Easter Weekend in WA

Great little weekend mountain biking, visiting with friends, and paddleboarding!

The border wait was horrendous on Friday morning and our plan to mtn bike in Bellingham quickly disseminated as the wait lines were growing to over 3 hours wait time. We are growing increasingly smarter realizing that our precious free time is to be used wisely which does not include sitting at the border on Good Friday of the Easter weekend. After Andrew and I picked up the SUP(Surf race, Starboard) I was using for a race this weekend from Deep Cove, and had a doughnut from Honey's we met up with 5 other friends and decided to ride around the Delta watershed trails instead of waiting in the border line. We managed to ride for 2.5 hours in there and got thru the border in about 30 minutes. We celebrated by heading to the Boundary Bay Pub for awesome beer and food. Kala, Marg and Andy stayed in Bellingham while Paul, Andrew and I headed down toward Everett. We camped at a great little site in Wenberg. Saturday morning I entered the Jetty Island, 5 mile paddle race in Everett! The day was beautiful and calm. There weren't as many SUP paddlers as I hoped but nonetheless had a great little paddle around the island and came in 1st overall within the SUPers. I paddled the Surf Race, Starboard from Deep Cove and it was perfect for this race. Quick and steady as the water was fairly calm around the island!
Following the race we headed to Olympia where we met Chris and Kathleen. They showed us around their local trails in the Capital Forest. Our 3 hour ride turned into a 5 hour ride and it was fantastic, it was a great first big ride of the season and we were all feeling it a little the following morning! Such smooth, fast trails was a nice change from the tough technical trails we have here in north vancouver.
The gods decided that two days of sunshine was enough and blessed us with a rainy Sunday morning. We decided to walk around the town of Olympia and noticed lots of good coffee shops, antique stores and pubs!
We stopped in Seattle and rode around Colinade bike park. A cool little park biult up underneath the I 5 highway... Perfect for a rainy NW day!

PICTURES HERE!

Happy Easter

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina

My time At Durrand Glacier Coming to an End...

I have a tough time with endings... Well perhaps it is not an ending but a new beginning? A beginning that involves new friendships, new experiences, and lovely memories! I am heading back to Vancouver in a couple of days after a winter in the backcountry of the Selkirk Mountains.

It is still snowing like crazy but we managed to take advantage of the three days of sun we've had in the last week and a half... Skied the back side of Tumbledown, which means little to anyone who doesn't know the area but it is a beautiful glacier run that is around 3000 feet long... amazing!

We also did an acroyoga photo shoot with the school.

I also taught Florina and Charlotte how to slackline. Due to our location we had to add a spin to the regular barefoot slacklining as the only trees around were above 4 metres of snow... So, it was slacklining Durrand Galcier style: with snowboots!

We are fnishing up our snow cave home/bar today and will sleep in it tonight! Exciting, Florina shotgunned middle penguin for the night (smart lady).

Unfortunately, I also managed to get sick for these last two weeks first with I think a stomach lining bug/acid problems.... I didn't mention it to any of the many doctors around until I had to leave half way through dinner one night and was sitting beside a helpful general practioner who recommended tums etc.. It saved me! Once I cured myself of my stomach pains a sinus/cold infection took its place just to keep things exciting! At least the cold isn't as debilitating as the harsh stomach pains.

Today we painted easter eggs: Lithuanian style (with bees wax and candles!) We have a contest tomorrow....mine are good but not as good as the chef's...bummer for being blessed with athletic abilities rather than art abilities...or is it?!?!?

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina