Skiing in Kootenay National Park

I went for a quick ski along the Simpson River in Kootenay National Park on my way back home from Canada today. It's a bit of a long drive so it was nice to get out and stretch my legs. It was a little colder than I thought it would be however. The temps were above freezing in Calgary and also in Cranbrook but back there in the parks it can be pretty darn wintery.

I've been really enjoying my trips to Canada. The people have been really friendly especially when they find out I'm from the states. It's a different culture than here in the states though for sure. Different holidays, different ways of doing things, saying things and looking at things. It's the same but different. I'm enjoying that difference.

But the Northern Rockies are pretty much the same. The animals and the trees don't know that they are Canadian,.. and as I skied along in Kootenay National Park I saw some rather big looking dog tracks back in there.. They weren't fresh but they didn't look domestic. Let me put it this way, I didn't see them in the parking area, only way back in there... Made me watch my back a little.

Still it was nice to be on my skis out there all alone in the wilderness.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all. I brought it in with Queenie in Canada and went ice skating for the first time since I was a kid. We used to have a pond like this to skate on in Montana where I grew up, so this was a real flash back. I fell once but then started to get the hang of it after a few laps. We rented skates, and I had to give my driver's license number as a deposit. The rental guy was a little short with me until he saw that I was from Washington state, then he's like, wow you're a long way from home and wanted to talk. I've never used hockey skates so that was also a new experience. They turn really quickly and I really enjoyed how they felt, almost like little slalom skis. Guess I'll have to get my own skates now.. Queenie is a good skater too even though she said she wasn't. Then we roasted some "smokies" (hot dogs) at a fire pit next to the pond. It was a very nice family experience on a beautiful winter day and something I'll long remember. I have to admit though that I probably should wear a helmet when I skate..

Oh,. that's not us by the way,.. we were just skating behind these guys.

Headstock tuner

Well I got what I wanted for Christmas,.. A head stock tuner.. A pretty cool little thing. Man I wish I'd had one of these back when I was out on the road, but the technology just didn't exist. When I was in orchestra the conductor would tune us all to an old strobe. I can see why he did that now.

A 440... and for my Canadian friends, 440, A?

Pine Cone Christmas Wreath

I made myself this pine cone Christmas wreath thing for above my door. Well I just found it in the forest and thought it would show some holiday spirit. I put a screw in the back and I tied an old guitar string on to hang it up with.

New ski race boots

So My friend Rog, who is a masters ski racer turned me on to a pair of Lange World Cup 150 race boots, and he pointed me in the right direction as far as size and fit. My old boots are getting packed out. The new ones are new old stock. I've always been a Lange guy when it comes to ski boots. So I've been wearing these around in my house to try and get used to how they fit. Race boots have to be really tight because if your foot is moving around in them you loose control, or have less control of the ski. At first I had trouble even getting them on. They do fit BTW, but they are screaming tight. Tonight I decided to put my custom foot beds (which were sculpted to the bottom of my foot) and that made a huge difference for the better. I thought there wouldn't be room for those in there but it totally improved the fit of the boot. So now my next step is to put them on with some very thin ski socks. And then after that I'll set up a pair of GS skis and ski with them for a while this weekend. I can tell that these are really going to improve my racing. My other boots were too sloppy.

Ask first

Back in 2006 I went out on the bay as the sun came up and took this pic with my little point and shoot as I drank coffee and fished and made this THIS POST as a result. Someone used the pic on their blog without my permission and didn't give me credit. So I thought I'd share it again with you. I do reserve the rights to all of my pictures, and I have a vast archive.

I also had Seeing Bears on my side bar for a long time and due to this I'm going to put it back up over there.

I don't mind at all if people open up the pics and look at them, that's what I post them for, but please ask first if you want to use one for something or if you want to post it online. I'll leave it there for now and stop short of linking to the blog that used my picture until they have a chance to remove it.

I've been in kind of a bad mood lately and this isn't helping..

***

The blogger removed my pic at my request. And the water calms...

Carhartt art

My friend's father in law painted these pictures on the back of his jacket. (believe it or not I do have a friend) I thought it was pretty cool.

Banff National Park photo

Here's a picture I took in Banff National Park between Banff and Lake Louise last week.

