you are quite high up the mountain and quite alone. We didn't see ANYONE on the trail...no one. What we did see was a ton of bear poop. Fresh steaming bear poop. And, fresh steaming bear tracks. It wasn't THAT big, maybe 4" x 5", and NO claw marks...that was comforting. So, the loud singing began. So did the bell ringing, and shouts of "nachooooo-libreeeee." It must have scared the bears off but not the 3 elk with the velvety antlers. They were NOT moving off the trail, so Cam took us on a detour around them!!

I won't go into details about the detour I took Cam on, but lets just say, I am never allowed to pick the trail (marked or unmarked) again. It was an unmarked trail, that I had been on 2 years ago, and it was REALLY FUN. Well, our 2:15 hour ride turned into a 4:15 hour ride...oops. I mean really, he should have known, I can't even find Sherwood Park!
So, I am surprised we didn't get eaten by a bear and that we actually made it out of the woods!! We are riding in Bragg Creek this weekend, but that is a race course so it isn't possilbe to get lost....or is it?

I am back on the bandwagon...in full force

Off the bandwagon: a cyclists view of hockey fanatics

The 'City of Champions' is in the frenzy of the Stanley Cup playoffs and what a frenzy it is! I fell off the bandwagon two games ago...wrought with anxiety and an impending feeling of disappointment,I decided I didn't really care about hockey anymore. I don't want to see the Oilers lose as much as the next girl, and with the series at 3:1 I completely have distanced myself from the whole affair. I am tired of the sad, dubbed 'Oilers funeral' songs on the radio. Tired of the honking horns and screaming fans. Tired of the "hockey experts" that know exactly what the professional hockey players need to do to win the series. I'm tired of the #1 story on the news being hockey over missing children and sexual predators living in our communities.
The way I see it, the Oilers have done well. No one thought they would even make it this far. Quite frankly, win or lose our star team will still be raised on the pedestal of Canadian Pastime Fame, and people will be talking about it into next winter.
For those of you fans that are still reading this entry, I do have a positive thing to say. It is really cool to see so much passion for a sport in our city/country. As much as I rant about my distaste for the current frenzy, it is great to see people so excited and hopeful. It is similar to the craziness of an Argentinean soccer game or the packed roads of the Tour de France course.
I guess we all have our sports we are obsessed with. I just got my 2006 Official Guide to the Tour de France in the mail. I plan on using it to come up with my team (hopefully the winning team) for the Pedalhead Tour Pool. I get up at 5:30 to watch each stage before going to work, and have been known to actually take days off work to catch the important stages that could make or break the race and racers. I know the coffee shops that will play it on a big screen and sit on the edge of my seat and yell at the racers....because I know what the professional cyclists need to do to win the race. So, before I go off on hockey fans, I should look at how crazy I get for 3 weeks in July...