What I'm missing out on

This is what Temple Mountain looks like from our work site.
Damn those hospitality types with their days free to climb to the summit!



Many of the peaks got another dusting this week with the cold temps.

Cold Sky Display

The cold sky this morning at 7am. This is the Parks / Public works building where i meet with our client (Public Works) each morning prior to heading up the highway to site.

It got down to 1deg C this morning!

Pulling on the Boots in Banff

So, whilst having heaps of fun at drinks after training last thursday night the Banff Rugby women convinced me to play in the last game of the regular season. So once again i scrambled together some boots, a pair of shorts, and a mouthgard and got amongst it.



I only got to play the second half but managed a try and had a few strong runs. (And made the team photo?)



Turns out that the Banff fullback played for Moorabbin in the reserve grade 2005 VRU Grand Final. (against me when playing for Melbourne) We probably marked up on each other!

FACT: The black gravel which forms the circuit around the field is
known by the club as;"the black death" It does not wash out. (Ironically the Banff Jersey is White) It causes grazes which take an age to heal. It is known to leave hideous burn like scars, which Kelly and i were witness to.

I was suprised that there is a stronger team spirit with the womens side here. This maybe simply that its the end of the season and the Mens team has no chance of making the play-offs? The Womens side certainly has some characters. Bloody good fun. They play in an elimination semi tomorrow, so I'll probably go along and provide support with some of the other core social members from the mens team. (One of whom is a New Zealander who's a spitting image of Shane Warne - seems like a good bloke too.)

Rugby in Prince Rupert

One of the people we were hanging with whilst in Prince rupert was photographer Chris Webber. Seen in the image below taken at the Prince Rupert Seafest "beer garden" (yeah, i think he did ate his pants - sic) Unsure who the girl is, we met her at the end of the night though. She was one of the better sights once the lights came on ! ooh there were some shockers...



After getting back into contact with him via email and facebook i remembered that he had been at the rugby game had played in on our last night there.(The local newspaper employed him as their photographer) I requested if he could send some photos. Here they are...

^Note the mexican wrestling mask that the Rupert prop wears as his head gear.

An adventurous August

What a month! We've been making the most of the weather because it changed a week ago and you can tell that Summer is coming to an end. The days are getting a bit shorter, a bit cooler.. Eeeekk - are we ready?



Our new home!
It's been so nice having a home again. Our apartment is just near the main street and is lovely!! This is us having a celebratory champagne out the front on our first night and Josh cooking one of our first home cooked meals in a while :)




Hike to the summit of Temple Mountain
Seriously one of the hardest but most rewarding hikes I've done. We had a perfect, clear day so when we got to the top (almost 5 hrs later and at 35oom high) we could see peaks as far as the eye could see. It was so cold at the top - my mouth went numb and it felt like I was getting frost bite on my nose. The group we hiked with were really fit so I had to work really, really hard to keep up! Had trouble with the stairs for the next couple of days :)
You may notice Josh missing in these hiking photos - unfortunately due to his day job he can't always come on the adventures..








Hike to Taylor Lake
We were the only ones there, surrounded by sunshine and wildflowers... bliss. We tried swimming - GASP! That glacier fed water is very, very cold.



Hike to Helen and Katherine Lake
This was the most gorgeous hike. We traversed three valleys and got a different vision each time. The best part was - it was pouring rain the whole time we drove to the start of the hike, the rain stopped when we started hiking and didn't start again until we were 5 minutes from the car - nice timing!





Road bike ride to Castle Mountain junction and Johnstone Canyon Falls



Josh, Fi and I hired some road bikes, donned the Trolls jersey and headed out on the open road. It was great to be on road bikes and riding through some lovely scenes. Highlights included riding straight past a massive elk and flying down this great downhill (think Mt Nebo)...




We were fortunate not to have a pile up on one of the decents as while josh was filming and riding a squirrel darted across the road in front of him and then back between his wheels as it scurried for the cover of the concrete barrier.




Johnstone Canyon was beautiful, if a bit crowded. Looking forward to seeing it in the winter frozen over!




Josh and Fi finished with an acent up the road to the Mt Norquay carpark. This road has a number of switchbacks and a lookout with views back over Banff.



White water rafting the Kicking Horse
It was hilarious - such a fun day. The rapids weren't as scary as we thought as the water levels have dropped recently. It was still so much fun. Most of you won't be surprised to hear the only two people that fell out of our boat were myself and Josh :)






Mountain bike ride to Canmore
We did this ride to Canmore - the neighbouring town. It was really fun, single track track and fire trail through the forest. On the way back we had to climb this huge mountain out of there (365m climb in 7.25km, think Mt Cootha times 10) that was gravelly, corrugated, hot and every time a car drove past we got covered in dust. That photo is us at the top completely smashed!! You can see the town in the valley in the background - yes we climbed that far. (Note that Fiona was wearing the yellow Maybe it should have been polka dots as she left both kelly and i far behind on the climb)