Lookout Pass photos

Ok, now I'm getting excited to go skiing myself. Here are a couple of pictures I took at Lookout Pass last year.

Forest pictures

Here are a couple of more pictures from hunting camp. A brief break in the weather allowed the sun to shine. It made for a pretty morning in the forest, but it wasn't long before the next weather system moved in.

I like to walk up this trail. It used to be used as survival training, then it became an ATV trail. Now that ATVs are banned from this area, it's just a trail that I like to hunt on. That big tree in the foreground is a cedar. There's a creek below to the right. There wasn't much color in the forest here when I took this picture so I removed what what color was left.

Retro camper pictures

I wanted to post a couple of more pictures from my weekend at the late hunting camp. It was really cozy in my 1974 Bell slide in camper as the snow closed in. I could hear the snow coming down and hitting the side of the camper and like I said I was snug as a bug in a rug in there. (and there were probably a few real bugs in there too..) Now the camper is off of the truck in my back yard and covered with a tarp, and my hunting buddies are still up at that camp in the snow.. Wish I was there with them. I might drive back up with the truck for the last day of hunting season, but we will see. If my guitar is ready I might drive back to Montana and spend the night at the cabin on Flathead Lake. I'll sit by the fire and play my guitar as winter closes in. It doesn't get much better than that.

Below is a picture of the forest view outside the back door of my camper the next morning as the sun came up. It was really something as I drank my morning coffee. Nabob coffee from Canada BTW...

Vintage Camper

Don't you wish that some things would never change?.. I love to camp, but I'm not a big tent camper. Don't get me wrong I have a small tent, and I like it unless it rains. What I really like is camping in a vintage camper, from the 60s or 70s. There's just something about them that is different than the new campers. There was an economy about them and well, the price is a lot lower now than a new camper, I couldn't begin to justify the cost of a new camper or a new pickup truck for that matter, but I don't think I'd enjoy a new one any more actually. The systems in the old campers are simple and work well. Of course nothing lasts forever.

Last weekend I took my pickup camper hunting and I was snug as a bug in a rug in there as the weather closed in around me. The sun came out after the storm and it was beautiful in the woods for a while. But another weather system moved in and I think winter is starting to take hold of the mountains in the northwest. I really like the way the picture above captures the snow coming down. I was looking through all of the pictures I took on this trip and this one really stood out to me.

The sun came out the next morning and it was really beautiful in the forest. But the weather didn't last very long and another storm system moved in.

Vintage camper countertop repair

I've been spending all of my free time building a new countertop for my 1974 Bell slide in pickup camper.

To avoid confusion, now I have two vintage campers, the 1968 Aristocrat travel trailer, and the 1974 Bell pickup slide in camper. I got the Aristocrat travel trailer, because the countertop on the Bell was falling a part, and I wanted something nice to take Queenie camping in,.. (so I got an even older trailer house..) Anyway I decided that I needed to fix the counter top in the Bell as I figured no body would buy it, and I'd keep it for the time being to take hunting, as I don't want to abuse the Aristocrat on hunting trips in the snow.

So here is the result of my countertop work on the Bell. My friend gave me the teal oven out of his old Eldorado slide in when the roof on that old camper finally gave up the ghost. But the oven was too nice to just throw away so he took it out and gave it to me. All I had was a cook top, and since I like to bake bread and such, I wanted an oven. I've made a table top to match and still have to trim the formica on that and install the metal edging. Then I should be good to go hunting, and I'll save the Aristocrat for smoother roads.

Bone nut for my Martin D16

Last week I drained the water in the cabin so the pipes wouldn't freeze this winter. Then I stopped at Paradise Montana to meet with Rick who agreed to put a new bone nut on my Martin D16 guitar. I don't think he usually does this sort of work as he's busy building beautiful guitars, but a rancher friend of mine turned me on to him, so I think he's doing me a favor. Anyway, it was making a weird sound on the high E string when played open. So a new bone nut is in order. I can't wait to get the darn thing back as this issue was keeping me from playing that guitar, and it's really my best guitar. You'd think that Martin would have cut the nut better on this level of guitar but I guess nut.,, I mean not..

***
Got my guitar back and the problem is solved. So now I can get to know that guitar better as it pretty much sucked before Rick fixed it.

