Smithers (Part One)

This past weekend our Katimavik group got the opportunity to travel to Smithers BC (after a grueling excursion protocol procedure) to see some of the beautiful mountains which Northern BC has to offer, seeing that Vanderhoof is the "Geographical center of BC" and has no mountains. We set out before sunrise on Saturday and arrived in Smithers, without incident, around eleven am. Our sleeping facility was an elementary catholic school that would have had a beautiful view of the main ski hill, if there weren't so many clouds. It was so dreary that seeing the base of the mountain was hard. Nevertheless we unpacked our van and headed off to the Bulkley Valley Nordic Center to go cross country skiing.

The temperature was about minus two degrees and lightly snowing so the conditions were perfect. We started on a trail called Pooch Paradise. It wasn't until half way through the trail that I realized that they named the trail Pooch Paradise because dogs were aloud to run along side their masters. After breezing through the four and a half kilometer trail, half of our group moved on to Pine creek trail which was ten kilometers. Cross country skiing is much harder than it looks. I spent the whole time trying to keep up with my Project Leader who had a serious advantage of me because he is over six feet tall and his strides are ridiculously big. Nevertheless I finished the trail with him and then skied a little more through the pain. All in all Tristan and I skied for eighteen kilometers. I felt really good mentally but I was so sweaty and disgusting that I was thankful for the down time we had back at the school. Our trip back did hold some excitement as we saw the first of the four moose we would see on the trip. Part two in my Smithers story will include eating almost Japanese food and climbing a mountain, but I am extremely tired and still hurting from my ski/outdoor adventures that I must get some much needed rest.

Andreanne and me getting ready to ski!

Jessica and I ready to take on "Pooch Paradise"

What is the plural of Moose; Mooses or Meeses??