Welcome Mattias!

M & C gave birth to their first child last week!
I'm super excited -- I've known M since 8th grade, and she is the first of my closest high school buddies to have a baby. (We're all late bloomers.) Makes me *almost* an aunt. Well, at least in the Filipino/Italian/Chinese traditions all close friends of your parents are aunts or uncles!

Of course, M&C are really excited too.


I'm off to Italy (!) for a week on Saturday. Pete's going for work, so he's flying me on points so I can hang out in Rome for a few days, and then we'll rent a car and drive to the coast. No definite plans yet. I've been too busy with work to pack or even think about the trip. I'll probably be reading the guide books on the plane. We might visit, the Almafi coast, Positano, Capri, or we migh just stick to the small towns.

Snow

Cypress opened today! Only the bunny hill and one of the green runs was open, but it sounds like they have more snow now than they ever did 2 seasons ago.

Whistler opens on Saturday, and Blackcomb will be open the following week.

Rain Rain Rain

The long weekend finally gave me a chance to catch up. I didn't make it out to any of the Remembrance Day services. Wearing a poppy and pausing for a minute in during a craft fair didn't quite seem enough.

In between the rain showers, I managed to plant most of the bulbs I bought last month. Some of them started to rot already. We'll see what happens with them next spring.

Random Post

Not much to say, just a shout out to A who thinks I don't post anymore.

I've been back at work for just over 1 year now, and it has managed to consume my life. I need to dig out of this hole and get my life back.

The early frosts last week might have taken some plants in my garden. I'll just have to see. I left some indoor plants outside too, and some are looking a little worse for wear. It was frickin' cold! Cold enough to form ice 3mm thick. Not a common October occurence in Vancouver.

All of the summer and fall fun stuff has come and gone. I did manage to get out to VIFF once, go see Flugtag, and attend AppleFest. Craft fair season has begun, and I'm looking forward to going to the Circle Craft and the Nikkei craft fairs.

I bought some used telemark skis and boots at the Snow Show last week; ran a rather unimpressive 9.5K race, losing my chip in the process; and got pressured into entering the First Half.

After a week break from cat sitting for the Watercats, I had to cat-sit for my cat. Nancy sez it doesn't count as catsitting if it is my own cat, but the cat lives with my parents, whereas I don't. Two days before my parents came home, my cat went missing. I searched, called the shelters, and delivered flyers, but I was really at a loss -- my cat wouldn't get lost, so I really feared the worst. It turns out, a neighbour saw him sneezing, and thought he had a cold, so brought him in from damp. I think they fed him tuna, so he just decided to stay a few days.

Dickson Range Hike

We're back and we survived. A lot of people asked where I went, and the answer "Southern Chilcotin / Dickson Range / north of Pemberton/ north of Whistler / near Gun Lake/Carpenter Lake/Downton Lake" didn’t suffice, so I'll have to upload couple of maps.

Carrying a heavy pack and being covered in horseflies might not be everyone’s idea of a holiday, but the scenery, wildlife and wildflowers, and copious amounts of chocolate consumed made up for it.

Gutsploder

Click on the name of the moutain and it'll show a map of the bike trails. Click on the trail's green dots to see pictures of stunts on the trail.

Helvetica. It's not just a font any more. It's a feature film. I must be the only person excited about this. I'm such a geek. Don't knock it. Don't knock Times Roman either.
http://www.helveticafilm.com/index.html

www.pandora.com

Hiking Uncertainty

We spent several hours today planning food, making lists, shopping, and dehydrating vegetables and we are almost set to leave Sunday for Tom's annual hiking trip, but the whole plan is teetering on the edge. Bill broke his foot. Yes, Bill, who rock climbs, mountain climbs, mountain bikes, road bikes, surfs, windsurfs and runs half-marathons at the drop of a hat, broke his foot. Playing volleyball. He'll be on crutches for 6 weeks. Not even a cool story to show for it. He's swearing off "safe" sports.

So now, Dominique is thinking of bailing (not sure yet if it is because Bill's her close friend, or if it is now a safetly concern -- we think that Bill could probably carry out if one of us broke a leg, or at least run and get help quicker than anyone.) With Dominique currently hiking in the Yukon, and Tom in England, the challenge now is to figure out what we want to do. We still haven't booked the float plane. We might end up just doing a circle route now, instead of the one-way trip we were planning.

Saxifrage Hike

Over the Canada Day long weekend, Pete, Bill, Bill's friend Christina and I did an overnight trip to Saxifrage Peak, just north of Pemberton.

A logging road took us to the trailhead starting with good elevation, then we gained elevation very quickly via switchbacks that took us through mossy old growth forest. I never really appreciated why environmentalists wanted to save old growth until I saw it -- The forest really looked enchanted with the density and variety of plant life. The entire forest floor of this part of the forest was a thick, dense mat of moss. We noticed tags indicating the location for a new road -- looks like they are going to log some of it, which will be a shame.

We emerged to an open valley covered in grass, heathers and anemones (the montane?) and an hour later, we hit some uphill bushwacking until we finally emerged in the subalpine.

We arrived at the lake where the book recommended to camp and took a break. Though it was an awesome campsite, we thought it was a little too buggy, and we decided to try to find a place in the col between Saxifrage and Cassiope.

There was lots of snow still, so the sight of hundreds of cascading streamlets was fantastic. And we wouldn't have any trouble finding water. Bill hiked ahead, and when he got to the col, we could see he looked pretty happy -- it was a perfect campsite: a perfectly flat rock to pitch the tents, located perfectly with views of the mountains to the south and east, running water from pure snow melt a few feet away, a ledge to cook on, and NO bugs. A few weeks earlier, and the site would have covered in snow. A month later, the snow might be gone and water would be a problem.

I was pretty cold because I brought a +15deg sleeping bag, but the stars were awesome. I saw the biggest meteorite I have ever seen that night.

The next day we tried to go up to Saxifrage Peak. The route finding was a little tricky, so I stayed back about 100m from the top, but Bill and Pete made it up. From there, we could see Pemberton and Mt. Currie, the Joffre group and Joffre Lakes and Lilloet Lake.

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