June 4th - Moraine Lake, Memory for Mike

June 4th is the Anniversary of Mike Farrow's climbing accident. Three years ago Mike Farrow and Kevin James went to climb Mount Deltaform, the 8th peak of Moraine Lake's Valley of the Ten Peaks. Unfortunately they did not return do to an avalanche. In memory of Mike, i went hiking all around the lake and up the side mountain for a view of the mountain that crushed a long time friend and Christian brother. Thanks to mike, i learned how to Ski and got me into kayaking and started my love for climbing and beautiful BC Mountains. We'll never forget you Mike... Here's the day for you.

Ground squirrl tried to eat my lunch...

June 3rd, Staff Day - Total Carnige on the River

Well...our boss had the great idea of having a staff day for us... and what else would river guides do on their day off? of course... they spend it on the river! We took the sport yaks out on the river and maybe that wasn't such a good idea. The two man inflatable Kayaks, turned into 7 people, 4 boats, and 6 paddles swimming in the river with in the first 10 minutes of the trip. My boat being one of them, but luckily Paul and I ended up in the eddie behind the hole we flipped on. Paul and I stayed back and helped rescue Chris and Deanna, and eventually kept heading down the river. We stopped at a near by waterfall to make sure everyone was okay to keep heading down the river. As we sat there, we were looking at the river, and some of the debris comming down from the water being so high this day... we saw a 'log' coming down the river, but it seemed to be crossing the river... and at this point my boss yells "Holy Fuck lets get out of here, that's a bear" and sure enough, our juviniell black bear friend was swimming accross the river, right to us. He climbed up on shore, shook himself off and look at us like'what are you guys doing" Coolest thing i've ever seen. So cute too... Anyways, later on down the river, we were all doing fine,heading through the Rock Garden... so far so good and just as we thought we were almost through it, somehow Paul and I ended up in the river before we could even realize what had happened. We ended up flipping on a hole we thought we were past, and Paul was stuck inthe hole with the kayak getting recycled, while i was swimming down the river, between rocks on one side of me and big ledge holes on the other. Lets just say i was not a happy person at that time and was frantically trying to scream at Finn (our boss) to get him to paddle to me before i went over the unavoidable ledge drop that was coming up. Thank god Fin got to me just in time for me to grab his boat as we road over the ledge through the wave together, then paddles to shore. i was so terrified and looking upstream for Paul, who luckily managed to get himself out of the hole and into the kayak to paddle to find me. As soon as paul got to me and finn, i jumped on him and hugged him like there was no tomorrow... we got back into the kayak and took out a little farther down and i got in the truck with the photographer and the others that had quit earlier up the river. After we all got off the river, we went and had lunch and then had a tennis tournament and lots of beer to chat about the days events that turned out rather funny now that you think of it. Anyways... that was our day, and there's more photos to come about it. Cheers!

Guide School

As all of you should know by now, i'm training to be a White water raft guide this summer. So here's a few pictures of the Crew and us training and hanging out. It's a small staff for a small river, so it should be a good summer. I'd also like to point out, we've rafted in all types of weather and these last pictures... yes this is SNOW... not rain... a few days ago we were in a snow storm rafting down tobby Creek... and it was a nightmere. We've tained in all weather hung out at nights staff bbq's lots of adventuers on the river wtih swimmers and losing the guides, paddles crashing, wrapping the raft, suring, and thanks to me the closest flip in class 3 water.... oh it's been great... and it only continues!

Night Out

After a long time away and Guide training, i havn't seen many frineds, so here we are out at the bar catching up and hanging out. Me and Darren

Trip Home to Ontario

Well, the end of April gave our family a tragic event that i had to come home for. My uncle had a stroke, resulting in his passing, so it was a pretty tough trip home, but i did try to have some fun whlie i was there. The photos are from when Amy and I went hiking up the Bruce to Cape Croker. During my time home, i also visited london for a day, went hiking, got sick with the Norwalk virus, saw a few friends, spent some time in Midland with the family and the funeral. The tribute funeral to bob was hard because he belonged to the police force on the dispatch crew. I also hung out in Missasauga with Matthew at his new house before flying home to BC! Here's a few photos of Cape Croker.

Kootenay Park Adventure

Well, this post has been a long time comming. About a month ago, i went hiking in Kootenay Park to Stanley Glacier. I went by myself just to have a chill day and the weather was perfect. This is the only day i've seen the park so clear and so beautiful. More often then not, the pass is cloudy and raining. So i'm not in any of the photos b/c i had to take them all. but here's a few to look at.