I've been in a hotel in Vancouver for the last few days. I had quite a good time there - saw my cousin, went for a jog in Stanley Park - but it didn't really compare to the fun I had skiing. Started feeling more stressed and the pressures of life started to flood back.
I'm back home having gone through a combination of plane, underground, train and taxi. Plane journey went quite well; I managed to sleep quite a lot of the way and was nothing like as tired as when I got to Vancouver.
Trying to work out how to get the photos of the new camera I bought while out there. But really I should be thinking about going to bed, though unfortunately I don't feel at all tired.
I am a bit achy in various places today, after the downhill skiing yesterday. Had a really good day today, my last in Quesnel. I'm flying out to Vancouver at lunch time tomorrow. We went cross-country skiing again, and I really enjoyed it, especially compared to the long periods of inactivity and short moments of terror yesterday. With cross-country you get a good level of excerise and everything is, not exactly tame but calm and serene in comparison, even on the longer hills. My favourite bit of cross-country is finding a hill that noone's been down before. You have a lot of control as your skis dig into the snow and the feeling is wonderful. I am noticeable much better than I was even a few days ago. I feel that if I spent more time practising I could get really good.I took quite a few more photos while I was doing this which are in the gallery.
We finished off the day with Sushi at the local restaurant which was excellent. I am completely exhausted again - my eyes especially are very tired, though this is due in part to spending the last hour sorting out photos! I need to get a faster server!! I've almost read all of the books I brought with me (expect for Iris Murdoch, which I'm not sure if I'm going to read) so I'm going to go shopping before the flight tomorrow for a new one.
There's been quite a transformation since I arrived. A lot of the snow in the town has melted (the roof of the house is almost bare now) and everyone is hoping that spring might be arriving. But apparently there is likely to be at least one more really cold snap before the winter is over. I've been lucky to miss it - the weather has been perfect for skiing - bright and sunny and not cold. It would have been much harder falling over in snow at -20 I think!! All in all I've had a really good time and I'm very glad that I came. The problems of everyday life in England seem a million miles away.
I think I have worn Colin out - we have been out skiing every day except Saturday, Sunday and Monday (when we did snow shoeing (well just walking really - the snow wasn't very deep - in Barkerville, shooting and Troll (where Colin didn't do any skiing)). He is now complaining that he just feels tired and doesn't seem to have the same get up and go he did earlier. He thinks we have probably done about a month's worth of skiing!! I expect he'll recover.
Today I decided to take the plunge and try my hand at downhill skiing while the opportunity presented itself. We went to Troll Mountain, which is about 50 mins drive from Quesnel, and has a ski resort, with a few buildings, four ski lifts and 15 different slopes.
I was quite concerned that I would have great trouble even standing up before we got there, but as it turned out this wasn't a problem. Colin didn't ski - he spent the day in the lodge watching what I was doing. I hired boots, skis and poles from the ski shop and first of all headed off to the 'bunnies' slope. Unlike cross country skiing, where the ski is flexible and has a gripper directly beneath your foot, downhill skis are rigid and completely smooth. This means the only way you have of moving forwards if 'skating' or pushing with your poles. As I can't skate, I had to push with my poles, which gets to be quite hard work.
After working out how to actually use the ski lift (a 'T-bar' which you semi-sit on and pulls you up the slope (but your skis remain in contact with the ground)) I got to the top and was ready for my first decent. With my experience of downhill skiing (which is that I have little or no control when going down) I was fully expecting to build up speed, reach the first bend and sail straight into the side. However it turns out that it is far easier to change direction on downhill skis than cross-country, due in part to the fact they have metal edges and can bite into the snow, and partly that they are locked solid to your feet, so point wherever you point your foot (cross country skis are only held at the toes and so turning your foot doesn't necessarily turn the ski). So I successfully made it down the bunny slope three or four times, including having a go at the slalem course they have set up. I'm very good at going fast - the only problem is slowing down and stopping. As I find out when I go for one of the higher ski runs.
I got off the lift at it's mid point (about 1km from the start) and set off down a fairly gentle meandering track that led down the mountain. This actually went remarkably well - didn't even fall over and ended up doing it again. Before I felt it was time to move on to greater things.
The runs at Troll are all named after Disney characters - Snow White is the longest meandering track which runs right from the top of the ski lift. This was good fun - it had two particularly hairy points - both sharp turns at the bottom of reasonably steep descents. I ended up in the snow bank at each turn on my first two runs down, but managed to slow down and control myself enough to get round on my subsequent goes.