Fall at Flathead

I love being at Flathead Lake any time of the year but fall is really nice. It's like a breath of fresh air after a hot dry summer. Those picnic tables are going to be vacant for several months now. How I wish I could transport myself there at lunch on any given day. There's just never enough time to be all the places you want to be.

Birthday and work station

We've been having a remod here at work and I ended up with a pretty nice work station. And for my birthday, and Queenie sent me a very nice fruit selection covered in chocolate! Well it is pretty darn good! I'm tempted to eat the whole thing but I'm going to have to measure my effort. Has my favorite apples (granny smith) covered in chocolate. Doesn't get much better than that!

Giant slalom ski rule change

It was hard taking pictures last weekend in British Columbia as it was overcast most of the time we were there. Hree is a picture I took of the call colors near Wasa B.C. just outside of Cranbrook. Panorama is getting some snow though.

Well I'm looking forward to skiing as winter nears. And I've got a hot pair of Volkl race skis to do the recreational racing with. Now they've changed the rules on giant slalom for the world cup so that GS skis have to have a long radius side cut. But I got some new old stock women's world cup skis that have the shorter radius that used to be allowed for men. Without going into the whole legacy of rule changes that have taken place lately, these women's world cup race stock skis are fully powerful and still have the shorter radius racers like. Of course I could buy some "cheater" race skis but they aren't powerful like the "race stock" skis are.

Bodie Miller spoke out about the rule change that bumped the radius of GS skis up from the 20m range to the mid 30m range. He said that he wasn't out to win over another racer, he just wanted to ski as well has he could and the new rules for GS ski radius don't allow that. It will force everyone to skid turns instead of carving clean turns, and that's a step backwards. He went on to say he could go to the ski shop and buy recreational skis that he could ski on better than the World Cup skis Head could provid him with. And that's really sad.

For someone like me at the bottom of the ski racing food chain it just means, yes I can still get cheater skis, but I can't get powerful race skis that will carve well. So the rule change to Giant Slalom skis sucks all the way around. Going to have to hang on to all of those old race skis..

Canned Ham

Since I got the Aristocrat, I've taken more of an interest vintage travel trailers. I always had one actually. They are so cool! I just want to live in one.. I want to hear the rain on the metal roof.. I want to play my telecaster and hear the natural reverb.. I want to wake up in the morning and smell the propane burning as I perk my coffee. I want to eat spam for breakfast in a canned ham!

And I want an aluminum Christmas tree too..

Fall mornings and GOP politics

I wish spring and fall would last longer. I love the crisp fall mornings along the river. Here's a picture of the valley as the sun came up. I work over there in the distance. There's actually a river between me and the mountains in the background but it's out of view. Soon the state line bridge will be open and that will make my commute to work much better. I might even put the headlight back on my bike as it's going to be dark after work soon. I find myself trying to finish up things I should have done during the summer, but then it was too hot and now it's too cold. I did crawl up on the roof and paint my chimney at lunch though.

I've been watching the Republican debates. I honestly don't understand the popularity of Rick Perry. He seems to have absolutely nothing to offer except that his campaign has a lot of money. He wants to be president but didn't enter the race with an economic plan as he admitted in one debate. He criticized Cain's 9 9 9, but it seems that what Perry offers so far is 0 0 0... It makes me think that even if he does have a plan now on his website or something it's an afterthought or something one of his staffers came up with.. Donald Trump said of Cain's 9 9 9, that it favored the rich like himself, and not the lower and middle class but "at least it's something".. I guess people are starting to figured it out though. Since they've seen Perry in action he's dropped to 3rd in the poles behind Romney and Cain. It frightens me that Rumsfeld advised Perry, and makes me wonder if we really need another governor from Texas as president until the country recovers from the last one.

Hunting camp with the Aristocrat

Here's a picture of the Aristocrat travel trailer and the old Ford F250 up at hunting camp. It was a good first test of the trailer. It got down below freezing at night and I stayed warm thanks to my Hydroflame furnace which worked perfect. My friend helped me start the propane fridge and that also worked great. Those things if working are worth more than what I had to pay for this whole trailer. So everything works except the tail lights. I used some magnetic trailer lights for towing a vehicle and just stuck them to the bumper of the trailer for this trip. And below is a shot of my bunk. Since it was just me in the Aristocrat, there was no need to make down the table.