Active Transportation Comes To Golden

I must say that all of this past week wasn't crap. There was a public forum on Active Transport in teh Golden area with pedestrian, cycling, skateboarding and whellchair accessibility in the spotlight. There were three political representatives there as well and hopeful it has opened their eyes to the concept of design for non motorized use.

Luke let me know that there will be a review board established to address the issues of teh entire community relating to active transport and this really makes me so proud to be living in this little town of ours. As a cycling for transportation advocate I really hope that this group will be able to steer the town in a direction which ill create manageable and well thought out transportation links for cyclists and pedestrians.

Through more active programs hosted by the GTBF we can really create a logical and efficient cycling concept for Golden. More classy bike racks, more cheap bikes, and more people seeing cyclists on our streets. Make them socially aware that cyclists are vehicles too. That will only come with adequate signage, driving lane restrictions and positive community involvement.

Time will tell. I'm just glad to see there are other people on the same page as me in our beautiful town.

In the mean time. Make room for a hat under your helmet, slap on some fenders and lights and get ready for fall riding in Golden. Cold Mornings, cool afternoons and snow capped peaks, it really is hard to beat.

My Crap Ass Trip to Calgary

I had to make a trip into Calgary on Wednesday to pick up a ski team tent and organize our winter team expenses with Gord Glass, the Swix and Fischer rep. We were able to get our skis and team suits ordered up and get a screaming good deal on them. On the way from there I was in a car accident on McLeod Trail and (around) 120 Ave. For some miracle of nature I came out unscathed.
I was driving behind a Land Rover with a 40(ish) year old woman and her 10(ish) year old son in the back. In front of them was a truck pulling a flat deck trailer with a load of aluminum pipes. For some reason the pipes were caped on one end and the caps were facing downwind (at the back of the trailer). The wind must have caught a four of these pipes and flung them off the flatdeck. Both the driver in front of me and I saw it happen and slammed on our brakes to avoid a collision. When the woman slammed on her bakes the front end of her vehicle dropped down and acted as a ramp for the pipe to crash through her windshield, killing her instantly. The boy in the backseat suffered neck injuries and was not in good shape. The second pipe flew up over her vehicle and came straight at me only to land almost perpendicular to my car and roll under the front wheels where it flew up and smashed out the front grill of a Ford truck. Two others ricocheted off of the front of the Land Rover and bounced across to the other lane on the right punching a whole in the rear passenger door of a car beside me and the last one bouncing off in to the ditch across three lanes of traffic. There were also a couple cars behind the Ford that ended up in very mild fender benders due to the high speed reductions.

I have to say that was one of the scariest moments of my life and don't really think I will be over it for a long time to come. I just can't believe that I came through it without a scratch on myself or my vehicle for that matter. I think there is likely a small dent at least under the car but I haven't really taken the time to look. It drives fine , without any shimy or mis-alignments that I can see or feel. I was at the accident scene for almost and hour and a half before I was free to go. I gave them all of my information but have not heard anything back yet? I guess I'll just wait and see if I need to go back over for a hearing or something related to the idiot construction worker who improperly secured his load. That guy will have nightmares for the est of his life.

After that I got in to the car and got out of the city as fast as I could heading back out on the 22x the way I came in, to avoid all of the traffic. But, coming down the Field hill towards Golden some guy in front of me drove over a huge rock in the middle of the road and tore a hole in his gas tank belching gas all over the road. So....I stopped and drove him down to Field where he could call for a ride. A cleanup crew drove past me just before I dropped down into Golden, so they must have been alerted to the spill.

I got home at 8 and was never happier to get out of our car. I'm just happy to be alive through that one.

Golden Nordic Ski Club Blog

Yup, like I don't have enough going on......This will actually make life sooo much easier. If members are interested in being kept up to date just sign up as a follower and off we go. Go have a look and stay informed. Become a follower so I don't look an idiot!

Fro Sho

Oh, Julian got to live out a long time fantasy today be displaying a wicked blue hawk at school for "Wacky Hair Day". I must admit if I actually had hair I would have done it too. It looks good on him. He definately does not have the badass gene. He just looks darn cute.

Posting Delinquency and the Busy Fall

After being sick for an official week now I thought I should get something up here. I've been feeling bad that I have been a bit of a slacker in regards to the blog of late. As fall arrives, the leaves drop, snow touches the mountain tops and courses start up I can't help but wish that all of this green and yellow would fade away beneath a thick blanket of white. The ski team had a great training session on Thursday and we will be going on one of our last leisure days (a two hour bike ride through the freshly fallen leaves) before we head into hard training season.

There is a lot coming up this fall. We will be completing our three bridges which includes a great rehabilitation project on a now closed down section of trail, will be constructing a bunch of fencing and v-boards for races and club events, begin designing and funding hunting for our proposed day lodge project, am planning our first major race event which will be a cooperative effort with KHMR to help prove to them that XC is a very big part of the land base surrounding the resort, 3 courses coming up (two Zone4 computer courses and a Cross Country Canada Facilitator Course), a BC Talent Squad Camp and keeping up with three days a week of ski team training.

This is all in the next two months!!! Oh and then there is Membership and Rabbit Registration nights , two waxing clinics, four ski courses and my birthday!!!!

A busy two months are coming up but it's all worth it. I can't wait to get on snow with the team. I should see my new skis in the next few weeks, 2 prs of Carbonlites and an RCS Crown. I may be trying out the new Fischer boots as well. Not sure yet. We have also arranged for a free tent for the team at events this year to go with my sideline job with Fischer/Swix as their race service tech rep for the Kootenays. I hope I can spend more time working with them this season.

Well...it's late and my eyes are gluing shut so off I go.