Monday, July 23, 2012
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Wedding Part 1
Wow what a blast the last 3 weeks have been! There is so much I want to write and I can't even think of where to start. Soooo let's go back three weeks..
Wedding prep. Eden and I had a army of family and close friends to help assemble what would turn out to be a night that was above and beyond anything we could of imagined. We are so fortunate to have so many people that were able to jump in and lend a hand. We had the the ceremony and the reception in our backyard on our farm that has been in my family for many generations. It was a kind of tribute to the land that helped so many survive. We had a clear hot week of weather leading up to the wedding and on the Saturday we awoke to dark skies and heavy rain. It poured for a hour and a half and was enough to make everything green and lush! Not to mention it was going to be great for keep the dust down.!
I managed to stay relatively calm all week, slowly picking away at the jobs that needed doing. The day of the wedding was a little more hectic then I thought it would be, but all in all it was not that bad..... (get the beer on ICE!!!) The ceremony went off perfectly! I cried. I was so choked up that it was hard to even speak. I had nowhere to hide, no sunglasses to cover my eyes. I stood there any tried to get out what my head and heart was trying to say. It was awesome!
The reception afterwards was a great evening! The food was excellent, the music ideal and the people, the people are what made it. We wanted everyone to have a night that was fun and one they would hopefully remember. I tried to make it around to chat with everyone.... I don't think I even came close to achieving that goal. If I missed you and you somehow find yourself reading this, I apologize.
On the Sunday we had the same army plus a handful more helpers to help disassemble what was such a special event only 10 hours ago. I am truly sad that it is over. I mean, I am more happy then ever to be married to the girl of my dreams, but I wish it wasn't over. There was so much planning and work leading into the wedding and I wanted to try and take it in as much as possible. I made sure to sneak out of sight a few times throughout the evening and just take a step back into a shadow for a few minutes and watch. I stood and tried to paint a mental picture that was our wedding. I knew it was going to go by fast... but wow. I had a ear to ear smile all night!
Part 2 "The Honeymoon" coming soon. (with photos).
Wedding prep. Eden and I had a army of family and close friends to help assemble what would turn out to be a night that was above and beyond anything we could of imagined. We are so fortunate to have so many people that were able to jump in and lend a hand. We had the the ceremony and the reception in our backyard on our farm that has been in my family for many generations. It was a kind of tribute to the land that helped so many survive. We had a clear hot week of weather leading up to the wedding and on the Saturday we awoke to dark skies and heavy rain. It poured for a hour and a half and was enough to make everything green and lush! Not to mention it was going to be great for keep the dust down.!
I managed to stay relatively calm all week, slowly picking away at the jobs that needed doing. The day of the wedding was a little more hectic then I thought it would be, but all in all it was not that bad..... (get the beer on ICE!!!) The ceremony went off perfectly! I cried. I was so choked up that it was hard to even speak. I had nowhere to hide, no sunglasses to cover my eyes. I stood there any tried to get out what my head and heart was trying to say. It was awesome!
The reception afterwards was a great evening! The food was excellent, the music ideal and the people, the people are what made it. We wanted everyone to have a night that was fun and one they would hopefully remember. I tried to make it around to chat with everyone.... I don't think I even came close to achieving that goal. If I missed you and you somehow find yourself reading this, I apologize.
On the Sunday we had the same army plus a handful more helpers to help disassemble what was such a special event only 10 hours ago. I am truly sad that it is over. I mean, I am more happy then ever to be married to the girl of my dreams, but I wish it wasn't over. There was so much planning and work leading into the wedding and I wanted to try and take it in as much as possible. I made sure to sneak out of sight a few times throughout the evening and just take a step back into a shadow for a few minutes and watch. I stood and tried to paint a mental picture that was our wedding. I knew it was going to go by fast... but wow. I had a ear to ear smile all night!
Part 2 "The Honeymoon" coming soon. (with photos).
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Frontenac Provincial Park Perimeter Trail Trip Report
SO I was just about to sit down and write a late trail report of the run Ryan Atkins and I did last weekend (a week late) and I see he has already written a very good recap on our experience on the trail! Sooo here is the link to our trip report of our sub 5hour run on the Frontenac Perimeter Trail. Enjoy.
http://ryanatkinsdietrecipebook.blogspot.ca/2012/04/frontenac-perimeter-trail-041412-fkt.html
http://ryanatkinsdietrecipebook.blogspot.ca/2012/04/frontenac-perimeter-trail-041412-fkt.html
Sunday, April 1, 2012
2 days: 53km, 18000ft of ascent and 10 Mountains Later...
