Summer to date

This has been the most fun summer of my life. In large part because let's face it, I haven't worked much at all but also due to my many getaways out of town on vacation. Here's how it went down:

July long w/e surfing in Oregon with Amy. Amy and I left at 5am Saturday and made it to the border where we waited, and waited, and waited. It took us about 12 hours to reach Cannon Beach, it was a long ass day. Cannon Beach was insanely busy Saturday and I couldn't wait to get out of there so we rented my gear from the surf shop and hightailed it outta Cannon Beach off to Nehalem where we camped. By the way, the Americans know how to build a nice campsite-this place was nicer than any campground I've ever seen in Canada. We drove to Oswald State Park every day for some surfing (plus a 1km walk to the beach with our boards and gear) where Amy rocked it and ate shit. Nevermind that I'm absolutely awful at it because I had lots of fun.



After that I did actually go to work but nevermind work...I spent a night at Gambier Island and caught up with friends. We ate tasty food, relaxed and rested (ok I relaxed and rested) and Rob and I did a nice walk up to Gambier Lake where the water was fine.














Following Gambier I was off to Vancouver where I met up with Joanne and we did the Kits Challenge, an open water swim event in the ocean!! It was a nice 1,500 metre event, so a good introduction to swimming in the ocean. I was nervous but the event was very relaxed and it wasn't scary swimming in the ocean at all so I'm glad I went. It was a positive experience and ended as all events should, with some nice people making waffles for breakfast.

Bear Scare!!!!!!!!!

This morning while running with 2 friends we ran into 2 bears. We were heading North on a main trail with thick bush on either side. There’s also a side trail that twists in and out, in and out, of the main trail. I was running about 25 feet in front my friends. All of a sudden, 20 feet in front of me a sizeable black bear comes barreling around the bend. I let out a blood-curdling scream when I realized that the bear hadn’t stopped short immediately and that it was still running towards me. I shouted to my friends that there was a bear and I began clapping my hands and yelling as I backed away from the bear towards my friends. The bear was still running and it veered away to my left onto the side trail and then ANOTHER bear came running around the same bend, this bear also veered off onto the side trail. There was very brief talk of whether or not we should continue heading North, stay put while the bears got away, or retreat and get out of the trail heading South. At this point I had backed up to where my friends were and I even passed them and I was encouraging us to retreat out of the trail back onto a paved road. I was back in the front and jogging South out of the trail, and we were all yelling and clapping as we jogged. So now I’m back in front of my friends jogging South and holy shit one of the bears pops out of the side trail on my left, the bear was heading the same way as were were, it had criss crossed the path several times behind us! I began yelling in earnest all over again and the bear did an about turn and took off North along the trail away from us. Finally the bears and the humans were heading in opposite directions. We humans hoofed it another 20 metres South where we all popped out of the trail and onto a road. We had just begun to collect ourselves when both bears pop out of the trail too! More yelling and clapping and this time there was space for them to head away from us and that’s what they did, this time they went East. Our heart rates were through the roof! After that we adjusted our run route and stuck to paved roads for the rest of the run.

Must say I felt sorry for the poor bears, they were frightened and wanted nothing to do with us and nothing to do with whatever it was they were originally running from.

I must chalk this up to a positive bear experience though it did scare the shit out of me. It just was bad luck that we encountered each other in a really small area full of twisting and winding trails where we just could not get away from each other….that and the fact that I was separated from my girlfriends so the bears did get between us at one point I think.

My last bear experience was about a month ago and it was a good one too. I was again running slightly ahead of the same 2 girlfriends when I spotted a bear. It stopped, I stopped and told my friends that there was a bear just ahead and I began yelling and clapping immediately. The bear took off into the bush and we didn’t see it again and we continued on our run.

So 2 positive bear experiences are a good thing (if you have to have them at all) but I must say that I’ll have the vision of a bear running around the corner right at me for awhile.

Done

This is on the return trip to Garibaldi Lake last weekend. It was really hot that day and I was done and done. 3km left and I just wanted to be at the lake floating on a pool noodle.