Well folks, its been awhile since my last update and I have a lot to catch everyone up on. For one, I finally moved into the realm of new technology and got myself the new iPhone 5 which I am currently using to write this post because the San Antonio wireless is no bueno por caca. Hopefully this thing will help me stay more up to date with everything and everyone.
Secondly, I am currently, and for the forseeable future, homeless. I moved out of my apartment and into my truck/ storage unit and now use all that money to travel somewhere new every turnaround.
On that note, for those who are behind, I have been sent to Northern Alberta, Canada to build an oil sand refinery. I work 14 days on and then get a week off. While I'm up there I work from about 0430 to 2000 every day (that includes the travel to the site from the camp I stay in). 'Turnaround' is my week off that I use for traveling.
Fox has gone to live with my parents and has been good for their dog Kira. However, after taking it upon himself to mark their freshly cleaned carpets I agreed with them to have him fixed. Hopefully he keeps his personality but chills out with the desire to pee on everything.
I have been on a couple adventures already and have a lot more planned. I hope to update this thing more regularly now that I can do it on the go so keep checking in for that.
I got rid of Facebook so this is everyone's best bet of keeping up with me. So until next time remember, the most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
This Saturday I participated in the Spartan race. For those of you who don't know what that is:
http://www.spartanrace.com/
They can explain it better than I can but basically its a 3 mile run with lots of obstacles. If you fail one you have to do 25 burpees (pushups with jumping). I took out a lot of the boring running, but here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_upload?feature=vm-menu
http://www.spartanrace.com/
They can explain it better than I can but basically its a 3 mile run with lots of obstacles. If you fail one you have to do 25 burpees (pushups with jumping). I took out a lot of the boring running, but here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_upload?feature=vm-menu
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Wicked Whitewater Rafting
FINALLY!!
*This is going to be a running edit because I have a ton of feed to go through and edit because we had three Go Pros going*
So last weekend, July 28, some of us cool kids from work went on a WICKED whitewater rafting trip in Golden, BC. I have decided that BC is probably one of the most beautiful places in North America and I was only there three days. Anyways, we went rafting on the Kicking Horse River with Alpine Rafting tours and it was bomb.
The rapids seriously looked like that scene in LOTR where the water looks like horses (total nerd moment I know).
On this trip we were supposed to do the upper, middle and lower canyon. However the river was too high so we just did the upper and middle canyon twice. The first time I rode on the front row so I could film forward, the second time I rode hanging on to the front of the boat, looking backwards so I could film backwards. The following pictures are of a section of class 4 rapids ( it only goes to class 5). I was supposed to be filming but I pressed a button one too many times so I got delayed pics. I was kind of disappointed but I still got some good ones to show off:
*This is going to be a running edit because I have a ton of feed to go through and edit because we had three Go Pros going*
So last weekend, July 28, some of us cool kids from work went on a WICKED whitewater rafting trip in Golden, BC. I have decided that BC is probably one of the most beautiful places in North America and I was only there three days. Anyways, we went rafting on the Kicking Horse River with Alpine Rafting tours and it was bomb.
The rapids seriously looked like that scene in LOTR where the water looks like horses (total nerd moment I know).
On this trip we were supposed to do the upper, middle and lower canyon. However the river was too high so we just did the upper and middle canyon twice. The first time I rode on the front row so I could film forward, the second time I rode hanging on to the front of the boat, looking backwards so I could film backwards. The following pictures are of a section of class 4 rapids ( it only goes to class 5). I was supposed to be filming but I pressed a button one too many times so I got delayed pics. I was kind of disappointed but I still got some good ones to show off:
The view from our campground
Jules protecting herself from the "mozzys" with her wicked stockings
Dylan, the mastermind behing this trip getting into his wetsuit
Pual and Shalia showing off their wetsuits
The first three are from the first run taken by a pro.
I'm the goofy one on the front left with the Go Pro on my head
Awesome.
Colton checking to see if my camera was on
Powering into the entry "line" of the class 4
Most of our group (starting at the front left and working clockwise): TD, Nicole, Jules, Simon (the guide), Jessica, Nicole, and Colton. The three others of our group were in another boat with another Go Pro. The one on Simon's head was pretty much filming the whole time so he got both trips from the back of the boat so standby for that.
The start of the rapids
Here we go class 4. Keep in mind that this river is glacier fed, meaning we had to wear wetsuits because the water was so cold. I opted out of my rain jacket the second time around like a crazy american so I took most of the waves head on.
One of my favorites. Simon just looks so epic.
Halfway through the class 4
Another favorite, that crazy smile on the guide is wicked.
We made it through the class 4
But that doesn't mean the rapids are done.
Another boat wasn't so lucky.
Remember that water is freezing cold.
Meet Ryan, the guide in the boat. This was the guy who gave us the safety briefing before we started and mentioned how flipping boats do happen, but not very often. This was his second time flipping on this trip. He flipped on the first run as well. However, to his credit, he is the best guide with that troupe, he was just opting to use a single oar, where you will see that simon has the two giant oars to guide with. This is a lot more difficult and it showed today.