Wicked trip to the Adirondack's this past weekend with Ryan Atkins and Peter Demos. We drove down after work on Thursday evening and grabbed a hotel 20 min from our trailhead starting point. After a good sized breakfast, we hit the trail towards our first four peaks Mt Wright, Algonquin, Iroquois and Boundary Peak. We made good time going over the first four peaks and made our way down 2500ft to only have to climb almost 3000ft up the other side of Mt Marcy (highest peak in NY). We summited Marcy just before dark and made our way part way down the mountain to where we found a nice place to set up camp for the night. We woke the next morning to a light dusting of snow and fairly foggy conditions. We had a big day ahead and got right to the money by running up Mt Wright and topping out before 9am. We then went back to camp, packed up and headed over towards Little Haystack and Mt Haystack, all in full winter conditions! We then headed over Basin Mountain and Saddleback and navigated a few sections that we had wished we has a small rope and a ice axe (all we had was lightweight crampons). After cresting Saddleback we had a 16km trek back to the car... Most of that was downhill, all except for one small pass up through Klondike Notch. We hit the car around 7pm after 11hrs of continuous forward progress. We hit a local steakhouse for a "all you can eat prime rib special" and packed as much pr away as we could. We grabbed a hotel for the night and made our way home Sunday morning (all 5.5hrs of it).
Sunday, February 26, 2012
"When in Rome"
The past 6 weeks have been very busy trying to balance work, training, life, planning a wedding etc etc.
I started a new job last fall with a very reputable company (Able Tree Service) in the Arboriculture industry. I have thought about getting into the field of Arboriculture for the past 5 or 6 years and I had never taken the leap to seriously get in the world of trees. With my fairly extensive climbing background and my love of the outdoors I was almost certain it was a great fit for me. The past 6 weeks I have been climbing BIG red and white oak trees at the Toronto Hunt Club golf course almost 5 days a week and it has been very taxing on my evening energy that is left for any training. It is hands down the best job I have ever had and I am very excited to where it takes me in the Arboriculture industry.
On a kinda funny side note, I have been eating a small container of chocolate covered almonds after I finish work en route home. I have been buying them in bulk and usually would eat a couple handfuls daily. I knew that they would be fairly high in calories but since I had been buying them in bulk I didn't know their exact calorie content, or didn't want to know. Well the other day Eden bought me a big bag of the delicious chocolate covered almonds from costco which did have a nutrition label on the back.... 220cals for 8 almonds!!!!!!!! I quickly grabbed the container that I had been using to store the oh so delicious post work snack and tallied up my average total that I had been eating daily.... I had been eating between 40-50 which means I had been eating 1100-1350cals everyday after work. No wonder I would get home and be able to do 90-120mins of exercise without getting hungry! Gah!
3 weeks ago I also slipped 2 ribs while either trail running and slipping on ice, or rock climbing a ridiculously hard route that I hope I never do again, or maybe it was the combination of both of the events...? Either way it was extremely painful and I am glad that I am on the mend.
I had to take 2 weeks off of running because I simply couldn't run with the associated pain from the ribs. I was however able to ride my bike and given the spring like weather and increase in daylight I was riding outside 3 or 4 nights a week after work. Last week while almost home I stretched my back while still riding and I felt both of the ribs slip back into place! It was a very weird feeling, kinda hurt but I was almost immediately able to take a deeper breaths. Weekends have been usually pretty good, as I am able to get in a couple 3hr days to make up for the lack of hours in the week. Right now I am averaging 11-12hrs a week and I think that is my balance point for training stress considering that my day consists of climbing big trees.
Here is a pick of a coyote leg Rambo found me yesterday... Mmmmmm coyote leg....
I started a new job last fall with a very reputable company (Able Tree Service) in the Arboriculture industry. I have thought about getting into the field of Arboriculture for the past 5 or 6 years and I had never taken the leap to seriously get in the world of trees. With my fairly extensive climbing background and my love of the outdoors I was almost certain it was a great fit for me. The past 6 weeks I have been climbing BIG red and white oak trees at the Toronto Hunt Club golf course almost 5 days a week and it has been very taxing on my evening energy that is left for any training. It is hands down the best job I have ever had and I am very excited to where it takes me in the Arboriculture industry.
On a kinda funny side note, I have been eating a small container of chocolate covered almonds after I finish work en route home. I have been buying them in bulk and usually would eat a couple handfuls daily. I knew that they would be fairly high in calories but since I had been buying them in bulk I didn't know their exact calorie content, or didn't want to know. Well the other day Eden bought me a big bag of the delicious chocolate covered almonds from costco which did have a nutrition label on the back.... 220cals for 8 almonds!!!!!!!! I quickly grabbed the container that I had been using to store the oh so delicious post work snack and tallied up my average total that I had been eating daily.... I had been eating between 40-50 which means I had been eating 1100-1350cals everyday after work. No wonder I would get home and be able to do 90-120mins of exercise without getting hungry! Gah!
3 weeks ago I also slipped 2 ribs while either trail running and slipping on ice, or rock climbing a ridiculously hard route that I hope I never do again, or maybe it was the combination of both of the events...? Either way it was extremely painful and I am glad that I am on the mend.
