Alright, I now have more places than a tent somewhere in Kananaskis that I want to live. I was just up in Ucluelet, or Ukee as the locals say, and Tofino for a few days visiting my good friend T.J. and loved every minute of it, even the 6 hours spent being sick on a boat in the ocean.
My journey started after work at 2pm. I zipped home to pack really quick and head on my way. However, while I was packing I got a nice surprise text from a good friend, Jocelyn Arnason, from Calgary that I hadn't seen in a long time. So I went and met her and her boyfriend on the patio of Canoe Club for a chatski and a quick bite to eat. I had never really spent any time with her boyfriend, so it was really nice to get to know him a bit and to spend time with her. Not to mention that it was an absolutely gorgeous day outside. It was just a little preview of how epic this trip was going to be.
I left Canoe Club around 5:30 and hit the road. I had talked to a few different people before leaving and had heard mixed reviews, some said the drive was almost 6 hours, some said 4 hours. It ended up taking me just under 4 with stopping for A&W and getting pulled-over once. Luckily I got a really nice RCMP guy and he only gave me a warning. If you have never done it before, the drive is a lot of fun, and beautiful. The road is pretty easy going until you get up passed Nanaimo and get off Highway 1 and turn into the 14. Once you get there it starts to get a bit windy, but this is also where it starts to get really pretty. The forest becomes a lot more dense and you drive passed some really pretty lakes and coves. I got to see an amazing sunset. I turned around a corner and all of a sudden there was this gorgeous little bay. I debated pulling over for a minute to watch, but it was getting late and I was unsure of how much father I had. I kept driving and just took as many peaks over as I could, which wasn't many because I was going down a pretty steep windy hill. As the sun went down, the fog rolled in which also made for some pretty cool views. Finally around 9:30 I arrived at the Canadian Princess Resort, which is where T.J. works. He still had awhile until he was off so I just sat and chatted with people and had a couple beers. Once T.J. got off we just headed to his house and sat for awhile catching up and having a couple more beers then went to bed.
In hindsight staying up that late and having that many beers was probably a bad choice. We had to get up around 05:00 because we headed out fishing at 06:00. We got up, had a quick cup'o'marnin' (aka coffee) and headed to the boats to start our adventure out on the old salt chuck. We were going for a pretty long run out into open water. The capt'n said there was some good fishing about 2hrs out. So T.J. and I poured ourselves a cup of tea and prepared ourselves for a long boat ride. I made it about an hour until I started to feel kind of queasy and about another 30mins until I start ralphing. As soon as we stopped I stumbled my way into the wheel house, laid down on a bench and that was game over. That bench became my little resting spot for the rest of the trip. Anytime I tried to open my eyes I immediately felt sick, so I just kept them close and tried to sleep as much as possible. At one point when I was awake and could hear people talking about whales, apparently there were two swimming right beside the boat, and one father out that totally breached the surface. I was pretty upset about that, I mean I was upset about the whole thing, but especially missing the whales. Luckily the fishing trip only cost me $20 instead of the regular $140 because Teej works for them.
Once we got off the boat I felt almost normal. We stopped on the Princess and had a big lunch to replenish everything I left out there on the chuck. After lunch we headed back to T.J.'s and had a 30min nap that turned into a 2 hour nap, clearly we needed it. Once we got up we had a delicious dinner of fresh Halibut that Teej had caught that morning with potatoes and salad, so good! After we finished the scrumptious dinner we headed out to do some rock climbing. We made a pretty sweet little boulder problem which neither of us could fully solve. We then enjoyed a nice cleansing ale on the rocks while watching the sun set, headed home chatted and then headed to bed.
We woke up with the plans to have a quick breakfast and hike out to a WWII Canso bomber plane that crashed in 1945 with a few of T.J.'s friends. T.J.'s brother-in-law had other plans however. He made us a huge fantastic omlette and bacon breakfast. Instead of heading out around 11:00 like planned we started the trip around 13:30. Other than taking a few tries to find the trailhead, the hike was flawless and a lot of fun. The bomber was amazing and we had a lot of fun climbing on and exploring the plane. After the hike we headed into Tofino so that Phil, one of Teej's friends, could buy some new fins for his surfboard. I wanted to stay and bum around Tofino a little more, but we just headed back to Ukee to have a BBQ and Phil and Dave's. Which pretty much brings an end to that night, we just hung out, had a BBQ and a few drinks and then called it a night.
