Hell ya Canada!

Canada is unreal. Getting back in time to catch the final weekend of the Olympics in Vancouver was even more unreal. The amount of Canadian pride shown and the party in downtown after the gold medal hockey game was out of control. There are good parties everywhere but this one was in its own league. It made Carnival in Panama look like a small town high school party. Good Work Canada! 14 Golds is going to be tough to match.

With the Olympics over it was off to the mtns to visit the folks. Theres nothing like home cooking or sleeping in a room filled with fresh Canadian air. Central America is awesome, and I hope to continue to use it for my winter training grounds in the years to come but everytime I return to Canada I am overwhelmed just how huge and amazing this place is.

Last Sunday my mind was hurting as it tried to grasp the beauty of skiing 55km around the Tonquin Valley loop of Jasper with Jasper Ski gurus Dave Mcdowell, Tony Jones and friend Lilla from Nova Scotia. Skiing below 10 000 ft snow clad peaks, touring over a high mtns pass and ripping 25 km down a river through tight singletrack ski trails has left my my mind spinning after the previous 4 months in the jungles. A few days later we skied up a local river canyon, broke a ski, fell in the river and howled with wolves 200 ft away. Unreal.

The weather is another story. It has been nice up here but a few days ago I hopped on the bike for the first time in 10 days to start up the training again and had a bashful time to say the least. With 2 inches of fresh snow on the ground, just enough to cover the glazed ice trails it turned into a bruising day. I crashed more times in the 3 hr ride then I have in the past 4 yrs combined. Two of them were gooders. Crashing on an old injury riddled shoulder from hockey wasn't ideal. The one that hurt less physically but more mentally was standing going up a hill, having the bike slide out from under me and falling backwards on my head. It felt like getting laid out in center ice by a 220 lb d man after a suicide pass. When I finally made it back home I was feeling like Ovechkin must have after our Candian Junior team rag dolled him in the 2005 World Juniors.

The last week was highlighted with a road trip through Western Canada's major cities with Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver on the list. Had a great 150 km ride through the foothills of Calgary with Ultra endurance crazy Dallas Morris last Sunday. Last time we rode togethar it was 2am in the morning and Dallas was shouting at me to cowboy up as I was curled over my bike trying to lay an egg during the 24 hrs of Adrenaline Worlds.

Back in Vancouver now, living out of the truck for a few more days. Things are starting to smell a little funny in there. Usually the first sign its time to set up camp somehwere and get things back in line. With my bro out in Victoria with an empty bedroom available I may have a solid home for a while.