The one regret of not filming this section was I missed the 1st person view of me pulling a guy in. So here is the aftermath, hopefully Simon got some good footage.
Everyone was ok, no major injuries, just some very cold folks.
Dinner at the campground after the trip.
Chillin out after dinner
Fox begging for food like a brat
And say goodnight.
All in all it was a primo trip, everyone had a wicked time. Like I said stand by for vids.
My apologies all for the delay in the updates. Its been a crazy couple weeks. I have recently moved into a new apartment (future post pending on that) and I've been running around trying to get settled in there. I also don't have internet so I'm eating delicious leftovers and updating at work for my faithful followers.
Two weekends ago, July 21, Fox and I went and explored the beautiful Lake Louise. If anyone ever visits Alberta, that should be a number one stop on your trip. My Go Pro battery was low, so I saved it for the following vids. The pictures don't do it justice because they were from my terrible little phone camera.
Lake Louise everybody:
Two weekends ago, July 21, Fox and I went and explored the beautiful Lake Louise. If anyone ever visits Alberta, that should be a number one stop on your trip. My Go Pro battery was low, so I saved it for the following vids. The pictures don't do it justice because they were from my terrible little phone camera.
Lake Louise everybody:
View from the Chateau side of the lake.
View from the opposite side of the lake
Fox cooling off
Rapids that feed the lake
Waterfall from snow run off
Another of the same thing
Fox loved all the water, and got very muddy as a result
View from a lookout point
Avalanches could be heard from far away as huge CRACKS followed by a huge BOOM
And now for the videos. The first is from a teahouse thats pretty much just a rest area, the second is from the lookout point. Enjoy:
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Fish Creek Ride 1
Fish Creek Park is apparently the largest Provincial (state) park in Canada and it is right by my temporary hotel/work and it has miles of single track (off road) mountain biking. Unfortunately, I got off tempo with my Hero and missed a lot of the good parts. The upside is these guys go every Thursday night so I'm sure I'll get better footage. In the mean time here are the highlights of what I did get:
(Music: Blue Blood Blues by The Dead Weather)
(Music: Blue Blood Blues by The Dead Weather)
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Mount Fullerton Excursion
Mount Fullerton is a mountain within the Canadian Rockies about 45 min East of Calgary in Kananaskis Country/Elbow Sheep Wildland. Its peak is at 8950' and the climb up to it is 3900'. We began at approximately 10 a.m. Mountain Time. We rode our bikes down an old fire trail for a bit until we had to start our ascent. We carried the bikes with us along some switchbacks until we reached a dry creek bed. We followed this along for awhile until it was too hard to ride the bikes. We stowed them and continued on to the base of the mountain where we had a light lunch at 12:30 p.m. It was a very rocky, steep climb so we took lots of short breaks. We took a more circuitous route through some slippery shale and finally achieved the summit about 4:00 p.m. Here's proof:
It took us half the time to get down, but we stopped to refill our water with delicious, frigid glacier water that is pure enough to drink straight out of the stream. We made it back to base about 6 p.m. and back to our bikes by 7. The descent from there was a cake walk because where we carried the bikes before, we rode them now. The video is a little shaky because as you can see there were large rocks and roots everywhere. You only get HD if you watch it in the little box, but you still get the gist if you blow it up:
(youtube won't let me upload it straight here because of copyrights)
It took us half the time to get down, but we stopped to refill our water with delicious, frigid glacier water that is pure enough to drink straight out of the stream. We made it back to base about 6 p.m. and back to our bikes by 7. The descent from there was a cake walk because where we carried the bikes before, we rode them now. The video is a little shaky because as you can see there were large rocks and roots everywhere. You only get HD if you watch it in the little box, but you still get the gist if you blow it up:
Music: Don't Slow Down by Matt and Kim
We reached the trail head soon after at 8:30 p.m.
EDIT
(From closest in clockwise order) Dietrich and Edelgard (no idea if they are spelled right, German cousins of the amazing Monica Biensch), Jared 'Ringo' Brown (nephew of the Biensch's), Monica herself who cooked an amazing waffle breakfast to kickstart the day, Me, Ethan Biensch.
The gang: Ringo, Bill Biensch, Me, Ethan
That is what the video above is of, and we carried our bikes all the way up it.
Amazing little dried creek bed and you can see the smoothed out face where the water has worn the rock down.
Of course we had to get in it.
Close to the base. The peak in the hazy background is where we are going.
Lots of mini breaks to keep up our strength, this one included snowballs
Another mini break.
The view from a little over halfway up
The GERMAN apple
Reppin the Titans.
Me from the backside a little after where the climbing video starts.
The summit
And our view
This is the right way down. The way we took up was the more dangerous and difficult way. We just couldn't see the trail from our vantage point even though the guide book said it was "obvious"
Half way down in half the time, and we refilled our water in a crisp, clean glacier stream.
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