The next morning T.J. and I went surfing, which was really fun. It was my 3rd time ever surfing. The waves weren't exactly the best, but I managed to catch one really good wave which made it worth it. Unfortunately Teej had to work at 15:00 so we didn't have too much time on the water, but after we were done we went to a nice little restaurant for lunch. We got a table with a good view of the beach and had a nice little man-date. After I dropped T.J. off at work and said goodbye, I brought my surfboard back and decided to head into Tofino to explore a little more than the day before. Coinsidently Laura Mitic, Julia Tschanz, and Adrienne Attorp had just arrived in Tofino from Victoria. I made plans to meet up with them and wandered around with them for awhile. And then finally it was time for me to head home. It was a sad realisation. I really enjoyed my time up there, it didn't even feel like I was in Canada. But within a mere 3hrs45mins later I was back at home and in the real world once again.
This trip is definitely on my top 3 favourite trip list. It was hard for me to leave. I had the urge to just pack-up everything and move out there and be a huge surf-bum and grow a big gnarly beard. Now I have a decision to make for once I'm done running, a tent in the mountains being a climbing-bum, or somewhere up in Ukee or Tofino being a surf-bum...
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Epic 2 Week Break.
Every year the majestic animal known as the middle distance runner is set free by his/her coaches and allowed to do WHATEVER he/she wants. To see what happens in the absolute freedom, lets take Canadian middle distance runner, Peter Corrigan as an example.
I have to say, this 2 week break was like no other break I've ever had. I took this break more seriously than ever before. I'll have to go back to Toronto just after my less than stellar heat of the 1500m at nationals. Cliff Childs and I were both mildly disappointed after missing out on the final by a few spots and headed directly to the liquor store and picked up a few beers. We were staying in different places so we split ways with plans to meet up at the track in 30mins. I took the subway back up to the apartment I was staying in and freshened up. I decided I'd walk back to the track and enjoy the nice day. I also decided it would be a good idea to keep it classy and brown-bag a couple beers on my way. On my way to the track I ran into my newly engaged friends, Matt Norminton and Jen Kemp, so I sat and had another beer with Matt. So after about 75mins I finally made it to the track. Watched a few races, and then headed out to the pub to drink. I went to bed around 2:30am that night, got up around 11am did some mild detox and started drinking again around 4pm. This night was so much fun, I'm pretty sure I danced for like 4-5 hours straight. I stayed up and got on a bus at 6am to head to the airport and ended up stayin awake until about 8am when I crashed on a bench in the airport. woke up around 9am to get on my flight, lucked out with 3 seats to myself, sprawled out and fell asleep before take off. I slept on and off the entire flight and woke up in Victoria, my body ravaged, my voice gone, and unsure how much dignity I had left, haha. Karl Robertson picked us up from the airport, I was trying to tell stories but gave up after a few mins because my voice was so bad. On the ride Karl asked if I wanted to come camping with him and a few others later that afternoon. Without hesitation I said "NO". I was in no shape to go camping. When I got home I went straight to bed, slept for about 4 hours, woke up, called Karl and told him to come pick me up. Went to the liquor store, bought 16 Pilsners and got right back down to business. After some story telling, laughs, and a little skinny dipping it was 2am and time for bed. We woke up at 9 the next morning and I cracked my first beer at 9:30 and had hotdogs and cheese-smokies for breakfast. That afternoon we went and rafted down the Cowichan river and then I headed home to finally give my body a rest.
I took a few days down, put in some hours at work. I also did a ton of climbing and went to Thetis lake and did some cliff jumping and about 100x more swimming than I had done in recent memory.
I was just biding my time in these days off until August 11th. This was a date that was down in a lot of people's day planners for a few weeks. Not only was it Deirdre's (and all of the engineer's) last exam of summer school and one of her last days in Victoria, but also Kendra's Birthday and one of Logan's last days here as well. To celebrate Dee and I decided to have people over all day for BBQ and drinks. On my way home from work at 2 I stopped by the liquor store and picked up a cheap flat of beer to enforce the mandatory shotgun upon entry into the backyard. Long story short, the night was amazing, everyone had a blast, there was no drama, no crying, one guy puked, but at like 6 so he slept for a few hours and then rallied like a champ. The party really lived up to expecations, if not exceeded them.
The following night Kendra had some friends from home over to Victoria and we went out for a night on the town. We decided to start classy and head to Monty's and then continuing the classy we went to Plan B. It was another awesome night of good times and dancing. After we got home from the bar a couple buddies and myself sat in my backyard watched the meteors.
Today I'm heading up-island to Uculuelet to visit my good friend TJ. We're going to go do some ocean fishing tomorrow morning, some bouldering and also hike up a mountain. Soon after I get back from TJ's I'm heading out to Calgary for a week to see friends and family. Also, Darren St. Clair, a good friend from the UK is coming to visit. I'm really excited to see him and spend some time out in to the REAL mountains.
