Training Log Archive: Bash

'Bent and I took kayaks on scenic, rocky Great Slave Lake, heading from Yellowknife down past Mosher Island, then we kept going until we had used up half of our allotted time. The wind was with us, and there was a small craft warning for later, so we didn't want to get too far away. At our farthest point, we went ashore and climbed up a big rocky hill to get a good view of the ice, which was now only 15 kayak-minutes away from us. Cool!! We stayed closer to shore on our way back and didn't get affected too much by the headwind. Nice way to start our day!

Miscellaneous other canoe paddles:
- Mainland house to houseboat, where we switched to kayaks.
- Houseboat to mainland, to do some errands onshore
- Mainland back to houseboat
- Houseboat to mainland for girls' outing to northern art gallery, followed by wine and snacks on a sunny deck
- Mainland to houseboat when we finally started feeling guilty about leaving the two guys with the baby all afternoon
- Houseboat to mainland for Arctic char dinner at Bullock's

'Bent's brother was adamant that he was going to get one of us (ideally 'Bent) to change a diaper so that we could "understand his life". We countered with a suggestion that he could come hiking through a chest-deep swamp with us at 2 a.m. so that he could understand our lives. We didn't end up changing any diapers...

It was my niece's 1st birthday party, which meant more paddling than yesterday.
- Canoed from Back Bay to the houseboat in the morning to have breakfast, blow up balloons, hang streamers and entertain baby with silly antics while her parents did essential pre-party tasks.
- Kayaked to Back Bay to let dog out at the place where we are housesitting/dogsitting.
- Kayaked back to the houseboat for the party. I've never been in the presence of so many children aged two and under. It was a great party, and they all had fun, but it was overwhelming for a person accustomed to dogs rather than toddlers. Fantastic chocolate banana cake made it all worth it though, not to mention the exuberant smile on our niece's frosting-covered face.
- 'Bent got in some extra paddling, since he was assigned to shuttling the few boatless guests back and forth from the mainland.
- Canoed from houseboat to mainland for a grocery run.
- Canoed from houseboat to Back Bay for the night. Was trying to remain on Ontario time due to our short visit, but I think I've blown it tonight. It's hard to sleep when it doesn't get dark.

We're visiting 'Bent's brother in Yellowknife. He lives on a houseboat on Great Slave Lake with his wife and baby daughter. We are staying on the mainland, so this weekend will include some paddling training, even if we don't have time for much else. Today's paddles included some back-and-forth to the mainland, plus a circuit of Joliffe Island, using both kayaks and canoes. Weather is uncomfortably hot, but you can see ice on the lake on the horizon, since it only went out during the last week. If we get the chance - and if the weather is good - we'd like to paddle out to the ice, which is apparently about 8 km away. The water is frigid, so it would have to be very calm for us to try it. There's not a lot of passing boat traffic to pick us out of the water if we fall in. The ice was spectacular flying over Great Slave Lake on our way in.

After an afternoon of violent thunderstorms in Palgrave, I finally headed to Waterdown to check that flags were still out for tonight's GHO training session. The woods were soooo wet, and as I skidded down one steep, slick, rock-strewn slope, it occurred to me that I'd broken the rule I'd established after Danelle Ballengee's accident. 'Bent didn't know where I was nor whom to ask about it, and after last week's poor attendance at the training night, I didn't even know if other orienteers would be coming. It wasn't an issue this time, but I'll have to remember to be smarter in future. (And yes, orienteers DID show up for the training night. But only seven of them.)

A fun, sunny morning of single track in Albion Hills with 'Bent, Suze and Eric. I met Suze at STORM The Trent a few weeks ago. She beat both 'Bent and me on the paddle, and she is a strong biker. I only finished ahead of her because the navigation section went better for me - phew! I've given her some info on orienteering clinics though, so she'll probably crush me next year.

We met Eric in the woods today and invited him to ride with us. He turned out to be a patient of 'Bent's, our teammate Angus' violin teacher, guitar teacher to Rocky's son and former harmonica teacher to Crash. (I think I got all that right.) Small world!

One minor note of excitement occurred when the other riders heard me yell and crash onto the forest floor while simultaneously yanking my helmet from my head. A wasp or bee had smacked into my temple through my helmet, and suddenly I felt fire on my scalp. My only thought was to get the helmet off, since I couldn't brush off the insect. What a great idea to remove my helmet during my fall to the ground! It feels OK now, so hopefully I interrupted it partway through the act of stinging me - and luckily I didn't land on my head!

We are going to start doing Wed. morning group bike rides in Albion Hills. I'll contact folks who are most likely to be able to arrange their schedule around it, but for people reading this, we will meet outside the Albion Hills Chalet at 8:45 a.m. for at least the next few weeks to see how it goes. We'll probably ride about 2 hours, and we'll figure out ways to accommodate different speeds.

I am officially declaring my ESAR Poison Ivy Watch to be over. There might be a new bump or two that could be attributed to PI, but it's nothing like I'd feared.

OK, I've put it off long enough. Time to pack for Yellowknife.

More of the new ankle turn preventive routine while watching the Winnipeg Comedy Festival. I finally got around to trying a new exercise that K/O had given me. I'm supposed to pick up 10 dog kibbles with my toes and place them into a cup. Then do the same on the other side, then repeat on both sides. Obviously, K/O doesn't have two Labradors, because I never would have gotten past the first kibble! I looked for 10 small pebbles in our driveway today, and I'm using them instead. The dogs came running up when I put the stones on the floor, and there was a brief moment when I thought they might eat the stones too. But they sniffed a lot, then walked away in disgust - phew.

It's been almost 60 hrs, and so far no poison ivy. Hard to believe. I don't want to get my hopes up too high, but maybe I escaped the worst of it. I wasn't so lucky last weekend. In case you didn't know, poison ivy CAN get you through your bike shorts.