mike the mountain

The long arm of reality gave me five across the eyes yesterday.

A couple of weeks ago I was up at Sunshine, and the FIRST freakin’ run, the easiest wimpiest green run on the mountain, I catch an edge. A wee little tumble, hardly anything at all. Except for landing on my elbow at a funny angle. And hearing this odd “pop”. And feeling my whole arm go numb.

Well, the doc confirmed it. Minor dislocation, torn rotator cuff. Luckily, not a complete tear, so I don’t need surgery. But I do get the joy of physiotherapy for the next 6 months or so. Which means my snowboarding season is likely done. Which would be REALLY F’N ANNOYING!!!!

Bah, I’m a quick healer, and the season’s long. We’ll see how I feel after a month or two.

Stupid non-invincible muscle fibers. When the heck are my super-powers going to kick in anyway??

There we were, up in Canmore on a sunny Sunday. We had just finished a 10K run that morning and were trying to decide what to do for the afternoon. Wanted to enjoy some mountain scenery, but didn’t have the energy for a hike.

Then it hit me. Dreamgirl’s never seen the Columbia Ice Fields. Or Jasper. Or one of the most beautiful mountain roads the world has to offer.

This calls for a roadtrip.

It was over 30 degrees out, perfect blue sky, tons of snow melting off the mountain peaks creating endless rushing waterfalls and fast moving rivers cutting through the forests as deep dark green as an emerald dream.

We left Canmore around 2, I knew it would take about 3-4 hours to drive to Jasper, then another 2-3 hours to Edmonton after that. Get us home around 8 or 9 I figured, no problem.

Of course, I didn’t take into account that we might want to stop for a picture. Or two.

Or two hundred.

Or take a tour of the Ice Fields, or stop in Jasper for pizza.

We may not have got home until the wee hours of the morning, but the lack of sleep was totally worth a day like a dream. There’s a reason this trip is listed everywhere as one of the places you have to see before you die.

“… and I must go.” ~John Muir

Flickr. Tag: Canmore

Three Sisters. Ha Ling. Cascade.

Knowing that places like this exist…

… and that I will soon once again stand amoung them…

… is what makes mornings like this…

… dark, cold, raining, traffic, tired, sore, sick…

… survivable.