As I said earlier, I've taken this break more serious than ever before. I partied harder, relaxed more, and did more epic things than any break I've ever had in the past. I'm going to do my first run today up in Uculuelet and I am really excited. I actually had to force myself to NOT run these past couple days. Luckily the scorching heat helped a bit. I'm stoked on getting out there this fall, healthy and injury free and pounding out MILES! I've started reading Once a Runner for the umpteenth time to get me even more pumped. I am totally refreshed and got some things out of my system now before the season starts.
WOO RUNNING!
I have to say, this 2 week break was like no other break I've ever had. I took this break more seriously than ever before. I'll have to go back to Toronto just after my less than stellar heat of the 1500m at nationals. Cliff Childs and I were both mildly disappointed after missing out on the final by a few spots and headed directly to the liquor store and picked up a few beers. We were staying in different places so we split ways with plans to meet up at the track in 30mins. I took the subway back up to the apartment I was staying in and freshened up. I decided I'd walk back to the track and enjoy the nice day. I also decided it would be a good idea to keep it classy and brown-bag a couple beers on my way. On my way to the track I ran into my newly engaged friends, Matt Norminton and Jen Kemp, so I sat and had another beer with Matt. So after about 75mins I finally made it to the track. Watched a few races, and then headed out to the pub to drink. I went to bed around 2:30am that night, got up around 11am did some mild detox and started drinking again around 4pm. This night was so much fun, I'm pretty sure I danced for like 4-5 hours straight. I stayed up and got on a bus at 6am to head to the airport and ended up stayin awake until about 8am when I crashed on a bench in the airport. woke up around 9am to get on my flight, lucked out with 3 seats to myself, sprawled out and fell asleep before take off. I slept on and off the entire flight and woke up in Victoria, my body ravaged, my voice gone, and unsure how much dignity I had left, haha. Karl Robertson picked us up from the airport, I was trying to tell stories but gave up after a few mins because my voice was so bad. On the ride Karl asked if I wanted to come camping with him and a few others later that afternoon. Without hesitation I said "NO". I was in no shape to go camping. When I got home I went straight to bed, slept for about 4 hours, woke up, called Karl and told him to come pick me up. Went to the liquor store, bought 16 Pilsners and got right back down to business. After some story telling, laughs, and a little skinny dipping it was 2am and time for bed. We woke up at 9 the next morning and I cracked my first beer at 9:30 and had hotdogs and cheese-smokies for breakfast. That afternoon we went and rafted down the Cowichan river and then I headed home to finally give my body a rest.
I took a few days down, put in some hours at work. I also did a ton of climbing and went to Thetis lake and did some cliff jumping and about 100x more swimming than I had done in recent memory.
I was just biding my time in these days off until August 11th. This was a date that was down in a lot of people's day planners for a few weeks. Not only was it Deirdre's (and all of the engineer's) last exam of summer school and one of her last days in Victoria, but also Kendra's Birthday and one of Logan's last days here as well. To celebrate Dee and I decided to have people over all day for BBQ and drinks. On my way home from work at 2 I stopped by the liquor store and picked up a cheap flat of beer to enforce the mandatory shotgun upon entry into the backyard. Long story short, the night was amazing, everyone had a blast, there was no drama, no crying, one guy puked, but at like 6 so he slept for a few hours and then rallied like a champ. The party really lived up to expecations, if not exceeded them.
The following night Kendra had some friends from home over to Victoria and we went out for a night on the town. We decided to start classy and head to Monty's and then continuing the classy we went to Plan B. It was another awesome night of good times and dancing. After we got home from the bar a couple buddies and myself sat in my backyard watched the meteors.
Today I'm heading up-island to Uculuelet to visit my good friend TJ. We're going to go do some ocean fishing tomorrow morning, some bouldering and also hike up a mountain. Soon after I get back from TJ's I'm heading out to Calgary for a week to see friends and family. Also, Darren St. Clair, a good friend from the UK is coming to visit. I'm really excited to see him and spend some time out in to the REAL mountains.
As I said earlier, I've taken this break more serious than ever before. I partied harder, relaxed more, and did more epic things than any break I've ever had in the past. I'm going to do my first run today up in Uculuelet and I am really excited. I actually had to force myself to NOT run these past couple days. Luckily the scorching heat helped a bit. I'm stoked on getting out there this fall, healthy and injury free and pounding out MILES! I've started reading Once a Runner for the umpteenth time to get me even more pumped. I am totally refreshed and got some things out of my system now before the season starts.
WOO RUNNING!
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