A little scare....

Just a little scare…..We spent a couple of days in Collingwood skiing this month. The house we stayed at was brand new…even had that new car smell. While we were there, I wasn’t feeling all that great. Couldn’t sleep and was having a hard time catching my breath.


When we got back to Bracebridge, I thought I should go to the clinic and see what was wrong. I do have allergies and get shots on a bi-weekly basis so I thought I had a lung or sinus infection. I just couldn’t get a full breath….didn’t feel like I had any capacity in my lungs.

Doctor says…”any stress in your life?”

I say,” Well…I work in a prison so there is always an edge”

He says…and I am not kidding here…”maybe you had a heart attack.”

If that doesn’t raise you stress level, nothing will.

Next thing I am at the hospital all wired up, chest x-rays and blood taken.

A couple of hours later…they find nothing and send me home. But I had a follow up appointment with a heart guy.

A week later I am all wired up again and riding a bike in the doctor’s office. Riding a bike is no big deal for me so I passed with flying colours.

So what caused all this?

The doc thinks (and I agree) that is was caused by all the toxics and other crap that comes with new carpeting. The place we stayed at had brand new carpet throughout so I was having a reaction to that.

Thank goodness we have hardwood floors in our house!

The Frost

Neil's Lunch

It’s Canadian Marathon weekend in Quebec. Steph, Pam and Anne are there kicking butt I am sure. Didn’t go to Quebec so today we skied the Frost.

The Frost Centre has 20 odd km of groomed trails through hardwood bush and cedar lowlands. It was a prefect day for a ski. Minus 8 and the sun was shinning.



Sugar Shack





The Front has a couple of cabins along the way where the very friendly volunteer staff start the fires in the morning. These volunteers are happy to have visitor and are knowledgeable about trails and terrain.

This is also an oppertunity to plan a hot lunch. Neil brought a loaf of bread filled with cheese, raspberry jam and chocolate! We brought along some pulled pork. Each cabin has a wood stove so a perfect place to warm up your lunch and have a rest.

The trails were in great shape thanks to lots of new snow and a good groomer. Sugar Shack and icefalls along the way.

We really have had a good cross country season. The weather is going to turn warm this week with a threat of rain….hopefully that is just weatherman talk.

 





Cross Country and Kolapore

When I first started cross country skiing in Ontario, I was living in Meaford. We had some local favourite places to ski…Owen Sound at the falls, the Lorri Trails on top of Georgian Peaks…but the best place was the Kolapore Forrest.
There are 50 km of bush trails. Hardwood forest, cedar wetlands and forgotten farm land that has returned to bush. We skied there quite a bit. I use to take the kids from Blue Hills Farm there every Saturday. We had old three pin binding, some had fish scales and others waxed. Skis were wider and shorter.

Since I moved to Muskoka, my skiing has changed. We have track set groomed trails here. Provincial Parks and other private operators have changed the skiing terrain. Track set trails mean that the snowplow technique is rarely used. If you want to slow down a bit in track set, you just need to step out with one ski. On track set corners, you just lean into them. Stay in the tracks and don’t loose speed. Skied are narrow and longer now too.

A trip back to Kolapore was a trip to old school skiing too. Shorter, wider skies would have worked much better. Because there is no groom track set, you need shorter skies to snow plow and get your back tips out wide enough. Consequently, I had a few big falls. Back country skiing is not for speed. That isn’t the point of back country at all. I do love Kolapore but will have to get a hold of some slower, wider and shorter skies next time.

On top of Red Death!

After a day of cross country, we went to Osler. Major snow strom in Ontario so there was a foot for fresh powder and only 100 people on the hill.