I had to take 2 weeks off of running because I simply couldn't run with the associated pain from the ribs. I was however able to ride my bike and given the spring like weather and increase in daylight I was riding outside 3 or 4 nights a week after work. Last week while almost home I stretched my back while still riding and I felt both of the ribs slip back into place! It was a very weird feeling, kinda hurt but I was almost immediately able to take a deeper breaths. Weekends have been usually pretty good, as I am able to get in a couple 3hr days to make up for the lack of hours in the week. Right now I am averaging 11-12hrs a week and I think that is my balance point for training stress considering that my day consists of climbing big trees.
Here is a pick of a coyote leg Rambo found me yesterday... Mmmmmm coyote leg....
Monday, January 23, 2012
2012 Snowshoe Raid
A few months ago Ryan Atkins and decided we were going to sign up for the Snowshoe Raid at Blue Mountain. It was roughly a 2.5hr cross country snowshoe orienteering race. You had a 3hr time limit to attack as many checkpoints as you possibly can. I believe that it was their 5th or 6th year running the event and it was something that I have wanted to do for the past few years. Given the lack of snow situation I was only fortunate to be on snowshoes for a grand total of 4hrs leading up to the event... I am currently not on any specific training program and I am just fitting in what training I can manage here and there. I know Ryan and I work and race very well together and with some residual fitness from last the fall I was sure we would be one of the top teams to finish. We both had a brand new pair of shiny Atlas racing snowshoes for the event courtesy of Muskoka Outfitters in Bracebridge to help us through the roughly 20km course.
After being bused to the starting point,strapping the snowshoes on and making some finishing touches, we were off at just after 11am. From what I had heard there were 117 teams competing in the event! Some of the teams were more serious then others and would be going after most or all of the checkpoints, while some of the teams including a few family's and youths were after as many checkpoints as they thought they could collect while still making the 3hr time limit. It was really cool to see some little kids lined up with their parents partaking in the event. I had hoped that the way Ryan and I laid out the course would be the fastest and easiest way through the rugged Niagara Escarpment terrain. We did the course in a mostly clockwise fashion, which was a bit different then some of the other teams had in mind. 30 min into the event there were snowshoe tracks in every direction! Every team had their own path laid out and with it being a orienteering race you had to be savvy with your maps and compass. We hit almost all the 24 checkpoints precisely, all except 3 of them. We messed up a few of the checkpoints and probably lost only 7 or 8 mins in total as once we realized we were off course we were quick to get back on track. Because allot of the top teams took their own planned route we were racing people that we couldn't see, which can be quite nerve racking as you have no idea how you are doing in the race.
We came into the last section of the course before the finish line at the base of Blue Mountain and nailed the last 5 checkpoints! We crossed the finish line to be greeted and congratulated by the race organizer and race volunteers. We had been beaten by one team. Nick Duca and his teammate bested us yet again by only 10-20secs (unofficial just what I had been told). We had been racing these two guys for almost three hours and didn't see them the entire race! How cool is that!
It was a stellar event and I would recommend the snowshoe raid to anyone who would be keen to try their map and compass skills navigating through some of the most beautiful terrain that southern Ontario has to offer.
After being bused to the starting point,strapping the snowshoes on and making some finishing touches, we were off at just after 11am. From what I had heard there were 117 teams competing in the event! Some of the teams were more serious then others and would be going after most or all of the checkpoints, while some of the teams including a few family's and youths were after as many checkpoints as they thought they could collect while still making the 3hr time limit. It was really cool to see some little kids lined up with their parents partaking in the event. I had hoped that the way Ryan and I laid out the course would be the fastest and easiest way through the rugged Niagara Escarpment terrain. We did the course in a mostly clockwise fashion, which was a bit different then some of the other teams had in mind. 30 min into the event there were snowshoe tracks in every direction! Every team had their own path laid out and with it being a orienteering race you had to be savvy with your maps and compass. We hit almost all the 24 checkpoints precisely, all except 3 of them. We messed up a few of the checkpoints and probably lost only 7 or 8 mins in total as once we realized we were off course we were quick to get back on track. Because allot of the top teams took their own planned route we were racing people that we couldn't see, which can be quite nerve racking as you have no idea how you are doing in the race.
We came into the last section of the course before the finish line at the base of Blue Mountain and nailed the last 5 checkpoints! We crossed the finish line to be greeted and congratulated by the race organizer and race volunteers. We had been beaten by one team. Nick Duca and his teammate bested us yet again by only 10-20secs (unofficial just what I had been told). We had been racing these two guys for almost three hours and didn't see them the entire race! How cool is that!
It was a stellar event and I would recommend the snowshoe raid to anyone who would be keen to try their map and compass skills navigating through some of the most beautiful terrain that southern Ontario has to offer.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Gear For Sale
Mountain Hardwear Gear For Sale
MHW Brono Jacket Gore Windstopper softshell mens small only used once. Retails $240 Asking $100.
MHW Monkey Man Heavy Weight Fleece, Used but in great shape.. Retails for $160 Asking $50.
MHW Brono Jacket Gore Windstopper softshell mens small only used once. Retails $240 Asking $100.
MHW Monkey Man Heavy Weight Fleece, Used but in great shape.. Retails for $160 Asking $50.
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