I then moved on to a ski run called Happy. Or perhaps Very Scary If You Can't Slow Down. Things were going ok to begin with, although the hill did look pretty steep. I was moving from side to side on the slope and braking with my skis. But then the hill got steeper. And I felt the best thing to do was point my skis down the hill and hope for the best. But the problem with skis is that you just go faster and faster, without any (obvious) brakes. I was getting concerned about my speed round about the point where I was actually having to lean forward to counteract the wind resistance, and stop it pushing me over backwards. And I think (if I was a girl) you could have described the noise I was making a screaming. I think it was about that point, just coming towards the bottom of one big run, with a small rise before the start of the next that I really started to get concerned. I'm not quite sure whether through conscious decision or some deep seated survival mechanism, but I found myself skidding down the slope on my back shortly after this. I skidded a long way. I was fairly sure that my coat must have a big hole through it. But after I picked myself up (shakily) and checked things over, everything seemed to be ok. So I rested for a few few minutes and then got started on the next slope.
That was the basic story for the rest of the afternoon; I was gradually improving at controlling my speed, but not that fast and crashing on corners was getting to be a popular past time. There was one particular incident where I was accelerating down a hill with a left hand bend, with a kid going gently down the middle of the slope, but moving towards the corner. I shot past him (with a few metres to spare) and hung on to the inside of the bend, but my left ski started going up the bank and I crashed. And I wondered exactly how he was going to avoid me. I looked back behind me that he too had crashed (in sympathy). It seems that crashing is the best way to stop. I apologised, but he didn't seem to care too much, so we both got up and carried on.
My final bit of excitement was taking the lift up for the last run I made. Going up in a ski lift can get a bit boring, so it seemed like a good time to practice a few moves with the skis. Things were going ok, until about 200m from the top - when I feel over. I still had hold of the t-bar and didn't drop my poles, or loose a ski, and wouldn't have been able to get up the hill on my own. So my two choices were to hang on, or slither down the fairly sharp slope the ski lift goes up to the first junction, which was quite a way back. So I chose to hang on, and must have looked incredibly undignified being dragged up, almost lying flat on my front. I eventually worked out that travelling on my knees worked best, although I was a bit concerned about damaging my clothes (though in fact all my clothes seem to have come off completely unscathed). When I got to the top I was completely covered in snow - it was everywhere and my trousers were starting to be pulled down!! And it had started snowing. But everything was ok in the end.
By the end I was completely exhausted - think I will sleep well tonight. And it's my last day tomorrow. Hopefully we'll do some more cross-country skiing. I think I have worn Colin out - he says he can't cope with the pace and seems to be quite happy to just rest all day (which is what he did today). Anyway I'm sure one more day of activity won't do any serious damage!
I've been checking out the website of an outdoor shop in Vancouver. I think I might buy some of the equipment for my travels later this year, such as very large but well fitting rucksack, new walking shoes, shoulder bag and a fleece. They seem to have a much better selection than stores I have seen in the UK.
Think that will probably be enough for now!
Talking to Colin on the way back, I realised that one of the problems with English weather is not the rain, but just the fact that it is cloudy so often (even though it doesn't actually rain.
We spent the morning at the rifle range today. Didn't get to have a go with a shotgun, which was good fun last time, but fired a number of rifles, and was pretty accurate when sitting down up to 300m. Not very good when standing up though.
This is my first ever Blog entry. I have got quite a bit done today; on the computer I've got gallery installed and most of my pictures from this trip either in it or on the way and I've got moveabletype (this Blog system) working. Off the computer I went to the shooting range with Colin today and shot some rifles, which is good - was consistently hitting the targets when sitting, and consistently missing when standing up. Just thought - didn't actually take any photos of anyone holding a gun!! Damn.
We had a meal in a Canadian-Greek restaurant this evening which was interesting. It wasn't exactly great, but it wasn't exactly expensive either! They do excellent Greek salad's here though - the Feta is dry and crumbly as opposed to the wet and creamy stuff we get in the UK.
We kept away from the popular lake tracks today to avoid any crowds. We went to Barkerville, a town high up with very extreme weather, which is basically just a tourist site during the summer. The trails are set, but for snowmobiles. We went with the intention of doing some snow-shoeing, but didn't really find any snow deep enough to require them, as the main paths had been groomed and packed.
Getting to be a habit! Getting to know the trails quite well.
After we got home we did the 'river walk' along the Fraser and Quesnel rivers, in a loop, starting and ending at Colin's house.
We moved on to Hallis lake today, a park with a lot of trails. Some of these have actually been 'track set' which involves a machine ripping up the surface snow and reforming it, including laying to indentations at the side of the trail that you can run along on skis.
We went out and I got my first taste of cross-country skiing today at 10 mile lake, near Quesnel.