Life: Catching Up

It's been a long while since I last blogged about the things happening in my life. There have been ups and downs - mostly downs lately it seems. Thus, I haven't been particularly interested in being a downer, but I'll try to cover a few things at least in general here. If I find myself particularly talkative about any one subject I will expound on that in a separate blog.

Riding to work in the fall went relatively well with an average commute of 95 minutes each way. Some of the hills make it very challenging since I can't really ride the trike very well over the narrow dirt trail that is the less hilly option. The morning ride is particularly hard since I have a big hill to climb barely ten minutes into my ride. The trip home is downhill and then "flat" for a good while, so tackling the uphills is a lot easier.

I didn't ride over the winter. Two circumstances presented themselves that prevented it. The first was necessary repairs to the car that ate my tire budget. The second was the persistent snow and cold that was Calgary's winter this year. For all the years I've lived in Calgary I don't think I've ever experienced a winter quite like this one. So I'm relieved that I didn't spend money on tires and then didn't get any riding in. I did bring the trike inside and modify my cycle trainer for the 20" rear wheel, so I got some peddling in. Which bring me to the next thing that was a bummer over the winter.

My shoulder and back had been bothering me since 2009 when I partially dislocated a rib. It meant I had problems with some motions and lifting that were repetitive - mostly work and running. After a lot of massage and some physio that only brought temporary relief, I saw my family doctor in Edmonton the beginning of February and filed a progressive injury claim with the Workers Compensation Board. The claim was finally approve six weeks after seeing my GP, so now I am getting intensive physio treatment to help the rehab. Another 2 1/2 weeks of physio before I either get an extension on the treatment or released to do my own thing. I'm hoping things continue to go well on that front. I've been taking way too many muscle relaxants to be able to sleep at night, so I hope I can get off them and get back to running and cycling without worry about my back and shoulder.

The work situation has grown increasingly frustrating and disappointing since last fall. Needless to say this has been incredibly stressful and tiring. I've effectively committed myself to placing my health and well-being ahead of this situation with my reducing any "extra" work that doesn't apply directly to pickups, processing and disposal. A lot of this had to do with management, but there are immediate changes being made there. I'm certainly not holding my breath though.

I've been able to get in a steady scehedule of Flames of War games in since last fall. A friend and I have also been able to get back to work on a submission to Battlefront for a website PDF release. It will be nice to see that finished. I haven't got a lot more painting done, but it has progressed a bit. I also got a bunch of Paper Terrain sets for Christmas, so I have start work on those. Aerin found me some really good craft glue to put those together rather easier than my previos sets. Hopefully I can make more progress, but the return of spring means other demands will be made for my time.

I need to finish the baseboards this year. I will probably skip doing the stairs for one more year while I puzzle out how to finish them. A little landscaping will need to be done too, and I need to build a proper gate across the pad beside the garage to prevent pet escape and open the space a little. With the baseboards done I can also do a proper organization of the garage including making space for fireplace wood. The chimney sweep we had check the fireplace last summer was great about educating about all things fireplace, so this spring will see the arrival of a bunch of wood to cure over the summer for next fall and winter.

Ursa turned two years old last month! Has it been so long already? She continues to be the spoiled first child, so her trianing isn't what we'd like it some times. But we do love her to bits for all the joy she brings us. She did freak us out a bit last November, but you can check out Aerin's blog for those details. Here's the quick version: Xylitol (sugar substitute) and dogs do not mix. If she'd been a smaller dog she'd probably be dead. She's 120lbs/53.5kg now, and taller than both her parents. Did I mention we really love her? She's such a character.

I'm really looking forward to having a summer this year. Last year was pretty wet and coool. Much more camping and hiking are planned with some short backcountry trips to get Ursa introduced to the whole experience. We'll likely stick to the Kananaskis area mostly.

That's it for now. (I wish I could predict the same for snowfall, but it's not June yet.)

Outdoor: Waterton National Park

Aerin and I spent five days in Waterton last weekend. I wanted to share some of our backcountry adventures first, so I'll talk about the regular tourist things we did in another post. I will post photos when I get the chance.

Friday was our first outing to Crypt Lake. After getting onto the ferry across the lake to Crypt Landing, we began our hike up the trail. Unfortunately this didn't last long as Aerin began having blister trouble from her boots. While they weren't a problem last year, the boots have been causing problems this year, and the fix we tried for this trip didn't take. So about an hour into the hike Aerin decided it was better to save her feet than carry on to the top in pain and ruin the rest of her weekend. She sent me to the top with orders to take lots of pictures.

I took off to the top to complete my mission and return as quickly as I could to Aerin as she waited at the docks. The hanging valley Crypt Lake is in was lots of fun to get to with it's tunnel crawl and exposed trail access. It's certainly a very pretty cirque lake, but I didn't enjoy it as much without Aerin to see it too. With my mission completed I turned around and started the rapid running descent to the dock. All told it was about 2:30 to get to the lake and about 1:15 to make the run back.

Friday night we ran into friends we knew were going to be in Waterton. (There were lots that we didn't know about too. Yeah Grant MacEwan Mountain Club!) The next morning the four of us headed up to Wall Lake on the BC side of the border for a look at another beautiful lake. This was preceeded by some emergency shoe shopping for Aerin, but she made good time despite some soreness due to not quite blisters of the previous day.

We encountered a pair of male mule deer on the way up with beautiful antlers. They were still in their velvet. Another doe wandered the area when we got to the lake finally.

Wall Lake itself is most impressive for the towering wall of stone around the back side of the lake. It's quite a sight to see the glacier remenants around the lake too. There was some recent chunks that have separated along the western end that were all blue-green in tinge. In some places even older clear ice with the same blue-green tinge showed through under the newer snow. It was really neat to realize that some of that ice could be thousands of years old.

Sunday was trail running day. I had to go solo on this one, but it turned out to be a short trip. My plan was to do the Snowshoe-Blakiston loop from Red Rock Canyon, but bad weather rolled in just short of the Snowshoe back country campground. Facing heavy rain, lightning, high winds and the uncertainty of whether it would continue or not, I decided to turn around.

This brings me to the interesting part of this aborted trail run - a cinnamon black bear and her two cubs. One the way up I was coming down a hill when I noticed her on the level a little ways down. I started talking and making some noise, and she lead her cubs into the woods off the trail and went around me.

Once I turned around to return to the trailhead I figured I'd likely run into her again, but I'd set my Garmin with her position when I met her on the way up. I started paying particular attention as I got close to that spot, and about a kilometer later noticed her ahead of me just off the trail. I backed off and made noise, and soon saw one of the cubs coming down a tree. While this was happening I explored the option of going off trail, but the undergrowth and footing was darned near as dangerous as a bear in the wet conditions. So with much caution and making noise I moved up to see what was happening. Luckily she and the cubs had moved up to a wider part of the trail, the cubs were no where in sight (but likely up a new tree), and she was busy ripping apart a log a little further up the slope. She lifted her head the one time when she head and saw me, but went back to ripping apart the log. I slipped by with as much space as possible to spare, and she didn't even look at me again. After that it was a quick run the rest of the way.

And that was basically it. We checked out Cameron Falls in town on Monday before doing the loop at the buffalo paddock, and then it was on to Fort MacLeod and the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump site.

Overall it was a great trip that both of us enjoyed since I hadn't been to the park in almost 20 years and Aerin had never been.